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A curved-glass elevator by Lift Emotion
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT
CHAMPAGNE WISHES
AND CAVIAR DREAMS
Yacht elevator specialist Lift Emotion has produced lifts for some
of the world’s most luxurious pleasure vessels.
The 55-m superyacht Silver Shalis was completed in 2010 for a U.S. client.
Lift Emotion collaborated on the project with Curvelle.
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www.elevatorworld.com • November 2015
by Kaija Wilkinson
With lifts built for yachts including the 70-m MY
Axiomia and the newest, 47-m Majesty 155, built in
the U.A.E. for a Middle Eastern client who went so
far as to have his palace cigar bar replicated in
miniature on his yacht, it is clear that Lift Emotion
is succeeding. While the end users are no doubt the
Bonos and Beyoncés of the world, Lift Emotion
primarily deals directly with shipyards and interior
designers and often does not know the identities of
the ultimate customers. Even if they do, they keep
quiet about it due to customers’ desire for privacy.
Yacht elevators account for roughly 85% of
business, with private-residence lifts making up 2%
and the rest offshore industry systems. Brandt
estimates the company has built 100 yacht elevators
since it was founded in 2007 and 160 elevators in all.
The company continues to embark on new, exciting
projects. For example, it is working on a custom
elevator for a well-known U.S. tech company.
About that job, he told Superyacht Times:
“The company was looking for a highly
customized elevator, and that’s how they found us,
as we deal with the most difficult and technically
challenging elevators every day.”
There have been repeat customers such as a
Swiss yacht elevator client who tapped Lift
Emotion to create a custom elevator for his home in
Switzerland. The
unit was delivered in
2014. Brandt
described it as a
“truly spectacular”
elevator with a
3.03-m-tall glass
cabin with floor-toceiling doors.
Another recent
Kwakkel
C
akewalk, at 85.6 m the largest yacht
built in the U.S. since the 1930s,
launched on August 8, 2010, from
Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
When it did, it was outfitted with an elevator and
dumbwaiter custom built by Lift Emotion BV,
based in Meppel, the Netherlands. Mike Brandt,
who co-owns the company with Eef Kwakkel,
thinks that says a lot about the custom, high-end
work for which the
company has become
While the end users are no known during its
eight years in
doubt the Bonos and
Beyoncés of the world, Lift business.
Headquartered in an
Emotion primarily deals
approximately
directly with shipyards and 3,229-sq.-ft. shop
with additional
interior designers and does outlying space it
rents on an asnot know the identities of
needed basis, Lift
the ultimate customers.
Emotion plans to
expand into a shop
five times larger by mid 2016 and add to its staff of
eight full-time and 15 part-time employees who fly
all over the world to take care of clients in places
such as Australia, China and Turkey. The expansion
is necessary to keep up with demand, Brandt stated.
Reflecting on 2015, he said:
“The progress we made in 2015 was significant.
[In September], we had just come back from the
Monaco Yacht Show, where we spoke with a lot of
potential clients. There is a lot of competition,
including from the big OEMs, but I think we stand
out, because what we make is never copy and
paste, but always tailor made. Some people try to
do what we do. Some succeed, some do not.”
Brandt
Outfitted with a Lift Emotion elevator and dumbwaiter, Cakewalk is the largest yacht built in the U.S. since the 1930s.
Continued
November 2015 • ELEVATOR WORLD
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Glass and stainless steel are among Lift Emotion’s most-used cab materials.
notable job was an elevator built inside
(yes, inside) a bus for a Middle Eastern
client with mobility issues. That job was
particularly challenging due to having to
work in such a tight space.
Brandt, who has an engineering
background, observes that all jobs come
with a mix of challenges and rewards.
There are particular challenges that go
with building marine elevators, perhaps
the biggest one being the strict rules and
regulations that vary by location. “There
are always differences and different
interpretations of the rules among
Notified Bodies, and that can be
frustrating,” he states.
