W. Huisman

Royal Huisman is a Dutch shipyard specialized in the building and repair of sailing yachts.

The shipyard was established in 1884 in as a builder of wooden workboats and fishing boats. In 1954 Jan Huisman specialised in steel sailing yachts, and his son Wolter transitioned to aluminium hulls in 1964 with the 30ft Van de Stadt Avenir series. In the 1970s the development of extruded aluminium masts and cooperation with New York designers Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) enabled Huisman to tap into performance yachts and the international racing circuit: The shipyard launched its largest yacht to date, Jakob Isbrandtsen's prize-winning 60ft S&S sloop Running Tide, at its new deep-water premises in Vollenhove in 1970. In 1973 Huisman built 's first Saudade, the 47ft S&S sloop which won the Admiral's Cup for Germany in the same year. In 1976, the shipyard built Conny van Rietschoten's 65ft S&S ketch Flyer for the 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Race, which she won. Their success was repeated in the 1981–82 Whitbread race with van Rietschoten's new 76ft Frers-designed sloop Flyer II which took line honours in all four legs.

In turn the shipyard developed successfully in Maxi yachts and large cruising yachts with designers Germán Frers and Ron Holland. Upon its hundredth anniversary in 1984 the shipyard was awarded a royal charter by Queen Beatrix and changed its name to Royal Huisman. In 1989 the shipyard set a new trend of large classic yacht revival by cooperating with designer Gerard Dijkstra to restore Elizabeth Meyer's prestigious 1934 J-class yacht Endeavour. The restoration as well as a number of Royal Huisman's subsequent projects received industry awards from yacht owners and the press. In 2014 Royal Huisman became a shareholder of the St Barts & Newport Bucket Regattas. In 2017 the shipyard was acquired by , which also negotiated exclusive rights of access to both the 300,000m² Emden dockyard and the 12,000m² Holland Jachtbouw sheds to expand yacht refit and newbuild capabilities. The shipyard had a workforce of 280 people and a €220m orderbook in 2016. The shipyard launched Bernard Gustin's 112ft sloop Pamina, the World's first yacht built from the high temper aluminium alloy Alustar, in the year 2000, and the 65ft S&S sloop Aileen II, its first carbonfiber yacht, in 2017.

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