Abeking & Rasmussen Yachts

The Owner might be another one who finds the costs of owning and operating one of these is a lot greater than the brokers estimated it to be 4 yrs ago when the contract was signed.

Just the changes that take place in 4 years makes these long contracts a bit shaky. You start with exchange rate and the effort to protect against them. In these four years the Euro rate in dollars went from 1.48 to 1.11. Other currencies up and down. You think that they probably protected themselves in Euro through currency purchases but often protection is against the sale, not so much against the raw materials. Certainly a US Buyer would have had a huge currency gain. Regardless any pricing of a product over a four year period of a build is impacted in many ways during that time. Or think of a Russian buyer. Their exchange rate has gone from 40,000 to 74,000 in the last four years and the cost of buying currency protection for them would probably be prohibitive.

You think of things in the purchaser's life. Think of how much any of our lives changes in 5 years times. Business changes. Personal family situation changes. Marriage. Divorce. Health issues, especially among older buyers. 3.5-4% of all people get divorced per year. 7-8% get married. Just under 1% die. Take a random group of 10 people then and you'll have four major life events in 5 years. Even more, most of these buyers are business owners. Every business undergoes major changes in 5 years.

Then, as you say, costs of owning and operating. First recognize it can almost be guaranteed the broker understated them. But just take the reduced buying power of the Euro in that time and any of those expenses not based on Euro is changed dramatically. Then toss in changes in labor rates. A crew of 23.

Then what about financing. They buyer almost definitely is financing this boat or something else. If their primary business borrows, what has happened to that cost in that time?

In business we spent almost all of our planning time and effort including our Business Plan on the next 18 months. This time of year we would be finalizing the plan for 2016. As to time beyond 2016 we might extrapolate a few numbers and possible scenarios but 5 year plans were long ago tossed aside, because they turned out consistently useless. No one could see five years out. Sara Lee developed the best business planning system and methods I'd seen and we and many others copied them. I still use them in my modified form. I've never asked any business subsidiary or profit center for a plan longer than for next year. We would corporately develop a few numbers and scenarios beyond that but spend very little time or effort doing so.

I don't personally have the makeup to do a five year build. I know a lot do, but I also know many of these dream boats are quickly on the market after completion. The exception are those few men in the world for whom a quarter of a billion dollars is pocket change. But not many like that. I purchased machinery in business occasionally with two year lead times and found that most disconcerting.

DiFoo caught her cruising along at "08.02.2016 auf der Weser höhe Brake Unterweser auf Testfahrt zur Aussenweser."

The interior designers of Cloudbreak are also responsible for the interior of Vertigo, just to give you an idea what we might expect.

And Perini Seahawk and Amels Vega

The results of todays trip to Bremen


Cloudbreak as good as I could get her.



Interesting design. A true explorer. Large observation platform in the mast and a decent helicopter landing pad. a combination of Ester III and Skat.

KIBO was also at the outfitting pier with some extensive work in progress. Has KIBO been sold?

And Germanyachting was correct, the little boat between Cloudbreak and KIBO looks like a about 25 Meter SWATH yacht.



They have placed an accomodation deck partly in the superstructure and in the bridgedeck between the struts. The device under the cover on the starboard bow looks like some kind of boarding lift or foldable stair system. Good idea.




The success of this concept will be depending 1. on the locatiation of the machinery (noise within the accomodation). If the engines are located in the above water portion of the hull, the crew and guest will sit in a guitar. If the engines fit into the torpeedos, this boat will be as quiet and pleasant to travel with as Silver Cloud. And 2. On its deadweight capacity (load, range) Should be no problem, if the boat is built completely in aluminum. I assume it is not a classed ship, because of her load line length being officially und 24 Meters. If this is provided, the little SWATH yacht could be certified under CE, hopefully category A. I like that concept.

It is Romea who is for sale not Kibo.

Looks like a variation of the 25m A&R SWATH crew transfer vessel NATALIA BEKKER.

Deckhouse moved forward and glass extended over the full length, the aft deck seems longer. The bow is from the 25m pilot vessels, swept mast.
Could be slightly shorted to 24m, the forward strut seems a bit shorter.

NATALIA BEKKER is diesel electric. Two MTU 10V2000 engines with 900kw each, into inverters, into two 710kw electric motors. The MTU should be located under water, searching for a source on that.
Astoundingly hard to find that info. The Skrunda-class patrol boats, also based on the 25m A&R SWATH, have their engines in the torpedo hulls. They are driven via gear.
The design of the torpedo hulls seems to be the same. Skundra class, Natalia Bekker.

Guess M/Y Kaiser is also back in A&R for a good while

I am not shure if this is reliable but it seems like they signed a contract for a 76m yacht.

Nice find, thanks lad!

A todays picture of the 25 Meter Swath Yacht getting closer to completion. Cloudbreak was out of town for seatrails.



Would be interesting to know, what the mission of this boat will be. The adaption of an commercial concept is quite interesting but not a real beauty for the hotspots of the yachting world. If she will be a privately used yacht (and not a kind of government owned vehicle), she will likely cruise in combination with something bigger or work as a second special purpose yacht of an experienced yacht owner.