Kiwi smarts power luxury superyacht

Artist impression of the exterior of Catwalk. Photo / Supplied

American-built superyacht Cakewalk will be powered by smarts provided by a New Zealand electrical engineering firm when it eases into the water for its maiden voyage this year.

Built by Derecktor shipyard in Connecticut, United States, the 85m Cakewalk is the height of superyacht luxury with four levels of decking and a staircase sweeping the entire height of the ship.

When the unnamed owner takes control the boat will be sail with 24 crew, two staff and up to 12 guests.

She is the largest yacht built in the United States since the 1930s and has attracted a fair share of media and industry attention.

Engineering manager at Whangarei-based McKay, Peter Brenndorfer, describes Cakewalk as an impressive and beautiful boat right down to its custom made, one-of-a-kind tenders.

How an electrical engineering firm from Whangarei beat the big boys to such a high-profile contract was good management with a sprinkle of good luck.

The company knew that to make a decent fist of its marine expertise - it had worked on four recently built New Zealand Navy ships and local superyacht projects - it needed to be signed up to overseas superyacht builds.

Brenndorfer said representatives from McKay attended industry events and boatshows overseas, engineering a "planned chance" meeting with management at Derecktor.

"America still isn't a big player but they do make about 12 per cent of the superyachts," said Brenndorfer.

"The biggest market is Europe. That's where the bulk of [work] is. So if we want to be a player and provide our products and services we can't stay in New Zealand."

The original contract, valued at about $3.5 million, was for the electrical design, electrical distribution equipment, alarm and monitoring equipment for the ship's engineering systems.

While a favourable exchange rate at the time the contract was signed gave McKay an advantage over its mainly European rivals, Brenndorfer said McKay's small size meant it was more responsive to the client's needs than some of the bigger players.

"Going up against the big guys, they're not as quick to respond because it's just one other job for them. They're busy enough, whereas we were hungry," he said.

Brenndorfer said sending four McKay staff with the right expertise to present the tender to Derecktor management was worth the extra expense to clinch the deal.

As the build progressed McKay picked up an additional $1.5 million of work supervising the electrical installation and on-site electrical engineering co-ordination.

Ten of the company's 150-strong workforce are now based in the United States.

The project has not been without its difficulties.

Aside from the obvious challenge of being such a long way from the client, two years ago Derecktor was placed in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A dispute involving a huge catamaran being built by Derecktor forced the company to file for Chapter 11 protection and work stopped on Cakewalk for several months.

Brenndorfer said at that stage McKay had very little money tied up and was not affected too much. What proved more of a challenge was having to build some of the equipment in parallel with the design process.

"In hindsight I would never do that again. I'll make sure the design is done, approved. We might order some things ahead but we won't actually start the build of some of that equipment until we're comfortable that there won't be many changes," Brenndorfer said.

The work with Derecktor has seen McKay become the preferred electrical supplier to the shipyard.

McKay has also established a branch office in the Middle East. It will soon have 35 staff supervising electrical installation on a 150m superyacht project in Abu Dhabi.

Yachts International reports the Cakewalk will be the heaviest superyacht built in the US, although not as long as JP Morgan's Cosair IV built in 1930.

Cakewalk will just scrape into the world's top 50 superyachts and is around half the length of the Eclipse, reportedly owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, had the 58m long motor yacht Ulysses built for around $100 million.

BIG DEAL

Length: 85.6 m
Beam: 14.3 m
Draft: 4m
Gross tonnage: 2950
Top speed: 17 knots
Fuel capacity: 370,000 litres
Range: 9260km at 15 knots