Mark Richards says that when he took over Grand Banks Yachts 11 years ago, the company’s Malaysia factory needed more than a little work. “The tools were dead. The machinery was dead. No gardens. No nothing,” he says. “The whole thing was a mess. To be honest, Grand Banks was ready for the toilet bowl — and had one leg sticking out of the toilet bowl. I managed to grab its ankle, and we managed to pull it back out.”
Today at that factory in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Richards and the crew behind the Grand Banks Yachts and Palm Beach Motor Yachts brands are floating just north of 25 yachts every year. They recently opened a new facility to build even more.
Richards was raised in Sydney, Australia, where he fished, surfed and sailed in a place called Palm Beach. By age 6, he was taking classes in sailing and powerboating. At 13, he was building his own cold-molded hulls and running the launch at the local yacht club. Richards began apprenticing with professional boatbuilders at 15. He then started buying old boats — oyster tugs, launches and small ferries — that he turned into pleasure boats and then resold.
“I started from nothing,” he said while leading a factory tour. “Out of my toolbox as a kid. That’s how I started in business.”
As a sailboat racer, Richards was a fierce competitor. He studied the materials and construction methods that make a boat tough, fast and light — in some cases, too light. In 1995, he was competing in the America’s Cup off San Diego when the boat One Australia broke in half and sank in a matter of minutes.
Later that year, Richards built his first Palm Beach yacht. The idea was an exacting attention to detail, smart construction and speed. Richards patented a hull shape he called V-Warp. Eleven years ago, Richards sold Palm Beach to the consortium that owned Grand Banks, staying on as CEO and running Grand Banks as well.
At that time, he had built a mere six Palm Beach yachts in Australia, ranging in length from 38 to 65 feet. In Malaysia, costs were dramatically lower, with factory square footage dramatically higher. After the buyout, he says, 65 Palm Beach orders were placed in just over a month.
Yet on his first Malaysia factory visit, the floors were covered with dust. One screwdriver might be shared by 20 machinists, and 12 fiberglass workers might take turns with a pair of scissors. Builds were in disarray, and the hole-pocked roof barely shaded workers in temperatures pushing past 100 degrees.
“Then,” he says, pointing to a faded line on the floor, “if you can see all these crosses in the concrete. It was just a weird thing. It’s almost rubbed out now, thank God, but they used to get every staff member in the morning doing star jumps before work for 20 minutes. Seeing some dude — a dictator-manager, up on a pedestal getting the workers to do their star jumps — was like something out of World War II. That stuff just had to go.”
Richards and his team have since expanded the factory to more than 2 million square feet with nearly 1,000 employees. Solar panels generate electricity and new layouts amplify the prevailing breezes. Additional investments have been made. “Every piece of equipment, every mold, everything you see in there, we’ve created and bought and purchased with our own money,” he says. “We’ve invested $100 million in the last 10 years without borrowing much money.”
The crew come from all across Asia: Malaysia, China, India and Myanmar. When Richards first took over, around 450 workers were housed six to a room in company-owned quarters. Some 400 are now housed in private spaces, with new housing construction to come. “You look after the people,” he says, “they look after you.”
Several of those workers smiled and gave fist bumps during the tour. They’re learning computer-aided design, high-end woodworking, and vinylester and carbon-fiber infusion processes, and are operating an eight-plane robotic router that can, Richards says, reduce the build and shape time on a mold from weeks to a few days.
The factory now holds around 45 boats in various stages of build. All of them, save one, is pre-sold, according to Richards. Panels, consoles, bulkheads, platforms, flooring and other customized elements are laid up or hewn for a specifically contracted build. That means every component must be properly labeled for that boat, for where it’s going on that boat, and for where that part sits in the factory awaiting its placement. It’s an obsessive-compulsive level of organization.
Construction-wise, Grand Banks and Palm Beach boats use the same V-Warp hull forms, meaning a GB60 would ride on the same hull as a Palm Beach GT60. Hulls are infused GRP. Nearly everything above and inside the hull — bulkheads, supports, decks, roofs — is carbon fiber. Richards says the carbon lay-up is 20% stronger and 70% lighter, improving fuel economy and lowering the center of gravity. On some panels, holes are cut to reduce weight further.
The plant also has a stockpile of finished and unfinished teak in its woodworking section. Most of that teak, Richards says, comes from plantations in Myanmar, but because of deforestation, it’s a controversial wood. Importation of Burmese teak is effectively illegal in many countries, including the United States, but it’s legal in Malaysia, he says: “So we’re working pretty hard on evolving some cool techniques that minimize the waste. And obviously looking in new directions of not using Burmese teak. It’s definitely in the cards in the next 10 years.”
Just off the woodworking area, Richards invited us aboard Hull No. 3 of the Grand Banks 85, which is owned by Tom Whidden, CEO of North Sails and a competitor in eight America’s Cups.
