HISTORY

To be asked to build a yacht for someone is a huge compliment. We won our first contract 21 years ago – a 43 foot IOR raceboat called Panda – and we are forever grateful to Peter Whipp for the faith he had in our ability all those years ago. Even though we say it ourselves we did a great job on that boat!

Although practically everything else has changed over the years we are proud of every boat we have built since then and equally grateful to the many designers and yachtsmen who have come to us with their projects.

When work began on Panda we were a group of 8 people able to build one boat at a time. Today we have over 170 people working in 4 factories – giving us the capacity to build two large custom projects at Spitfire Quay in Southampton whilst maintaining a series production boatyard and two component workshops in Lymington. These facilities allow us to offer 2 or 3 build slots per year.

In 2002, our 20th year, we built two 100+ foot cruising yachts, 2 America’s Cup yachts for the Italian Prada Challenge and 8 all-weather craft for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, including 4 full refits. With ongoing work on the superstructure of a 55 metre motor yacht and the establishment of a new CNC workshop it was our busiest year so far…

Green Marine was founded in 1982 by Bill Green and Ian King. Green was born in San Francisco and spent his early years racing and repairing boats on the West Coast before working for designer Dick Carter. This led to a move to Jeremy Rogers’ yard in the UK to help build what was to become one of the most famous IOR boats of all, the Petersen designed 1974 One Ton Cup winner Gumboots. Winning in a highly competitive fleet of 34 Gumboots was the first plastic boat to carry off the One Ton Cup and has since been acknowledged as an important landmark in what was to become a rapid development in yacht design and construction. After this success Bill Green stayed on at the Rogers’ yard for eight years. It was here that he met Ian King and their partnership was formed to build the Hugh Welbourne designed two tonner Panda which was launched in the spring of 1983.

The booming ‘80s saw many new businesses in yachting along with some of the most competitive racing Europe has ever seen. At the time the International Offshore Rule (IOR) was the only game in town for big boat racing and everybody wanted a part of it. Building two or three boats per season Green Marine soon gained a reputation for high-quality race boats. Boats like Panda, Chia-Chia, Jennie M, Brava and Blizzard were familiar sights during a decade of racing that did much to carve out new standards in sailing performance and crew professionalism – all came from the original Green Marine yard in Lymington. That period also witnessed a fundamental change in the way boats were designed and constructed and Green Marine was at the leading edge.

'The Eighties were very exciting times for builders and designers in the racing scene as this was when boats really started to be engineered' said Bill Green, in an interview with Yachting World. 'Instead of eyeballing dimensions based on what we thought was about right, numbers and technology were starting to alter both the shapes and the way we were building them.'

The true performance boat had been born. No longer did the owners of Admiral’s Cup contenders regard their boats as potential cruising yachts in the off-season - these machines were designed solely for the race course.

As the fervour and excitement drew in talent and competition determined to make a name and living from the new age of professional yacht racing, so Green Marine won a very different type of contract which was to help shape the company’s future. We were asked to look at an ambitious design for a military landing craft capable of 40 knots that had to be a good sea boat and carry 12 soldiers. With the help of composite materials suppliers and engineering consultants SP Systems, Green Marine took on the work. The boat was a huge success with her owners and proved important in SP Systems sales pitch to the RNLI for a new generation of lifeboats. Lured by the prospect of lighter, faster boats the RNLI were also impressed by Green Marine’s practical experience with modern sandwich construction for race boats. They awarded us a contract and in 1988 our first Fast Carriage Boat (FCB) was launched. That marked the start of a production run of 26 more boats in just 4 years.

March 1989 saw the launch of our first Maxi – Satquote Defender for the ’89-’90 Whitbread Round the World Race

Meanwhile the yacht racing scene was undergoing serious growing pains as designers and builders became more expert at exploiting the IOR – a skill that turned the sport into an 'arms race' where cash was king. By the early Nineties the raceboats had passed their most exciting and it was becoming clear that owners were spending increasingly large sums of money to go more slowly – it wasn’t long before the IOR went into decline. For many the new International Measurement System (IMS) was the replacement of choice – it was quickly apparent that exhilarating sailing for owners and crews was the way forward.

Again Green Marine were quick to show that they could capitalise on this change of pace and apply the technology of the day. The first example was the 54 footer Dump Truck in 1991 and then the 50-footer Eagle, both from the Dubois design office. Both yachts were at the sharp end of their game.

With the decline of IOR racing and the change over to new rules there was less demand for one-off racing boats. Ironically it was the lifeboat contracts that came to the aid of Green Marine’s yacht racing future for the next big jump. Using foam sandwich cores and a glass/Kevlar epoxy laminate, the lifeboat hulls were constructed using pre-preg material that had to be cured at 80°C in an oven. Such experience was invaluable when it came to building the Whitbread 60 Intrum Justitia, Green Marine’s first pre-preg race boat.

Photo credit Rick Tomlinson

'There’s no doubt that our experience with the carriage boats paid off when it came to knowing how to deal with these materials,' says Bill Green. 'Building lifeboats on a regular basis also helped cash flow and made the financial aspects of our business more stable too. But what isn’t so obvious, and what counts for a great deal, is that with a steady stream of work we were able to attract and keep the best staff. Craftsmanship is one thing and while modern materials have their structural advantages they can also pose a huge risk to the builder and can be pretty tricky to work with. Ideally you need regular practice to get it right. Make a mistake or lose control of the curing process, for example, and you can be facing an absolute disaster. I guess that’s where we’ve been fortunate – we’ve had plenty of regular practice but we’ve only made enough mistakes to learn. We’ve had our share of scares, though, and if it hadn’t been for the lifeboats we’d have been history long ago.'

