One of the brightest and most successful J Class yachts that are still on the water, the 42.19-metre Hanuman has scored victories in such famous races as as the St Barths Bucket and the Superyacht Cup Palma
Hanuman arrived in the Netherlands late in April, but it took some time to step her rig and transport her to Holterman Shipyard in Meppel on a barge. Work on her refit is already in progress, but the scale is different from what had been planned, so the shipyard faces a real challenge: to finish the work that is worth a year in just 7 months.
“The idea of the refit started with the need to replace the teak decks, but that has expanded to include something in every area of the yacht,” said Tim Wedzinga, Refit Manager at Holterman Shipyard. “We will be installing a whole new air-conditioning system, new fridge freezer systems, upgrading the hydraulic system, replacing some interior floor soles, moving some deck hardware to more optimal positions, varnishing wood elements, and painting the underwater body and the topsides.”
Despite the fact that Holterman Shipyard mainly builds motoryachts, they managed to get such a big fish as Hanuman thanks to two factors. The first one is that the shipyard’s employees already know her, as some of them were involved in the original engineering of the yacht and her construction or raced on her as crew. The second is the low-overhead, minimal management structure and involvement in such a challenging project.
“We don’t have a management-heavy structure, we don’t need to have 10 meetings a day, there’s just a good bunch of people from our skilled inhouse carpenters to our key subcontractors that makes us the perfect choice for a no-nonsense, top-quality refit, even on a tight schedule!”, explains Tim Wedzinga.
To accommodate the 42.12-meter yacht the yard had to make some alterations to the sheds, but works have already begun on the first stage of the refit, including unmounting the rudder, removing 500 pieces of deck hardware, and then stripping the deck.
Hanuman was built in 2009 at Dutch Royal Huisman and underwent her last major refit in 2018, when she received a complete overhadl of all her racing and sailing systems, including a new carbon rig and boom, which allowed her to become 500 kilograms lighter.
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