NEVER STOP ASKING
Who will build Raffles? How long will it take and can we visit her construction?
The legal builder is AMS (Advanced Marine Structures) a 100% owned subsidiary of FVH (Isle of Man), however two Far East, Asian shipyards, one established in the 1860’s and the other ultra modern, fully automated, established in 2006, will be used to build, or more accurately assemble, Raffles.
FVH shareholders have between them about 400 years experience in designing, building and operating ships, including some notable “firsts” and a range of types. These include from the world’s first aluminium RIB (1969), to the worlds largest sailing ship, about 4,000 meters of mega yachts and numerous cargo and military vessels.
The steel hull design is by Shiptech, the oldest established foreign owned naval architects in Asia (Singapore), while FVH has designed the aluminium superstructures and Donald Starkey has made them, within severe statutory constraints, both look as attractive (and timeless) as he can!
Based on European design / engineering, actual construction is supervised and controlled by about 18 European engineers from Viamar who have built ships all over the world and with whom Donald Starkey recently worked building the “Royal Clipper”. Viamar are currently building ships in 4 countries around the world including Asian shipyards and employ about 200 of the world’s top shipbuilding experts.
€20 million of Professional indemnity insurance is carried by AMS specifically for Raffles design / construction.
With a workforce of about 2,000 it takes about 18 months to physically build Raffles. I.e. key items - the diesel engines from ABC Diesel and main propulsors from Voith Schneider (and which are custom made only for Raffles) need at least 22 months to produce / deliver, meaning overall a 20 to 26 months “build” period.
Owners or their consultants will be free to visit the construction of Raffles at any time (but must be insured). However a separate web site and web cams, with access restricted to owners, will also provide daily information on the process, in addition to a monthly news letter.