A journey to the heart of Europe to discover the latest trends in megayacht glazing.

This article begins a multi-part reportage of SUPER YACHT 24 on the German nautical industry, following a trip to Germany organized in collaboration with Deutsche Yachten, the national trade association.

Shipyards, suppliers, and professionals welcomed a select group of international media to offer a glimpse into the reality of a country with a great nautical tradition, recounting the stories of the many boats, companies, and people who have shaped the history of yachting, especially luxury yachting.

Nennhausen (Germany) – As the first stop on a tour of German nautical companies, finding yourself in the middle of the Brandenburg countryside, former East Germany, is quite an experience.

All around are meadows with hundreds of clearly happy cows grazing, wind turbines galore, fields more or less cultivated, farmhouses more or less abandoned: German unification took place almost 35 years ago, but the differences with the wealthy West are still clearly visible, and we will notice them even better later.

Yet it is precisely in this purely rural context that the production site of Tilse is located, a company producing glass for super and megayachts with 50 years of experience at the highest level.

Head (and top management) in Hamburg, factory, roots and heart in Nennhausen, about seventy kilometers west of Berlin.

“We want to make sure no one finds us, especially the competition,” jokes Henning von der Thusen, the managing director who, together with his wife Frauke, runs a company with 45 employees founded in 1974 by Hans-Joachim Tilse, Frauke's father, who led it until 2018.

From the very beginning, the company's mission has been to supply glass for ships, but since 1984 the offering has expanded to include superyachts and today it caters to a market segment ranging from 50 metres and up for motorboats and 24 metres and up for sailing boats.

Tilse's list of references includes famous boats such as Infinity, H₃, DAR and DreAMBoat (Oceanco), Viva, Alvia and Juice (Feadship), Liva (Abeking & Rasmussen) and numerous other sailing boat manufacturers such as Vitters, Baltic and Alloy.

All Tilse projects are “turnkey,” entirely conceived, developed, and installed by in-house teams to closely monitor an element—glass—that is increasingly important on high-end boats and is central to many yacht designers’ choices.

Von der Thusen explains the reason well: "High-end owners want increasingly larger glass surfaces on board. In the past, the windows on a megayacht simply served to 'see outside,' so to speak. Today, however, clients demand glass that extends enormously both in length and height, even from floor to ceiling in the living areas, to enjoy the feeling of having no barrier between the inside and outside of the boat."

Another rapidly evolving trend is that of curved, wraparound glass: "It's been fairly common on sailing boats for 30 years, but now the trend is also gaining ground on motor yachts. It's also interesting to note that this choice concerns not only the decks, which include the owner's and guest quarters, but also the helm station," says Henning.

And so far, so good for those who design and produce the glass 'in-house'.

It's already more complicated, however, to combine the needs of those who want an "Apple Store cube"-style boat—that is, a completely transparent environment, requiring 'white' glass—with those who prefer to avoid the prying eyes of neighbors on the dock and choose dark gray tinted glass instead.

Furthermore, the windows on a megayacht must always provide a high level of solar protection and prevent the interior from overheating. Not a major problem in Nennhausen, but definitely a problem in Antibes or Porto Cervo.

Hence the need to pay maximum attention to heat transmission and passage and create "yacht standard" products, meaning virtually free of defects, scratches, delamination, and optical distortion. Tilse then added its own touch, creating a patented composite glass ("Tilse glass"), consisting of two chemically strengthened layers bonded together by a special adhesive resin, developed in-house. Those who thought it would be difficult to conduct research and development on such an "ancient" material have finally succeeded.

Wandering through Tilse's warehouses, it's immediately apparent how automation and craftsmanship coexist harmoniously, with modern machinery for processing and handling glass alternating with spaces where both experienced and very young workers finish the glass by hand, transferring knowledge and expertise between generations, again without any dispersion.

The decision to join the ISO working group that develops international standards for the use of glass on yachts, such as regulation 11336, was also far-sighted.

The numbers prove Tilse's "conservative development" strategy right, as it grows organically every year at rates of 5 to 10% and continues to fish locally when it needs to expand its team, strengthening its ties with an area that has very little to do with sailing.

Brandenburg glass on megayachts sailing between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

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