Yachting Art Magazine

The Sunreef Yachts shipyard, the world leader in the semi-custom luxury catamaran market, founded 20 years ago by the French industrialist Francis Lapp, is continuing its industrial investments in the United Arab Emirates. Its site in Ras Al Khaimah, which is primarily dedicated to the production of the Ultima range of motor catamarans, has just taken delivery of a new Zoomlion mobile crane with a capacity of 100 tonnes.

This equipment is intended to enhance the shipyard’s handling capabilities, particularly to accommodate the increasing dimensions and weights of the vessels being produced. It forms part of a wider expansion programme for Sunreef Yachts’ manufacturing facilities in the UAE.

Situated on a 65,000 m² site, the Ras Al Khaimah facility is now the builder’s second major production hub, alongside its long-established facilities in Gdańsk, Poland. Two production halls covering more than 17,000 m² were already operational by the end of 2025, whilst new production capacities for composites, joinery and logistics have since been developed. In early 2026, the shipyard announced that more than 1,500 people were working at the site.

The UAE factory plays a particularly strategic role in the development of the Sunreef Ultima family, a range of motorised catamarans with relatively slender hulls and a sportier profile than the traditional Sunreef Power models. The first Ultima 55 built in Ras Al Khaimah made its world debut at the 2025 Dubai International Boat Show.

Since then, the programme has expanded, notably with the Sunreef Ultima 88, the first of which was launched in 2026.

The arrival of this 100-metric-tonne crane therefore appears less as an isolated investment and more as a new step in the capacity expansion of Sunreef Yachts’ UAE site, which is set to play an increasingly important role in the builder’s international industrial strategy.