MYS 19: From Refit to New Build with Balk Shipyard

By Rose-Hannah Lishman

Joined by Daan Balk and Melvin Van Campenhout from Balk Shipyard on the third day of the Monaco Yacht Show, we couldn’t wait to learn all about the yard’s new facilities. Welcomed to the Breaking News Centre, we sat down to talk about all the updates from the Netherlands-based company.

Daan Balk starts by sharing the reason behind the recent appointment of Melvin as CEO; “Businesses are changing. We ourselves are still developing. A family business of over 200 years and eight generations in line. So we believe we need a proper plan of how to approach the future, and Melvin is part of that plan.” 

With an impressive past building in commercial shipbuilding, the yard established a superyacht refit department over 15 years ago, but today is using its background knowledge to establish a new build department. But why now? Daan explains, “See a couple of years back we had the recession, new build was holding back a little bit.” 

But evolving and adapting to the times, as all good business should, the yard are now developing new facilities that are almost three times the size! He continues, commenting on recent notable trends, “We see a strong increase in requests for explorer vessels, adventure vessels, it’s a change in the market.” Which both Melvin and Daan hope to take advantage of as a result of their commercial history.  We look forward to seeing the first new build project come into fruition!

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By Rose-Hannah Lishman
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