Turkish shipyard Alia Yachts has released the first photographs of its new construction facility in the Antalya Free Trade Zone. The new facility covers 16,000sqm and includes five construction halls as well as storage areas and dedicated workshops. Measuring 90m in length and 22m in height, the new sheds mean the shipyard can now build larger yachts entirely under cover.

“The new facility has also allowed us to consolidate and streamline a lot of processes that were spread out before,” says Gökhan Çelik, founder and president of Alia Yachts. “This means we’ve been able to cut time and costs while increasing capacity and efficiency, which are all advantages that can be passed on to our clients.”  

As with shipyards throughout Europe, Alia Yachts has experienced some slow-down in production due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the lockdown restrictions in Turkey were less severe than in other countries and most manufacturing industries closed only at the weekends.

“The main difficulties resulted from a ban on intercity travel, which made it difficult for subcontractors to move around, and there were some interruptions in the supply chain.”

“Naturally, we have social distancing protocols in place and we’re being vigilant to protect the health of our workers,” says Çelik. “The main difficulties resulted from a ban on intercity travel, which made it difficult for subcontractors to move around, and there were some interruptions in the supply chain. But most of our processes are done in-house, so we experienced only minor delays and we’re now making up for lost time.”

Alia Yachts has a busy summer approaching after the recent turning of the hull of its 36m shadow vessel slated for delivery in 2021. Once complete it will support Project Phi, the mothership currently in build at Royal Huisman in the Netherlands.

In June, the shipyard will join the hull and superstructure of 55m steel and aluminium motoryacht Al Waab II, with interior, exterior and naval architecture by Dutch design studio Vripack. “This is a hugely exciting project, but also a challenging one as we’re working to a tight build schedule of just 24 months,” says Çelik. “Despite interruptions caused by coronavirus, however, construction is on track and we should wrap up the hotworks in another couple of weeks.”

Also this summer, the shipyard is due to join the hull and superstructure of 32.4m Nozomi II, sistership to 30.5m Virgen del Mar VI (formerly Project Nozomi), being built on spec. “I can also reveal that we are in the final phase of negotiations for more than one 40m-plus project and we hope to be able to release more information shortly,” concludes Çelik.

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