Zeelander is a company that was founded in the province of Zeeland, Holland in 2002, which is also where the name derives from. In 2008 the first yacht was introduced at the Monaco Yacht Show. I sat down with Sietse Koopmans of Zeelander, at this year’s Monaco show.
“In 2011 we moved the production to the States and started focusing on the US as a market, but now we have moved all production back to Holland. Zeelander is a 100% Dutch company”, Koopman says.
“After our Z44, Z55, Z68, we are now introducing the Z164 and it’s all to do with the focus points of Zeelander: We want to be environmentally friendly; we want optimal Sound and Vibration control, we want to have a high recreation of value, as our guests on board are always very important, and the last focus point of the company is the cost of ownership. As a yacht owner myself. I know how much you can spend, or waste, actually, on a boat. We developed our yacht models with all these four things in mind”.
“We started off as a bit of a hobby. I got sucked in to a company that was developing a little boat and in the end they evolved. The end of the story is that I took over the company, redid everything and we are proud of the end result, the Zeelander Z44.. We’ve built 30 now, with several in Europe and about twenty in the US. Recently we decided to move the production back to the Netherlands”.
“Recently we also developed the Z55, which is going into production soon, which we introduced at the Cannes Boat show, and for the past three and a half years we have been developing the Z164. It was my dream, as you might say, to build my own boat and at some point I sold my company and decided to go buy a boat and start cruising. So I bought a 121-foot explorer called Zeepaard and I have been cruising that boat for the last 5 years, 65.000 miles, made over 40,000 photos and we anchored probably about 3,000 times. That gave me, I believe, the experience to build and develop a boat. I am a passionate engineer, I am a boater since birth, I have been to every major boat show and I have seen all boats. I think I am able to evaluate what is good and what is not. I drive the boat myself, I’m not a captain, however I have the license. I have a captain of course but I like to maneuver and do all those things. I am an owner, I pay the bills. I had 38 crews in the last 5 years. You have turnover of people. You learn from every angel and aspect of boating. You learn everything. So I believe we developed a boat that answers all the questions”.
“The end product is a boat which is 49.99 metres and 499 ton, which is extremely fuel efficient underway and even more efficient at anchor. We have a gas turbine generator set, which is 30 kilowatt, and we do an average rate of 15 kilowatt. That is extremely low for a 50 metre. This is a gas turbine, which will not pollute the water with oil and sop. It is vibration and noise free, so it is completely silent. Silence is one of my obsessions. I own a company that does noise and vibration control. You will experience that ship conditions, when you pull the plug you hear nothing. We will achieve this”.
“The Z164 will have the most toys you have ever seen on a boat. It has two large 25 feet tenders, one diesel and one electric tender. Because most of the trips you do, like we did, we deployed that tender a thousand times for short trips to the shore. You put in the plug and you run the tender very efficiently..”
I asked at which shipyard the yacht is going to be built. “This is still a secret”, Koopmans smiles. “I actually own a shipyard; the Moonen yacht facilities are mine, not the yard itself but the facilities. That is where we will build in the future. But we are in the process of teaming up with a major Dutch shipyard, very well known, but I cannot disclose the name yet. We’re in discussions and we will cooperate with the yard and then we will build under their name and most likely at their facilities.”
When asked about construction time, Koopmans says “We anticipate the delivery to be 18 months. The shop drawings for the metal work are in process now and this is the main thing about the boat. We spent three and a half years and too much money on engineering. We went from the ground up and designed everything like it should be”.
Koopmans still owns a large yacht himself, Zeepaard, which is currently for sale. “My own boat is for sale, and in the event I sell that one, I will build the first Z164 for myself. We also have 7 very strong leads. We are really excited about it but it’s really easy to get excited. We have a lot of interest for it. We have presented it to 68 brokers and everybody was equally excited about the concept, from all angles”.
For more information on Zeelander, head to zeelander.com.