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Royal Huisman

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Royal Huisman

Royal Huisman is a Dutch shipyard specialized in the building and repair of sailing yachts.

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 30ft Van de Stadt Avenir series. In the 1970s the development of extruded aluminium masts and cooperation with New York designers Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) enabled Huisman to tap into performance yachts and the international racing circuit: The shipyard launched its largest yacht to date, Jakob Isbrandtsen's prize-winning 60ft S&S sloop Running Tide, at its new deep-water premises in Vollenhove in 1970. In 1973 Albert Henri Karl Büll's Huisman-built 47ft S&S sloop Saudade I won the Admiral's Cup for Germany. In 1976, the shipyard built Conny van Rietschoten's 65ft 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 76ft Frers-designed sloop Flyer II which took line honours in all four legs.

In turn the shipyard developed successfully in Maxi yachts and large cruising yachts with designers Germán Frers and Ron Holland. Upon its hundredth anniversary in 1984 the shipyard was awarded a royal charter by Queen Beatrix and changed its name to Royal Huisman. In 1989 the yard set a new trend of large classic yacht revival by cooperating with designer Gerard Dijkstra to restore Elizabeth Meyer's prestigious 1934 J-class yacht Endeavour. The restoration as well as a number of the shipyard's subsequent projects received industry awards from yacht owners and the press. In 2014 Royal Huisman became a shareholder of the St Barts & Newport Bucket Regattas. In 2017 the shipyard was acquired by Royal Doeksen, which also negotiated exclusive rights of access to both the 300,000m² Emden dockyard and the 12,000m² Holland Jachtbouw sheds to expand yacht refit and newbuild capabilities. The yard had a workforce of 280 people and a €220m orderbook in 2016. The yard launched Bernard Gustin's 112ft sloop Pamina, its first high temper aluminium ("alustar") yacht, in the year 2000, and the 65ft S&S sloop Aileen, its first carbonfiber yacht, in 2017.

Construction takes place in a 30,000m² purpose-built facility with three building sheds, a paint shed, a refit shed as well as manufacturing halls operated by Rondal, a subsidiary of Royal Huisman specialized in furlers, winches, deck fittings and pre-impregnated carbonfiber spars. Some notable yachts are:

  • Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild's 65ft sloop Gitana VI (S&S, 1975)
  • Herbert von Karajan's 77ft IOR maxi Helisara VI (Frers, 1980)
  • William I. Koch's 81ft IOR maxi Matador (Frers, 1983)
  • Otto Happel's 70ft ketch Hetairos (Henry A. Scheel, 1985)
  • Bruce Katz' 85ft ketch Ebb Tide (S&S, 1986)
  • Noel Lister's 103ft sloop Whirldwind XII (Ron Holland, 1986)
  • Bruce Katz' 143ft ketch Juliet (Ron Holland, 1993)
  • James H. Clark's 156ft sloop Hyperion (Frers, 1997)
  • James H. Clark's 295ft three-mast schooner Athena (Dykstra & Partners, 2004)
  • Morris Kahn's 131ft ketch Antares II (William Dixon, 2005)
  • John Risley & Dan Meyers' 169ft schooner Meteor (Dykstra & Partners, 2007)
  • Bill Joy's 190ft ketch Ethereal (Ron Holland, 2008)
  • James H. Clark's 138ft J-Class Hanuman (Charles E. Nicholson, 2009)
  • Ralph Dommermuth's 142ft sloop Blue Papillon III (Frers, 2013)
  • Wendy Schmidt's 172ft ketch Elfje (André Hoek, 2014)
  • Samuel Yin's 142ft sloop Sea Eagle, sistership of Blue Papillon III (Frers, 2015)
  • References

    Royal Huisman Wikipedia