Hanse Yachts continues rapid growth

by Media Services on 22 Jun 2006 Over the last two decades Europe has been the powerhouse of yacht building. One of the fast growing yacht builders Hanse Yachts is expected to produce more than 800 cruising yachts in 2006 and the brand is now significant around the world.

Although Hanse has made its name as a Cruising Yacht, the founder Michael Schmidt, known affectionately on the sailing scene as 'Schmiddel' is a highly regarded German racing sailor, having been the keystone of Germany’s 1985 Admirals Cup win with a boat designed by his long term friends at Judel/Vrolijk.

Schmidt had already successfully founded a major European yacht brokerage group when in 1992 he started Hanse Yachts at Greifswald, in the former East Germany. Thirteen years later, it's now the second largest yacht manufacturer in Germany and the fourth largest in Europe.

One of the cornerstones of the Hanse growth has been the strength of the yacht design, not unsurprisingly from the German/Dutch design team Judel/Vrolijk Engineering.

Friedrich Judel have had success in earlier days with famous boats like 'Dusselboot', 'Pinta', 'Outsider' and 'Rubin' and his design partner Rolf Vrolijk designed the Swiss yacht 'Alinghi'- Americas Cup winner in New Zealand.

While he has a strong racing background Schmidt understands the cruising sailor. He involves himself particularly with the rig and deck plan layout, as he knows the importance of his boats being easy to handle.

Schmidt, like many Europeans, is a fan of the self-tacking headsail, as he knows that his wife won’t sail with him unless the boat is easy to handle. The Hanse rig is tall and is specifically designed, positioned and balanced to accommodate the self-tacking high cut headsail and large mainsail.

Hanse has won seven 'Yacht of the Year Awards' over recent years. The Hanse 400e was awarded this year’s European 'Yacht of the Year' in the 10-12 metre category.

Back in 1999 Peter Hrones’ Windcraft, from Bayview on Sydney’s Pittwater, was appointed the Australian Hanse distributor. At that time Hanse was producing just sixty boats a year.

In August 2005 Windcraft was selected as Dealer of the Year outside Europe and now Windcraft has been further rewarded with Distributorship responsibility for the South Pacific and South Asia.

This week Peter Hrones explained how it happened.

‘In 1999 Windcraft was looking for a yacht that was well built and finished, a strong boat for our weather conditions, easy to sail short –handed, would offer excellent performance from a well established design team and be well priced to compete in the market.

‘Hanse won easily on all counts. In October of that year I had a meeting with Michael Schmidt and I asked him what his vision was and it seemed a good vision. At that time he was selling sixty boats and he forecast quite amazing growth and exceeded it.

‘Then four years ago, he forecast that in 2006 he would be building 800 boats…they will exceed that number too. So his vision all the way through is correct. It gives you a lot of confidence in the man and his company.

'When the first Hanse 371 was being built I was there watching it being delivered to the Boat show in Hamburg at 3am. I watched the whole process -of Boat One going into the Show - and then saw them take 26 orders on the first day. I got Boat No.26.

'The Hanse facility is just north of Berlin, Germany, right on the Baltic Sea. Last week I handed a 461 over to a customer sailing it back to Western Australia.

'Typically all the dealers from Scandinavia pick up from the factory; it is only about 80 miles back into Scandinavia.

'Hanse has been growing at around about 150% a year, mainly with the bigger boats and now every 2 hours and 40 minutes a boat is completed.

‘Hanse’s sales orders in our third of the world have been extremely good in the last 18 months and we have now appointed our fifth and latest regional dealer in French Polynesia. We also have a number more of appointments we are expecting to make in 2006.

‘We have been asked on numerous occasions from both prospective buyers and owners what the resale value is like on Hanse Yachts. It has been commented that it is very high in Europe since the mid 90’s, but we’ve now completed an analysis of the Australian figures which show great strength in this area. Interestingly, less than 10% have come back onto the market second hand over the last six years and many of the owners that have sold have upgraded to a larger Hanse.

'At the Sydney International Boat Show at the end of July, we will have the very popular 342, 370e,400e and 461 models.

'At last year's Show, where we showed the 461, we realised just how big the 45+ market is. Since then we've had success with the 531 and the new all carbon and epoxy 631 is expected to be another giant winner for Hanse.

'Full details are available on our website now.'


For further information contact:
Windcraft
Bayview Anchorage Marina
Waterfront Office 5
1714 Pittwater Road
Bayview NSW 2104

To learn more about the Hanse range, phone Peter Hrones on (02) 9979 1709 or 0425 22 33 52 or visit the website
www.windcraft.com.au