Earlier this year, I was invited to fly to Vienna to take a short journey into the Austrian countryside, a long, long way from the ocean, to visit the F/LAB and witness the launch of the new division of F/List, called F/Yachting. To be honest, I rarely do press trips like this, but I’d never been to Vienna and I’ve always been fascinated by the processes and ideas that emerge out of the interior subcontractor world and, to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed.

The interior subcontractor world
As a market sector, we’ve seen various corporate casualties, collapses and bankruptcies, takeovers, rescues and integration in the shipyards themselves, as contracts for some of the largest yachts in the market have stretched the capacity and stability of some suppliers. We’ve seen interior build pricing climb to astronomical levels and the complexity of interiors add more and more cost and time to the delivery of some famous projects.

It’s often when designers have pushed the project in a direction that may not always make sense, but have ego and awards/ideas that have little consideration for the builder or subcontractor that are the result of a crazy dream sold to a client.

After some detailed analysis of the market and the interior build sector, there are other factors that I’ve found both shocking and needing attention. There’s a vast volume of waste materials, as designers or quality-control processes reject perfectly good materials in search of obsessive perfection, with little consideration to the repurposing or reusing of these rejected materials. There are the logistics and eco-impact of sourcing rare materials around the world for one specific veneer finish on a single cabinet that then has its own dedicated truck from the factory to the shipyard and then back again … empty.

With a seriously impressive order book over the past ten years, it’s easy to see how pressure and stress has been imposed upon this sector which was never set up for the tens of thousands of square metres of super luxury interior, with long lead times and short installation periods. Many of the major brands have evolved from land-based architecture and, due to quality or proximity, moved into the large-yacht arena, excited at the numbers and level of detail. However, the market pushed them to a quality of finish never seen before.

With passions and expectations always running high in yacht projects, reworking, project delays and minds constantly changing, it’s clearly a sector not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps the rapid increase in prices per square metre were part of a financial mitigation strategy, Covid-induced man-hour management or even a list of additional costs that many manufacturers have been battling: energy, raw materials, insurance, shipping and interest rates.

When you walk around a large superyacht today, even a small one, there’s an awe-inspiring gasp when you see the intricacy or attention to detail, when you hear how many hours were spent waxing and polishing rare woods, when you see hand-carved architraves or unique inlays with hundreds of different finishes and you walk into a room that is designed to be a personal statement of excellence and opulence.

However, after a conversation with one very wealthy yacht owner, he questioned the need for such a high level of perfection and cost, especially when we spend only a couple of months a year on board. More importantly, he added, “When I sell my yacht, chances are someone will want to change my precious interior.” Perhaps we have gone too far.

The aviation sectors
If you’ve ever been invited to a billionaire’s home, villa, apartment or chalet, or walked through an ultra-luxury resort property or dined in an exclusive members club, I wonder if you’ve ever considered, compared or contrasted the level of interior quality that their occupants live with every day. The chances are that the interiors are nothing like the level of quality that we drive into our market and, more importantly, nothing like the costs either.

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to step on board a Boeing Business Jet or Gulfstream en route to any of the above, you may have rested your hand on a stunning cabinet or crafted work station built in Thomasberg, Austria at the F/List factory. Many superyacht owners who may have one or more planes in their fleet of assets will have F/List interiors, built beautifully, carefully, technically and accurately in partnership with the private jet manufacturers and various designers.

From my whirlwind visit to the factory, it was very clear that this partnership is critical because safety, accuracy, weight, material use and installation are all a fundamental part of the process and all is carefully mapped out well in advance of any aviation build. Obviously, weight is a critical factor and some of the material regulations are super stringent and strict, but it was more the planning and project management that seemed to bring so much to the table.

With only 300 small-bodied private jets being built per annum and approximately 20 large-bodied private jets in the same calendar, there are some clear similarities with the market scope and size. Obviously, the fuselage and volumes are far more controlled and fixed, but it’s some of the working processes that may need some investigation.

The concept of working closely together (interior builder and jet builder) at the very outset of a project, to make sure something makes sense and can be built intelligently, accurately and within a smart budget with a realistic margin, is where the partnership makes so much sense; coming up with workable and logical solutions, creating innovations and smart ideas that inspire the guests on board or bring interior intelligence to the table. Yes, there are incredible finishes and tactile materials but it seems that the partnership is not only long term with multiple projects in the contract, but also financial, so the subcontractor/builder relationship is economically stable. I think there’s a lot to learn from the world of private aviation.

