ROTTERDAM, 7 April 2022 - Tanaruz will today deliver its first 3D-printed, 4.5-metre pleasure yacht to a customer. The Rotterdam-based company is the first European shipbuilder to manage the design and production of sustainable 3D-printed yachts itself and to start delivering to individuals on a large scale. Tanaruz wants to innovate leisure boating and make it accessible to a younger audience. The 3D-printed Tanaruz yachts are therefore not only circular, but thanks to an automated production process, they are also low cost.
Buying a yacht, via app?
Buying a yacht from Tanaruz starts via the app. Currently, the company offers four standard models, ranging from 4.5 to 10 metres in length. The boats can be fully personalized via the app, from the size and colour of the hull and cushions to the superstructure and necessary equipment. The pleasure yachts are optionally equipped with electric motors, batteries and solar panels.
"Traditional yacht building means a lot of manual work, especially if you deviate from the basic model. This makes pleasure yachts primarily an exclusive product. With Tanaruz, we want to make pleasure yachts accessible to everyone who is looking for an affordable, but above all sustainable product. Our boats are printed from recycled plastic. That makes them virtually indestructible, but still circular: if you want a bigger boat after expanding your family, for example, we use your old Tanaruz yacht as raw material to print a new one," says Alex Shifman, founder of RAW Idea, the startup behind Tanaruz.
Tanaruz Boats 📷 Republic / Marco De Swart From order to yacht within two days
No big shipyard in the harbour, but in a factory hall in Rotterdam, the yachts are printed on a fourteen-metre long 3D printer. This process takes two days (for the smallest model), is fully automated and can continue 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This keeps the cost price of the Tanaruz yachts low. The entry-level model costs €15,000, about half the price of a traditional pleasure yacht of the same size.
"Most of the work was in the start-up of the production process: from strength calculations by our engineers to designing the first models and setting up the 3D printer. But digitization also plays a major role. We see that 'one-size-fits-all' does not suit our target group. That's why the production process starts with the order: the customer can personalize his yacht completely via our app, just like putting together a car online nowadays. We have all the different options ready as a print job," says Shifman. "Having optimized this stage, today we celebrate the milestone of delivering our first production yacht."
Tanaruz Boats 📷 Republic / Marco De Swart Future plans
In the future, the digital order and production process will allow for versatile personalization of the 3D printed pleasure yachts. Every personal request results in a new design, which can then be offered to other customers. Tanaruz also wants to reduce the cost price even further by increasing production. The company expects to print up to 100 pleasure yachts this year, but wants to deliver more than 300 boats from Rotterdam by 2023. Tanaruz therefore wants to install more 3D printers at a second location, so that two printers can print a boat at the same time and larger than 10 metres can be produced.
Tanaruz is looking for partners and investors in order to grow internationally as well. Thanks to the plug-and-play solution, smaller shipyards and print shops all over the world can start working with the Rotterdam designs.