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www.elevatorworld.com • November 2015
Lift Emotion often works with yachts’ interior designers to customize units.
All Lift Emotion passenger elevators
—for yachts, vessel crews or offshore
workers—are based on its standard C-line
and comply with Netherlands
Standardization Institute, International
Organization for Standardization, Lloyd’s,
DNV GL and American Bureau of
Shipping regulations. They operate on
open-source software, which enables
maintenance to be performed by
whichever company or person the client
chooses, anywhere in the world. C-line
features also include:
♦♦ High comfort
♦♦ Functionality and failsafe mechanisms
♦♦ A wide range of load capacity
♦♦ Fire-rated, watertight doors
♦♦ Door and cabin finishes in a wide array
of colors and stainless-steel finishes
♦♦ The choice of hydraulic or traction
drives
♦♦ Machinery, power pack and controller
cabinet positioned behind or next to
the shaft on any level
The company offers remote monitoring
and can provide onsite maintenance and
inspections anywhere in the world. It
carries an inventory of spare parts that can
be used on any marine elevator, regardless
of type or manufacturer.
The greatest difference between a
land- and marine-based elevator is the fact
that the former is stationary, and the latter
is constantly in motion. This calls for the
The Lift Emotion booth at a recent Monaco Yacht Show, an annual event where mutually beneficial
relationships are formed.
The company offers service to clients anywhere
in the world and has staff who fly to places such
as Turkey, China and Australia.
marine unit having different dimensions
and weight distributions. Also, Brandt
observes, a marine elevator is subject to
harsh environmental conditions—wind,
water and salt, for example. Lift Emotion
uses specific materials and finishes built to
withstand the elements and calls on a
regular group of suppliers, primarily in the
Netherlands and Germany, to deliver them.
Lift Emotion’s other lift systems have
proven popular, as well, and they are
marketed in a very compelling way. The
Ceramic tile, wood and patterned stainless steel
distinguish this elevator interior.
company has this to say, for example, about
Another product in this category is a
its goods lifts:
flexible marine elevator made especially for
“Which dumbwaiter will transport
use on the decks of river barges. Lift
food, wine or
Emotion says this
goods between
lift “rests on the
decks for you at
deck, allowing it to
There are particular
sea? How do you
pass under low
challenges that go with
make sure that a
canal bridges, and
bottle of
building marine elevators, be brought upright
champagne
at will.”
perhaps the biggest one
reaches the guests
In addition to
on your luxury
being the strict rules and
new yachts, Lift
superyacht in the
Emotion has been a
regulations that vary
same way it
part of several
depending on location.
would in a
noteworthy
five-star
retrofits. When the
restaurant?
44.7-m former
Where do you find an elevator that brings
H2Ome was purchased and rechristened
300-kg loads wherever they are needed
Blade in late 2014, Lift Emotion was a
onboard during a raging storm? At Lift
member of the international team
Emotion, we are used to solving questions
assembled to handle its
like these, and even enjoy it and take
multimillion-U.S.-dollar makeover. For
great pride in combining precision
this project, Lift Emotion constructed a
technology, experience and ingenuity to
pop-up elevator that emerges out onto the
build the dumbwaiter or trolley lift that
sun deck, making the deck wheelchair
will suit your onboard needs on the
accessible.
heaviest seas. Our dumbwaiters and
Lift Emotion’s relationships with its
trolley lifts come in a wide range of types,
customers
go deep, often spanning years
functionalities, door types and loading
and
countless
hours. Brandt stated: “It’s a
systems.”
tremendous
amount
of hours you have to
Beyond marine elevators, Lift
devote to help and guide people, but in the
Emotion’s special-build line includes the
end, you will get something truly special
Lifebuoy Shooting Unit, which launches a
🌐
and of the highest quality.” life preserver from a ship’s bridge or near
the bulwark with the push of a button.
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