Shipyard gates open: Exclusive insights into the halls of Alia Yachts in Antalya
Christian Sauer
· 23.03.2025
In recent years, the free trade zone in the west of Antalya has developed into an extremely potent yacht building cluster that should not shy away from comparison with the Istanbul metropolitan region within Turkey or internationally with Italy. Quite the opposite. Names such as Bering, Damen and more recently Dynamiq are emblazoned on large halls, but the top dog is Alia Yachts. Including subcontractors, around 700 employees work on almost 30,000 square metres of covered premises, including their own interior workshops in a separate building complex within the free trade zone.
The latter is also where most of the offices are located - but not that of Gökhan Çelik, the President of Alia, who founded the shipyard together with his business partner Ömer Koray at the end of 2008. Instead, to meet him, we and the customers head to the six production halls filled with work. Once there, we climb the steep stairs to the gallery and reach his office. Although the classification society is currently in the halls for testing, the former banker is visibly relaxed as he awaits us.
Short distances and pragmatic solutions at Alia Yachts
While sparks fly, hammering and grinding is going on just a few metres away, Gökhan Çelik closes his office door and silence returns. We take a seat at the conference table next to his desk. Through the wooden slats of the window front, the hustle and bustle in front of it is always in view. "That's exactly why I have my office here," smiles the internationally well-connected cosmopolitan and adds: "My employees have been trying to convince me to move to a nicer office in our administrative wing for a while now, but I'd rather stay close by."
However, he is not interested in controlling employees, but rather in short distances and quick and pragmatic solutions: "Either I am here myself or my business partner is on site - we are practically always available, and owners or their representatives also like the proximity to production. We want to make the entire construction process a pleasant experience for our customers." And they mainly come from Europe and the USA. Of course, they appreciate the price advantage in Antalya compared to European building sites, but even in the wake of high Turkish inflation and thus rising prices, other criteria seem to speak in favour of Alia.
Price advantage not decisive
"We don't market ourselves based on price, but instead focus on full customisation, quality and our aftersales service over the lifetime of the boat," summarises Gökhan Çelik confidently, while at the same time surprisingly understated: "We are currently reorganising, but we don't want to grow. From time to time we accept larger orders because they excite and challenge us, but we feel very comfortable in the segment up to 500 gross tonnes and are concentrating on that." This strategy is also reflected in the current new construction projects.
In the six halls, in which 80-metre formats would certainly fit, the spectrum currently ranges from 43 to 60 metres. These include an explorer with a steel hull and steel superstructure, as well as a 40-knot, 50-metre-long and 11-metre-wide aluminium glider with a very distinctive bow and carbon roof made in-house: "It's going to be spectacular!" The personal enthusiasm of Gökhan Çelik, who was infected with yacht fever in his youth, is also evident during our subsequent flying visit to his own interior production facility.
Regular customer from Germany
"It looks really good," Gökhan Çelik says spontaneously as he examines the mock-up of the salon of a new building for the first time and is not sparing with praise for his team, "they really do a great job and keep surpassing themselves with increasing challenges." Alia combines Turkey's traditional high level of craftsmanship and passion for wood, marble and leather with European quality standards.
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This is also demonstrated by the 52.50 metre long "Kaiyo", alias project "Sea Club 53". At the time of the shipyard visit, she was waiting in the harbour basin a few metres away for the final outfitting shortly before delivery. Her hull-wide owner's cabin and two guest cabins, each with en-suite bathrooms, transform the steel and aluminium construction from an escort vessel into an independent explorer if required. The parallels to the interior design of "Samurai", which Alia launched in 2016 with a length of 60 metres, as well as the parallels to the exterior of "Kensho" confirm the suspicion of her purpose. When not travelling solo, "Kaiyo" and "Kensho" will act as a duo to open up new perspectives for their German owner. Convinced of the quality of the shipyard, however, he presented Alia with new technical challenges.
Supply experience with "Phi Phantom"
In addition to various accommodation options, the upper deck lounge, several open-air areas (including on the sun deck, which is atypical for a provider) and the diving centre on the main deck - all designed to superyacht standards - numerous tenders and toys await the experienced customer. Heavy Airbus H145 helicopters land on a certified helipad with a refuelling station and lighting fully integrated into the deck; there is also a Triton submarine including extensive peripherals, a water sports boat on the bathing platform, an eight-metre landing craft from Cockwells and a 13-metre tender.
When asked about its manufacturer, Gökhan Çelik smiles mischievously: "We also built it and sent it to the mother ship in the Caribbean beforehand." He adds: "My employees, especially the engineers and project managers, must have thought I was crazy when I came to them with the order for 'Sea Club 53'." He emphasises the complexity and cites the upward-swinging flaps and the cranes for the large tenders and the submarine as examples. "We benefited from our experience with 'Phi Phantom', but we still had to redesign and certify everything. It doesn't just have to look perfect, it also has to work perfectly - always and under all conditions. That is our claim, and we are rightly measured against it."
Compact and stylish displacer
To round off the day at Alia, Gökhan Çelik would like to show us the "0110", which was launched in the summer of 2023 and is moored in the bay of Kemer. We would have to have seen and experienced it for ourselves to understand the concept. No sooner said than done - after a forty-minute drive in a luxury van, we reach the marina there and transfer to the five-metre tender.
Shortly afterwards, we approach the Dixon design, which also appears considerably longer than the actual 26.54 metres due to its width of 7.27 metres. A flybridge was dispensed with for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Similar to the similarly sized "Atlantico", which Alia and Pastrovich realised as a chase boat in 2019, the teams focused on the open-air areas in the bow and stern. Thanks to fold-down side walls and the bathing platform with transformer extension, an enormous area was created for the segment, which invites you to linger with or without sun protection. Flexible tables offer comfortable seating for ten guests or more. The hull-width saloon opens out to the aft seamlessly and almost limitlessly with disappearing sliding doors, can be air-conditioned, but is mostly ventilated via natural circulation.
High standards and expectations at Alia Yachts
The Turkish owner created the minimalist, masculine interior together with the designers from Alia and Studio CT Mimarlik from Istanbul. A third guest cabin was omitted below deck in favour of the feeling of space. As a result, the two existing cabins amidships and the owner's cabin, including the diagonally installed bed, appear surprisingly spacious. In keeping with this, the wealth of detail is more reminiscent of large formats than 26 metres.
Also remarkable for the length of "0110" are the comparatively large crew area behind the two guest cabins and the associated engine room with two Seakeeper stabilisers and Volvo Penta IPS1350s. They accelerate the aluminium displacement boat with carbon superstructure up to 22.5 knots. Technically, qualitatively and visually, this compact one-off confirms Alia Yachts' claim to be one of the world's leading shipyards for full-custom projects up to 500 gross tonnes. The versatile company with a sustainable growth strategy in Antalya is the first port of call for very discerning owners such as "Kaiyo", "SAN", "Al Waab", "Phi Phantom", "Atlantico" and others. Gökhan Çelik and his team are sure to have more surprises in store for the yachting world in the near future.
