ETAP Yachts Rebranded as Armageddon Life Rafts

Early this winter, fans and owners of ETAP yachts noticed something peculiar on the official ETAP Yachting website.We are professional Plastic mould, Although new ETAPs haven’t been produced or sold commercially in the U.S. since early 2009, when the Belgian yacht company that designed and built the classic ships declared bankruptcy, the site appeared to have been updated recently. First there was the mood music, The Last Farewell by Roger Whittaker, with lyrics about “death and darkness” and sailing into hell. Even more distressing was an ominous passage on the site’s home page under the heading “How to survive 2012?” The text warned of a “tidal wave” that could only be escaped if “present and future owners” of ETAP yachts worked together to save enough people “to start a new civilization.” (Last week, it was moved to the website’s news section.) On online yachting forums, there was speculation and confusion over what had happened. Some wondered whether the ETAP site had been hacked.

Those who delved deeper into ETAP’s revamped site found links to the website of Patrick Geryl, a Belgian author and doomsday proselytizer. By Geryl’s estimation, a reversal of the planet’s magnetic field should be happening right around the time the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, leading to, in his words, “pure unimaginable horror,” which could take the form of nuclear meltdown, volcano eruptions, and—of particular interest to ETAP owners—flooding of biblical proportions. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mould Is Your Best Choice!

Geryl’s enthusiasm for all things ETAP reads suspiciously like a sales pitch. “ETAP is the only producer in the world of comfortable, unsinkable yachts,” he writes in his 2007 book, How to Survive 2012. Geryl, who lives in Antwerp, Belgium, insists he wasn’t paid for his promotion. “I only do it because they are the best and there are no alternatives,” he says. “This is for the survival of humanity.” He admits, however, that he probably won’t be on an ETAP yacht come December. “I get very easily seasick,” he laughs. Instead, he says, he plans to ride out the apocalypse in a small bunker in the mountains of Drakensberg, South Africa.

Geryl’s relationship with ETAP began several years ago, when he discussed the boats on a handful of TV news shows in Europe (none of which he can recall) with representatives of MIC Industries, the engineering and construction company based in Lokeren, Belgium, that currently owns the ETAP brand. Toni De Pape, manager at MIC Industries, sees nothing unusual about featuring all ETAP endorsements on its website, even if they happen to be from survivalists. He says it was not MIC’s intention to make Geryl the new unofficial spokesperson for ETAP, but concedes that “whatever helps our brand is OK with us.”

It’s a bizarre second chapter for one of the most acclaimed and beloved yachting brands in recent history. Founded in 1970 by Belgian entrepreneur Norbert Joris, ETAP built boats that were universally praised as innovative and ahead of their time. They feature a unique hull-within-a-hull design; the gap in between is filled with a nonporous polyurethane foam, making it practically impossible for the inner hull to fill with water. It’s a design concept that has won more than a few accolades, including Yacht magazine’s coveted Innovation Prize in 2006.

But as the company’s reputation grew, so did its ambition. “They started making bigger and bigger boats,” says David Morris, brokerage and new-boat sales manager at Tollesbury Marina in Essex, U.K., and an ETAP broker for 12 years. “The volume of sales started to decrease. They just weren’t able to cover the costs.” The company was bought by German yacht-building shipyard Dehler in 2008, which went bankrupt just eight months after the takeover. MIC purchased the ETAP name in March 2009 for an undisclosed sum, including all the original factory molds and design instructions. Rebuilding the brand should have been easy, according to Morris. “The people at MIC are engineers,” he says, “so they were the perfect company to manufacture boats.” Yet, he says, after several years of promises and encouraging e-mails, MIC has not built any boats, and Morris doesn’t expect them to begin anytime soon. “They’ve not filled us boat dealers with any confidence at all,” he says. “It’s really quite sad what’s become of the ETAP brand.”