Horizon Yachts

From Kaohsiung to the world's top five

Horizon was founded in Kaohsiung in 1987 by CEO John Lu together with co-founders Cheng Shun Hui and Gong Shan Chiai, three engineers who believed Taiwan could build yachts to a standard the established yards would have to take seriously. Four decades later the company is Taiwan's largest yacht builder and bills itself as the fifth largest builder of custom luxury yachts in the world, a claim backed by a delivery record very few yards anywhere can match.

The numbers are the argument. Horizon has delivered more than 940 yachts to owners around the world, over 260 of them above 80 feet. It is the first and only member of SYBAss, the Superyacht Builders Association, from the Far East, and the Horizon Group accounts for roughly a third of Taiwan's total yacht exports, a trade that has made the island one of the top five megayacht-building nations.

Four yards, one vertically integrated group

Horizon Group runs four facilities in Kaohsiung covering around one million square feet: the original Horizon yard, Vision Yachts, Premier Yacht for the largest builds, and Atech Composites, the in-house composites specialist that laminates hulls using vacuum-infusion techniques and supplies advanced GRP work well beyond the marine industry. Add Horizon City Marina at the waterfront and the group controls every step from tooling to launch.

The infrastructure keeps growing with the boats. In June 2025 the group completed a 1,800 ton shiplift at Premier Shipyard after two years of construction, able to launch and haul yachts up to 60 meters. Premier is where the biggest Horizons take shape, including the EP150 explorer, the RP series and the coming FD130 flagship, and the shiplift positions the yard for refit work on other builders' tonnage too.

Built in Taiwan, at home in America

The United States has long been Horizon's largest market, and the yard services it directly through Horizon Yacht USA, a factory-owned sales and service operation in Florida. The brand is a fixture at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and the major West Coast shows, and a striking share of new builds, including both FD97 Tri-Decks sold in July 2026, are destined for American owners.

Ownership comes with a social calendar. In 2025 alone Horizon hosted owner rendezvous events in Texas, Key West and Rottnest Island in Australia, alongside show appearances at Cannes, Monaco and Barcelona. Factory-direct offices and dealers in Australia and Europe round out a support network that follows the boats wherever their owners take them.

Eight series from 52 to 150 feet

Horizon builds eight distinct series. The FD fast displacement line drawn by Cor D. Rover is the modern core, flanked by the sporty E series, the long-running RP raised pilothouse range, the traditional V series, PC power catamarans, the P140 superyacht platform, CC custom catamarans and the EP explorer line that tops out with the 45 meter EP150.

The FD series shows how fast the yard moves. Launched at the 2017 Fort Lauderdale show with the FD85, it sold twenty hulls within three years and now spans seven models from 75 to 130 feet, with hull numbers on the FD90 platform alone reaching into the mid-thirties. Every series shares the same semi-custom promise: series engineering underneath, an owner's own layout and decor on top.