yacht building
The myth of the Admiral's Cup never disappears
Life writes fascinating stories - one of them has long been a legend in sailing circles and describes the path to one of the most successful company histories in yacht building. A shipyard, romantically located on the harbor, where people stroll along the shore or sail on the Greif to the Greifswalder Bodden - the last bay before the Baltic Sea. And it is precisely this shipyard that has something in common with the myth of the 'Admiral's Cup' and, most recently, with Maka's CNC technology.
Michael Schmidt, the founder of HanseYachts, was born in Kiel and his fascination for shipping seems to be innate. He and Rolf Vrolijk, designer of the "Alinghi" and the world's most successful yacht designer, share this passion. Both won sailing competitions early on until winning the Admiral's Cup, the unofficial world championship for ocean-going yachts, in 1983, made the legend perfect.
In 1981, Michael Schmidt bought his first shipyard in Wedel on the Elbe. When he was no longer able to expand this site near Hamburg, he invested in a small repair yard in Greifswald in the early 1990s. From this nucleus arose the shipyard, which is now one of the five largest series manufacturers of ocean-going sailing yachts in the world. The knowledge and successes gained from decades of experience at sea continue to flow into the construction of Class A yachts and are the basis for this success, because Hanse yachts are not built in the office but on the water.
transformation into a state-of-the-art industrial plant
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Today, in addition to the ocean-going Hanse yachts from 31 to 63 feet, the shipyard builds deck saloon sailing yachts under the traditional English brand Moody and fast motorboats under the Norwegian brand Fjord. All boats are specified and put together according to customer requirements, because Hanse does not build boats in bulk. The shipyard differentiates itself from competitors by aiming to produce in a customer-oriented, fast and high-quality manner, and this led Schmidt to the decision to switch from island production to just-in-time assembly line production like in the automotive industry, thus laying the foundation for a modern industrial operation. In this way, up to four yachts are completed a day, the high quality of which is guaranteed through error isolation and quality checks right up to the end.
HanseYachts focuses on individuality and creativity without limits. The aim is for the boats to offer sailing fun and at the same time meet the highest quality standards. True to the motto: high speed potential, balanced sailing characteristics, generous equipment and easy handling. The premium claim is underlined by the consistent use of branded equipment and this turned Hanse from a craft business into a yacht builder with currently around 500 employees at three locations in Greifswald and Poland.
use of highly complex CNC technology​
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This goal led the shipyard to take a step towards CNC technology. The project was planned with Maka, a southern German mechanical engineering company known for special solutions in the construction of CNC machining centers. The requirements profile was based on the component sizes on the one hand, and on the material to be processed on the other. The prototype components developed in-house are milled on the system in order to ultimately bring these new developments to series production readiness.
At Hanse, 3D contours, which had traditionally been made by hand in shipbuilding, were now to be processed using a CNC system. The tolerance had to be in the two to three tenths range, which represented the highest precision for classic shipbuilding, but this goal was already linked to the requirement to reduce these tolerances even further in the future.
Maka analyzed the requirements in detail, researching all the necessary data, including processing qualities, processable materials and component sizes. For the production of hulls, decks and inner shells for boats from 31-63 feet, the specification of the component size was a decisive criterion. Due to many years of experience with the bridge center series, Maka was able to demonstrate a machining center that is geared to these large dimensions and is already being used successfully in shipbuilding.
The 5-axis technology used in the BC 570 enables a complete circumnavigation of the workpiece with usable lengths of up to 50 m, a travel path of up to 6 m width and a Z-axis stroke of up to 3 m, and all this with high precision. Rigid construction, a high-performance unit and the high Z-axis are the highlights of this machining center, with which all classic machining operations are carried out with the highest precision. At Hanse, the machine was initially designed to be 15 m long with the stipulation that the machine could be extended to 50 m at any time. The tool magazine used is equipped with 33 tools, whereby the tools for roughing, finishing and milling have lengths of up to 300 mm and diameters of up to 125 mm with sensible gradations.
The standard versions of the sailing yachts are made of fiberglass composite, but the comfort that the Hanse yachts offer leads to more weight, which can be saved elsewhere, because lightweight construction is a must for fast sailors. Here, Hanse offers the yachts in epoxy construction. This epoxy version offers enormous advantages: Epoxy is more resilient and ensures that the hull is particularly strong; the composite hull is made of a combination of fiberglass and resins. Osmosis is almost eliminated thanks to the epoxy properties, because epoxy absorbs moisture to a much lesser extent than conventional resins (such as polyester) and suffers less from fatigue and micro-fractures. With the more stable epoxy resin, the hull can be built up to 20% lighter.
At Hanse, the prototype models of hulls, decks or inner shells made of polystyrene are pre-milled on the CNC machine. The components are then coated with a 2-component resin paste. After curing, the machine then evenly processes the 3D contours of the complex components.
Large parts such as the hull or deck are machined in half on the universal table, on which the components can be flexibly changed; all contours and cutouts are completely milled. The same principle is used for smaller components in the interior area. If the milling head is too large for certain contours of the interior parts, these are divided into three to four segments on the large table and later assembled. The advantages of machining with the CNC system are obvious: high machining accuracy,
Repeatability in series production, no longer need to use templates, time savings in production, quick reaction options to changes and thus better calculation and planning.
Thanks to today's technology with intelligent production control and modern machinery, countless variants are possible at Hanse. The customer does not receive a boat off the shelf, but chooses not only the model but also the complete interior design according to his own style. The signature of the successful designers from Judel / Vrolijk and Co. ensures clear lines on deck and the interior designers from Hanse also set trends in terms of modern interior design. This individuality requires the use of the latest technology; starting with research and development through to production. And it turns out that the better the programming is in advance, the better the processing quality of the surfaces and the less rework is required. In case of doubt, this means a time saving of days to weeks depending on the size of the component. This requires the specialization of the programmer, who must have perfect mastery of the CNC system know-how, because programming the components can take from five minutes to weeks for hulls and decks. Thanks to decades of experience, Maka was able to provide comprehensive support to the customer right from the start, which includes intensive support with programming and training. This is the only way an investment of this magnitude will be successful.
And so Maka crossed the path of the myth of the 'Admiral's Cup' and now, through the specialists at Hanse, indirectly contributes to the fascination of ocean-going yachts.
