Mark Vermeulen News

This year sees a milestone moment for Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania as the yard marks 130 years of operation. Part of the Damen Shipyards Group since 1999, the Galati yard has been responsible for some of the company’s largest and most complex vessel deliveries to date.The Galati yard, on the banks of the Danube, first opened its gates in 1893. Beginning life as a mechanical construction and iron and bronze foundry, by 1897, it had gone into the ship repair business and was known as G. Fernic et Co Shipyard.

On July 27 DAMEN SeaXplorer marked a milestone in the construction of the SeaXplorer 77 expedition yacht at a keel laying ceremony at Damen Shipyards Galati on the banks of the Danube. The owner attended the ceremony and welded the traditional coin on the keel. Following the hull building phase, the 77-meter luxury expedition yacht (253 ft) will arrive at Damen’s Vlissingen East yard in the Netherlands for completion and on-schedule delivery in Q4 2020.The SeaXplorer 77 is a customized design from the DAMEN SeaXplorer range.

Dutch shipyard Damen has confirmed the successful sale of its 70-meter support vessel, Game Changer. The yacht will now return to Gorinchem in the Netherlands for further customisation. Game Changer  is Damen's fourth Yacht Support vessel sold in the 70-metre segment, proving the ongoing demand for large yachting solutions for worldwide adventures, helicopter and dive operations. Damen has a total of 12 Damen Yacht Support vessels delivered or in build. The next available Yacht Support vessel is a 55-metre YS 5009 Adventure, which will be delivered before the summer this year. “It’s exciting to see how these clients are using Damen vessels to realise their vision of yachting,” notes Rose Damen, Commercial Director.

Damen’s new SeaXplorer yacht range brings true capability to expedition yachting, from extreme polar to remote tropical areas. The world’s first purpose-built, Polar Code compliant range of expedition yachts has been launched by Dutch shipbuilder Damen and its luxury superyacht division, Amels. Making its debut this week at the Monaco Yacht Show, the 65- to 100-meter SeaXplorer range includes three designs holding the capability to explore the seas’ extremes, from the poles to the tropics and everywhere in between.

The sale of a new 69-metre Yacht Support vessel marks the next level of development for the successful Yacht Support range built by DAMEN in cooperation with Dutch luxury yacht builder AMELS. is the first in the Yacht Support range to feature the ultimate technical area for serious superyacht helicopter operations – a fully enclosed hangar beneath the LY3 / MCA fully certified helideck. The new build vessel is under construction at Damen Shipyards Gorinchem in the Netherlands and scheduled for delivery in June 2016 – the fifth purpose-built Yacht Support vessel to be delivered since DAMEN and AMELS introduced the revolutionary new concept to the superyacht market in 2009.

The 67m Fast Yacht Support vessel, GARÇON, built by Damen, has won the ISS Awards of Distinction for Innovation at the International Superyacht Society Awards Gala in Fort Lauderdale. GARÇON came out top of an industry-led voting process that assessed five shortlisted entries in the competitive and broad-ranging Innovation category. GARÇON was designed and customized according to the requirements of the client, the owner of an 87m luxury superyacht. The vessel’s innovative ‘axe bow’ and underwater body shape enable her to reach speeds between 18-25 knots in all sea states…