Saturday 3 February saw the relaunch of Feadship’s Utopia. Utopia arrived  in October 2006 at the Feadship XL facility in Makkum. Her new owner, who bought the yacht just before the summer, wanted to make some minor changes before the yacht went for her Carribean charter season. The refit included the addition of a new stairway from the sundeck to the bridge deck. The helipad was covered with teak and the sun deck was enlarged above the bridge with sun pads.

Feadship De Vries Makkum early in the morning, preparing for the relaunch of Utopia

Anita was made ready to tow Utopia out of the shed

Utopia was very slowly and carefully towed out of the "Kathedraal van Makkum" (Cathedral of Makkum)

The new stairs which connect the sun deck with the former heli deck

After her bow came out of the shed a second tug, Theo, came to assist her with docking

Above the bridge deck you can see the extension of the sun deck and on the right the new stairs

A close up of the addition to the sun deck

Before they could dock her next to the shed they had to turn her

She was too big to turn her in front of the yard so they had to pull her back into the open space

Utopia seen from the bow. During her refit also a new satcom dome (the one on the top in the middle) was added to her mast

After Anita and Theo had turned around they towed her back to the yard

Utopia glowing in the morning sun with the De Vries Makkum yard on the background

After Utopia was docked a part of the superstructure of the 75m (246ft) new build BN1001 was towed into the yard

The shipyard of Feadship XL - De Vries Makkum with Siran and Utopia

Utopia docked next to the shipyard

Siran was the first yacht to arrive at  De Vries Makkum for a refit in October 2005

Part of her refit was the addition of the enclosed sun deck

Siran was also lengthened from 63.63m (208.76ft) to 67m (219.82ft)

Siran and Utopia docked next to the Feadship XL yard in Makkum

Photo credit: Merijn de Waard / Yacht-Images.com