Falmouth’s Pendennis Shipyard will mark a quarter century of success this year as the company celebrates 25 years of superyacht custom build and refit.

The company was born out of a local yacht building firm that was acquired by Peter de Savary and then relocated to Falmouth Docks in 1988.

Pendennis' first contract in was to build the 125ft ketch Taramber, followed by a major refit of the 228ft three-masted schooner Adix.

A management buy-out in 1993 by the current managing directors, Mike Carr and Henk Wiekens, was followed by their first project - a major rebuild of the 1903 classic 170ft schooner Adela.

Since that time Adela has been one of the company’s most regular visitors with four refits undertaken by either the Falmouth or Palma teams, including a 5m midship extension in 1996.

When Mike and Henk took over the yard between 70 and 80 staff were on site, whereas Pendennis now has more than 320 permanent employees covering the full range of trades from engineers to painters.

Mike, as managing director, is looking forward to the year ahead. He said: “The past 25 years have seen an enormous change to our facility in Falmouth as well as to the superyacht industry globally.

"We are extremely proud of Pendennis’ heritage and feel privileged to have worked on some of the world’s most iconic vessels.

"The longevity of the business is testament to the quality of service that we offer and we are proud to have formed strong long-term relationships with many of our clients.

"Naturally the workforce at Pendennis is also key to our business – the level of pride in the quality of work that is produced by all our in-house trades has always been exceptional.

"The team is backed up by our award winning apprenticeship scheme which continues to provide a new generation of young, enthusiastic tradespeople.

"Henk and I are looking forward to seeing the business grow over the next few years and to celebrating the company’s achievements over the past 25 years with our clients, staff and industry friends.”

The company continues to grow, with plans to upgrade and develop the facility in Falmouth getting the go-ahead in November last year.

In 2011 the refit business expanded to Palma in Majorca, which provides a Mediterranean base for the Pendennis fleet requiring shorter programmes of work. The facility in Palma is currently undergoing refits on Va Bene and Fair Lady with a full order book confirmed during the second year of trading.

Throughout its history Pendennis has delivered more than 30 custom new builds, including some of the world’s most recognizable superyachts such as Steel, Hemisphere, Nostromo, Christopher and Rebecca.

The refit side of the business has remained strong and continues to grow annually - To date the company has completed more than 200 refit projects, most recently completing the substantial rebuild of A2 (ex. Masquerade of Sole).

Alongside a number of other refit projects in Falmouth, Pendennis is currently undertaking a major rebuild of the world’s largest sloop m5 (ex. Mirabella V), due to be completed this summer.

Local and unique non-industry projects have also been on the company's roster over the years, including building the current King Harry Ferry, which traverses the Fal Estuary. The company's expertise in working with aluminium curves also led to it being commissioned to create the revolutionary NatWest Media Centre at Lord's cricket ground in London in 1999, which won numerous awards.

Throughout this year Pendennis will be organising events to celebrate their anniversary and posting historic photos and video footage to their social networking pages on Facebook and YouTube.

A “Crew Alumni” scheme has also been initiated to encourage current and previous visiting crews to keep in touch and providess Pendennis-specific offers with local businesses and industry contacts.