“I’ve known Mark a long time, through sailing,” Whidden said during our tour. “And then I followed his beginnings at Palm Beach. I love the little boat that he built, originally, the 38 and, you know, I’ve never sailed with him, but I have a world of respect for his sailing ability. And I always thought he was one of the really good guys, not only in the in the sailing world, but also in the business world. It’s incredible what he’s accomplished.”
Whidden says the 85’s hull “is wicked strong.” Electrical and climate systems are upgraded on this boat. He also says he likes the combination of Humphree fixed fins and Zipwake interceptors for seakindliness. “I think if every powerboat maker came with sailing background, they would make better powerboats,” he says.
Fit-and-finish on Whidden’s boat is top-notch. Door and cabinetry hardware is sturdy and beautifully cast. Hydraulics are adjusted to open gently, and to close doors and hatches with sturdy clicks and thunks. Tiny gaps between door and cabinet openings are aligned with millimeter precision. Woodwork is mostly teak, but for much of the sole, Whidden chose a durable non-wood composite.
“This composite is quite a bit harder,” he said. “So if you drop something on it, or if you scratch it, you can repair it pretty easily. It doesn’t dent very easily, and teak dents very easily.”
Richards says that with the hull’s soundproofing and double-padded mounting systems, noise from the running generator and air conditioner is essentially unnoticeable. It’s also his first installation of Victron’s load-sharing seamless shorepower system, which works with the alternators on the boat’s twin 1,300-hp MAN V-12s, solar panels, generators and lithium batteries. The yacht’s Dometic Voyager variable-speed air-conditioning system, Richards says, is about 70% more efficient than previous systems, allowing for smaller gensets.
“Underway, with main engines running, with upgraded alternators, you can run your whole ecosystem,” Richards said. “So, for CO2 emissions, it’s a big deal, because you’re basically reducing your generator usage by 85%. It’s impressive and it works unbelievably well.”
Another contributor to the boat’s efficiency is a new glass formulation. Richards says it reduces heat transfer by 55%.
Whidden says the amount of change is significant since he bought a 60 around 2018. “It hasn’t just been people,” he says. “It’s been facility. It’s been materials. It’s been knowledge. It’s procuring better products to put on the boat.”
Similar attention went into building the Palm Beach’s GT60 that I got aboard in Malaysia. It has timeless, downswept, Downeast lines, a curved cockpit windshield, deep blue-gray Awlgrip topsides and an aggressive band of orange along the lower hull. The owner plans to cruise Northeastern waters, especially in Maine. To avoid propeller-entangling lobster traps, he opted for a Hamilton HJ403 Waterjet drive system linked to a pair of twin 1,000-hp Volva Penta D13s via carbon-fiber drive shafts. With this setup, the 51,000-pound GT60 draws a mere 2 feet.
Inside, the boat has a forward master stateroom and a layout for daytime entertaining. Normally, the GT60 is a two-stateroom yacht, but this owner went with an expanded galley, U-shaped dinette, and separate upgraded head. The aft deck can be configured with a variety of seating and entertainment console options. The foredeck is reached via port and starboard walkways, and a forward lounge or sunpad can be specified.
Pulling away from the dock with the joysticks and then rotating 360 degrees around the boat’s center axis, Richards demonstrated the maneuverability of this jetboat setup. It isn’t as fast as the prop-driven version, which Richards says will hit 43 knots. Still, carrying 16 people and with the 845-gallon fuel tank half full, we topped out at 36.5.
Cruising out of the marina, winds were calm. With the throttle pegged, the boat’s track was straight, and acceleration was smooth and level. When the boat turns, a plume off the stern turns, too, like a mammoth PWC wake.
Consumption-wise, the yacht managed 3.5 gph at 8 knots, 17 gph at 16 knots, and 26 ghp at 22 knots. At an optimal 28-knot cruise, it was 37.5 gph with a range of more than 500 nautical miles. At the 36.5-knot top end, it was at 50 gph.
Turns at that speed were tight and sharp. I tried to spin the boat out. Nope. Skegs held it firm. I also worked fairly hard to get the stern to decouple by running back hard through the 3-foot wake. That wasn’t happening either. The boat ate up the chop.
It’s all part of Richards’ big-picture plans. “The frustrating thing for my team is just keeping up with stuff,” he said. “I’ve got 13 new designs. We’ve got new Grand Banks — a 70 and 73, and a 42 — coming out. A new Palm Beach 107 and a 101, and a new GT70.”
Still, he doesn’t expect to ramp up production numbers. “A lot of boatbuilding companies got too big,” he says. “This factory, 25 boats a year. Volume-wise, compared to our competitors, it’s very low volume, but it’s high quality and obviously a reasonable price, right? So, the good thing about it now is we don’t want to get any bigger. The thing for us now is perfecting this facility in every regard.
“Processes for design, processes for construction, having a process for everything,” he adds. “Every nook and cranny perfect. Everything in place. So that even if I get hit by a bus, we keep going.”
