Celebrating 20 years of Alexseal Yacht Coatings is an excellent time to look back at how it all began and forward to the things to come.
Twenty years ago, the global paint manufacturer Mankiewicz had a mission: Creating a one-stop-shop yacht coatings portfolio applicable from the first primer coat to the final topcoat. “ALEXSEAL Yacht Coatings” was born. Thomas Schultz, Global Sales Director at Alexseal, reviews the course already taken. And what lies ahead in the coming years.
Engineering in a Can
“Developing and applying yacht paints is one of the fine arts in the coatings industry,” says Thomas. Very rarely do vehicles have large, completely flat surfaces. For example, the fuselage of an airplane is enormous. But it is still round, and the passengers “only” expect an extremely high gloss, not a mirror-like surface. “Especially on large yachts, we have comparably huge but almost flat surfaces. This is an extreme challenge, even for professional painters. If the topcoat’s performance is not 100%, you cannot achieve a mirror-like finish,” says Thomas, summarizing only one of the challenges for yacht paint crews.
To develop yacht coatings at the highest level, you must know how to do your homework right from the beginning. DOI and UV resistance are just the tip of the requirements iceberg, extending deep into adhesion, sandability, polishability and many more. Painting conditions vary from construction site environments to clean rooms and from cold, dry environments to warm, humid ones. The coating portfolio must map all of this with suitable systems.
But Mankiewicz was prepared. The global coating manufacturer is firmly anchored in the aviation industry, which has taken the exterior painting of aircraft to a new level with innovative coating systems. The rail sector is also concerned with large exterior surfaces with visually and functionally highly sophisticated finishes. “These markets show clear parallels to the yachting industry,” says Thomas.
Becoming a big player
With such a background, it was easier for the young Alexseal team to get a foot in the door with shipyards and yacht painters. “Nevertheless, despite the many advantages, it was difficult to win the first major projects at the beginning,” explains the Alexseal pioneer. “Confidence in our set-up is one thing, but experience with the right paint job in the dock is another. We first had to earn our spurs.”
In 2004, ALEXSEAL was brought to market first in Australia and the United States, followed by Europe. Already in 2007, many yachts were applying Alexseal’s Polyurethane Premium Topcoat 501, including the largest dark blue yacht in the world at that time. Over the following years, more projects came along, and they got bigger and bigger. In 2023, almost 40 percent of the world’s 100 largest yachts were coated with Alexseal systems. However, the yacht market is not just a sea of superyachts. The sport and leisure segment and medium-sized luxury yachts also make up a large part of the market. “Today, we are very proud to have the right answer for different requests and painting conditions with our Premium Topcoat 501, Acrylic Topcoat X, and High Solid BaseCoat/ClearCoat system. And we look forward to every new challenge that makes our portfolio even broader, more durable, and richer in effect and color. A big thank you to everyone who has challenged, accompanied, and trusted us over the last 20 years.”
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