Baltic Yachts have, since the start of the company in 1973, been building Custom Yachts ranging in sizes from 38ft to 152ft L.O.A. Custom Yachts were, in the beginning, a fairly small part of our business but nevertheless, an important part of the company's development, growth and future. The Custom Division has not only been small addition to the business but more importantly, it has increased the company's technical knowledge and the possibilities to develop new methods and work with new materials in a way that would not have been possible with only the standard model production.
The Custom Yachts also gave us the possibility to work together more closely and personally with the owners, designers, consultants, etc. that we perhaps otherwise would not have worked with, hence providing us with additional input and challenges. In other words, the Custom Division has been a main factor in the technical development process of our company.
Lately the custom side of the business has increased and has now become the major part of our turnover.
For some boat yards, the demand for ultimate performance would be too daunting to even contemplate, but Baltic Yachts does not like to run away from a challenge. We have always tried to remain very flexible and keep an open mind when considering the process of building a boat to an owner's own specification and the same could also be said with our semi-custom yachts.
With the pure Custom Yacht business, the owner naturally becomes the influential factor in how the boat is built and designed. The builder tends to have his own idea's of how a boat should be, and so does the owner. But this does not create a problem for us, because the type of owner that is attracted to Baltic is already fairly close to the Baltic philosophy of boat building anyway. Our owners are very experienced and knowledgeable sailors, and also very performance-minded. Of course, we wouldn't pretend that all customers want an ultra-lightweight boat, but having said that, it is also within our capability to build a heavier yacht if that is what the client prefers. We do, after all, pride ourselves on being completely flexible and open minded with all our customers, and every aspect of a project is always open for discussion.
In no way do we believe that the majority of the market is looking for that personalized Custom Yacht. The majority of sailors today are already well served by the non-Custom Yachts out there. But there is always that certain individual person who would like to create something of their own, something different from everything else. You can see this in many walks of life, whether you're talking about houses, cars or boats. They see these things almost as an extension of themselves. Today our owners tend to have a high degree of individualism, and that is perhaps why they also tend to be successful in their business lives. This in turn reflects of how choices in their lives are more open to them, this what we want to offer them, choice!
Of course this also means they have the financial capacity to build a Custom Yacht, which no one could pretend is a cheap undertaking!