Kıvanç Nart has been working in the yachting industry for more than two decades. Over the last five years he has been working closely with the team at the Turkish shipyard AKYACHT on construction of the 85-metre Victorious. Now he has taken the position of shipyard manager and SYT sat down with Mr Nart to find out his plans for this impressive new role, the bold ambitions of AKYACHT and why he thinks the shipyard is a step ahead of its Turkish competitors;
I am a naval architect and have been working in the yacht building industry since 1999. Over the decades I have been involved with many large superyacht projects, first in engineering positions and then as project manager.
In 2011 I founded my own project management company named Nart & Roe Partners, which I created alongside the late Mr. Halit Roe and Ms. Narten Roe and together we completed seven superyacht projects on the shipyard and owner side over the last 11 years. Personally, I was lucky enough to be involved as project manager in Turkey's largest ever superyacht project the 85-metre Victorious, which was launched in 2021 at the newly establish AKYACHT.
Mr. Ak contacted us after he bought the ex U77 project and brought her to Istanbul. In the course of the following 5 years we shared the same dream with him; to create a solid shipyard and spectacular superyacht Victorious together.
This is the beginning of a new challenge and experience for me. I will embrace it with the utmost enthusiasm and respect for this assignment. It’s a special and unique position indeed. It's time to show everyone and more importantly ourselves what we can achieve above the MY Victorious.
Our biggest goal is making the AKYACHT one of the main players in the superyacht industry. We are all well-aware that this is not a short-term target, but we have enough experience, financial backup and vision to achieve it.
In short term, let's say the first half of 2022, we aim to sign at least two motor yacht projects. The minimum size will be 60 metres and one plus-80 metre. We are capable to build superyacht projects up to 100 metres with the existing facilities so I think this is an achievable goal for this year!
It should not be forgotten that AKYACHT is a new shipyard, however neither the owner himself, nor the managers and staff are new in the industry. Due to the collective experience and expertise behind this team, the owner never hesitated to embrace the largest superyacht project ever conceived in Turkey, which indicates the aspirations of this business. In a very short time AKYACHT heavily invested in establishing its own facilities and more importantly in rounding up a highly qualified crew, that already have a good understanding of working together over the past years. It has been our mission to become one of the main players in near future, and to remain as such by sustaining long term good business relations with the industry’s players and solution partners.
Since the launch of Victorious in April, our team successfully completed a refit job of 50 metre motor yacht project. MY Victorious’ commercial transitions and ISPS procedures are completed. One part of our team is busy in the studies for the new proposals, together with the potential clients that we have a relationship with before and after the Monaco Yacht Show 2021. We are creating new GA plans, exterior styling and are heavily busy with budget studies for our clients.
In addition to that, after the Monaco Yacht show, the owner of the AKYACHT decided to extend the shipyard capacity and started the construction works to enlarge the existing shipyard capabilities. Parallel to this decision he also invested in the additional lands in the same free trade zone area to build support units such as prefabrication shed/section building, metalworking, CNC cutting and warehouses.
Meantime, we are working with well-known brokerage companies and searching for the best available speculative market projects to extend our investment. We are open to working with the best designers and investing in a motor yacht project on a speculative basis.
Yes, with the new investment plan, we are going to have two more of 120 metre in length and 19 metre in width build sheds, in addition to the existing capacities for the large plus-80 metre motor yacht projects.
We intend to keep our existing team and hire some of the new and experienced team members along with them as we are well aware of the demand within the plus-80 metre market at the moment and want to prepare ourselves accordingly. We still have available shed and human resources and are very keen on the plus-80 metre market. AKYACHT completed the Victorious with great success and, as you can guess, also had some failures from which we have learnt. Now, we are much more experienced and stronger. We believe in ourselves to complete any plus-80 metre projects.
AKYACHT is established in a free-trade zone area therefore we have several advantages for exporting procedures and for working with foreign clients. More importantly, AKYACHT is a part of a big group of companies and has a strong financial backup. The parent company "Intercity" has 30 years of history as a market leader and as the biggest operational fleet leasing company in Turkey. When this strong financial backup coupled with Mr. Vural Ak's and enthusiasm and vision, I see no reason why we cannot achieve the goal.