Dockwise Yacht Transport expands
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Dockwise Yacht Transport, a float-on/float-off yacht transport service, has launched its newest ship, which will provide yacht owners with faster and more frequent delivery of their luxury power and sailing yachts across the Atlantic Ocean, the company said in a press release Tuesday.
The 685.7-foot Yacht Express, built at the Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China, has May 2007 as its official delivery date. It will be the largest vessel of its kind in the world, purpose-built with a semi-submersible dock bay that allows yachts of any size to be safely floated on and off as cargo. Yacht Express will join four other dedicated yacht carriers, all semi-submersible, in the existing liner service of DYT.
“This ship is designed to have a service speed of 18 knots,” said Clemens van der Werf, DYT president. “This means that a transatlantic voyage can be reduced by nearly 50 percent, from 15 to 8 days.”
Yacht Express has amenities not found on the other DYT ships, including complimentary cabins for ride-aboard crew, an atrium with swimming pool, conference, media and fitness facilities, allowing for added comfort and entertainment during transit.
The vessel has a carrying capacity of 5,000 metric tons, which allows Yacht Express to accommodate more yachts on regularly scheduled trips to and from Florida and the Mediterranean.
Following sea trials in mid-May, Yacht Express will mobilize through Australia and New Zealand and to Florida before making an appearance at the Monaco Yacht Show in Sept. 2007.
The company also reported it has added two new ports of call: Stockholm, Sweden and Freeport, Bahamas. The destinations added to the Ft. Lauderdale-based shipping company’s route offerings on its regular liner service to and within Europe and to the Caribbean. The company also services the Pacific West Coast of North America and the South Pacific.
“… we constantly study the migration habits of both power and sailing yachts of all sizes,” said DYT President Clemens van der Werf. “With the Stockholm stopover added in August to our regular stops in Marmaris (Turkey) and Palma de Mallorca (Spain), owners and captains can go back and forth between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, which especially enhances cruising options. Freeport supplements our Caribbean routes for boating enthusiasts who go south for the winter. It will be a direct DYT destination from Newport, Rhode Island, at the end of October, making it convenient to get to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter.”
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