Damen Yachting

A Shipbuilder First, a Yacht Brand Second

Damen Shipyards Group was founded in 1927 by brothers Jan and Marinus Damen in Hardinxveld-Giessendam and grew, under third-generation owner Kommer Damen, into one of the largest privately held shipbuilders in the world, with more than 30 yards and a product line that runs from tugs and naval vessels to dredgers. Yachts are a small, comparatively recent part of that business, which matters for how Damen Yachting builds them: the same standardized modular hull-and-outfit approach that lets Damen deliver a patrol vessel or a workboat on a fixed schedule is applied to superyachts, favoring proven engineering over one-off experimentation.

The yacht side of the business traces to Amels, a Dutch builder founded in Makkum in 1918 that moved into luxury yacht construction in the 1970s. Damen acquired Amels in 1991 and relocated production to Vlissingen, on the former Royal Schelde shipyard site, in 2005. Rose Damen, a third-generation family member, now runs Damen Yachting from that Vlissingen base, overseeing both the Amels semi-custom range and the Xplorer expedition line.

SeaXplorer Becomes Xplorer

The explorer-yacht concept that would become the Xplorer range was unveiled at the 2015 Monaco Yacht Show as SeaXplorer, developed in partnership with expedition specialist EYOS Expeditions and built around a genuinely ice-classed steel hull rather than a superyacht styled to look rugged. The first two hulls, Anawa (62m) and La Datcha (77m), were delivered in 2020 and quickly proved the concept commercially: La Datcha in particular built a reputation as a working charter boat that books frequently, giving Damen the confidence to build later hulls on speculation rather than only to firm order.

In March 2022, at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, Damen Yachting retired the SeaXplorer name and relaunched the line as Xplorer alongside the new Xplorer 80. The range today spans the 58 metre class through the 60, 77, 80 and 105 metre models, all sharing ice-classed steel hulls, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion and long-range autonomy as the defining traits rather than top speed or beam-to-length ratio.