Feadship (First Export Association of Dutch Shipbuilders) is a cooperative venture between two shipyards: Royal Van Lent Shipyard and Koninklijke De Vries Scheepsbouw. Feadship designs and constructs high-end luxury yachts and is one of the leading builders of custom superyachts such as Aquarius, Symphony, Savannah and Venus.
History
Feadship can trace its roots back to 1849, when the Akerboom family bought a small shipyard off the coast of the Netherlands to build and repair boats. They joined with the Van Lent family in 1927, and then in 1949 they founded Feadship [1] together with the De Vries, another family-based shipyard, to form Feadship.[2] Feadship has four shipyards: Two owned by Koninklijke De Vries in Aalsmeer and Makkum. Two owned by Royal Van Lent in Amsterdam and one on the island of Kaag. Both share the design and engineering center, De Voogt Naval Architects. After World War II the market for the previously successful industry was left in ruins. Even after four years of peace, there remained little money or inclination in Europe for ordering pleasure yachts. Encouraged by the Dutch government's export incentives, Feadship (First Export Association of Dutch Shipbuilders), was founded by naval architect Henri de Voogt in 1949 as an export association with the intention of selling to American clients. Several shipyards were members in the beginning: