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Vivian Chan appears to be like to be in her component in what she calls the “glamorous facet” of the yachting trade, trying each inch the mannequin as she poses for a photograph shoot aboard a Sessa F68 Gullwing as founder and Director of VP Yachts, which represents the Italian builder in Hong Kong.
For a few weekends earlier than that, she was mingling with representatives of the likes of Ferretti Group, Sunseeker, Benetti, Monte Carlo Yachts and Camper & Nicholsons aboard a Riva 110’ Dolcevita at two occasions hosted by Voyager Danger Options this summer time.
VP Yachts has already bought a number of Sessa motor yachts because the firm’s appointment in November 2020, however for Vivian, the circles she now finds herself mixing in appear a world away from her ongoing function as Common Supervisor of Solar Hing Shipyard, based by her father Chan Ki in 1981.
“I by no means bought to exit on these stunning boats till lately. I sometimes go on a ship to see what must be mounted and the one occasions I actually exit to sea was for sea trials. I’ve seen the hull bottoms greater than I’ve seen the interiors,” laughs Vivian, who manages her twin roles from the shipyard’s foremost web site, in Shum Wan on the east facet of the Aberdeen Hurricane Shelter.
“After I began working for my dad, folks stored questioning, ‘who’s this blonde Chinese language girl standing on the pontoon’? After I noticed my brother working for Simpson Marine, I noticed the glamorous facet. I all the time thought it was a world I wouldn’t attain as a result of I used to be all the time on the opposite facet, behind the scenes.”
A household disaster introduced Vivian Chan again residence
Vivian says it was her father’s hope that his kids would work in yacht gross sales, quite than the restore and upkeep discipline he has specialised in since working on the Supercraft yard in Tsing Yi earlier than founding Solar Hing Shipyard. Regardless of the household enterprise, Vivian says she not often spent any time on boats when she was younger.
“We didn’t exit boating and I solely visited the shipyard just a few occasions once I was younger. I didn’t know a lot about what he did. I knew he preferred fixing boats, however he by no means talked about occurring them. I solely began occurring boats once I began working for him.”
Within the early Nineteen Nineties, the household moved to Canada, initially to Vancouver earlier than settling in Toronto, the place Vivian and elder brothers William and Eric went to highschool. Nevertheless, unable to seek out related work in Canada, her father was forwards and backwards between Toronto and Hong Kong, whereas each her brothers returned to the town within the early 2000s after graduating from universities in Ontario.
Like Eric, Vivian studied at Ryerson College and gained a BA in Architectural Science. However in contrast to her brothers, she stayed in Toronto, even after her mom had additionally moved again to Hong Kong.
It was a household disaster that drew her again to the town to start out working at Solar Hing Shipyard in 2011. Throughout a making an attempt time for the household, her uncle determined to start out his personal enterprise, so the location and employees have been break up into two, with the shipyards remaining facet by facet at the moment.
“We actually break up the shipyard in half,” says Vivian, whose first job was to place her architectural expertise to make use of by designing the brand new workplace and ground plan. “I didn’t know a lot about boats, however I used to be simply right here to help my Dad together with the employees, as many have been with him for a very long time.”
Rising Tasks
After the break up, Vivian labored alongside her dad within the workplace as Undertaking Coordinator, alongside a staff of 5 service employees together with Chan Bong-wah, who nonetheless works at Solar Hing and has now been working with Chan Ki for 4 many years.
It was a stunning new function for Vivian, not solely due to her lack of expertise within the trade however as a result of her father had all the time suggested his kids to work in different fields.
“My dad felt the shipyard enterprise doesn’t make some huge cash, so he by no means actually inspired my brothers or me to work right here. He’d say, you’re higher off going to a seller like Simpson Marine. My dad would like his youngsters to be assembly the house owners of boats quite than simply fixing the boats.”
To her father’s delight, Eric had joined Simpson Marine in 2010, working as a dealer for Asia’s largest yacht seller for 9 years earlier than organising Deepsea Marine HK.
William, after over a decade working in different fields, additionally joined the yacht gross sales trade in 2013, working for Jebsen Marine and Starship Yachts earlier than founding his personal brokerage firm, Sunshine Yachting, in 2017, with an workplace at Solar Hing’s unique shipyard.
In the meantime, Vivian had been making an attempt to make sure her father’s enterprise door, as her language expertise and abroad schooling helped her join with many worldwide sellers and firms.
“Plenty of sellers got here to us as a result of I can communicate English with them. I just about become a translator for my Dad firstly,” she laughs. Vivian remembers attending her first worldwide boat present on the 2014 Hainan Rendez-Vous, having joined the supply journey of an 80ft-plus motor yacht from Hong Kong. Over time her expertise and publicity elevated, together with attending the Cannes Yachting Competition in 2017 and 2018.
