A huge milestone was celebrated by Nordhavn’s partner factory, South Coast Marine, recently as the entire company gathered to commemorate two decades since the launch of its huge facility in Xiamen. With a beautiful new Nordhavn 80 serving as a fitting background, the ownership group at SCM marked its 20 year anniversary in the Xiamen location in grand style with an event that featured dancers, singers, an orchestra, a light show, a lavish dinner, a history wall, and of course, lots of congratulatory plaudits among the hundreds of staff and work force in attendance.
SCM’s partnership with PAE goes back 35 years to when it built the Nordhavn 46 out of its original small factory north of Taipei Taiwan, but owner Tsai Wan Sheu was a visionary (much like PAE’s own Jim Leishman) who saw the bright future of Nordhavn and expanded to meet the growth he expected. In 2001, Mr. Sheu acquired property in Xiamen and broke ground on the massive new facility that would accommodate the line’s larger 86- 120-foot models. Two decades later, our Xiamen factory has delivered hundreds of Nordhavns. In fact, Nordhavn is the only brand that SCM has ever produced boats for. “It has been incredible to witness not only the growth of Nordhavn over the years but how South Coast has grown with us,” said PAE President Dan Streech. “The longevity of the partnership is a rarity in today’s boat building world.”
To further illustrate Streech’s point is the recent Taiwanese factory Mr. Sheu opened earlier this year to handle new Nordhavn designs and help manage production. Through research of other builder’s techniques (including Nordhavn’s Turkish factory partner Telgeren & Partners), South Coast’s Taiwanese annex was equipped with all new state-of-the-art machinery.
“We congratulate South Coast Marine on their Xiamen facility’s twenty successful years,” Streech said. “We thank ownership, management and the superb and loyal workforce for their part in building amongst the finest yachts the world has ever seen.”