Having launched over 20 turnkey projects to date, Arkyacht has increased its workload with the construction of four boats this year. Since 2011, Arkyacht has launched four turnkey boats, including three shells.
Arkyacht completed the construction of the trawler Paşa last year and launched the boat. 18.5 meter long Paşa was built with a steel hull and aluminum superstructure in accordance with CE standards. The famous sailboat Eye of the Wind was also completely refitted by Arkyacht last year in a record time of 75 days. Established in 2006, Arkyacht's priorities are customer satisfaction and taking part in the right projects. The company, which carries out the project design and design applications of all its projects in-house, directs its designs in line with the wishes of the customer. Shipbuilding Engineer Ayberk Apaydın, the founder of Arkyacht, made the following statements to our magazine about their projects, business principles and customers:
Arkyacht's 54-meter classic sailing yacht Chronos was selected as a finalist in the “40+ size range Sailing Yacht” category at the World Superyacht Awards in 2014.
Can you tell us about your projects?
We are in our 9th year with Arkyacht. Since 2011, we have four turnkey boats, three of which are shells. The number of boats we have touched until today is 42-43 and the number of new production boats is around 22. This year, we continue on our way with four turnkey projects of 13 meters, 40 meters, 22 meters and 54 meters.”
At 56 meters in length, Regina is Arkyacht's largest sailboat on the water and has a classic, elegant and luxurious aesthetic. The spacious interiors offer 2 master suites, 3 doubles and 1 twin guest cabin, accommodating up to 12 guests. Designed and engineered by Arkyacht, the steel sailing Regina was one of the finalists for the 2012 World Superyacht Awards.
Apart from new construction, you also do refit works, what is your construction capacity?
“As a facility, we have a serious capacity covering three regions as Ören, Didim and Bodrum. At our shipyard in İçmeler, we continue to produce new construction boats in three hangars of 350, 700 and 500 square meters. In Didim, we work entirely on maintenance, repair and refit activities. We have a dry dock area in Doğuş Marina, a hangar measuring 60 meters by 15 meters and two lifts of 100 and 400 tons within Doğuş Marina.”
“On the other hand, our shipyard, which we built on our own private land of 15 thousand square meters, separate from the Yacht Manufacturing, Maintenance, Repair and Towing Yard organized by the cooperative in Ören, has been completed recently and our investment has been completed with full capacity. In late 2013, we have the capacity to build two 70-meter boats at the same time in our facility with a closed area of 4000 square meters.”
How did the crisis affect you?
“Demand may have decreased due to the crisis, but as long as we do our job correctly, we are not companies that will be affected by such situations. Frankly, depending on how we look at the crisis, we can say that the crisis did not affect us. If we can't find one or two customers a year, there is something wrong somewhere. The situation is not only about the crisis not affecting us, we give the right prices with costs that are logically based on the ground, we never start manufacturing before our project design is finished, we keep our costs under control as the projects are prepared correctly, we reduce labor costs and we reflect these advantages directly to our customers.”
“During the design phase, we take into account the technical criteria in the sector, the most important of which are resistance analyzes and marine calculations related to the underwater forms of the boat. For us, the initial stage of the boat is of great importance, it is very important that all the works we have signed are a reference for us in the future. We have 4 shipbuilding engineers and 1 interior architect, and we reflect all these things to our customers before we start the boat.”
Cica Sultan ketch is a good example of the modern adaptation of gulet sailing. The two-masted steel sailboat offers accommodation for 8 guests with 2 owner and 2 guest cabins. Arkyacht's 23.6-meter XANAX, a 23.6-meter motor yacht, looks like a modern fishing boat combining classic design with a steel hull and superstructure. RINA class XANAX offers a speed of 16 knots with a 2X 440 HP main engine.
How do you go about pricing your projects?
“In order for us to give a price, the plans and specification of the boat must be prepared. We never make a pricing study based on a drawing or a document without specifications. If the mentioned documents are ready or prepared by us, we make the pricing study and determine the budget of the boat. Our prices in our turnkey projects may not always be suitable for our customers. This is the main reason why we take part in partial productions. We take part in complete or partial manufacturing processes where our budget and the customer's budget overlap.”
“We offer the customer the options we have regarding the project design of the boat, we explain how we do it, we are very meticulous in the pre-production processes. If we agree with our customer on all the costs at different stages such as wood, electricity, installation, mechanics, steel construction, we build the boat on turnkey basis. In the parts where we cannot agree, we take part in different stages of the project.”
What are your priorities when starting a project as a company?
“Reflecting the budget correctly to the customer also allows the customer to measure the feasibility of their boat. When you reflect the right budget, the customer has the opportunity to weigh himself. To be frank, as a company, we do not see the customer as superior to ourselves. We have to be more robust than our customer in terms of both financial and investment so that we can do our job correctly. If you do not have the necessary investments and capital, it will not be possible for us to deliver the work of the person who will build the boat correctly. These are all the requirements of trade, we research the customer, the customer of course researches us, we agree on a common denominator and sign the contract. In summary, we do not compromise our principles in order to take part in projects that will end happily.”
How do you evaluate your relationship with customers?
“Our customers are very valuable to us, we put a lot of effort into making sure that every customer can become a repeat customer at certain stages. For this reason, we have customers whose second and third boats we build. At the end of the work, the satisfaction of the service recipient is very important to us, the customer who does business with us must be absolutely satisfied with the result that emerges regarding every title we have committed to the part we have done.”
“We need to fulfill our commitments, if we have built a boat, turnkey or not, if at the end of the first or second year the boat prefers to go elsewhere even to have its antifouling paint removed, this is our failure. It has to come back to us. As our company policy, as long as the conditions allow, if the boat is around, it does not matter whether it is a boat we have built or not, we do our best to ensure that those who have their maintenance and repair done by us once work with us continuously. Because one of the biggest problems in the sector is customer satisfaction and as we always say, as a company, we wish to be compared with businesses that do their second job for the same customer.
“In order for us to be completely involved, we have strict lines such as no rough edges between us and the customer, no differences in our perspectives. With three-dimensional designs, we ensure consensus by making it clearly visible what the customer will get at the end.”
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