Business has never been better for Turkey-based Numarine, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021, having repositioned itself as a builder of high-quality, value-for-money trawler-explorers. 
Today, the shipyard’s average delivery is more like 27 metres and it is series building nothing but trawler-explorers in composite and steel. Its competitors now include the likes of Horizon and OA in Taiwan, Sirena in Turkey and Cantiere delle Marche in Italy. 
The way Malaz’s own boating tastes have changed over the past decade serves as an appropriate metaphor for his business. Malaz says he used to speed along at 35 knots screaming at the family to sit down. The horizon was the destination. Time aboard was fun, but the passages could be fraught. These days it’s just as much about the journey.
By 2012 things were less rosy for Numarine and for its majority shareholder, which ended up dissolving under a cloud. In May of that year, Malaz stepped up and reacquired 100 per cent control of Numarine. For the next five years he ran the business on its original track. He knew something fundamental needed to change, but without straying from Numarine’s core strengths: financial solidity and industrial expertise.
That solution eventually became a trawler-explorer focus. Indeed, Numarine hasn’t delivered one of its old planing hardtop or flybridge models for five years and all the old tooling has been destroyed. 
That change of focus proved a winner and Numarine was recently the first yacht builder in the country to be accepted into Turquality, the Turkish government’s brand accreditation and grant support initiative. Only the most efficiently managed businesses are accepted into this programme, which requires rigorous vetting by independent auditors.
Currently Numarine employs 250 people directly, but it would normally have nearer 330 people employed locally, and its model portfolio includes four chunky XP trawler-explorer models. The design credits are the same as they have always been since the very beginning with exterior and interior design by Can Yalman and naval architecture by Umberto Tagliavini. There are at least 25 Numarine trawler-explorers out there already and another 18 or so swelling an order book that extends well into 2024.
The 22XP and 26XP, the smaller two models in the series, are both composite, respectively CE Cat B and Cat A designs. The larger two, the 32XP and 37XP, are steel/composite designs built to Class with RINA. Numarine’s proposed new flagship is the 45XP, a steel and aluminium trideck with a 9.25-metre beam. With a ball-park base price of €19.5m, this 498GT yacht is still a long way away from reality. Despite a couple of existing 32XP and 37XP clients being close to taking their next step up with the builder, the stars are not quite aligned.
Building a boat of that size would be a step too far at Numarine’s present facility in Gebze, which is perched on a hill in an industrial estate some 20 minutes inland. The biggest current models already prove a logistical challenge every time one needs to be transported down the hill to either Tuzla Marina or the nearby RMK Marine, where Numarine does its pre-delivery commissioning.
“The current 35,000-sqm site has served us well,” says Malaz, “but the next step up will need to be taken from new waterside premises.”
To that end Malaz has already acquired 30,000 sqm of land for a new factory, and has an option on another 30,000 sqm next door. The location is Yalova to the south-west and the other side of Osman Gazi Bridge, roughly half an hour’s drive from the present site in Gebze, but just 20 minutes further out from the centre of Istanbul.
The first phase involves an investment of €20m over the next 2.5 years. Malaz expects to break ground there by the end of year and that the first boats will start on that site within 18 months. Given the build time for a first new 45-metre yacht is likely to be around 24 months, don’t expect to see a new flagship splash for perhaps at least another four years. Eventually, Malaz suspects the whole Numarine operation may well relocate to the coast.
“There are no plans for us to build smaller than the 22XP,” he says. “Our facilities are no longer geared for the sort of volumes that are required to build smaller models cost-effectively.”
Having a large, loyal customer base out there is a big help and repeat business is an important component for the brand. One Turkish client is presently on his fifth Numarine and is negotiating for his sixth.
Overall exports account for around 70 per cent of Numarine sales. Since it started Numarine has built and delivered 160 boats, of which just 40 were sold new to Turkish buyers. Sales to the US have been strongest by far in recent years. Happily, the present crisis in Ukraine has not impacted Numarine in terms of owners. Since the beginning it has only had four Russian new-build clients.
Up until three years ago Numarine had a dealer network. Various distributors around the world included the brand in their portfolios and the network approach was largely responsible for the success of the brand during its first decade when the product range spanned 52-105 feet. However, three years ago it was decided to change the distribution strategy and end all exclusive agreements as well as the dealer margins that went with those agreements, which had been as high as 25 per cent for some models.
What that means in theory is that Numarine now sells direct, but in practice many of its deals are concluded with the help of yacht brokers and one broker has engaged with the brand more than any other to earn ‘preferred broker’ status.
“Alex G Clarke at Denison is a great example of what we can achieve,” says Ali Tanir, Numarine’s international sales manager. “He has been responsible for no fewer than six sales over the past year alone. And we hope a recent deal with Patrick Coote at Northrop & Johnson in Monaco will yield similar results for us in Europe.”
