Poland - the leading yacht producer in the region

paiz.gov.pl/index/?id=312351bff07989769097660a56395065


(Polish sailing yacht Delphia 40)

new Polish product

640 FLY

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  Polish product
  
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  Polish product
  

Isn't that an American flag I see? ;)

yes they like this yacht

Delphia 40, doesn't sound Polish ;)

delphiayachts.pl/189,l2.html


skrzat-design.pl/01aboutus.html

designer and stylist of sailing yachts and motor boats[

Wally Boats -

I deal with sailing yachts, if anyone interested: balticgriffin.eu

Merged: Smooth sailing for 'Made in Poland' yachts

I have known for years about Gdańsk's Sunreef Yachts, the world "leader in the class of custom-built, luxury catamarans - but mostly through their brochures and announcements. This overview from Agence France-Presse puts it all in more neutral, but still positive, light.

business.inquirer.net/6893/smooth-sailing-for-made-in-poland-yachts

But it is not only the giants that make Polish Yacht Yards known to the world.


Worth reading...

Blimey - I never knew that Poland had a flourishing shipbuilding industry outside of Remontowa!

Good on Poland - why isn't this being pushed much more?

Good question. I hear that Poland is full of billboards advertising all sort of crap, TV ads are everywhere but they have not learned how to promote good - or even excellent - products. Oh I am sure that their marketing departments do their job perfectly well, but promotion of a brand name is another issue.

I took a little "side trip" to Delphia Yachts:

delphiayachts.pl/eng/

So OK, after some obligatory flash, there is nothing exciting in their menus - until one gets to the details of the designs. A paradise for a sailor and a dreamer, but quite an average website for a promoter.

I also went to a website of their main yacht designer. Very interesting, but again - it deserves much better exposure to the world.

Andrzej Skrzat is a 65-years-old successful yacht desiner from Poland. The following is a summary of his conversation with Marek Slodownik made for "H2O" magazine:

skrzat-design.pl/01omnie-en.html

The beginning

There were some designers around and everyone wanted to be the best. But it was a fair competition and now they are all friends: Henryk Jaszczewski, Jurek Piesniewski, Jacek Centkowski, Adam Orych and a few others.

In those days, they were selling just ideas and papers but it all started a culture of creative thinking, with the feedback from sailing enthusiasts - who tinkered with their boats and learned.

Young designers
There are many talented young people who follow the new trends and who design very interesting yachts. But it's harder for a young designer to be noticed because now the market is everything. Designing a boat is not enough - the thing must be put into production, and it is usually very expensive process. Times of amateurish constructions - where yachts were uneven, inaccurate, simply imperfect - are over. Now everything must be buttoned up.

Andrzej Skrzat considers himself lucky for being able to closely cooperate with Delphia Yachts production facility. Young designers do not have such a comfort.

Number of projects
He scored about 98 designs. A story goes that there are probably 300,000 yachts built to his specifications. The real number is hard to get because many yachts were never registered - many were built illegally, with no respect for copyrights. He sold around 4000 licenses.

Boat Review by John Kerr, Canadian Yachting

(About Delphia-33)


skrzat-design.pl/06prasa/2009-canadian-yachting-delphia33-art.pdf

Andrzej Skrzat keeps a long list of the reviews like the one above, here:

skrzat-design.pl/04media-en.html

Since 1996 he won 16 prizes and nominations. The lastest, yacht Delphia 47, which he designed, was an European Yacht of the Year Nominee in 2009/2010

It might have something to do with the fact that not many people in Poland can afford a yacht.

True, but this isn't only (or even mainly) about the domestic market.

Brand recognition takes time, especially in an established industry. Eyeballing adverts is nothing compared to the traction you get from people actually buying your stuff - an incremental process that can be horribly slow at the start.

How many yachts do you have to sell to get that kind of exposure? 10? 100? 500?

I know that; I did not mean the local promotion. European Presidency might be a good time to present good things internationally.

Somehow "Polish krówka" (carmel fudge) gets more attention than Polish yachts:
"Polskie krówki są przebojem w Afganistanie","Przebojowa polska krówka w moro na targu w Afganistanie", "Polskie wojsko rozdaje Krówki miejscowym w Afganistanie"


polishmilitary.wordpress.com/2011/07/

By the way, I had sailed quite a chunk of my vacations in Poland - at the time when 95% of population could not afford a yacht, including myself. There were clubs and there were boats for rent.

sailing in Poland is very popular. i remember when i first came here... a large number of 18yr olds had their sailing documents before they went on a driving course.

folk might not be able to afford some boats, but that doesn't stop the business of hire/lease. there is a market here for such things.

there is also a growing number of marina/apartment projects in Poland too.
there are some who can afford a 5 -7 metre boat/yacht no problem.
also, a lot of people buy shares in boats. it's a good business to be in, me thinks.

To be honest though, they should be looking at foreign markets - if they've got the experience and the skill, why aren't they taking advantage? The costs will be lower than from markets such as Italy - yet they've obviously got the know-how.


Boats are ridiculously cheap to hire in Poland if you have the papers - I saw you could hire a boat for the day for as little as 200zl on some lakes, and that was a proper sailboat. Between 6-8 people - what's that, 25zl a day? Peanuts.

Sadly, the last Thursday's fire (Jan 19, 2012) in the Sunreef Yachts' rented production facility consumed five luxury catamarans and two production forms for the next ones, several sailing and motor yachts - both smaller (60'-70') and bigger ones and materials and chemicals used in boat construction - such as composites, epoxy and wood. The losses are roughly estimated at over a ten millions Euro, but the details are still unknown since the fire fighters are still extinguishing smaller fires and the company representatives are still not allowed to access the site.

Although all the yachts were insured the contracts have to be delayed by several months. The company is going to move its production facilities to other halls it owns - also in the former shipyard in Gdansk. No layout of 400 crew is planned because every pair of hands is needed now. Production is to be restarted next week.

90% of the production of about 200 yacht producers in Poland is exported. This industry is doing better and better each year.