Moreover, her accountability and significance rapidly grew, as she turned Common Supervisor of Solar Hing Shipyard whereas her father slowly began at hand over the reins.
In search of different revenues for the corporate, she was concerned in profitable bids to lease shipyard tons in Ap Lei Chau, the place Solar Hing has a second web site. New providers embrace boat gathering, assembling and commissioning for yacht sellers, all now proving necessary to VP Yachts.
Alternative Knocks
Final 12 months, in an extra increase for the corporate, Vivian helped Solar Hing Shipyard develop into Dufour’s North Asia service centre, an appointment that started a sequence of occasions resulting in her new function representing Sessa.
Kevin Corfa of Dufour Asia remotely launched Vivian to China-based Brian Zhuang, whose firm Omnia Marine represents a number of manufacturers together with Dufour and Sessa, the inland Italian yacht builder he purchased in 2015. Zhuang talked about {that a} new Sessa F68 Gullwing was nonetheless in Hong Kong, unable to be imported to China resulting from Covid restrictions, so requested Vivian for assist in promoting it.
Final November, she exhibited the 21m flybridge motor yacht on the third HKCYIA-organised Hong Kong Yacht Present, an invitation-only occasion held for a second 12 months beside the Kai Tak Runway Park. The blue-hulled Sessa flagship proved one of many star points of interest among the many 17 boats on the present. Whereas representing the boat, she acquired a number of customer enquiries as as to whether she was the Sessa seller, so she referred to as Zhuang to ask how she ought to reply. He rapidly confirmed her standing because the seller for Hong Kong.
“I felt this was a superb probability to reveal the Sessa 68 and it was the show-stopper. Our boat actually stole the present,” she says. “I realized a lot throughout these three days. I had been to seller shows in Hong Kong, so I adopted what I’d seen about gown and current the boat, uniforms for workers and crew, invites, catering and so forth.”
Extra importantly, she was additionally making her first sale, even when she didn’t realise it on the time. Among the many guests on board the Sessa was a household pal, who talked about he wished the boat. “I believed he was joking,” she laughs.
Nevertheless, he adopted up after the present to verify if the yacht was on the market. “The boat had been in Kwun Tong for 9 months, so I believed he wished to order a brand new unit, however he didn’t wish to wait.”
Now becoming a member of her brothers on this planet of yacht gross sales, Vivian created a brand new firm, VP Yachts — named after the initials of her and her daughter — and needed to rapidly stand up to hurry with Sessa.
Primarily based at an inland facility exterior Bergamo, east of Milan, Sessa builds cruiser and flybridge motor yachts starting from the brand new C35 to the F68 Gullwing, a shocking design distinguished by lifting doorways on either side of the saloon. It additionally builds the Key Largo model vary of inboard and outboard cruisers starting from the 24 to the 40 that premiered ultimately 12 months’s Genoa Worldwide Boat Present.
VP Yachts’ first sale of this 12 months was an F47, one in all Sessa’s newer fashions, with supply scheduled for the primary quarter of 2022, whereas over the summer time Vivian bought a C38 to a first-time boat proprietor.
A full suite of providers from Solar Hing Shipyard and VP Yachts
In her temporary time as a yacht seller, Vivian has rapidly realised the significance of her household’s shipyard, not solely in offering service and quick repairs however as a reassurance for potential patrons.
“The customer of the F47 was really helpful to speak to me as a result of we have now a shipyard so we are able to all the time take care of the boat,” she says. “I’m so glad I’ve a shipyard on this function. It saves numerous time in comparison with claiming warranties and ready for elements or a restore.
“Plenty of the time we simply repair it right away and cope with the follow-up later. You desire a completely satisfied buyer, not somebody irritated and having to attend for somebody to repair the boat. The longer I’m on this job, the extra necessary I realise my shipyard is.”
Now managing each Solar Hing Shipyard and VP Yachts, Vivian has three different employees within the workplace and 6 technicians within the service division, cheekily including: “My Dad is available in as soon as a month to select up his paycheque.”
Since Vivian turned a seller, Solar Hing has already been servicing different Sessa boats in Hong Kong, whereas VP Yachts additionally provides yacht administration and is already offering the service for the proprietor of the F68 Gullwing. Trying forward, Vivian is eager to continue to grow each corporations’ choices.
“I’m actually having fun with VP Yachts as a result of it’s one thing I began myself. Now, I wish to do all the pieces together with after-service, yacht administration and rather more. I believe it’s necessary to know the entire expertise of sailing and I’m studying one thing new each day.”
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