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Fort Lauderdale, USA – During the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the luxurious motor yacht Bystander has been awarded Super Yacht of the Year during the International This 43 metre retro classic yacht, also mother ship of the world famous J-class Velsheda, has been designed by Vripack.

By special request of a businessman, Bystander has been built by the French yard JFA in Concarneau to the styling of Rhodes Young Design from England and the design of Vripack from the Frisian Sneek. In a loaded ball-room of a luxurious hotel in the one and only yacht centre of the world Fort Lauderdale, the atmosphere was very tense when the winning yachts were to be announced. Christian Poorte from Vripack: ”After Bystander had won and the yard owner held his emotional speech, a warm applause arose from the crowd. This was a delightful moment.”

Tired but satisfied, the Vripack Team stepped off the plane with the award in the hand. Poorte: ”We took part in the category Motor Yachts between 30 and 43 metres which is the most difficult category as most of the yachts are built in this category. The other finalists came from The Netherlands, The United States of America and New Zeeland. After having worked on this whole project for 3 years with a team of 15 people and to hear our colleagues say that this is the very best yacht this year, that definitely makes us extremely proud.”

Vripack was the only Dutch company which went home with a Superyacht Society Design Award during this years presentation. Especially the advance this year of the Australian and New Zeeland yards can be called remarkable.

Vripack has been an independent yacht architect since 1961 and is still situated in Sneek, where specialists daily work on a large variety of projects with a great deal of pleasure.


For more information, please contact:

Marnix Hoekstra
( / +31 (0)515 – 43 66 51) 

Caroline van Rijswijk de Jong 
( / +31 (0)515 – 43 66 33)