The Turkish yard that built the country's first superyacht, and now its largest
6 modelsTurquoise traces its line to 1977, when a Turkish industry known for wooden gulets produced something unheard of: Motivator, a 32 metre that the yard describes as the first Turkish motor yacht built in steel and aluminium. The Proteksan brand behind her kept scaling up through the 1980s with the 41 metre Texas and the 44 metre Galaxy Star, a boat remembered for a stern garage that carried a Rolls-Royce in Europe and a Chrysler in the United States. Steel and aluminium remain the only materials the yard builds in today.
In 1997 Proteksan joined forces with Turquoise Yachts, the builder whose 50 metre namesake had turned heads in 1994, and the combined company set a new bar with the 50 metre Mosaique, which the yard calls Turkey's first world-class superyacht. Between 2000 and 2014 Proteksan-Turquoise delivered seventeen yachts, among them Quantum of Solace and the 70 metre class Talisman C, quietly building the largest custom portfolio in Turkish yachting.
The modern chapter began in 2014, when MB Holding, the Omani group founded by Mohammed Al Barwani, acquired a majority stake and renamed the company Turquoise Yachts. MB Holding had already owned Oceanco, the Dutch builder of some of the world's largest custom yachts, since 2010. For a commissioning owner that ownership matters: it brings capital depth, long-horizon stability and a shareholder who understands what a 90 metre build demands, because his other yard delivers them.
The results are measurable. Before the acquisition the yard's ceiling sat near 55 metres. Since then Turquoise has delivered the 77 metre GO, the 73.6 metre Roe, the 75 metre Infinite Jest, the 79 metre Nympheas and, in May 2026, the 87.7 metre Angelique, the largest yacht ever built in Turkey. Naval architecture is done in house, class is typically Lloyd's Register and deliveries run under Cayman Islands flag, the same paperwork a northern European build would carry.
Turquoise operates two facilities on the Sea of Marmara with combined capacity for nine builds at once. Hulls and superstructures are constructed in Kocaeli, a yard that can handle yachts to 120 metres, then moved by custom floating dock to the 25,000 square metre Pendik site in Istanbul for outfitting and finishing, where yachts to 95 metres can be completed. Both yards sit directly on the water, so sea trials start at the dock.
For an owner the location is a genuine advantage. The Istanbul yard is ten minutes from an international airport served by private aviation, which makes hands-on build visits a morning's work instead of an expedition. The city sits inside the global supply chain, dense with marine suppliers and ports, and a return for warranty or refit work needs no exit from the Mediterranean at all.
The current run is the strongest in the yard's history. Nympheas, the first collaboration with Harrison Eidsgaard, delivered in January 2025. Angelique followed in May 2026 as the largest yacht built in Turkey by both length and volume, and N2H, the yard's first hybrid, launched that April with delivery scheduled the same year. Angelique is the second of five custom yachts the yard says derive from its 80 metre platform, so the pipeline holds more of this scale.
Turquoise has become a designer's yard. H2 Yacht Design has worked with it for more than twenty years, and recent projects have drawn Harrison Eidsgaard, Vallicelli, Ken Freivokh, Sinot with Julie Hillman, De Basto and Hoek Design. Projects named Rafale, Wildcat, Bravo and Rainbow II sit on the order book. For an owner, that roster signals a builder top studios trust with their reputations.
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