2003 was for yachtWORKS the year of tangible investment and the year of changes.

The most important development in 2003 was that we moved into our new premisses at Turgutreis, right on the main street, about 3 km from the marina. Now we have 400 squaremetres covered workshop space at our disposal. The workshop has been subdivided into a mechanical engineering and assembling area, a painting area and into a carpentry area. There is also a separate storeroom and an electrical shop. At the back of the workshop we have the social premisses and at the front the showwindow in which the office staff is working, rather like in an aquarium!

The second improvement was an increase from a staff of eight about a year ago to 16 now. The requirements and the work volume made it necessary to employ more staff in house. A lot of time and effort was spent in training and settling these new members.

Thirdly, we rented a shop in the new Turgutreis marina. This shop right at the crane basin is a contact office, with a workbench at the back for “light” work on the yachts. The Turgutreis marina with about 600 berths in water, with space for about 100 yachts up to 100 tons on the hard and with good commercial, social and technical facilities is a promising place, for the local yachts as well as for the international cruising yacht. At the moment the massive wavebreaker looks still rather bold, but I understand that about 100.000 trees and shrubs have been planted and we wait for them to do their bit.

Much to our concern the marina managed to alienate in the beginning some yachtspeople by rather stiff prices and unyielding policies. Soon, though, they must have realized that this is not the best way, as now they offer the most competitive haulout prices at the coast.

Fourthly, in 2003 we have continued to invest massively into training and into further staff development. In 2003 Can and myself travelled twice to Italy upon invitation of the famous shipyards of Ferretti, Riva, Pershing and Custom Line. Our last visit in December was in the framework of a seminar, with the slightly pretentious title “The Service University”. January Can travelled to Michigan USA to join a course with Cruiser Yachts. In February I joined a rather demanding course with MAN motors in Nurnberg for understanding the new generation of electronically controlled ship engines better. In November I joined a meeting at the headquarters of the Pantaenius insurance brokers, with whom we have moved into a solution partnership. As group of yachtWORKS staff we joined a Jeanneau training in Marmaris in December. At the moment we are continuing a training with Volvo Penta concerning electronically controlled engines. Following trends at boatshows and other trade fairs in Turkey and Europe round up the picture.

Fifthly, in 2003 we have piloted the concept of a “project manager”. We had noticed in 2001 and 2002 that certain projects, which have to be managed with the owner absent most of the time, require now a responsible manager. The project manager has to be knowledgeable about boats, has to be able to communicate with the owner and the suppliers and has to manage yachtWORKS resources efficiently. We believe that with Jodie, whom some of you may remember from Yatlift times and who joined us in September 2003 we gained a good manager and that this concept will prosper very well.

The last point I would like to mention here is that in 2003 we were appointed by two leading German cruising associations, the “Kreuzerabteilung” and the “Transocean” as their respective representative in Bodrum and in Turgutreis. As in the previous years, we continue to provide the cruising yachtspeople with assistance – now with a more formal signboard.

How about the future?

Above all, we wish to express our uncompromising commitment that in 2004 quality and efficiency shall continue to be the predominant feature at yachtWORKS and that client satisfaction, which has been instrumental in achieving our standing in 2003 shall continue increasingly. In 2004 we wish to hold the business volume we have gained in 2003, continuing to diversify the areas we have specialized into.

We also want to formalize and further develop our procedures for yacht valeting. While in the last year valeting was a natural byproduct of our technical services, we feel that a number of yachts require just valeting and possibly some “light” technical services. This in itself is an avenue requiring very responsible, self motivated staff. We also feel that valeting is instrumental in keeping up a feel of good semanship in the company – a must in our opinion.

Of course, we also do not want to neglect building boats. In 2003 we built further two of our 12 foot dinghies, they turned out lovely. Depending on demand and on staff availability we would like to continue this line and maybe add to it a slightly larger boat as we really enjoy completing boats from scratch and we do appreciate the training and discipline this provides to staff members.

I think, that this may be the right point to express our sincere and warm thanks to all our clients for their cooperation, patience and for their knowledgeable critique in the past year. And I would also like to extend our warmest thanks to Dentur AS, Ferretti Group’s representative in Turkey, who has arranged our visits to the Italian and American shipyards and has been supportive otherwise as well.

I hope that with my expose above I have been able to give you a brief idea about where we are now and where we are heading to. Thank you for your time.

Yusuf Civelekoglu