Made in the UAE: Gulf Craft’s $11m floating palace

A new US$11 million super yacht from Gulf Craft has five bedrooms, room for five crew and a dining room complete with chandeliers.

A US$11 million superyacht from Gulf Craft has five bedrooms, room for five crew and a dining room complete with chandeliers. Courtesy Gulf Craft

It has room for 10 guests and ample space for sunbathing. But this is no ordinary holiday home. It is an US$11 million super yacht.

The boat is the latest model in the Majesty Yachts brand by the UAE manufacturer, Gulf Craft – a superyacht builder – and was unveiled at the Kuwait Yacht Show this month.

“Everything we build is a one-off,” says Erwin Bamps, Gulf Craft’s chief executive.

“We build several [in the same model] but each is unique in its own right. Think of them as floating palaces.”

The yacht, a Majesty 122, has five bedrooms, which each sleep two people, plus room for five crew, a large seating area for guests to unwind and a dining area complete with chandeliers.

The owner’s bedroom, situated on the main deck with good views of the water, even includes an office, says Mr Bamps.

“Don’t think it of a cabin on a cruise ship, definitely not,” he says. “The idea is to mimic basically a very luxurious villa on the water. When you are on board you really don’t feel you are on the water, unless you look outside.”

He means that literally, because the boat has a system to counter the movement of the waves – so if a storm is raging outside you won’t know it. And even if your glass is filled to the brim it will not spill a drop, says Mr Bamps.

That is a pretty handy because it has a range of 2,000 nautical miles, allowing people to sail the ocean waves.

The boat has been designed with a large area both inside and out to accommodate big groups. “We found out that people in the Gulf don’t like to just invite four friends for a cruise and then spend the weekend going around islands. No, they like to invite 50 people,” says Mr Bamps.

“What we found out as a result is that we had to adapt the layout to accommodate the use of these vessels to bring a larger number of people around the table and together in the boat and enjoy more of a party environment rather than a private entertainment environment.”

q&a blue skies and silver seas

Erwin Bamps, chief executive of Gulf Craft, which was founded in 1982 by a group of boating enthusiasts who wanted to produce something locally, explains to Gillian Duncan what a superyacht is and speaks about the company’s history.

What is a superyacht?

Most people would say it is related to the price tag. But we define it as a yacht over 24 metres from bow to stern.

How many years have you been building them?

We have been building yachts for the last 20 years, and in the last 15 years we have been building superyachts.

How many boats do you build a year?

At the moment we are building about 450 a year. But they are not all the same size. Some years we build a few more smaller ones and other years we build larger ones. We build boats from the budget of a car, say Dh250,000, all the way up to Dh90 million.

Where are your customers based?

Our whole market is the larger GCC. That’s about 40 or 50 per cent of our client base. And we are in a good market because the number of millionaires per square kilometre is quite nice out here. The second market for us is Europe, specifically the Mediterranean area.

Where I can see this $11m superyacht?

It will go on display here at the Dubai Boat Show, which will be held at the Dubai International Marine Club from March 3 to 7.

Top five biggest Majesty Yachts superyachts

1. Majesty 155 (47 metres), $25 million

2. Majesty 135 (41 metres), $17m

3. Majesty 125 (38 metres), $12m

4. Majesty 122 (37 metres), $11m

5. Majesty 105 (32 metres) $6.7m

Source: Gulf Craft

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter