RMK Yachts

A Bosphorus Shipyard Absorbed by Turkey's Largest Conglomerate

RMK Marine was founded in 1978 on the Halic, Istanbul's Golden Horn, to build yachts in steel, aluminium and composite, and later moved to its current Tuzla site on the Sea of Marmara before joining Koc Holding, Turkey's largest industrial conglomerate and its only Fortune Global 500 company, in 1997. Under Koc ownership the yard kept its original three-material capability but scaled up to building custom superyachts alongside naval and commercial vessels up to 150 metres, work that has funded a level of shipbuilding infrastructure, climate-controlled construction hangars and in-house joinery and technical outfitting, that a pure luxury-yacht yard of the same size would rarely carry on its own.

That naval and commercial workload is part of what distinguishes RMK from most other yards in this directory: the same yard that delivers a 37 metre explorer yacht also builds and refits vessels for Turkish naval and commercial operators, under classification from Lloyd's Register and ABS and to MCA and SOLAS standards where the yacht side of the business requires it. RMK has since opened a Miami office to serve the Americas market and is investing in a further shipyard at Yalova, on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, as it grows its yacht division specifically.

Award-Winning Yachts, Under the RMK and RMK Marine Names

RMK's yacht output under Koc ownership has won recognition well above what its relatively low public profile outside Turkey might suggest: the sailing yacht Nazenin V won Best Sailing Yacht over 45 metres at the 2010 World Superyacht Awards, and the 45 metre motor yacht Karia and the Oyster 100 sloop Sarafin both took Judges' Special Commendations at the 2012 World Superyacht Awards. Those wins sit alongside a naval and commercial order book that keeps the yard's construction standards closer to military specification than to a typical semi-custom production yard.

The yard trades under both 'RMK Marine' and, on its newer explorer-style yachts, the shorter 'RMK Yachts' name, and both refer to the same Tuzla shipyard and the same Koc Holding ownership. Its recent yacht work has leaned toward full-displacement explorer-style hulls, of which the 36.86 metre Seven Seas, delivered in 2024, is the newest and best documented example on the brokerage market.