Intrum Justitia didn’t win the 1993-94 Whitbread Race but she was the only boat in the fleet NOT to suffer structural problems. As the racing scene struggled to find a new identity in the early ‘90s Green Marine scored yet more work with the RNLI, this time a commission to build the new Trent and Severn class lifeboats. As with the FCBs both designs are of sandwich construction using Kevlar and glass in a pre-preg epoxy laminate.

Despite the full order books for the RNLI, Green Marine has been determined to stay in touch with the latest in performance yachts and it is probably for the most recent breed of luxury performance cruisers and superyachts that we are best known.

The 88' Bill Tripp designed Shaman of the Free Spirit may not have been the first Maxi out of our yard but she marked something of a turning point for the company and, indeed, the industry, as performance cruisers achieved mean looks through advanced construction. Using a carbon inner skin and a hybrid carbon Kevlar outer over a PVC core Shaman’s construction allowed her to achieve an impressive sailing performance as well as the ability to go cruising through ice off Norway’s notorious coastline. Such varied use of technology quickly reaffirmed Green Marine’s reputation in the industry as forward thinking builders and Shaman won the company the International Superyacht Award in 1997.

In May 1996 came the Frers designed jet-black day sprinter Stealth – built for Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli, she is undoubtedly one of our most famous boats. Stealing a well known expression from 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' many described Stealth as being 'so black that light just falls into her'. Others considered her to be the ultimate display of an almost unhealthy obsession with carbon fibre! From the carbon/Nomex-cored hull through to the carbon sails and jet black control lines and halyards this sleek silhouette of a boat represented a future in yacht design and construction that seemed almost beyond reason.

The following year we built our first Wally hull, the 79' Kauris II and then came our next big leap with the order to build two America’s Cup boats for the Italian Prada syndicate. America’s Cup rules require that the boats for each challenge are built in the Challengers’ home country. 'This was another huge step for us' recalls Green. 'We sent 25 people out to Italy to work full time building the two boats. Building an IACC boat gives you the opportunity to work close to the limits of technology – and beyond them for some syndicates – and we learned loads from this experience.'

With seemingly no let-up in the requirement for big boat build projects the decision was made to expand and Green Marine purchased the 2800 square metre build facility at Spitfire Quay on the bank of the River Itchen in Southampton. Tiketitan, an 88' fast-cruising sloop, set to a Wally design with Frers lines, was the first yacht to come out of the Southampton factory in July 1998.
The two America’s Cuppers were launched in Italy in August ’99, while back in England work was underway on Ulisse a 107' Frers designed superyacht for Prada boss Patrizio Bertelli.

August 2000 saw the launch of Leopard of London, a super-maxi performance cruiser-racer designed by Reichel / Pugh for Mike Slade.

Next in the yacht-build programme was a pair of sleek, no-expense-spared Volvo 60s for the Swedish Assa Abloy team.

The majority of these projects are now built at the Spitfire Quay site while the Lymington factories concentrate on the ongoing orders for the RNLI. In ’99 we were appointed the builders of the new Fast Slipway Boat – the Tamar - which will replace the Institution’s Tyne class slipway launched boats.

In 2000 Green Marine added another factory to its business when they bought the West Custom Marine factory at Saltmarsh Park – Lymington taking on the employees and the RNLI Refit work. Today this factory is still used for the Mersey class lifeboat refits as well as the production of the Trent and Severn class wheelhouses.

In something of a departure from the norm in 2000 Green Marine took on what is believed to be the world’s largest composite prepreg structure – the superstructure for a 50 metre high performance power superyacht, the hull of which was built by DML in Plymouth. Designed to be powered by gas turbines this machine is all about performance and saving weight was essential. Once again Green Marine was the obvious choice. The entire superstructure was constructed in a one off wooden female mould using prepreg Kevlar and carbon fibre laminates either side of a foam core. 'It took us a while to get our heads around this one,' admitted Bill Green at the time 'But the more we got into the project the more we appreciated the potential and what’s possible with composite structures of this nature'. Green Marine’s part in this exciting project was completed in May 2001. The finished poweryacht was launched in April 2003 and is due to be completed later this year.

With their success in winning the Louis Vuitton Cup to become the Challenger for the America’s Cup but subsequent failure to win the Cup itself in ‘99, Prada made the decision to go again for the ultimate yachting prize. With the build facility already in place at Grosseto, Italy, Green Marine built two new IACC boats - both called Luna Rossa - for the 2002/3 competition. At the same time, in Southampton, a Farr 115 foot Cruising Ketch was underway for Peter Harrison, head of the GBR America’s Cup Challenge – as yet unnamed she is due for launch in August 2003.

Most recently completed are two identical 56-foot custom racing yachts from the Botin and Carkeek design board. Still in build at Spitfire Quay is Ghost – a 122-foot Luca Brenta designed luxury cruising yacht for an American owner. This is due to be launched early June 2003 and shipped to Holland to be fitted out at Vitters.

The Trent and Severn lifeboat production is nearly completed and we expect to complete the final Severn hull at the end of 2003. Work started in April on the Preproduction FSB2, now called the Tamar class, with the construction of the second boat and a complete set of female production moulds. This is due to be delivered to DML for fit out in November 2003.