G.L. Watson, Sevenstar Yacht Transport and the Spliethoff subsidiary DYT with its special ship “Yacht Servant” have jointly implemented a prestigious project involving an almost 90-year-old yacht.
The logistics company Sevenstar Yacht Transport was brought on board by G.L. Watson & Co. to rescue an “important historic yacht”.
G.L. Watson experts Nicholas Edmiston and William Collier have now completed “the first phase of the salvage”, Sevenstar has now announced. Having already worked together on the “ground-breaking restorations” of “Blue Bird”, “Nahlin”, “Malahne” and “Cacouna”, they had been keeping an eye on the 39-metre-long “Amazon”, built by Thornycroft in 1936, for several years.
She had been a houseboat on the Seine in France for over 20 years. Now, however, it was time to intervene if she was ever to set sail again. Within a few weeks, the yacht was bought, prepared for towing and brought to Le Havre. There, the semi-submersible “Yacht Servant” of the shipping company DYT, formerly known as Dockwise Yacht Transport, from the Dutch MPP group Spliethoff, was waiting for the “Amazone”. The special ship brought them to Falmouth in Great Britain.
Sevenstar expert Herrebrugh: “Extensive and very complicated”
Then it was off to the Pendennis shipyard. “Keeping to this tight schedule in highly regulated waters required close collaboration between Mike Herrebrugh of Sevenstar Yacht Transport and William Collier, which involved chartering four specialist vessels on the Seine and transporting heavy cargo across the canal,” confirmed the partners involved.
Sevenstar expert Herrebrugh commented: “The preparations in France were extensive and very complicated. But it’s great that Nicholas Edmiston and William Collier have entrusted us with their project to preserve a historic piece of yacht building that is clearly a matter close to their hearts.”
William Collier of G. L. Watson added: “These are complex projects where you need the support of strong partners who understand the requirements and focus on them throughout the project. Mike Herrebrugh is that partner and this is our third successful project with Sevenstar in the last 12 months.”
The “Yacht Servant” was delivered in China in 2022. This brings the DYT fleet to three vessels, which will now also be used to transport larger yachts to more regions.
With a length of 213.70 m and a width of 46 m, the newbuild offers twice as much capacity as its predecessors, according to the shipping company. The IMO Tier III-compliant vessel is also described as 32% more fuel efficient, while its 6,380 m² deck area allows the transportation of more vessels per crossing, including deep-draft sailing yachts. The deck area is 30% larger than that of the “Yacht Express”.
While the current vessels in DYT’s semi-submersible fleet require a water depth of around 14 meters, the new addition will have a depth of 9 meters. A float-on-float-off system will be used. A special deck behind the bridge is designed for dinghies, containers and small racing boats. Depending on capacity utilization, other types of transport are also an option.
The Spliethoff Group’s fleet now comprises over 100 MPP and RoRo vessels between 2,100 and 23,000 tdw. The group also includes the shipping companies Bore, Transfennica, Wijnne Barends and BigLift.
