Singapore Yacht Show 2018 - the Asian boating world on display
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 16 Apr 2018 14:46 UTC
For the last several years MTU Asia has been the principal sponsor of the Asia Pacific Superyacht Conference, as well as the Captain’s Lounge during the Singapore Yacht Show. For VIP visitors to the show, exhibitors, yacht captains, industry representatives and members of the media the Captain’s Lounge is a haven of peace in which to carry on a conversation and even sit down for lunch. It’s a quiet (and cool!) corner for meetings, and much appreciated by those working at the show as opposed to simply enjoying the event.
MTU are best known in the boating world as suppliers of powerful and famously reliable marine engines. MTU is a major player in the commercial marine and power generation world, and is continuously involved in innovative development of power trains both conventional and hybrid, and with a special interest in environmentally-friendly solutions. Many of the brands on show at SYS instal MTU engines exclusively, but in reality the leisure marine business is only a small percentage of the company’s business. “But it is a very important element,” says Alex Tesch, Drector of Marine & Offshore at MTU Asia, “because that’s where a great deal of our innovation originates. It’s all about efficiency, noise prevention, and fuel economy. Nobody wants to sit on a private motor yacht next to a noisy, smelly and fuel-greedy engine!” MTU are also deeply involved in the development of control systems for autonomous vessels – conversation with Tesch over lunch at the Captain’s Lounge is a very engaging affair!
After lunch, we moved across to the Feadship Lounge on the ONE15 plaza for some rather unusual pampering. How would you like to have a private consultation with a designer, and kick off the process of visualising your ultimate custom superyacht? Sit in the comfy chair and go through a collation of questions designed to find out what sort of boat you really want. Chunky explorer yacht, or elegant classic? 50m, or 250m LOA?
Ruud Bakker, Senior Designer, took us through the ‘Feadship DNA Matrix’ to find out what sort of look we liked, and started with the traditional blank sheet of paper (these days, digital of course) and started to draw the lines from the waterline upwards. An adjustment here and there, and an additional 5m of length to get the proportions just so, and m/y Constellation was born. It doesn’t get much more ‘personalised’ at a boat show. This was a hugely engaging process, and an inspired piece of marketing from Feadship. Can you actually build the yacht, and we’ll write a series of stories about the process? “I’ll see how much I have in the marketing budget,” promised Sales Manager Maarten Janssen.
From boat art to hang-on-the-wall art. It’s not often that a boat launch is combined with an art show, but this year Simpson Marine featured the ink paintings of Singaporean artist Yeo Shin on board the award winning SL78. This entry-level superyacht is the latest addition to the SL range - Sanlorenzo's fleet of composite planing-hull motor yachts – and was making her Asian Première. The SL78 comes with Sanlorenzo’s signature impeccable styling and innovative customisation. The perfect on-water venue for art appreciation.
And then floating art, in a manner of speaking. For the second time, the Singapore Yacht Show was graced by the presence of the historic vessel Vega, built in 1892 in Norway as a deep-sea heavy load carrier. Today, Vega is a full time travelling charity operation, sailing some 7,000nm every year to collect medical supplies from donors in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and deliver them to remote islands and communities in eastern Indonesia and East Timor. This year we heard from several sources that Vega, splendidly dressed overall and with no ‘By Appointment Only’ sign hanging out, was the most-visited boat in the show, and a huge hit with young visitors keen on becoming pirates!
On a more serious note, anyone interested in supporting Vega’s humanitarian work can check out the website https://www.sailvega.com/ Unlike the big multinational/corporate charities, Capt Shane Granger and his crew are all unpaid volunteers. “When funds are low, it’s beans and rice,” he says. Every penny or cent donated goes towards Vega’s good work.
It’s a short business window at the Singapore Yacht Show. It opens at 3.00pm and closes at 9.00pm, but pretty much everything from 6.00pm onwards is onboard cocktail parties. If you haven’t got an invitation to hand, go and talk to the friendly people at Sevenstar Yacht Transport, although we are sorry that the ever-welcoming Peter Staalsmid is not at SYS handing out the Sevenstar Beer Tokens – almost an alternative currency at the show! We have said this before, but it won’t hurt to say it again: the SYS plays a game with strength in depth. Here you can view a boat, buy a boat, and equip a boat. You can find a marina to park it in, and you can have it transported from the builder to its proper destination. Right now, the Singapore Yacht Show is Asia’s one-stop yachting shop and the hub of yachting business in Asia.