Dutch Design: The 6-Star Experience

A lifetime of maritime experience and a love for Dutch directness led American entrepreneur Scott Blum to launch the new yacht design studio Dutch Design. Leona Caanen sits down with Scott to hear about his entrepreneurial journey.

You are American, can you tell me a bit about your connection to the Netherlands?

I'm not a first time business person; this is my third shot at it and I really like working with the Dutch. I'm a pretty direct person so I like dealing with people that are pretty direct. When I was 23, we had a distribution office out of Schiphol Airport. We had 2 warehouses and we started hiring Dutch employees and I quickly learned their sense of humour and got along with them. Most Dutch people speak four languages, sometimes five languages. I don’t even know if I speak perfect English, to be frank. We had about 60 employees before I left the company to start Buy.com, which I sold somewhere in the early 2000s. I wanted to go back to Holland and I've had a good relationship with Bernd Weel, the designer that drew my first boat, who now has his own design firm, Weel Sluijter.

Why have you headquartered Dutch Design in the heart of Amsterdam?

We want to give people a unique experience when they buy a boat. Typically, you're told to stay in a hotel somewhere near the shipyard, your driver picks you up and you may be invited for dinner and that's your total experience. We want to do things a little differently. I think Amsterdam and the Netherlands have a lot more to offer so we decided to curate a house with the same kind of construction that you'd see on the boat. Our people that are purchasing a Dutch Design will stay in the canal house and get a full experience: from being picked up from the airport with a five-star service, to having reservations for the top restaurants and where to get their coffee in the morning.

Sea Rover Is the 'world’s only welness-first yacht': what does that mean to you?

A boat should be more of what you have at your house or at a five star hotel. If you check into a hotel, the main thing they push is a spa, Number two is the quality of the food. Those trends have now gone into people's houses: a full gym, a cold plunge or sauna. People are on a routine, they're used to working out or eating healthy and they want that on a boat or hotel, that’s their life. We wanted the yacht to feel more like a home versus a castle. That's why we position the galley up top, not down below. Guests can interact with the dining room and smell the food being prepared. We don't want hidden experiences. Some guests cook and I want them to be part of the process, especially on the food side.

What's the idea behind the Sea Rover series?

Where most people spend three or four months on design, Bernd and I spent four years designing the first Sea Rover. No one does that. We agonised over every single inch on the boat and used my own experiences. Once, I was on a superyacht and everybody brought these hard shelled suitcases, yet there was nowhere to store them. These closets are typically too small. On Sea Rover every room has an oversized closet space, including the crew quarters and we have tons of storage space too. Every part of the boat is the best of breed. A TOTO toilet that has a built-in bidet and heated seats, faucets from Dornbracht, and the washer and dryers are all Miele. There's not one component on the boat that wo've sacrificed. It's got everything that you can imagine, we're trying to give the customer the best product in regards to a healthy lifestyle. We have a collaboration with PENT., a luxury fitness equipment company, as well as a pilates machine, weights, a bike, rower and treadmill, pretty much everything you can think of from a fitness standpoint

You also have a big deck that can be used for anything: a HITT class outside, pickleball, basketball, there's a full sport court, which can be anything that you want. We have that aspect that combines the gym and the outdoor space as one; that's pretty unique. We have red light therapy, a hot and cold plunge, a sauna and massage room. I think we probably offer more than most hotels would.

We're only building ten boats and I'm hoping that I become not only a seller of boats, but a friend of the buyer of the boat. I think that’s super important. I want these to be an investment for people. We wanted to build a boat that would stand the test of time. Where, 30 years from now, that boat's still going to look good on the water.

Estel Arapoglou
estel@shaminabas.com
+1-561-676-3173