L-R: F/List COO Andreas Aigner and CEO Werner Kartner with List CEO Katharina List-Nagl.

The F/Yachting plan
Over the past 30-plus years, F/List has worked stealthily with various contractors and shipyards, adding much-needed skills and capacity in the market. Not to be confused with List General Contractor (List GC), but part of the same carpentry dynasty in Austria, F/List is a ‘parent’ company run by the dynamic CEO Katharina List-Nagl, granddaughter of the great founder of the Franz List empire. To avoid confusion and to remove the concept of two Lists in the yachting sector, a new brand was agreed upon. After much debate and discussion, the name that is worth adding to your specification list is F/Yachting.

Managed by two experienced characters – Werner Kartner and Andreas Aigner, CEO and COO respectively – guided by the manufacturing and innovation principles of the parent company, this is an exciting addition to the market. In combination with the new F/LAB (more of which later), F/Yachting wants to bring something new to the perfectly crafted table.

Similar to the partnership strategy they have developed in aviation, the F/Yachting strategy is very clear: build first-class, world-class interiors, delivered on time and on budget and make a profit at the same time. It sounds so logical and simple. Following my visit to their pristine factory, meeting the management team across the whole company and witnessing some of the build programmes and innovations they have in place, it’s clear that they are not going to deviate from their course; they’re on a mission.

Imagine an interior subcontractor who is sitting in the same meeting with the owner, the design team and the project-management team before a contract is signed at the yard. Consider an interior subcontractor who works with the interior designer to brainstorm and debate better ways of making a fixture or installation or finish work, so it’s more efficient and optimises the material use. Think about an interior subcontractor who works with the design team, project team and build team, right at the start of the project to plan and manages the process of installation in conjunction with other critical subcontractors, so there are fewer impacts and minimal delays.

What about an interior subcontractor who presents new materials or smarter materials that will save energy, cost and reduce maintenance? Then consider the interior subcontractor who wants to build an interior that is designed to be upgraded and repaired, with a life-cycle strategy and logic applied to removing and replacing key aspects of the interior.

This forms the backbone of the F/Yachting ethos and has been labelled their 361-degree service strategy, where the interior is considered for life and all elements of it are planned, optimised and installed to ensure that time is not wasted, money is not burnt and materials are chosen based on more important factors such as levels of use, interaction and feel, social and planet impact and source, not just choosing the most rare and obscure just to be part of an obscene dinner conversation.

F/LAB showroom.

The F/LAB
Alongside the new F/Yachting business, Katharina List-Nagl invited a few close friends, a handful of aviation and yachting clients and some of the media to join her for the launch of their new research and innovation laboratory, labelled the F/LAB. For obvious reasons, the lab remained behind closed doors, but everyone was treated to a taste of the smart ideas and inspiring solutions that have come out of the early stages of the laboratory’s development.

Their mission is to bring together engineers, designers, technologists and scientists to explore ideas and solutions that will push boundaries and challenge the norm. Rather than source rare materials, woods and skins and planet-unfriendly finishes, they will be in partnership with some of the brightest minds to develop revolutionary new materials that will inspire and impress.

Upcycling, recycling, reusing and repurposing in combination with a sustainability mission will allow F/Yachting and any yacht designer to explore eco-friendly solutions that will allow a client to have a smarter conversation about their planet-friendly finishes rather than a rare material extracted from a rainforest and less than one per cent of the wood used in the finished product.

The F/LAB was a really interesting experience, and over the coming months we’ll share more details of some of the results of the laboratory; proprietary materials such as Whisper leather, Aenigma and Linfinium will be worth investigating further. Every element of these materials has raw-material sourcing, local supply chain distances and renewable energy, and there’s a positive impact element to the application. Imagine having the time, ideas and vision to work with a sub-contractor to create brand new materials that not only make you feel good, solve a problem and use waste materials smartly, but also have a commercial strategy for other projects too.

F For Future
With a strategic vision of F for Future, both F/Yachting and the F/LAB are coming to the yachting market with a clear objective – not as a disruptor, but as an innovator, a game-changer and a partner. Perhaps the time has come to remove the term ‘sub’ as in sub-contractor; due to the investment being made in the complex and creative interiors with millions of euros at stake, they should be treated like fundamental partners, from the start of the owner’s dream all the way through the life-cycle of the yacht.

This article first appeared in The Superyacht Report – Owner Focus. With our open-source policy, it is available to all until 21 November by following this link, so read and download the latest issue and any of our previous issues in our library.

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