Albert Hakvoort, who spent more than six decades at his family-run Hakvoort Shipyards, has died on fifteen March. Often referred to as Albert Sr. due to multiple generations bearing the same name, he was eighty years old. Born in 1940, Albert Sr. was actually a junior, since his father, Albert Hakvoort, started the shipyard in 1919. Indeed, the narrow streets where the shipyard sits today, in Monnickendam, The Netherlands, are much the same as when a young Albert Sr. joined the family business in 1955. It was a challenging time for Hakvoort Shipyards, as in that year a fire having destroyed two sheds, adjacent homes and boats in the area. However, the family rebuilt the facility, simultaneously steadily building a reputation for steel hulls for the local fishing fleets. With his brother Klaas, Albert Sr. entered Hakvoort into yacht construction in the 1980s, debuting first with the Striker semi-production sportfish series, of which fourteen were build from seventeen to 21 meters, all sold in North America and build from 1980 to 1988. In between the Striker's Hakvoort will deliver its first custom 31 meter super yacht, which was followed by a forty meter a year later. Albert Sr. will hand over the helm of the shipyard in 2014, although he remained a familiar face in the offices and sheds of Hakvoort often visiting with his Cadillac car or his Harley Davidson motor cycle, the other passions besides yachting.
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