SeaXplorer Yachts: On Tour With Damen Yachting

I’m not a rockstar. But I must admit, I felt like one, an old one, that had just finished a world tour when Filmmaker Charl van Rooy and I shot the last segment of our Xplore video series in London.

We’d just spent the morning shooting Jonny Horsfield and his team at H2 Yacht Design in West London. As you can see in episode number six, the footage we got with him was fantastic because he not only explained just how challenging and rewarding it is to design an interior for a new SeaXplorer, he also shed light on why SeaXplorers are so well suited to owners who want to explore everything from remote atolls in French Polynesia and marinas in the Med to the Antarctic Peninsula.

But like old rockstars at the end of a long tour, Charl and I were ready to rest a bit after that last shoot in London. Looking back, I’m not surprised we were tired. The “Xplore Tour” brought us to the Damen Yachting shipyard in Vlissingen, another Damen Yachting shipyard in Turkey, the Monaco Yacht Show, and the Explorer Yacht Summit in Monaco, as well as to the UK, where we visited H2 Yacht Design in London and Design Unlimited on England’s south coast over the span of a few months!

But I’m not complaining. Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve wanted to go on adventures. And that thirst for adventure has only intensified as my “job” as a yachting journalist has brought me aboard superyachts and expedition ships all over the world. So, when the Damen Yachting team came up with this idea to tell the inside story of all the different elements—shipbuilding excellence, creative design, expedition experience, etc.—that make the SeaXplorer line of yachts so special, I was all in.

I think the best part of this series is being able to learn from the experts, like SeaXplorer Project Manager Enrique Tintore and Damen Yachting’s Director of Sales Rob Luijendijk, about the genesis of the SeaXplorer line and how the Damen Yachting team works with clients to customize each new SeaXplorer that gets built. I love how these videos also shed a little light on the people and personalities behind the scenes.

But the truth is that even though I’ve visited countless shipyards over the last 25 years (yikes!) I’ve been a yachting journalist, I didn’t really understand just how many talented people it takes to build a SeaXplorer until I visited the Damen Yachting shipyard in Antalya with Enrique.

And the cool thing is, the video Charl produced does not only show the two different SeaXplorers that were under construction in Antalya when we were there (no wonder it’s one of the most viewed videos from the series). We also learn directly from Enrique and local project manager Ilker Yitik how every aspect of each build—from welding to the final preparations before delivery—is held to extremely high standards.

So, what have I learned after the “Xplore Tour”? Well, after diving headfirst into the SeaXplorer life, I’m reminded that the sky is the limit when it comes to ocean exploration.

And what better way to do it than on a SeaXplorer?