Chairman Dr. Mohammed Al Barwani and Mehmet Karabeyoglu, CEO of Turquoise Yachts hosted an informative fun-filled two-day broker/designer event at the company’s Kocaeli and Pendik yards in Istanbul. All guests were graciously accommodated at the stunning Raffles Hotel at the Zorlu Center.
The first day of the “Turquoise Weekend” was devoted to shipyard visits. At the Kocaeli yard with its new 165-meter shed extension, visitors donned personally monogrammed hard hats to check out the new builds in progress: a 53m Luiz DeBasto design, a 74m Valicelli/Ken Freivokh Design, and an 80m in nascent stages.
After Kocaeli, there was a stopover at Ulutas-Interior Manufacturer, which is a dedicated interior supplier for Turquoise. Everyone was impressed with the state-of-the art facility and its 3-D printers.
Next up was the Pendik yard where the group toured the 56m Andre Hoek-designed classic explorer vessel in build. Following a sit down lunch, the designers of the various projects took turns discussing their designs. Presentations, videos and power points were made by Andrea Vallicelli and Alessandro Nazareth from A Vallicelli & C Yacht Design; Ken Freivokh of Ken Freivokh Design; Luiz DeBasto of DeBasto Design, and Jonny Horsfield of H2 Design.
Then, everyone had the opportunity to visit Turquoise’s flagship 77m motoryacht GO, recently launched and in final phases of fitting out before delivery. An exquisite dinner at Les Ottomans on the Bosporus complete with Belly Dancer capped off the evening.
On the second day of the Turquoise Weekend, there was a private guided tour of Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace followed by lunch in the old town. That evening there was a sunset dinner tour of the Bosporus on the classic M/Y Halas. Guests commented on how much they appreciated the opportunity to experience Istanbul, to be able to converse with each other in such a relaxed manner, and to witness first hand all of the exciting things going on at Turquoise. And a lot is going on indeed!
