Qualla: Heesen Yachts

Heesen Yachts: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tubbsonline, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1988 an American car dealer named John Staluppi handed a small Dutch shipyard an almost impossible contract. He wanted a superyacht just under 44 meters that could do more than 50 knots. The penalty clauses got worse with every tenth of a knot below the target; below 48 he could walk away. The yard's owner, a former plastics entrepreneur named Frans Heesen, took the job. The yacht he delivered hit 53.17 knots on her sea trials and earned the yard a bonus. Staluppi named her Octopussy, after the 1983 James Bond film. From that one delivery Heesen Yachts, of Oss in southern Holland, became one of the names billionaires call when they want a custom superyacht.

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Image: Tubbsonline | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heesen Yachts: How A Town Of 90,000 Builds Superyachts

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Iusd, CC BY-SA 3.0. Oss sits in North Brabant, about 30 kilometers east of 's-Hertogenbosch, with a population the size of a small American city. It is not a coastal town. There is no harbor scene, no marina, no view of the sea. What it has is a shipyard on the Heesen-controlled canal connections to...

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Image: Iusd | CC BY-SA 3.0

Heesen Yachts: Octopussy: The Yacht That Could Not Be Built

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Abxbay, CC0. In 1988 a superyacht that could reach 25 knots was considered a feat of engineering. Doubling that, most builders agreed, was inconceivable. But Staluppi already had his propulsion package - three MTU engines making 7,500 horsepower combined, three KaMeWa waterjets - and MTU put ...

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Image: Abxbay | CC0

Heesen Yachts: Engineering Strange To The Naked Eye

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elmschrat, CC BY-SA 3.0. What Heesen sells, beyond the visible luxury, is hydrodynamic obsession. The company's Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF) is the result of years of work at the Wolfson Unit's test tank in Southampton, which ranks it as the most efficient hull in its database between 15 and 44 kno...

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Image: Elmschrat | CC BY-SA 3.0

Heesen Yachts: The Money Behind The Aluminum

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RagingR2, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2008 a Russian oil billionaire named Vagit Alekperov bought Heesen Yachts. Under his ownership the company grew from a family firm into a global player. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western sanctions targeted many Russian billionaires; Alekperov was not on the E...

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Image: RagingR2 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Heesen Yachts: Jack De Wit

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Iusd, Public domain. On 6 April 2017 a Heesen welder named Jack de Wit was found unconscious in the lower tip of a keel he had been welding alone. He died in hospital from inhaling argon, the noble gas used as a shielding gas in aluminum welding - colorless, odorless, heavier than air, and capable of...

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Image: Iusd | Public domain