Company type | Societas Europaea (SE) |
---|---|
Industry | Shipbuilding, defence |
Founded | 1907 |
Founder | Georg Abeking and Henry Rasmussen |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Hans M. Schaedla (CEO) |
Products | Warships, research vessels, yachts |
Website | www.abeking.com |
Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is a shipyard situated in Lemwerder, near Bremen in the German state of Lower Saxony. The shipyard is on the left bank of the River Weser, and currently comprises five production halls with associated workshops and offices, an inner harbour and a syncrolift. [1]
The business was founded in 1907 by Georg Abeking and Henry Rasmussen. Abeking, mechanical engineer at the Nordseewerke yard in the harbour of the north German city of Emden, was a friend of Rasmussen and became his partner. With the support of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, a sailing enthusiast, Abeking and Rasmussen founded their yacht- and shipyard at Lemwerder on the south side of the Weser, opposite the small town of Vegesack. [2] Rasmussen, who idolised American yacht designer Nathanael Herreshoff, was known as a talented yacht skipper and proved to be equally adept as a yacht designer himself. Rasmussen built his first sailing yacht, a vessel called Frisia in the 5-metre class, for himself in the initial year of the Abeking & Rasmussen yard's operation. [3] In its early years, the yard worked for the private, commercial and military sectors, building wooden sailing yachts and motor yachts, together with patrol boats and other specialised vessels. [1]
In 1928, the yard began building Starling Burgess' Atlantic one-design; at this time, the post-war economy made European-built boats attractive in the United States. [4]
Today the yard continues to construct a similar spread of vessels, building yachts alongside naval vessels, pilot boats and similar ships. The yard is particularly well known for a number of superyachts, and for its work in the development of small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH) ships.
A&R built its last yacht with a varnished hull, the 11.4 m saling yacht Barbarella, in 1981. The shipyard's own cost–benefit analysis showed the continued building of smaller yachts to be impracticable, consequently it has concentrated on the exclusive market of superyachts. Among those the yard has built since is the Bruce King-designed ketch Hetairos, now Asgard (42 m LOA), a 230-ton centreboarder with a cold-moulded hull made of African khaya and sipo mahogany. Fitted with a 42 m main mast, the ship draws 3 m with the bronze centreboard retracted and 8.7 m in veered position. Built for a European owner and launched in 1993, the vessel's construction is in classic yacht style. [5]
Vegesack is a northern district of Bremen, the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.
Lürssen is a German shipyard with headquarters in Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf.
Bremer Vulkan AG was a prominent German shipbuilding company located at the Weser river in Bremen-Vegesack. It was founded in 1893 and closed in 1997 because of financial problems and mismanagement.
Benetti is an Italian shipbuilding and boat building company based in Viareggio, Livorno, and Fano, owned by Azimut Benetti S.p.A.
Maltese Falcon is a full-rigged ship using DynaRig technology, which was built by Perini Navi in Tuzla, Istanbul, and commissioned by her first owner, Tom Perkins. She is one of the world's most complex and largest sailing yachts at 88 m (289 ft), similar in size to the Athena and Eos. The vessel dropped its BVI flag in 2008 and was purchased by Pleon Ltd, which put it to charter use.
Nobiskrug is a shipyard located on the Eider River in Rendsburg, Germany, specialized in building innovative, custom-made luxury superyachts.
Amazon is a 102-foot (31 m) long screw schooner and former steam yacht built in 1885 at the private Arrow Yard of Tankerville Chamberlayne in Southampton.
Motor Yacht A is a superyacht designed by Philippe Starck and engineered by naval architect Martin Francis. She was built by the Blohm + Voss shipyard at the HDW deepwater facility in Kiel. She was ordered in November 2004, and delivered in 2008 at a rumoured cost of US$300 million. With a length of 119 metres (390 ft) and measuring almost 6,000 tonnes, she is one of the largest motor yachts in the world. Before 2022 she was connected with the Russian entrepreneur and industrialist Andrey Melnichenko, but, according to his representatives, he has no relation to her anymore, neither in terms of ownership, nor in any other way. The yacht has been laid up in the United Arab Emirates since 2022.
Silver Cloud is a private yacht owned by Alexander Dreyfoos. It is a 134 ft SWATH vessel, built by Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder, Germany, in 2008. It is believed to be the first yacht employing the SWATH technology.
HBC, formerly known as C2 and then B2, is a superyacht built in 2008 at the shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen. The interior and exterior design of HBC was done by Reymond Langton Design Ltd..
Amaryllis is a super-yacht built in 2011 at the shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen. The interior and exterior design of Amaryllis was done by Reymond Langton Design Ltd. The yacht has two sister-ships, Eminence and Titan.
Hodgdon Yachts is a builder of yachts and specialized military vessels, based in East Boothbay, Maine. It is a family-run business that was founded in 1816—the oldest continuously operating family boatbuilder in the United States, antedating the Burger Boat Company in Wisconsin. Hodgdon Yachts is noted for building superyachts, both sail and power, using advanced composite materials and construction techniques. It's also noted for its ability to incorporate those advanced materials into traditional designs that employ modern electronic and mechanical marine systems. The company has several divisions—yachts, custom tenders, yacht interiors, yacht services and military composites with offices in Boothbay, Maine, Newport, Rhode Island and Monaco.
Black Pearl is a sailing yacht launched in 2016, which is 106.7 meters (350.1 ft) in length. It has three DynaRig masts supporting a sail area of 2,900 square meters (31,215 sq ft). The yacht was known during its build process originally as Oceanco Y712 and thereafter as "Project Solar". The hull is steel, the superstructure aluminum, and the masts carbon fiber. The yacht is owned by the family of Russian billionaire Oleg Burlakov, who died in 2021.
Romea is a motor yacht built in 2015 by Abeking & Rasmussen. Owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Nesis, she has an overall length of 81.80 m (268.4 ft) and a beam of 14.00 m (45.93 ft).
Aviva is a 98-metre (322 ft) length motor yacht. She is the fourth yacht named Aviva built for Bahamas-based British businessman Joe Lewis, and replaces the 68m Aviva (III). Like her predecessor, Aviva was designed by Reymond Langton, and built by Lemwerder-based German builder Abeking & Rasmussen. The hull of the ship was built at Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft and launched in 2015.
The Atlantic is a one-design keelboat, designed by Starling Burgess in 1928. It is a 30-foot open-cockpit day sailer, typically used for day racing, rather than for overnight or ocean races. In the years following its design, fleets were established in several US ports along the eastern seaboard.
The 80 m (260 ft) superyacht Excellence was launched by Abeking & Rasmussen at their yard near Lemwerder. Both the yacht's exterior and interior design are the work of Winch Design.
The Minden is a ship built in 1985 as a lifeboat as one of a series of seven rescue cruisers of the Deutschen Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger in the 23.3 Meter class. The ships were built between 1980 and 1991 by the Schweers shipyard in Berne-Bardenfleth and Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder.
Camper and Nicholson is a yacht design and manufacturing company based in Gosport, England, for over two hundred years, constructing many significant vessels, such as Gipsy Moth IV and Prince Philip's yacht Bloodhound. Its customers included Thomas Sopwith, William Kissam Vanderbilt II and George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough. Its yachts competed in The America's Cup, The Fastnet Race, the Olympics, the Ocean Race and many other yacht races. It also built a number of small warships, notably during the two World Wars, and some as late as the 1950s.