Royal Huisman is a Dutch

shipbuilding company A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

that specializes in the newbuild construction and refit, rebuild and renewal of sailing and motor

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

s. The shipyard was established in 1884 in Ronduite as a builder of wooden workboats and fishing boats. In 1954 Jan Huisman specialised in steel sailing yachts, and his son Wolter transitioned to aluminium hulls in 1964 with the 30 ft Van de Stadt ''Avenir'' series. In the 1970s the development of extruded aluminum masts and cooperation with New York designers

Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new and existing vessels for pleasure, commercial, and milita ...

(S&S) enabled Huisman to tap into performance yachts and the international racing circuit: The shipyard launched its largest yacht to date, the prize-winning 60 ft S&S sloop ''Running Tide'', at its new deep-water premises in

Vollenhove Vollenhove is a city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland, southwest of Steenwijk. Until the Noordoostpolder was drained, it was located on the coast of the Zuiderzee. Vollenhove received cit ...

in 1970. In 1973 Huisman built Albert Henri Karl Büll's first ''Saudade'', the 47 ft S&S sloop which won the

Admiral's Cup The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbe ...

for Germany in the same year. In 1976, the shipyard built

Conny van Rietschoten Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten (23 March 1926 – 17 December 2013) was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice. Background Born in Rotterdam, Van Rietschoten had been sailing since he w ...

's 65 ft S&S ketch '' Flyer'' for the 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Race, which she won. Their success was repeated in the 1981–82 Whitbread race with van Rietschoten's new 76 ft Frers-designed sloop '' Flyer II'' which took line honours in all four legs. In turn the shipyard developed successfully in

Maxi yachts A maxi yacht usually refers to a racing yacht of at least in length. Origin The term ''maxi'' originated with the International Offshore Rule (IOR) rating system, which in the 1970s and 1980s measured offshore racing yachts and applied a single ...

and large cruising yachts with designers

Germán Frers Germán Frers, Sr. (born July 4, 1941, in Argentina) is a naval architect renowned for designing successful racing yachts. He designed his first yacht in 1958. There is a design team consisting of Germán Frers and his son Germán Frers, Jr., su ...

and

Ron Holland Ronald John Holland (born 1947 in Auckland, New Zealand)Ron Holland:Desi ...

. Upon its hundredth anniversary in 1984 the shipyard was awarded a

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband ...

and changed its name to Royal Huisman. In 1989 the shipyard set a new trend of large classic yacht revival by cooperating with designer Gerard Dijkstra to restore

Elizabeth Meyer Elizabeth E Meyer, was born in Baltimore in 1953. She was instrumental in the restoration of the J Class Yachts beginning with '' Endeavour'' in the mid 1980s. She is married to Michael McCaffrey. Life Her parents were medical doctors, a psychia ...

's prestigious 1934

J-class yacht A J-Class yacht (sometimes called a "J-boat") is a single-masted racing yacht built to the specifications of Nathanael Herreshoff's Universal Rule. The J-Class are considered the peak racers of the era when the Universal Rule determined eligibi ...

'' Endeavour''. The restoration as well as a number of Royal Huisman's subsequent projects received industry awards from yacht owners and the press. The shipyard launched the 112 ft sloop ''Pamina'', the World's first yacht built from the high temper aluminium alloy Alustar, in the year 2000. The shipyard's flagship Athena was handed over in 2004 to repeat client, Dr. Jim Clark, who also ordered Hyperion (1998). The shipyard has been taking care of superyacht refit on an occasional basis during previous years when the shipyard broadened its business model with the official expansion of superyacht refit and repair in 2011. Huisfit, the new name for the services of this division is introduced. The Huisfit team has been taking care of various non-Royal Huisman yachts such as ''Karyatis'' (107 ft Heesen), ''EOS'' (305 ft Lürssen), ''Skat'' (232 ft Lürssen), ''Red Sula'' (105 ft Jongert), ''Heartbeat'' (78 ft Claasen), Nixe II, ''Be Mine'' (132 ft Lürssen), ''Adèle'' (180 ft Vitters) as well as Royal Huisman yachts like ''Juliet, Borkumriff IV, Unfurled, Antares, Hyperion, Flyer, Arcadia, Surama (ex William Tai), Hyperion, Gliss,'' and many more. In 2014 Royal Huisman became a co-owner of the Bucket Regattas. and in the same year the shipyard affiliated with Royal Doeksen, another Dutch maritime service organisation owned and run by the fourth generation of the same family. The shipyard had a workforce of 280 people in 2016. The 139 ft ''SAMURAI'' was also delivered early 2016: Huisfit and the advanced composites division converted this 40-knot carbonfibre stripped-out speed machine (ex- Mari-Cha IV) into a luxurious yet high performance superyacht. The 65 ft S&S sloop ''Aileen II'', constructed entirely of pre-preg carbon fibre, is launched in 2017. The owner’s brief was for a classic cruiser with modern performance to be sailed single-handed including anchoring, mooring and manoeuvring. Furthermore, the owner’s aim was for the yacht to have the same quality level and comfort as usually found in a much larger superyacht. Construction takes place in a 30,000m² purpose-built facility with four building halls, a paint hall, a refit hall as well as manufacturing halls operated by Rondal, a subsidiary of Royal Huisman specialized in furlers, winches, deck fittings and pre-impregnated carbonfiber spars and superyacht components. The shipyard facilities are extended to the Amsterdam region at the 12,000m premises of the former Holland Jachtbouw in 2019. This second location for Royal Huisman serves as an addition to the existing headquarters in Vollenhove. In 2020 the 81 meter contemporary schooner - the world's largest aluminum sailing yacht - SEA EAGLE II was delivered to her Owner, Dr. Samuel Yin.

List of yachts built

Below is a list of all the yachts built by Royal Huisman:

References

* {{reflist, 2 Companies established in 1884 Yacht building companies Shipbuilding companies of the Netherlands Dutch brands

List of yachts built

See also

References