Alia Yachts 55m Al Waab wins big at World Superyacht Awards
As the longest steel and aluminium yacht below 500GT in the world, Al Waab is not only a milestone project for the Antalya-based shipyard, she also sets a new industry standard in terms of external and internal spaces for her category.
In fact, this Saturday May 21, Al Waab received the Judges’ Commendation Award for “Displacement Motor Yachts 499GT and below, 45m and above” category at the World Superyacht Awards 2022 in London.
– Longest steel & aluminium yacht below 500GT
– Unprecedented interior & exterior space for size category
– 6 spacious guest suites with split-level master suite
– Volume-saving tender bay arrangement
Alia Yachts Lloyd’s certified facilities are equipped for cutting-edge yacht construction and refit of yachts up to 80 meters in steel, aluminium as well as specialized carbon reinforced composites. With the recently completed expansion the shipyard currently has 25.000 m2 of indoor capacity, including 4.000 m2 dedicated to their wholly owned, award winning interior joinery factory.
The new 55-metre Al Waab is the first superyacht to be launched from the new 2,000-tonne capacity ship lift, part of a wider investment by the Antalya Free Zone into its yacht building infrastructure that includes bigger cranes and travel lifts as well as new hangars for superyacht construction and refit projects.
Al Waab – new standard
“We’re very proud of Al Waab. We believe it is the longest steel and aluminium yacht below 500GT in the world, setting a new standard in external & internal volumes offered to a client in this category.” says Alia President, Gökhan Çelik. “Yachts are getting longer and wider, but owners still want to stay below the 500GT mark. We’ve seen increasing interest in this kind of yacht and so to be one of the first with such an impressive project is an important milestone for Alia Yachts.
Covid-19 may have brought the world to a standstill in 2020, but Al Waab’s tight 24-month build has stayed the course.
“lt’s been difficult to say the least, but we took a lot of health and safety measures, followed up with our suppliers to mitigate any delays, and reorganised and reshuffled our production work,” says Gokhan Çelik, president of Alia Yachts. ”To offset delays experienced by our European suppliers, we worked around the problem and found ways to recreate lost time.”
Alia Yachts has taken for example the unusual decision to complete all of the cabling outside of the boat, having reserved one of its sheds for this process. “This allowed us to run nearly 5km of cable in five days,” says Elkin Yildirim, project manager at Alia Yachts. “We were constantly finding new solutions and ways of working in line with the current conditions, which means we had not postponed any element of the project.”
Designed for easy, restful, family living
The amount of space and the flow of the layout were crucial to the owner’s enjoyment of his yacht. With design and naval architecture by Vripack and GCC- based SF Yachts serving as the owner’s representative during the build, maximising the available volume and guaranteeing comfort were key considerations.
Virtual reality was used early on in the project to optimise the space planning and ergonomic layout to create an open-plan, owner-centric general arrangement designed for easy, restful, family living.
The yacht can sleep up to 12 guests in six staterooms – rare on a 499GT yacht – including a lavish split-level master suite on the upper deck with a private 4-metre pool on the foredeck.
A sprawling beach club in the stern is another highlight. Moreover, by placing the tender bay in a sunken deck in the bow the tenders are easily accessible yet hidden from view. The grated ‘tween deck arrangement provides storage for two tenders, a pair of jet skis and other water toys, but because it is not an enclosed space is not included in the yacht’s overall volume.