Choosing a shipyard for a superyacht new build, from the Owner’s side.

A yard can only price what it has been asked to build. Before any yard is approached, the brief sets out how the yacht will be used, by whom and where, and which of the Owner’s priorities comes first when two of them compete. A designer and a naval architect usually turn the brief into a concept and an outline specification, which become the basis of the tender.

It is also the time to decide the budget the Owner is prepared to commit, and who will take decisions on the Owner’s side, with what authority. These choices narrow the field of suitable yards, and they are easier to make before any offer is on the table.

A full-custom yacht is designed from the Owner’s brief, with its own naval architecture and engineering. A semi-custom yacht starts from a platform the yard has already engineered, and the Owner’s choices then shape the layout, the interior and some of the equipment.

The choice changes which yards can be considered, how much of the yacht is fixed when the contract is signed and how many decisions fall during the build. A platform the yard has already engineered settles more before the contract; a new design leaves more to decide during the build. The brief should say which is intended before any yard is asked to price it.

The choice usually narrows in stages. A shortlist is drawn up of yards whose experience, facilities and capacity match the brief. Those yards receive the same tender package and return their offers by the same date. The offers are compared, and one or two yards are taken into negotiation. At each stage the Owner decides, on the evidence prepared for the decision.

There is no answer that holds for every yacht. A yard that suits one brief may not suit another, and what else it is building at the time matters alongside its reputation. The right yard is the one whose experience, facilities and capacity match the brief and the programme of this yacht.

This guide does not name or rank yards. What helps the Owner is a comparison of the yards that fit the brief and the programme.

An invitation to tender works when every yard prices the same scope. Each yard on the shortlist should receive:

• the brief and the outline specification, with the general arrangement;
• the main terms the Owner expects in the build contract, prepared with the Owner’s lawyers;
• any items the Owner will supply, so that each yard prices around them;
• the format in which the price and its breakdown are to be returned;
• a request for the yard’s proposed programme and its main milestones;
• the date by which every offer is due.

When one yard asks a question about the tender, the answer goes to all of them. Otherwise the offers drift apart and become harder to compare.

Offers rarely come back on the same basis, even when the tender was. One yard includes an item that another prices as an option; one gives a firm price where another assumes an allowance. The first step is to bring the offers back to the same scope, so that a difference in price reflects a difference in the yacht and not in what was left out.

Each offer is then read for what it commits the yard to: the price and what it includes, the stage payments, the programme and the delivery terms. The warranty, the specification the yard will build to and the exceptions it has added are read in the same way. A low price with a long list of exclusions can end higher than an offer that includes them, and the difference tends to return during the build as variations. How a variation should reach the Owner.

The comparison sets out the options, the evidence and a recommendation for the Owner’s decision, which is recorded with its rationale, like any other.

A visit to the yard shows its facilities and the work in progress. The most useful questions, though, are about how the yard will work with the Owner’s side during the build:

• what experience the yard has of yachts of similar size and complexity, and what else it will build at the same time;
• who will be the yard’s project manager, and how the Owner’s side will work with the yard’s technical team;
• how quality is controlled: contractors’ qualifications, welding materials and procedures, and inspection points agreed before work is covered;
• how variations are priced and approved, and in what form a variation order is issued;
• how progress will be reported against the programme, and how a delay will be reported when it appears;
• how the factory tests, the harbour tests and the sea trials will be programmed, with their acceptance criteria;
• what the warranty covers, and how defects will be handled after delivery;
• how the project will be kept confidential, including a code name and no publicity without the Owner’s written consent.

The answers are worth keeping in writing. Several of them will reappear in the contract, and the others show how the build is likely to run.

Several difficulties of a build start before the contract is signed. Those most easily overlooked include:

• comparing headline prices before the offers have been brought back to the same scope;
• leaving the specification loose where it matters to the Owner, so that the yard’s reading of it decides;
• choosing on the impression of a yard visit, without the written answers behind it;
• leaving open who decides on the Owner’s side, and with what authority;
• underestimating how many decisions the build will need, and the time each one takes.

Each of these is easier to settle before the contract than during the build.

The build contract and the technical specification are the two documents the whole build refers back to. The Owner’s lawyers lead the contract and advise the Owner on its terms. The Owner’s technical advisers contribute on the specification, the programme, the variations procedure and the tests, so that each commercial term matches the technical work behind it.

Nothing in this guide is legal advice. Where a clause raises a question, for example on stage payments, liability or the warranty, the Owner’s lawyers advise. Before the contract is signed, the yard is told in writing who represents the Owner and with what authority.

At ASYA, the work starts before the build contract. The Owner’s Representative reviews the Owner’s brief, the proposed specifications and the commercial commitments, and identifies the decisions to be taken and the risks to be weighed. ASYA works alongside the Owner in choosing the yard and in negotiating the build contract, and coordinates the contribution of the Owner’s legal and technical advisers; the Owner’s lawyers lead the contract.

ASYA is an independent practice on the Owner’s side and receives no commission from yards or brokers. ASYA accepts a mandate only where it can act independently; any conflict is disclosed in writing first.

Luigi Adamo leads the Owner’s representation throughout the mandate. How ASYA works through a new build, and the stages of a new build once the contract is signed.

→ chiusura: «Discuss your project with Luigi Adamo.» · Contact ASYA → /contact/ · «Then · New build» → /services/new-build/