Orion Yachts Launches Its First Superyacht, Asks EUR 22m

What is Orion One, and why does a brand-new yard's first hull matter?

Orion One is the first superyacht built by Orion Yachts, a new brand launched out of the Hersek shipyard in Yalova, Turkey, and she entered the water in May 2026 after construction that began in 2022.

A first hull from a yard with no superyacht track record is a different purchase from a tenth hull off a proven line, and Orion One is exactly that: the debut vessel of a shipbuilder stepping up from commercial work into the 40-metre-plus pleasure-craft bracket. She left the Yalova sheds in May 2026, steel hull and aluminium superstructure, and is booked to attend the Cannes Yachting Festival from 8 to 13 September for her first public showing, with her first Mediterranean season to follow. Sea trials were scheduled to begin the month after launch, with final delivery targeted later in 2026 - a four-year build from first steel to launch, slow even for a first-of-type hull, and a figure worth asking Orion Yachts to explain before ordering a sister ship.

Reported length is inconsistent even in the yard's own coverage: BOAT International's launch headline calls her 44 metres while the body of the same article and Fraser's brokerage listing both state 43 metres. Neither figure is corrected anywhere in the reporting seen, which is itself a data point for a buyer used to the tighter spec discipline of an established yard - a discrepancy that would be unusual, though not unheard of, from Feadship or Lurssen at handover. Gross tonnage is not in dispute: she is rated at 480GT.

Who actually built her, and what does that yard's background tell a buyer?

Trade coverage of the launch does not agree on Orion Yachts' parent: BOAT International's own article names Trabzon Shipyard, while autoevolution and other outlets name Hersek Gemi, the Yalova-based commercial yard whose slipways Orion Yachts actually launched from.

BOAT International's launch report describes Orion Yachts as 'the superyacht branch of Trabzon Shipyard.' autoevolution's coverage of the same launch states plainly that 'the brand is the superyacht branch of Hersek Gemi,' and every source that names a physical yard - including Fraser's own listing - places construction at Hersek's Yalova facility, not at Trabzon on Turkey's Black Sea coast, roughly 700 miles away. Neither report corrects or acknowledges the other's naming, and this desk could not resolve which is the formal parent company from public material alone; a Turkish industrial group naming itself after one city while operating a yard in another would not be unusual, but it is exactly the kind of detail a buyer should get Orion Yachts to confirm directly rather than take from either article.

What is independently documented is the Yalova yard itself: Hersek Shipyard began operations in 2022 and has since delivered more than 100 repair and conversion projects for chemical and LPG/LNG tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo ships and fishing vessels, working across five slipways and three piers, one of them 330 metres long. That is a commercial ship-repair business, not a pleasure-yacht builder's history, and Orion One is the yard's first attempt at new-build superyacht construction of any kind - a fact that matters more to warranty and after-sales support than the exact holding-company name above it.

What do the specifications actually buy an owner?

Orion One runs twin Caterpillar main engines to a 12-knot cruising speed and 15-knot top speed, with accommodation for 12 guests across five staterooms and a construction spec - steel hull, aluminium superstructure - built for durability over outright pace.

The engine room holds twin Caterpillar diesels, a marque a buyer can service through an existing global dealer network rather than a yard-proprietary system, which matters more on a first hull from a new builder than it would on an established yard's tenth. Cruising speed is quoted at 12 knots and top speed at 15 knots - modest for a yacht this size, and consistent with a hull drawn for steady long-range running rather than sprinting between anchorages. Fraser and BOAT International both report accommodation for up to 12 guests across five staterooms: one owner's suite on the main deck with a fold-down balcony, two double cabins and two twin cabins fitted with Pullman berths for a sixth and seventh guest at a squeeze. Neither source publishes range, tankage or crew accommodation figures.

Naval architecture is credited to Alfa Marine Design, whose owner Cihan Sandikcioglu described the brief as prioritising 'dependable performance, operational efficiency, and long-range comfort' over outright speed - consistent with the Caterpillar powertrain and the modest top-end quoted. The steel-hull, aluminium-superstructure combination is the conventional choice for a yacht in this size and speed bracket: heavier and cheaper to build and maintain than an all-aluminium hull, at the cost of the extra pace an all-aluminium yacht of the same length could carry.

Who designed her, and what does the design pedigree signal?

Both the interior and exterior were drawn by Red Yacht Design, a Turkish studio that says it worked the project from its earliest stages through delivery, which buys continuity of vision that a yard splitting exterior and interior between two unrelated studios does not guarantee.

Red Yacht Design's managing director, Fatih Surekli, said seeing 'Orion One delivered is especially rewarding because we have been involved with the project from its earliest stages,' and the studio's co-founder, Cana Gokhan, framed the brief as wanting 'the exterior and interior to feel completely connected' - language that reads as a direct response to the more common yard practice of commissioning exterior lines from one studio and interior architecture from another, which can leave the two reading as unrelated. A flared bow, cascading aft decks and generous glazing are the visible result, carried through into a saloon whose furnishing choices echo the exterior's palette rather than breaking from it.

The single-studio approach is common on smaller semi-custom yachts and rarer at 43 to 44 metres, where the scale of the commission usually justifies specialist exterior and interior teams working separately. Whether that single-studio continuity reads as a genuine advantage or as a smaller design house punching above its usual size bracket is something only a viewing can settle - Red Yacht Design has not previously delivered a project publicly documented at this length, so Orion One is also effectively the studio's own first hull at the size.

What should a buyer check before pricing Orion One against an established yard?

At an asking EUR 22,000,000 for a delivered 480GT, 12-guest yacht, Orion One prices well under comparable Italian or Dutch-built tonnage of the same size, but that discount has to be weighed against a first-time superyacht builder and no independent sea trial yet on the public record.

Fraser is marketing the completed yacht at EUR 22,000,000, a price that undercuts what a comparable steel-hulled 43 to 44-metre from an established Italian or Dutch yard typically asks new - though the comparison is not exact, since Orion One is a delivered stock boat rather than a build slot, and the discount a buyer should expect from a first-time yard against an established one is itself unmeasured until Orion Yachts has sold and delivered a second hull. No independent sea trial report, fuel-burn table or range figure has been published by anyone outside the yard's own material as of this writing.

The practical questions for a serious buyer are the ones any first hull from a new yard raises: who is underwriting warranty and after-sales support if Orion Yachts does not secure a second order, what the actual delivered fit-out quality is against the render-smooth marketing photography, and whether a ship-repair yard's commercial background translates into the finish tolerances a superyacht buyer expects. None of those questions has a public answer yet. A viewing in Yalova or at Cannes, and a genuinely independent survey before any offer, matter more on a yard's first hull than on an established builder's fiftieth.