The owners’ perspective - The Twizzle project
At the launch of the flybridge ketch Twizzle in July 2010, her owners, a hands-on husband and wife team, enthused about their experience of building at Vollenhove; both the process and the outcome had exceeded even their highest expectations. The following extracts from the owner’s dockside speech set the scene.
“For all of us here it has been a long and extraordinary journey as we watched Twizzle grow from a few pieces of aluminium to this magnificent yacht we see today. It is the culmination of over four years of concept, design, engineering and build, accompanied by a lot of investigation, research and development. For us it is the realisation of a dream. Royal Huisman makes people’s dreams come true but the finished Twizzle exceeds our very, very highest expectations. It is the definitive, state of the art yacht, representing “the art of the only just possible” – a triumph of the discipline of boat building and the skills of all of you who are part of the finest shipyard in the world.”
“We do not use that expression lightly. Everyone we know in the superyacht business recognises the supremacy of Royal Huisman yachts… the best designed, best engineered yachts in the world that carry on being successful decade after decade. We are overflowing with pride to now have Twizzle added to the extraordinary roll-call of Huisman yachts.”
“...like a 550 ton Swiss chronometer, hand built and exquisitely designed and finished”
“Twizzle is certainly the most complex and sophisticated yacht built here at Royal Huisman, their first flybridge sailboat and a true twenty-first century yacht. The input from everyone at the yard – designers, engineers, technical drawing office, metal fabricators, electrical, systems integration and electronic engineering, carpenters, pipemakers and every other specialised trade has been extraordinary. Between you, you have taken a really excellent design and improved it beyond recognition. The pride with which each piece of metal, each component and assembly that is made here and fitted onboard is amazing. Many of you stamp your initials on these items, even though they are unlikely ever to be seen again. When people come aboard Twizzle, they will see the beautiful finish and magnificent design but most will not notice how well it has been built and engineered underneath. I want you to know that we understand exactly what you have done – we have taken thousands of photographs throughout the build to remind us!
“Twizzle is like a 550 ton Swiss chronometer, hand built and exquisitely designed and finished. That takes a lot of people – over 500 in fact – working together in a well-oiled team. Over three and a half years we have thrown so many complications and brand new, sometimes unworkable, ideas into the mix, but you have kept this near-impossible build going and created this fabulous yacht for us. You have created exquisite interior and exterior fit-outs, furniture and finishes – always with such good humour and competence even when we changed the odd things…and changed designs…and carried on changing! As we discovered Royal Huisman could do more and more complex finishes, we challenged you to stretch your capability and you responded.”
“the finest shipyard in the world”
“The department heads brought enormous experience, creativity and advice to the project and the work of the Rondal team can only be described as functional art – superbly functional yet unbelievably beautiful, no matter how many specialised challenges we threw at them. The Systems Integration Department, too, have done an exceptional job in creating this fly-by-wire yacht, programming its plc systems and Twizznet.
“To all of you, from all of us in the Twizzle team, thank you with all our hearts for such an amazing experience and such a wonderful yacht.”
This article was first published in INHUIS fall / winter 2010 - 2011.
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