Tanıl Sürmeli, product manager at Sirena Marine. He supervises a team of eight individuals who handle all aspects of the development and introduction of each new model, from its initial idea to its actual release and market presence. We asked him to whisper the answers to all our questions.
What is your job description?
In short, to create the right product. In line with this goal, we are a team that comes up with ideas, designs the interior and exterior of the boats when necessary, researches the market, prepares technical inputs, analyses competition and prices, talks to potential customers and dealers and listens to their demands, then prepares the business plan and budget and presents it to senior management. Throughout the product cycle, we continue to play an active role in design and equipment changes that will affect the promise of the product.
Equipment selection criteria are quite a closed box for boat users. For example, what do manufacturers do according to machine preference?
This is not a simple commercial decision. I can explain it like this; every brand sets out with a promise. One of our most important promises when designing the Sirena Yachts brand was to create sailor boats. For this reason, we preferred to work with brands with common promises in the selection of equipment such as propulsion, navigation, safety and similar equipment. We also made the choice of machinery in this direction. Especially customers who are experienced in maritime are a bit conservative. New technologies are not instantly accepted as in other sectors. Someone who has experienced sea conditions feels more comfortable with products that have been used and tested for years. For this reason, we have to choose the most reliable, proven and most importantly, the machines that the customer feels the most comfortable and safe; even if it is not always the latest technology.
Let’s take a flash back to 2009 or even before. Who were you when you entered Sirena Marine as a young engineer? Did your career develop in a planned way or did it develop by coincidence?
Actually, I can say that it was quite planned. When I was young, we used to spend our summers on our family’s sailboat. My passion for the sea started then. At the end of my high school years, I focused completely on a profession related to the sea. At that time, there were only ITU and YTÜ Shipbuilding Departments in Istanbul, but ships and yachts were two different fields. So I started to search for a school on yacht construction and I came across Newcastle University, one of the most important schools in this field. I wrote an application letter explaining myself and what I wanted to do. Luckily, the head of the department was Turkish and he personally took care of my application. Surprisingly, I quickly completed the criteria and went there and graduated from the Yacht Design and Engineering department at the end of 4 years. Then I did my master’s degree in Southampton, which is also a very important university, and returned to Turkey. Because Turkey had become a leading country in the sector in those years. After my return, I saw Sirena Marine in one of Saffet Bey’s programmes one day and applied directly. My first task here was the assembly responsibility at Azimut Marine, which was established jointly by Sirena and Azimut Yachts at that time, and when the goal was to produce Turkey’s first serial yacht, we had an incredibly busy, yet enjoyable and educational period. In the following years, I was appointed as project manager for Azuree, Sirena’s sailing brand. After a few busy but very enjoyable years, we decided to create our own motor yacht brand as Sirena. Here, with a radical decision, I was appointed as the Brand and Marketing Manager. In fact, although it may seem unrelated, I was to take an active role in the creation of products, which are the most important part of a newly created brand. After the road map of the brand and products was drawn, my role evolved into the Product Management, which I briefly mentioned above.
Do you feel like you have reached the best place that can be reached in this sector?
Or do you have a goal to make one more step? For me, the satisfaction that my work gives me and the opportunity to fulfil my dreams are more important than a title. It is a really nice feeling to see your ideas and works turn into a product that travels the world in front of your eyes. My goal for the next stage is to have the boats in our entire product range floating on the seas with Sirena Marine design and engineering. In the last few years, we have made serious efforts towards this goal; for example, the interior and exterior designs of the Sirena 48, 118 project, and another model that we will soon announce, are our own.
Since the creation of the Sirena Yachts brand, there has been a significant distance travelled. What do you see when you compare the first brand promises and dreams with today?
Honestly, we could predict that we would be here one day, but it was out of our plans that it would happen so fast. The biggest reason for this is, of course, a great market demand arising from the pandemic. With the increase in production volume, we had to bring forward many of our projects planned for the future, which helped us get closer to our founding dreams faster.
What are the projects that excite you out of your daily routine nowadays?
We currently have 118 and 2 new models on the table, the names of which we cannot launch yet. They are the ones we are working on the most intensely and the ones that excite us the most. The production of Sirena 118 has started and we are preparing for its launch for the Monaco fair. Of course, we also have a few projects that very few people are aware of.
Can you give some spoilers on Sirena 118 before the launch?
It will be the biggest composite boat we have ever produced. The exterior design is completely our own. It is a project that completely carries the Sirena DNA. It has a layout that we do not see much in the market, especially the master cabin. It is a beautiful boat with a total of 6 cabins with plenty of social areas outdoors.
