Arista Marine was formed in March 2009 by Arthur Hughes, David Hicks, Geoff Mayhill and Don Marshall, who bring together a skill set combining corporate management, finance, engineering, boat building, yacht design and shipyard management.

Their joint objective is to establish a world class yacht building and repair facility in the Eastern Mediterranean, capitalizing on the high skill set of the local work force, relatively lower labour rates and access to one of the largest and most popular cruising areas for yachts.

The team came together as a result of their experience completing the high profile yacht, the 70m M.Y Amadeus. The vessel was completed in Croatia by Arista and Specialist Marine Interiors (SMI) a prestigious yacht interior fabrication company based in New Zealand.

After that project the Arista team acquired a majority interest in SMI and folded its Croatian operation into the follow on project, the conversion of a 120m vessel from a commercial transport vessel to a world cruising Mega Yacht.

The Project known only as AMG120 required all of the elements of the Arista team, including Finance, Legal, Engineering Design and Shipyard management. The construction work commencing in February of 2011, at the facility in Split Croatia, and the project is on-going at this time.

Using this large project as a cornerstone, Arista has built a strong organisation of project managers, naval architects, yacht designers, marine engineers, production engineers and other professionals and are actively developing the business.

The yard in Croatia is operated by Arista Jahte d.o.o and is based in the north harbour of the town of Split. With over 1000 islands scattered along its coast line Croatia is rapidly becoming one of the most popular cruising destinations for superyachts that are based in the Meditereanean. For Arista Marine and SMI the establishment of a new-build, repair and refit centre in the dalmatian region is a key element in the business development strategy whereby the skills and knowledge of the New Zealand companies have easier access to service the European Supeyacht market.

Additional to this, Arista are developing in conjunction with some world renown designers, various projects in line with their philosophy including the recently publicised Phantom 24 Superyacht Support Vessel and a daring 110m concept by Andrew Langton of Reymond Langton Design.