Last year, Numarine delivered five boats in total: four 26XPs and one 37XP. However, owing to the continued success of the 26XP and given the ramping up of the new 22XP range, it is now back firmly in growth mode and has 12 deliveries scheduled for this year: four 22XPs, six 26XPs and two 37XPs, which should see turnover exceed €50m, a new record. 2023 is looking similarly solid. The order book presently includes four 22XPs, three 22XPs and three 37XPs. 
Numarine is always prepared to start hulls on speculation to shorten delivery times and to maintain an efficient flow of production through its facilities. Given the reputation for self-sufficiency they trade on, explorer specifications tend to be higher than more mainstream yachts, which means add-on costs are relatively low, rarely adding more than around 10 percent (excluding engine choices) to the final price.
Although the metal hull fabrication is carried out by a nearby subcontractor in Tuzla, the company is virtually self-sufficient in terms of construction disciplines and usually produces all its own composite tooling. It is still the only builder in Turkey with its own five-axis CNC machining centre, one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. Moulding processes vary, but all are closed process. Hulls and superstructures are vacuum-infused and bulkheads are vacuum bagged and cut using templates. Smaller parts make use of RTM (resin transfer moulding) techniques.
Gurit is its composites engineering partner and Scott Bader is the principal supplier of polyester and vinylester resins and gelcoats, while composite reinforcements mostly come from Turkish local manufacturer Metyx. The composite boats are available with a choice of three gelcoats – white, off-white and light grey – whereas the metal yachts are painted with Awlgrip systems.
Other key partners include ZF for gearboxes; Teignbridge for shafts and props; Kohler or Cummins-Onan for generators (although supply chain issues make these items particularly difficult to source at the moment); Raymarine for bridge displays (although Garmin or Furuno instrumentation are options for US-bound boats); Sleipner for thrusters and CMC for electric fin-stabilisers; Dometic for HVAC systems; Besenzoni in Italy or Data and Bofa in Turkey for mechanical deck systems; and Van Cappellen for the sound and vibration mitigation.
Productivity is essential for any series builder and from the start Numarine has had an industrial approach to boatbuilding, always trying to improve quality and margins. For the past dozen years production has been overseen by technical director Malcolm Hutchison, who previously spent seven years with Pearl Yachts as COO (Numarine was once a contract builder for the UK-based brand, which is how he got to know the company).
The cost of labour is, of course, one of Turkish industry’s biggest advantages. Wages are probably a quarter or even a fifth of what western Europe is paying. The first 26XP used to take 50,000 man-hours to build, whereas they are currently talking fewer than 40,000. The first 32XP took over 120,000 man-hours, but now a 32XP requires under 90,000 man-hours and the bigger 37XP sister takes 100,000 man-hours (the latter omitting the labour required to fabricate the steel hulls).
Numarine has delivered more than 160 boats over the past 20 years, an average of eight boats a year. Today, it’s delivering a dozen yachts per annum and soon that annual tally will be nearer 15 once its new waterside facility is up and running properly, but it will still be small enough for Numarine to have a personal relationship with each customer. “And I want to know them all,” concludes Malaz.
The first composite model was the four-year-old 26XP, which weighs in at 78 tonnes dry. Still a best-seller, the first hull was delivered in 2018 and was conceived from the outset to be flexible for either displacement or planing roles. Its hulls are moulded in halves and are finished with or without an extra moulded-keel insert used to create the necessary profile. A planing version uses a flatter central keel section and separately moulded spray rails bonded to the exterior of the hull after de-moulding. 
Five of the remaining dozen were fast-displacement versions, driven by twin 800-hp MANs at 14.5 knots, or 13.5 knots by twin 560-hp MANs. Prices begin at €4.54m for a slow displacement version and nearer €5m for a planing version, but a finished yacht will usually include up to 10 per cent more in terms of extras.
The 22XP, the smallest model that weighs in dry from 53 tonnes, is also the newest and is similarly versatile as regards displacement and planing performances. Both versions are priced competitively. In displacement guise, which represent most sales to date, the 22XP has a basic price of €3.58m, but again the usual set of extras account for around 10 per cent more. 
The first 22XP launched in early 2022 and two more have since splashed. The fourth will be another planing version and should be delivered before the end of the year. The present production schedule has three more completing during 2023 and probably six more in 2024.
32XP and 37XP
With an overall length of 32.84 metres, the 32XP was Numarine’s first model to sport a steel hull, although the superstructure is moulded in-house like the smaller models. Displacing 270 tonnes fully loaded, the first 32XP launched back in 2017 and three more of this 299GT model were delivered between 2018 and 2020. 
