Trintella’s Brand History
A strong brand, in communications too
In 2014, the Trintella brand has celebrated her 50th anniversary. For this occasion, the Trintella Vriendenkring has given this brand of sailing yachts a historical face by publishing the book ‘Trintella Yachts – Dutch Glory from Brabant’. This book pays special attention to the brand value and its displays and puts all of it in historical perspective.
The brand is defined by a number of solid core values, such as luxury, freedom, seaworthiness, comfort, soundness and quality. Rational and emotional values united in one brand. A brand of sailing yachts with a clear signature, built at Anne Wever’s shipyard in the Dutch ‘s-Hertogenbosch and sold to customers all over the world. Several of the branch’s yachts have sailed around the world dozens of times, and have scoured seas, rivers and oceans, from east to west and north to south.
The brand’s origin traces back to 1959, when it had been some time since Anne Wever had given famous Dutch yacht architect Ricus van de Stadt the task to design a cabin cruiser for the Dutch inland and coastal waters. So, in 1958 the first steel hull had arrived at the shipyard and was skilfully and soundly finished by the best craftmen. In 1959, the first yacht was launched and showed to a large audience at HISWA Amsterdam. Anne Wever had to come up with a name for his boat. He decided on Trintel type I, with the thought that more (and larger) types would soon follow. The boat was named after a sandbank near Enkhuizen, in the IJsselmeer. The name ‘Breezand’ was also considered, but the idea was soon discarded as it would be too hard to pronounce in other languages. What a fortunate foresight.
The market for cabin sailing yachts experienced significant growth in the sixties. The need for a material to build hulls from, which would be cheaper than steel, arose; polyester was introduced. Van de Stadt designed a polyester version of the Trintel. Anne Wever felt like he should give a different name to this entirely new and more modern generation of polyester sailing yachts, even though they still had their classic wooden framework. So the name Trintella was born. It must have been a lucky find: Trintel administration, texts and brochures often mentioned ‘Trintel Ia’. This referred to a Trintel yacht, type Ia, the model with a spade rudder. Someone at the shipyard suddenly saw the name ‘Trintella’ in it. The name was presented to several people and turned out to be even better pronounceable than Trintel. This was important for the growing export market (e.g. to England).
An advertisement from the ‘early’ period of the shipyard, with the sailing emblem prominently present
Advertisement from 1976 with focus on unique characteristics
Introducing the polyester hull in 1964 meant introducing the Trintella brand name. This name would be forever linked to the brand of sailing yachts from Shipyard Anne Wever, later named Trintella Shipyard from ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
The shipyard was also one of the first to have a sailing emblem and a company logo. Anne had developed a nose for modern PR and communication early on. After all, in his youth he had already created a flag with his initials to give shape to his ‘personal branding’.
First flag by Anne Wever with his initials – ca. 1940
To strengthen the position of the Trintella brand, a company logo was used in the sixties and the mainsail was brandished with a sailing emblem. Using a sailing emblem was not entirely new, but was almost exclusively used in the national open sailing boat classes. The main advantage of using it was being able to recognise the boat’s brand and type from a large distance, even on the water.
Company logo of the Shipyard Anne Wever – sixties to ca. 1990
Sailing emblem for mainsail – First generation of Trintellas – 1965 to 1992
With every new series of boats, the core values of the brand and her boats have been re-established for decades. A brand with a clear signature, that manged to separate itself from the pack. Van de Stadt has played a large part in this as fixed architect and has contributed greatly to Trintella’s brand core values.
That clear and recognisable signature stopped being used when the shipyard was sold in 1992, to a new owner who wanted to take the brand to the market of faster sailing yachts. For the first time in 35 years, a different yacht architect was hired. This resulted in a swifter design, and the company logo and sailing emblem were renewed as well. The new changes did not appeal to both the existing market of Trintella sailors and the newly discovered target audience. The famous core values of the brand were insufficiently present in the new designs.
Sailing emblem for mainsail – Second generation of Trintellas – 1992 to ca.2005
Company logo of the shipyard after new start – 1992 to 2002
During the shipyard’s final phase, which lasted until her doors closed in 2002, the Trintella C was launched, based on the successful Trintella A series but based on the design of Ron Holland. After the closing of the yard in 2002, the brand rights and several unfinished projects were sold to an English shipyard. After several attempts by the English to get a new start, the curtains fell on the brand, at least for now. An Italian shipyard bought the brand rights, apparently seeing the value and perspective of building sailing yachts with the Trintella name.
From a historical perspective, it’s interesting to see that several boat builders have wanted to build more Trintella sailing yachts based on Trintella’s reputation and fame, even after Anne Wever’s time. Yet they failed to give the brand a durable future. Or have they? The brand has been registered in the Netherlands again since 2017, and during a Trintella Vriendenkring meeting in 2018, Doomernik Yachts has presented the Trintella 2.0 concept. Will it work this time, to give a future to the DNA of the brand’s founder Anne Wever ?
Revision: January 2020
