Our vision of yacht building
Our goal is to build sailing yachts that give you time for yourself as well as freedom and fun with your family and friends - a reliable investment in more quality of life. Our passion is to build sailing yachts. And nothing else.
Since Schmidt could not find any new or used yachts on the market that met these criteria, he decided to build his ideal yacht himself. With Lorenzo Argento of Brenta Design and Sir David Chipperfield, he found sailors with the same passion. He hired Argento for the construction and Chipperfield for the interior and design. The launch of Project Cool Breeze, the first Y8, in 2014 marked the (provisional) birth of YYachts. The modern shipyard on the Baltic Sea was completed in record time shortly afterwards.
Michael Schmidt's vision was and is to produce yachts between 60 and 100 feet in length, as he would interpret them with his many years of experience and his heart - without restrictions imposed by marketing ideas and specifications. At the same time, in this category, owners and clients speak directly to the shipyard; this speeds up decision-making and construction processes. Digitalization also fascinated Schmidt when he was setting up the shipyard, so that even in the start-up phase he gave a lot of thought to what would have to change in the construction of yachts in a digitalized world.
Michael Schmidt is constantly expanding YYachts' strategy and working on disruptive processes with highly specialized teams. The mission of YYachts is to develop yachts that are ahead of their time while always maintaining the shipyard's "keep it simple" principle.
Reduction and comfort
According to Michael Schmidt, the ideal cruiser is the opposite of a heavy yacht overloaded with too many features: "Sailing is great fun. But this is only possible with a simple ship that is reduced to the essentials without having to sacrifice comfort. A yacht designed by us must run at a reasonable speed even in light winds without having to start the engine. Once you've experienced that, you won't want to sail on any other yacht."
Consideration for nature
At YYachts, saving materials is also protecting the environment. Light yachts ultimately reduce operating forces and get by with smaller engines. They already set sail when other yachts are still motoring, thereby reducing fuel consumption. If necessary, hybrid drives or energy recovery systems are installed to reduce primary energy requirements. At the same time, YYachts uses sustainable materials wherever possible and sensible. The medium-term goal is a CO2-free yacht.
Customer service
Customer friendliness is just as important to YYachts as the construction of the yacht itself. As a privately run company, the shipyard on the Baltic Sea is able to respond to all customer wishes. For Michael Schmidt, this is a matter of the heart: "Our yachts must always be as much a part of the customer's philosophy as they are of the shipyard. The big challenge for us is that every new project also means starting over. But that is exactly the fun of yachtbuilding that we live and enjoy."