SWS1.pdf

SWS

Issue n° 1

Slowly but Surely

by Willy Persico

The Southern Wind

semi-custom philosophy

In the production point of view

by Marco Alberti

In the lamination point of view

by Stefan Falcon

10 SW 100

A sister ship, but not a twin

Blue Water

The true thrill of going to sea

SW94 - SW120

New projects

SW110

The next to launch

The Importance of taking Care

of the Customer

by Andrea Micheli

News

Slowly but Surely

by Willy Persico SWS CEO

Ever since I started my ca-

reer as an entrepreneur

yacht builder in 1990, my

philosophy has been to pro-

ceed by taking small incre-

mental steps.

“

and taking on new staff, including highly-quali-

fied European professionals able to transfer their

collective experience into the company.

With this new corporate profile I was able to ac-

cept orders for larger vessels and put into pro-

duction a mini-series of semi-custom yachts

ranging in size from 72 to 110 feet.

The success, in particular, of the 78’ designed by

Nauta and Reichel Pugh, followed by that of the

100’ designed by Nauta and Farr Design (with

10 units delivered in just 3 years), provided the

confirmation that we were heading in the right

direction.

Until recent events took over, the market was

booming - a sort of Eldorado for the marine in-

dustry, especially in the luxury big boat sector. I

must admit that at the time I was tempted to

expand production, because it was frustrating

to see our production capacity unable to satis-

fy the demand. But I resisted the temptation and

in view of the crisis that is now affecting not only

the marine sector but the whole global economy,

I think it was the right choice to maintain produc-

tion at three units a year, resist compromises in

terms of quality and avoid unnecessary financial

risks.

The shipyard today has no debt with the banks

and we have not been obliged to reduce our work-

force.

Instead, and against the grain like in 1996, I have

decided now is a good time to invest in both the

product and the infrastructure to ensure that

Southern Wind will be at the top of its game when

the recession comes to an end.

The growth of Southern Wind Shipyard has been

a gradual one, both in terms of the workforce

and the number of boats produced. In 1990,

the shipyard – or rather the building site from

which Southern Wind would emerge – cov-

ered just 2,600 sqm and employed 30 work-

ers to produce a single model: the Farr 72 de-

signed by Bruce Farr with Antonio Minniti for

the interior styling.

In these early years the principle invest-

ment was in perfecting the product and

training the workforce.

In 1996, at a time when the South African gov-

ernment changed its policy of offering export

incentives and many shipyards closed down

as a result, I decided to take a second step by

increasing the size of the yard to 10,000 sqm

I have decided now

is a good time to invest

in both the product and

the infrastructure to en-

sure that Southern Wind

will be at the top of its

game when the recession

comes to an end.

By autumn of 2009 the shipyard will occupy

17,000 sqm subdivided into two production

areas – one for the lamination of hulls up to

140’ and another for the itting out.

Our current range covers hulls from 72 to 120

feet. We are preparing to relaunch the 80 foot-

ers with two new projects by Farr and Reichel

Pugh respectively as naval architects with

Nauta responsible for the general concept

and design. At the end of the year we will also

launch our new lagship, the SW 110, which

will bring the total number of yachts in the

water to 35. The 120’ project, in a ketch and

sloop version, is in the pipeline.

So it looks like we will have plenty of reasons

for celebrating in style Southern Wind’s 20th

anniversary next year.

The Southern Wind

SWS finds its roots in the Farr 72 mini-series, with

ten hulls launched in as many years, which has

helped to establish a brand identity and the growth

of the internal know-how by following its step-by-

step approach.

The turning point came in the late ‘90s with the con-

struction of the 95’ footer “Maya Ray”. Considerable

investments in terms of space, manpower and tech-

nology have supported the expansion over the last

10 years. The production area is now at 17,000 sqm

and the workforce at 300 people. The end result is

a range of seven models from 72 to 120 feet and 35

launches to date.

In this context SWS has found fertile ground in

the semi-custom concept, but it happened almost

by accident. The first 78’, “ Farniente ”, and the first

80’, “ Acaia Cube ”, were developed as full-custom

projects. The excellence of the design of those two

yachts made us realize that they had wider commer-

cial potential, so we decided to set up a mini-series

production that offered the client a significant de-

gree of customization.

The construction of semi-custom yachts has proved

to be a great challenge from a business efficiency

point of view. The aim is to maintain high quality

and optimize costs, being able to offer the client

better price and shorter production time . This en-

ables the company to respond faster to the market

demands compared to one-off yachts and overall

improves flexibility.

One of the first in-house “revolutions” to take place

was to replace the figure of the conventional proj-

ect manager with a team of technical coordinators,

each of whom has a specialized area of responsibil-

ity (systems, electronics, deck equipment, interior,

etc) under the guidance of a technical manager. The

final goal is to have more control over the decision

process and transfer information and know-how

more efficiently from one boat to the next.

In order to balance the implications in terms of time

and costs of the customization requests, the next step

was the standardization of key processes, such as

the supply chain (orders and acquisitions, transport

and logistics) and production procedures (standard

details, design archives, management software). The

lamination department headed up by Stefan Falcon

is just one area where these improvements have

been implemented, as you will see in the following

chapter. A lot of effort has been put into the coordi-

nation of different work phases in order to reduce

time, improve efficiency and maximize quality. We

try to keep the hull and deck separate for as long as

possible, which gives the work teams easier access

to do installations before hull and deck are joined.

Furniture is fully built and painted outside of

the boat and fitted at the end of construction, deck

hardware and equipment are also fitted sepa-

rately before the deck bonding.

In order to achieve this we have implemented two

deck “dry fit” during the construction. The first is to

guarantee perfect matching and structural continu-

ity between the hull, deck and bulkheads; the sec-

ond is to check possible interferences between the

interior, systems or structural elements. Last but

not least, the recent expansion of the production

area and its subdivision into macro-departments

for lamination and fitting out has also contributed

to improving the flow of the production process.

semi-custom

philosophy

In the production

point of view

by Marco Alberti SWS General Manager

One of the main characteris-

tics of Southern Wind - and

one of the shipyard’s biggest

challenges - is the organiza-

tion of its semi-custom pro-

duction.

“

...so we decided to set up

a mini-series production

that offered the client

a signiicant degree of

customization.

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