Erwin Bamps, Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Craft Group, talks about the new phase of development for the United Arab Emirates’ leading boat builder in key international markets
by Sacha Giannini – photo by Giovanni Malgarini
While Europe has accounted for almost a quarter of Majesty’s turnover in the last five years, Erwin Bamps’ goal is undoubtedly to introduce Gulf Craft’s other four brands to the European market, with a wide range of boats from 32 to 175 feet, represented by the Nomad, Oryx, SilverCat and Touring Passenger vessels brands. With fishing boats, sports boats, family cruisers and customised luxury superyachts, the entire fleet ranges from runabouts to luxury megayachts with over 780 Gross Tonnage.
Gulf Craft GROUP
The Group includes Gulf Craft, Gulf Craft Maldives and Gulf Craft Services, which manages state-of-the-art production and service facilities, including a 43,000-square-metre shipyard in Umm Al Quwain and an additional facility in Ajman, United Arab Emirates. Since 2002, Gulf Craft Maldives has also operated a 9,000-square-metre production and service facility in the Maldives, with a new 75,000-square-metre one set to open soon. To date, the company has built over 10,000 boats, including pleasure craft and commercial vessels. Thanks to a new service centre, the SYSC (Superyacht Service Centre) in the United Arab Emirates, the company aims to become a regional hub offering refitting, repair and support services for the entire life cycle of the boat.
The Oryx line includes sports yachts and cruiser yachts. Starting with the Oryx 32 sports cruiser, the range extends to 37- and 47-foot models, equipped with outboard engines and available in closed LX or open FX versions.
According to Gulf Craft Chairman Mohammed Hussein Alshaali, Erwin is the right man to build the group’s future, starting from the foundations laid together many years ago, because he understands the values that have shaped the company, aligning innovation and tradition, composite materials and design, to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding international clientele.
Mohammed Hussein Alshaali
Nomad 95
Nomad is a brand of explorer yachts offering long range and fuel efficiency. The series includes the Nomad 65, 70’, 75’, 95’ and 101’, the flagship of the fleet, capable of covering over 3,000 nautical miles and reaching a top speed of 23 knots.
Nomad 101
“Gulf Craft is a group, not a brand. Majesty is just one of our amazing brands, and it’s a very important one, but we have others too, smaller and equally prestigious, and we’d love to find European dealers for them, too. When I arrived in the UAE in 2002, Gulf Craft was still more or less a start-up, even though it had been around since 1982. But it began to grow right away, especially between 2009 and 2019, when I was CEO, and we led the company through a significant decade, becoming one of the world’s leading manufacturers of luxury superyachts, with a team of over 50 engineers today. Now that I’m back after a few years away, I’ve found that the other brands, Nomad, Oryx and SilverCat, aren’t represented globally in the same way as Majesty Superyacht. So one of my main goals is to bring all the group’s brands to different markets”.
Majesty yachts are suited to the private Mediterranean market. Still, they also have their sights set on the charter sector, where three 120’ yachts are already in use in the Mediterranean, and six 100’ superyachts have been launched to date.
Erwin Bamps brings an international perspective gained from two decades of leadership in the nautical, luxury, and lifestyle sectors across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. With an already solid presence and ever-growing brand value, Gulf Craft and Bamps are poised to capture market share ranging from luxury explorers to fully customised superyachts to more commercial and transport vessels, through technology, engineering and craftsmanship that, beyond the boundaries of design and performance, have created models such as the Majesty 175, the world’s largest superyacht made of composite material. However, Erwin Bamps tells us, “… next year we also plan to present the Majesty 112 Terrace and introduce the more classic Nomad yacht brand with the arrival of the 101’”.
Erwin Bamps
The Majesty 145 is the latest concept developed in collaboration with Cristiano Gatto Design.
One of the challenges for Bamps, in addition to luxury, space and technology, is to offer an increasingly private, reserved and intimately secluded life on board. “Many superyacht customers increasingly want to configure a villa, buying space, light, comfort and, above all, greater privacy. We often talk to customers for only 15 minutes about the engine room and engine power, but for at least two hours about stabilisers. There is more interest in comfort, crew circulation and privacy on board than in speed”.
Majesty 175
In addition to privacy, the materials, style, design and construction skills all contribute to a low noise level. The brand wants to highlight a Mediterranean lifestyle focused on indoor-outdoor living, permeability, light connections, passageways, and full-height doors and windows. “Why do I like living in the desert and not in Dubai? Because I have a garden and I can go out into the sand at night through simple passages and doors, just like on board a Majesty, where the connection with the water makes you appreciate every moment and where the only neighbour is perhaps our own wheel in the roadstead or the island in front of us”.
SilverCat 35CC
SilverCat is the power catamaran brand within the portfolio of the Gulf Craft Group. Drawing on more than 40 years of boat-building expertise, the catamarans combine innovative twin-hull design with fuel-efficient performance and tailored layouts – from open-console sport-fishing machines to fully enclosed family cruisers.
Majesty superyachts conceal enormous technical complexity and aim to make their mark outside the Arab Emirates, not only in terms of size but also in terms of design, quality standards and engineering, thus transforming the Middle East, traditionally associated with a more “consumer” role, into a creator of luxury made in the Middle East, including in the nautical sector. From exotic Amazakoue veneers and natural Anigre bulkheads to Crema Marfil marble, Cappuccino onyx, walnut, and brushed brass, all raw materials are sourced from across the world, including Italy, France, Hong Kong, Australia, and Great Britain – and meticulously crafted and assembled in the shipyard’s own facilities in the UAE.
(Erwin Bamps, Gulf Craft Group – Built for life – Barchemagazine.com – Excerpted from Barche, February 2026)
