Lürssen targets 55-90m sector

The message communicated during the Lürssen press tour could not have been clearer, Lürssen are making an explicit push to become more competitive in the 55-90m market. The lay conception of Lürssen’s superyacht building capacity is that they, along with a select few other yards, are a de facto choice for owners that are looking to build a superyacht in the 100m-plus category. While this belief is by no means a false assertion it does, however, fall short of Lürssen’s desire to be considered a de facto yard for bespoke superyachts of varying sizes.

“Lürssen will happily engage with a client about a 55-60m so long as it is the right boat for the client and the right boat for the shipyard,” explained Michael Breman, sales director at Lürssen. “I am happy to say that we are having a fair amount of success in various size categories at the moment and engaging with a number of owners across a number of size ranges.”

Breman alludes to the preconception that Lürssen only builds ‘large yachts’ but questions what is now considered to be a large yacht. “What is a big boat?” he asked. “For me, a 60m yacht is still a serious piece of kit, it is rather big. In people’s minds we are generally associated with 100m-plus vessels, but, within the last 15 years, we have delivered 29 superyachts between 58-90m. Over the same period, we have delivered 15 superyachts over 90m.”

Breman highlights that the majority of the Lürssen vessels that have appeared in magazines and at the boat shows have actually been below 90m, however it continues to be the very largest vessels, think M/Ys Dilbar and Azzam, that catch the attention – and no wonder. In some ways Lürssen’s success at the largest end of the superyacht market has been to the detriment of its activities in other size segments.

“While we are, of course, very happy about that [the success of the large projects] – it is an incredible way to get the brand known – it is very important that we retain the understanding that our core business has to be between 60-80m. That being said, we will not build series vessels, we only build bespoke yachts. So, if someone wants to have a 60m that is to his or her design, then Lürssen is the place to come,” continued Breman.

On various yards hoping to challenge Lürssen for supremacy at the large end of the market, Breman welcomed the challenge. “We need a healthy business and competition is good. If there is no competition, then clients would feel uncomfortable if they believed we could charge any price for a large boat, which is clearly not what we do. However, they will find, like we have found when entering other size ranges, that it is tough. What I don’t know is whether or not there is a large enough market out there for other people to be building large boats. Superyachts over 110m are an occasional business.”

 Photo Credit: Klaus Jordan

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