One of the big hurdles we have to overcome as boats get bigger and more complex is build time," says Espen Øino, designer of Oceanco's new 295ft behemoth DreAMBoat. "Today a project of that scale is a four-year program, then perhaps another year once the boat is delivered, revving it up and crewing it. So it quickly becomes five, and that's a very long time for many people." That's why the Dutch custom yard built this vast project - to an advanced stage - on speculation. That's right: a 295ft boat, on spec, with no guarantee that someone would buy it. This is vertiginous decision-making. But by beginning DreAMBoat without an owner, Oceanco's standard year of design plus three years of build was reduced to 18 months, from the owner signing the contract to delivery. "I think in the end this is one of the selling points, reducing lead time for a client," says Roderick Gort, project director at Oceanco.
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