History
Herbert P. Baum, Chairman
Herbert P. Baum builds thriving companies, prestigious structures, luxury homes and now superyachts. He has dedicated his highly successful business career to the creation of strong, beautiful structures made to last.
A few years ago, after having sold his very large logistics company to DHL, he created not one, but two real estate development companies, one in Germany and one in the United States. Mr. Baum’s uncanny flair and business savvy brought him near-instant success: He was asked to build the new Lufthansa headquarters in Cologne and received wide acclaim from professionals and the press for his Michelangelo Homes, the American company responsible for unique luxury residences on Florida’s West Coast.
An experienced yachtsman, Mr. Baum was in search of a superior watercraft when he met Guillaume Roché, now Sunrise Yacht’s president and technical manager. Together they created the right yacht at an impressive price, and Sunrise Yachts was born.
Guillaume Roché, President
Of French and Scottish descent, Mr. Roché was practically born on a sailboat. As an adolescent, while doing correspondence courses, he circumnavigated the globe with his family on a 45-foot steel ketch. The spirit of the sea never left him. A mechanical engineering graduate of The University of Massachusetts in Boston, he later studied naval architecture at the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology in Connecticut.
Mr. Roché was a luxury yacht captain for five years on charter and private yachts before putting his experience toward yacht construction. For the last 17 years, he has built and managed the construction of numerous luxury yachts (power and sail) ranging from 72- to 132-feet in yards housed in the United States, Europe and Turkey. These years of experience proved invaluable. For Mr. Roché, Sunrise Yachts is the culmination of his dreams as a yacht-builder. It is his opportunity to show the world what creative and quality-driven—yet highly cost-effective—luxury yacht construction can be.
Istanbul, 2005: A German yachtsman and a British-French yacht builder meet to discuss a yacht project. Herbert P. Baum and Guillaume Roché did not yet know they were about to create a new force in yacht building. Guillaume had been building yachts in Turkey for 10 years: recognizing the potential, the partners set out to demonstrate that quality and innovation could be achieved at competitive prices.
Antalya, 2007, A state-of-the-art, North-European style shipyard was born in the Free Zone, creating one of the largest and most modern facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean, designed for the construction and refit of luxury yachts up to 65m in length and 1,200-ton displacement.
A team of international designers, naval architects, engineers and craftsmen joined together with a enthusiastic workforce to start the first project: the design and construction of two 45-metre full displacement motor yachts designed with Paolo Scanu of Italy and Franck Darnet of France.
First to be launched in July 2009 was the stylish Africa followed by a second 45m currently in build with delivery scheduled summer 2011. Africa was presented at the Monaco Yacht Show in September 2009 in partnership with Camper & Nicholsons, receiving rave reviews and nearly unprecedented press coverage.
The Sunrise line is now expanding by adding a radically new, freshly designed series of luxury yachts including a Sunrise 47m developed in collaboration with world-renowned naval architect Espen Øino. The first Sunrise 61m project was also signed in May 2010.