Building a yacht like this takes a different kind of workforce
HCB Yachts is not a traditional boat builder. From its Tennessee operations, HCB builds highly customized center console yachts ranging from 39 to 65 feet, including the 65 Estrella, the world’s largest and most powerful center console yacht.
Every boat is highly customized. That means HCB is combining serious offshore performance with the level of fit, finish, engineering, and personalization you would expect from a luxury yacht.
And a product like that touches a lot of different trades before it ever hits the water.
There is composites work across hulls, decks, and tooling. Gelcoat, fiberglass, resins, adhesives, open molding, and vacuum infusion. There are engineers designing mechanical systems and solving problems unique to each build. There are experienced production leaders coordinating all of it on the floor.
HCB needed people across that whole operation, and in East Tennessee, many of those skills are not easy to find.
From gelcoat to engineering, the details matter
Laborup had to understand how the boat actually gets built.
For composites talent, that meant going deeper than someone having “fiberglass experience.” Did they know gelcoat? Lamination? Vacuum infusion? Open molding? Could they work with resins, fiberglass, foam, structural adhesives, and large molds?
For engineering roles, the questions were completely different. Marine experience mattered. Mechanical design mattered. Understanding how systems come together inside a highly customized yacht mattered.
Our team built that context into Laborup so our agents could work from the real requirements of HCB’s operation. Sourcing agents identified people whose experience lined up with the work. Voice and text agents went deeper on what they had actually done. Our team worked directly with HCB to keep sharpening the fit as we learned more.
That depth is what creates speed. For 1 specialized production role with a very specific skill set, Laborup filled the position in 24 hours. In an industry where it can take weeks to find a single person with the right experience, that kind of turnaround changes what a production team can plan around.
That has allowed Laborup to support HCB across very different parts of the factory, from composites craftsmen to production leaders and mechanical engineering talent.
One workforce partner across the build
The relationship has grown across Vonore and Madisonville, and across a much broader set of roles than where we started.
That is where the product becomes useful. HCB does not have to explain its factory from scratch every time it needs someone different. Laborup keeps building an understanding of how the company builds, what each team needs, and the type of person who succeeds there.
A gelcoater and a mechanical design engineer could not be more different on paper. But both are part of the same output: getting an incredibly complex, highly customized yacht out of the factory and onto the water.
