ONBOARD Magazine autumn 2023

THE BEST
OF BRITISH
Frances and Michael Howorth look at the
yachting industry in the United Kingdom
before Bannenberg first coined it, the
word to describe what we now know as
a superyacht, was always referred to as
a ‘gentleman’s yacht’. Most of those had
been built by Camper and Nicholsons in
Gosport who were back then considered
to be the world’s leading yacht builder.
Dickie Bannenberg, co-founder of
Bannenberg and Rowell and son of Jon,
takes up the story explaining how his father
laid the foundations for the superyacht
industry as it is now. “Australians: overegoed,
over-successful and over here. So
screamed the headline of W Magazine in
December 1987. Clive James and Nigel
Dempster were briefly name-checked,
but it was my father who had the main
coverage, chronicling – albeit briefly – his
career since leaving Australia.”
“Many workers up to foreman-level middlemanagers
were relatively untrained and
untutored. They had trouble embracing the
assertive Australia, wearing his sharp London
clothes, and enjoying his client’s patronage
and support. Many at Campers thought
him a wretched person who demanded the
impossible, though, meeting by meeting,
Bannenberg gradually won their respect.”
Dickie Bannenberg - Bannenberg & Rowell, continuing the vision of the
founder Jon Bannenberg - ‘The father of modern yacht design’
Very few will argue that, when it
The global recreational boating market
comes to crewing, insuring, and
was valued at £23.0 billion in 2019, and is
designing superyachts, Britain lies
projected to reach £27.6 billion by 2027,
at the fore. Just about every superyacht
registering a Compound Annual Growth
built today, is constructed to regulatory
Rate (CAGR) of 5.1% from 2020 to 2027.
specifications laid out by the Maritime Coast
The good news is that Britain is hanging
Guard Agency, an executive agency that
on in there. The UK’s leisure, superyacht
is responsible for implementing British
and small marine commercial industry was
and international maritime law and safety
estimated to generate £2.9bn in revenue
policy. Certificates of competency issued
in the year 2021 to 2022 and employed
to superyacht crew stem from standards
about 30,000+ people. New companies
set and created in Britain. Germany build
are being formed and shipyards created,
the biggest superyachts with the Dutch
the future of British boating is looking rosy.
coming a close second, and the Italians
claiming responsibility for 40% of the
Britain has always had one of the most
global fleet of yachts over 24m, but it is
important roles within what we call the
expertise that makes Britain a global hub
superyacht industry. Even the word
for the industry.
superyacht is a British invention! Because
Some forty years later, after his death, an
infographic was published showing Jon as
the centre of the yachting universe in the
UK, with orbiting design studio planets of
various degrees of separation, the majority
of which owe their existence to people who
once worked for him. There are a cluster
still in SW London – though none a scale
rule away from the King’s Road as Jon’s
studio was for over 30 years. And another
grouping down on the south coast, not many
miles away from where Jon’s first project
was first delivered. The original Bannenberg
studio hatched some very smart minds in
the British superyacht industry. Some of
them are still around today leaving their
own individual great British stamp on the
design world.
Among them, Tim Heywood. He told us, “I
have been a member of the British yacht
industry for over 50 years now and it is time
I hung up my pencil, but as always, I am
driven by my clients, often, driven to building
yards abroad! I have worked in a couple of
yacht building yards in England, Brooke
Marine, building Stefaren now Maridome.
I worked with Camper & Nicholson, on
Stilvi, but most of my projects have been
in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France,
the USA, and Australia. Currently, this is
where the work lies.”
136 | AUTUMN 2023 | ONBOARD