On day one of the Qatar International Boat Show, SuperYachtTimes.com’s Merijn de Waard met up with Rudolf Berglehner of FIPA’s sales department, to briefly discuss the company’s history attendance in the region.
“The FIPA group started in 1985, building yachts for all the famous Italian yards at that time”, Rudolf starts off. “A few years later, we started producing our first own line, which is Maiora, which is still very active today, building fiber glass boats”.
“In 2004 we started AB Yachts, which is famous for fast high tech propulsion sport yachts, which we built up to 166 feet. We also purchased CBI Navi, where we have the possibility to construct displacement yachts”.
“Being here in this region now, is a new step for us. We are well presented in Dubai, where we have a great partner. In Qatar we do not have any yachts yet, but we hope to move into this market, as Qatari enjoy speed, so we might be able to offer them a fitting product for this market. Even though we do not have a yacht at this show, we are still able to show clients what we can do in our stand, and we are considering bringing a yacht here next year”.
Talking about the company’s projects, Rudolf comments: “We recently introduced a new AB 145, and the AB116 is proving to be popular. She is beautiful, fast and she offers fantastic volume and space, she is perfect in design in relation to the speed and length and height. The next step is the AB 140, which is similar to the AB116. The AB145 will be a bit different, as she will have a main deck owner’s cabin. She’s be something new and something worth to see”.
Another new development is the new Maiora Wide Body. “The first one is under construction, and we are building her for ourselves, as we do for all our new projects we have in the shipyard. At a certain moment we will try to get a client involved, who can still customize the interior.
As for show expectations, Rudolf comments: “We are trying to make first contact with potential clients, show them our video and brochures. Perhaps even get them to see our yards in Italy, where we can show them the real product”
FIPA Group
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www.fipagroup.com