Vivian Chan appears to be in her component in what she calls the “glamorous facet” of the yachting trade, wanting 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 pair of 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 Threat Options this summer time.

VP Yachts has already bought a number of Sessa motor yachts since 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 position as Common Supervisor of Solar Hing Shipyard, based by her father Chan Ki in 1981.

“I by no means bought to exit on these lovely boats till lately. I sometimes go on a ship to see what must be mounted and the solely instances 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 primary website, in Shum Wan on the east facet of the Aberdeen Hurricane Shelter.

“After I began working for my dad, folks saved questioning, ‘who’s this blonde Chinese language lady 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 different 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, reasonably than the restore and upkeep discipline he has specialised in since working at 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 a couple of instances after 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 after I began working for him.”

In the early 1990s, the household moved to Canada, initially to Vancouver earlier than settling in Toronto, the place Vivian and elder brothers William and Eric went to high school. Nevertheless, unable to search out comparable work in Canada, her father was backwards and forwards between Toronto and Hong Kong, whereas each her brothers returned to the metropolis in the early 2000s after graduating from universities in Ontario.

Like Eric, Vivian studied at Ryerson College and gained a BA in Architectural Science. However not like 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 metropolis to begin working at Solar Hing Shipyard in 2011. Throughout a attempting time for the household, her uncle determined to begin his personal enterprise, so the website and workers had been cut up into two, with the shipyards remaining facet by facet right this moment.

“We actually cut up the shipyard in half,” says Vivian, whose first job was to place her architectural abilities to make use of by designing the new workplace and flooring 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 Obligations

After the cut up, Vivian labored alongside her dad in the workplace as Undertaking Coordinator, alongside a staff of 5 service workers 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 shocking new position for Vivian, not solely as a result of of her lack of expertise in 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 rather a lot of 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 supplier like Simpson Marine. My dad would favor his youngsters to be assembly the homeowners of boats reasonably 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 supplier 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 authentic shipyard.

In the meantime, Vivian had been attempting to make sure her father’s enterprise door, as her language abilities and abroad schooling helped her join with many worldwide sellers and firms.

“Rather a lot of sellers got here to us as a result of I can converse English with them. I just about became a translator for my Dad at the starting,” she laughs. Vivian remembers attending her first worldwide boat present at the 2014 Hainan Rendez-Vous, having joined the supply journey of an 80ft-plus motor yacht from Hong Kong. Over the years her expertise and publicity elevated, together with attending the Cannes Yachting Pageant in 2017 and 2018.

Moreover, her duty and significance shortly grew, as she grew to become Common Supervisor of Solar Hing Shipyard whereas her father slowly began handy over the reins.

Searching for different revenues for the firm, she was concerned in profitable bids to lease shipyard tons in Ap Lei Chau, the place Solar Hing has a second website. New companies embody boat accumulating, assembling and commissioning for yacht sellers, all now proving necessary to VP Yachts.

Alternative Knocks

Final yr, in an extra increase for the firm, Vivian helped Solar Hing Shipyard grow to be Dufour’s North Asia service centre, an appointment that started a sequence of occasions resulting in her new position 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 as a consequence of Covid restrictions, so requested Vivian for assist in promoting it.

Final November, she exhibited the 21m flybridge motor yacht at the third HKCYIA-organised Hong Kong Yacht Present, an invitation-only occasion held for a second yr beside the Kai Tak Runway Park. The blue-hulled Sessa flagship proved one of the star points of interest amongst the 17 boats at the present. Whereas representing the boat, she obtained a number of customer enquiries as as to if she was the Sessa supplier, so she referred to as Zhuang to ask how she ought to reply. He shortly confirmed her standing as the supplier for Hong Kong.

“I felt this was a very good probability to show 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 supplier shows in Hong Kong, so I adopted what I’d seen about easy methods to costume and current the boat, uniforms for employees and crew, invites, catering and so forth.”

Extra importantly, she was additionally making her first sale, even when she didn’t realise it at the time. Amongst the guests on board the Sessa was a household good friend, who talked about he wished the boat. “I believed he was joking,” she laughs.

Nevertheless, he adopted up after the present to test 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 in the world of yacht gross sales, Vivian created a brand new firm, VP Yachts — named after the initials of her and her daughter — and needed to shortly stand up to hurry with Sessa.

Based mostly at an inland facility outdoors Bergamo, east of Milan, Sessa builds cruiser and flybridge motor yachts starting from the 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 finally yr’s Genoa Worldwide Boat Present.

VP Yachts’ first sale of this yr was an F47, one of Sessa’s newer fashions, with supply scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, whereas over the summer time Vivian bought a C38 to a first-time boat proprietor.

A full suite of companies from Solar Hing Shipyard and VP Yachts

In her transient time as a yacht supplier, Vivian has shortly realised the significance of her household’s shipyard, not solely in offering service and quick repairs however as a reassurance for potential consumers.

“The client of the F47 was beneficial to speak to me as a result of now we have a shipyard so we will all the time take care of the boat,” she says. “I’m so glad I’ve a shipyard in this position. It saves rather a lot of time in comparison with claiming warranties and ready for components or a restore.

“Rather a lot of the time we simply repair it right away and take care of the follow-up later. You need a completely happy buyer, not somebody aggravated and having to attend for somebody to repair the boat. The longer I’m in this job, the extra necessary I realise my shipyard is.”

Now managing each Solar Hing Shipyard and VP Yachts, Vivian has three different workers in the workplace and 6 technicians in the service division, cheekily including: “My Dad comes in as soon as a month to select up his paycheque.”

Since Vivian grew to become a supplier, Solar Hing has already been servicing different Sessa boats in Hong Kong, whereas VP Yachts additionally presents yacht administration and is already offering the service for the proprietor of the F68 Gullwing. Wanting 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 every little thing together with after-service, yacht administration and far more. I feel it’s necessary to know the entire expertise of boating and I’m studying one thing new on daily basis.”

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