With its 156 meters in length, the Dilbar leaves no one indifferent when it enters a port. Its spectacularity and dimensions make its calls become news… except in Barcelona, where it practically forms part of everyday life. Since its launch, this megayacht has already visited the Catalan capital up to 11 times in just five years, and it is here, at MB92, where its owner brings the ship for revisions, improvements, and tune-ups.
The Dilbar, which despite its dimensions has capacity for only 40 guests attended by about 90 crew members, flies the flag of the Cayman Islands and was built in Bremen by Lürssen, the historic German shipyard founded in 1875 that in recent decades has become one of the world's leading specialists in the mega and superyacht sector. In fact, five of the ten largest yachts in the world have been built by this company, and practically all of them have passed through MB92, the Barcelona clinic for large recreational boats.
And it is that around what for some are holidays, leisure, and luxury navigation on enormous recreational yachts, a naval industry dedicated to the maintenance and care of these vessels has grown, which for many great fortunes are their residences at sea. It is there where a Barcelona company has become a reference for a sector that continues to grow.
In fact, since the end of the last century and during the first two decades of the 21st, the segment of large yachts has skyrocketed. What used to be an exception today constitutes an enormous business: in 2021, 170 yachts with more than 75 meters in length were already counted, of which 55 exceed 100, a figure that continues to grow thanks to specialized shipyards such as the aforementioned Lürssen, the Italian Mariotti, Fincantieri and Benetti or the Dutch Feadship, which are working at full speed on new constructions, constructions that, subsequently, as if it were a medical visit, pass through maintenance, repair, and adaptation centers.
Curiously, the current world reference in the sector, MB92, which began its activity coinciding with the restructuring of the Port Vell area, was not focused on large lengths but specialized in providing technical services for recreational boats of all types, although always under 20-25 meters: sailboats, motorboats, and small yachts. However, after two years, seeing the interesting and growing trend of the sector towards increasingly larger recreational boats, it focused on this, growing in the Western Dock and the Catalunya Dock, in the area closest to the Club Natació Barcelona, the Torre de Sant Sebastià, or the W hotel, a building that, at the time, was not even in the mind of its promoter, much less the members of Estudio Bofill, to whom the sail-building was commissioned years later.
What marked the great growth of this shipyard was the floating shed of 1997 (now history) to carry out painting work and also the creation of the first Syncrolift in the Mediterranean, an automatic elevator with capacity for yachts of up to 2,000 tons. Already in this century, and between 2010 and 2012, the company expanded its potential once again by integrating an old neighbor, the historic Unión Naval de Barcelona shipyards, into its facilities. That addition of space made MB92 gain one of its most important assets: the dry dock, where precisely these weeks the yacht Dilbar is undergoing hull work. Great luxury is now repaired where previously merchant ships, oil tankers, cruise ships, or some Baleària or Trasmediterránea ferries were cared for. By the way, the second shipping company was once co-owner of the Unión Naval shipyards, both in Valencia and Barcelona.
And speaking of ownership, MB92 is currently owned by Squircle Capital, the private equity firm founded by José Caireta, which closed the purchase of 77.5% of this shipyard in 2019 from the Turkish fund Dogus, which, in turn, had acquired these facilities in 2015, a period in which the shipyard continued to grow, improve, expand facilities and add clients. The person who has always been at the head of the shipyard, regardless of who held the majority of the capital, has been Pepe García-Aubert, president and CEO of the company. A consummate sailor, he professionally transitioned from the automotive world to the maritime world and has remained in it since the shipyard's founding. As a good navigator, he knows the sector he operates in, hence the absolute discretion of him and his team, responsible for taking care of the yachts of the planet's great fortunes, who, with few exceptions, are very reluctant to have anything known about their floating homes, and that at MB92 is a hallmark of the house: absolute silence about everything that has to do with those magnificent boats that are moored or on the docks of their facilities.
As for workers and work, this naval company has 132 direct employees and 900 indirect employees, who are from specialized companies that have specific tasks on the boats, while, on average, each year about 110 projects of scheduled maintenance, extraordinary repairs, yacht modernization and other works are carried out, which sometimes extend for months, both due to the dimensions of the boats and the owners' zeal for everything to be new, impeccable and perfect to sail again.
MB92 is a hallmark of the house: absolute silence about everything that has to do with those magnificent boats that are moored or on the docks of their facilitiesAll the discretion maintained on the MB92 docks contrasts with the open-book conversion that the launch of its 2021-2025 sustainability plan has entailed. With this, the Squircle Capital company, also manager of Marina Port Vell and owner of Francesc Macià 10, the luxury housing building built in the former Winterthur headquarters in the square of the same name, aims to consolidate itself as the global benchmark in environmental care in its sector of activity.
The plan foresees an investment of four million euros and contemplates six areas of action: reducing the carbon footprint, eliminating emissions generated by combustion gases, minimizing and optimizing waste generation, improving the water quality of the shipyard, leading the industry in commitments such as reducing particle emissions and advancing with its purpose as a socially responsible entity, as with the Water Revolution Foundation plan: a carbon calculator that will allow it to quantify the emissions generated by its activity, from the arrival of the client's vessel at the shipyard, the execution of repair and conditioning work, until the departure of their boat.
The 2021-2025 sustainability plan foresees an investment of four million euros and contemplates six areas of actionWith this system, MB92 acquires the commitment to inform its clients about the environmental impact of the actions carried out with the aim that they make an equivalent economic contribution through blue carbon and regenerating underwater ecosystems. According to the company, for every contribution made by each client, the shipyard makes the same. This represents an innovation, as is the digitalization, automation, and remote control of 100% of energy consumption from renewable sources, or the installation of a battery module that will allow energy storage and more efficient use of it.
As part of the plan, MB92 Barcelona has forged alliances with local and international organizations such as the United Nations, the aforementioned Water Revolution Foundation, and the Generalitat through the Climate Change Agreements. This will entail fulfilling commitments such as the neutralization of 100% of carbon emitted before 2050, the publication of the value of investments made to reduce polluting emissions, and the application of a plan to increase energy efficiency with quantitative objectives in lighting, air conditioning, and productive activity.
And meanwhile, as the title of Federico Fellini's 1983 film says... And the Ship Sails On.
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