Remember Greenline, the upscale cruising yacht with diesel/electric hybrid power? Well, the brand is back and under new ownership. The new Greenline, owned by SVP Yachts of Slovenia, brought five vessels ranging from 33 to 40 feet to the Fort Lauderdale show. The boats included the company’s first build, the Greenline 36 Hybrid.
“This is our first North American boat show, and the reception has been very good,” says Vladimir Zinchenko, owner and CEO of SVP Yachts. “People are much more comfortable with hybrid technology today. They love the environmentally friendly aspect and the idea behind Greenline.”
The new 36-footer’s electric engine can propel the boat to about 6.5 knots, and the single 370-hp Yanmar diesel gives the two-cabin vessel a top speed of 25 knots. The standard engine is a 220-hp Volvo Penta diesel.
“Many of our customers will be boaters who are retired and appreciate not just the destination but the journey,” says Zinchenko, 53, who was a Greenline dealer under the former ownership, Seaway of Slovenia. (The new company is also in Slovenia.)
In May of this year Zinchenko’s new company began buying all of Seaway’s assets, and by the end of June it had acquired all of the facilities, brands and molds and the rights to produce and sell Greenline boats, says Ilya Berezin, the company’s marketing and dealer relations director.
The company has restarted the production of models that were built under the previous ownership — the Greenline 33, 40 and 48 — and is working on the next generation of Greenlines with the 36 and 44. Zinchenko expects the 44 to be introduced in January 2018.
The company has opened a distribution headquarters in Florida that will import and sell the boats throughout the United States, says Berezin.
Zinchenko’s goal at the show was not only to reintroduce the boats to the North American consumer, but also to recruit a network of selling agents, or brokers, he says. “I want to have no fewer than 50 agents in the United States,” he says.
Greenline has sold four boats since it relaunched the brand — one 48 in California, two 40s in Florida and one 40 in Rhode Island, Zinchenko says. (The company also acquired the Seaway brands of Shipman sailing yachts and Ocean Class, larger motoryachts, says Zinchenko.)
Stressing quality control, the new company will build fewer boats annually — just under 100 — compared to the previous owners, says Zinchenko. And the new boats under diesel power will be faster, with a cruise speed in the low-20-knot range, he says. “The 36 is a completely new design that gives you the option of a fast cruise,” he says.
This article originally appeared in the December 2016 issue.
