When Mulder Shipyard was approached by the successful cider entrepreneur David Healey in October 2016, he had already been looking for the right partner to build his boat for over five years.
As a member of the Healey family – producers of the classic English sports car brand, Austin Healey – David Healey knew exactly what he wanted from his full custom boat, whose design would capture the spirit of his automotive legacy. The Mulder Healey would be designed along the same lines as the Favorite 1700, but tailored to fit one particular desire from her owner: to be able to drive the boat in two metre waves at 20 knots.
To give David a taste of that on-water thrill, on 3rd January Mulder teamed up with yacht design studio Vripack and invited the Healeys onto one of their hulls operated by Sima Charters called Amethyst on the North Sea, which had been built with Vripack’s patented ‘Slide Hull’ design.
Demonstrating the full capabilities of this innovative hull form, Amethyst performed brilliantly in all weather conditions, thus leading to the Mulder Healey being given the go ahead to be built as a full custom boat with Vripack’s Slide Hull, with the order being placed in January 2017.
Following a build lasting 19 months, 40 change orders and the creation of a design bursting with technical innovations, David was ready to take his boat to England. Now, after three years, and with more than 1,000 hours on the clock, Motor Boat & Yachting’s Alan Harper was invited on board to discover quite how cool this boat was which we had built for the Healeys (see the review here).
From a shipyard’s perspective, it was a huge pleasure to build such a special and unique custom project for the Healey family, and to cooperate so well with them during the build. We also wish him the best of luck with the upcoming Motor Boat Awards 2022, in which the Mulder Healey is a finalist.
To find out more about the Mulder Healey, visit the Mulder website.
