| Warren 87 |  |
Australia’s Shipworks Group acquired Warren Yachts in
September 2003, the deal brought the company and founder Dave Warren more
than just an influx of cash; it brought a giant quandary. The merger meant
relocating to Shipworks’ commercial yard in Brisbane, more than 500 miles away
from the tiny town of Kincumber and the company’s pool of highly skilled
craftsmen.
| Click on the Spec and Design tab at top to see complete list of resources. |
How would Shipworks maintain Warren Yachts’ reputation for
quality that was earned during Dave Warren’s nearly 40 years of designing yachts
and the company’s 20 years of building them? It was, after all, a name that
brought it countless word-of-mouth referrals and a client base that includes
former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, golfer Greg Norman, media mogul
Kerry Packer and the late Ben Lexcen, a notable yacht designer himself.
"Kincumber is a village really," says Warren’s sales manager
Peter Singleton, "so when we started asking our people if they’d consider moving
with us, they said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to move away from Uncle Sid and Aunt
Martha.’ So we agreed to that, but then Sid and Martha didn’t want to go without
their cousins, and on it went. We pretty much moved the entire town. We built
them houses and a school, everything they need. It was worth it in order to
retain our most skilled people."
Certainly the staff will appreciate its new workspace. With almost 1,000 feet
of deepwater frontage and huge new construction halls, Warren Yachts’ facility
at the Shipworks yard provides plenty of room for the company to work
simultaneously on the 10 model S87 hulls it plans to deliver to the United
States in the next three years. After seven previous custom versions, Hull No. 8 in the S87
series—the first of 10 boats in what the company hopes will be a long-lived
production run—recently debuted in America. On close inspection, one realizes
why the company was so willing to go to great lengths to keep its staff. Dave Warren, along with fellow designer Anthony Starr and naval
architect Peter Lowe, has created a thoughtful and handsome open-style yacht
that rivals the best of the current crop of similar Italian designs. "Our
biggest challenge has always been weight and its distribution for overall
performance, sea keeping and running trim," says Lowe. But it is the execution by Warren Yachts’ craftsmen that is
particularly notable. Fit and finish are outstanding, from neatly tracked wiring
harnesses to book-matched grain patterns in the salon’s madrona burl paneling.
In places, veneer over aluminum, used to save weight, is so seamlessly assembled
that it positively defies detection. Throughout the yacht, madrona, Queensland
maple and assorted marbles and granites are accented with stainless steel trim
to create a contemporary décor that is flawlessly seamed together with an eye to
patterns, grains and lines.
|
Email This
Printer Friendly Version
Reprints & Permissions
Most Popular Searches