Editor's Note: New Projects & On Board Insights

From the docks of Palm Beach, where brokerage and new-build activity reigns, to Europe, where deliveries and launches abound. This week has been a great journey and the Superyachts.com team are back in the U.K. to bring you the updates.

Stepping on board the 92-metre superyacht Aquarius, we caught up with Feadship CEO Henk de Vries who taught us about the exciting construction of the brand-new yacht as well as the future vision of the shipyard.

With a new Commercial Director for Feadship America, Henk continued by describing the activity in the U.S. as well as the client type, and the challenges they bring in terms of design and groundbreaking demands.

“America is still for us around 50% of our business, so it’s important,” adds Henk. “When I look at America, there’s several directions. The client for this boat is the embodiment of my traditional clients, a successful businessman who has worked all his life, knows exactly what he wants and knows the yachting lifestyle.

The other [clients] are new money, from investing who maybe want to show off a bit, which is fine. Then finally there’s the technical guys from Silicone Valley their demands and questions are unorthodox, pushes us way out of our comfort zone every now and then. You know about Venus and how groundbreaking that became. There are more of those in the works, we’re already building a few boats for people like that.”

Elsewhere in the U.S. we caught up with Moran Yacht & Ship who told us all about the recent sale of superyacht Solandge, which coincidentally took place hours before the Palm Beach Boat Show. Embellishing on the sale, Rob also gave us an insight into the new projects being signed, and delivered, this year.

“The new builds that we’re looking to be bringing to fruition in 2017, we have a vessel that we just launched last week which was 248 ft, 74m called Aurora. Lovely boat, a great boat, 300 GRT, the owner was thrilled. We have the Project Solar which is being delivered in September this year, and we have a boat which is being built at Hakvoort which is 62m. On top of that, we are definitely going to sign at least three new construction projects over 2017.”

Back in Europe, a new delivery took place at the Lurssen Yachts shipyard in the form of Amadea, which then embarked on its maiden voyage. The 104-metre superyacht (formerly known as Project Mistral) broke through the headlines and continued a trend of activity from the German shipyard.

Ngoni, a.k.a The Beast, emerged from the yard this week and brought with it the first look at the most exciting sailing new-build project in The Netherlands at the moment.

Even as I write this, Turquoise Yachts has announced the transfer of the 77-metre superyacht project from one yard to another. It’s been a big week in terms of news, and I look forward to bringing you more across the remainder of March and across the rest of the year.