LEKKER completes its range with a 3,500,000 euro boat

LEKKER Boats introduced the LEKKER 60 this September, a 17.7-meter aluminum model that becomes the largest and most expensive boat the Dutch builder has produced in fourteen years. Pricing starts at approximately 3,500,000 euros. The yard's original product, an open aluminum sloop, starts at 190,000 euros, excluding VAT. Between the two sit the 38 from 941,000 euros and the 45 from 1,550,000.

The launch follows a 6,000,000 euro growth capital round announced at the HISWA show in early September. Founder Meindert Wolfraad told Dutch outlet Quote that the backers are entrepreneurs and boat owners, and that the capital funds expansion and the working capital larger hulls require. He said the money came from within his own ownership base, where 99 percent of the yard's 250 owners run their own companies.

Pricing for the 60 starts at approximately 3,500,000 euros. First hull is soon to enter the production across the yard's facilities in Leimuiden and Makkum.

LEKKER will build no more than three hulls of the 60 per year, and caps total output across the range at nine boats annually. The limit is deliberate. Every boat is built to order, and the yard has said it has no interest in a production line.

What LEKKER is selling

The LEKKER 60 seats twenty-four people and sleeps four. That ratio is unusual at this length and it is deliberate. LEKKER began by buying decommissioned orange lifeboats, cutting the tops off, and rebuilding them as fast social day boats. The seating logic survived the move upmarket. The berths were added later.

Buyers choose one of three exterior configurations: Sport leaves the boat open, Touring encloses it partially, and Grand Touring closes it. Below deck the options run from two cabins with two heads and two showers to a single open galley, a lounge, or a cinema layout. Mulder Design drew both the hull and the interior. Propulsion is inboard or outboard, and LEKKER engineers each hull for its maximum rated power whether or not the first owner orders it.

The construction is aluminum throughout, including the roof and the dashboard, and the boats are not filled or faired. Weld lines are visible on close inspection. Wolfraad treats that as a feature and has compared the effect to an older Land Rover Defender, though he has also said the larger boats will move toward something more refined. Aluminum is also what makes full customization viable at this volume: there is no mold to amortize, so no two hulls need to match.

LEKKER stays with sterndrives rather than pod drives on the larger boats. Wolfraad has said the reason is practical: sterndrives trim up for shallow water and beaching, and a damaged leg costs roughly 10,000 euros to replace against 50,000 or more for a pod. He has also said he would like to build a jet drive version and has not done one yet.

How the boats are built and who buys them

Every hull is welded by hand. The 45 originally took roughly 5,800 individually welded aluminum pieces and twelve months to build. Re-engineering it to 4,000 pieces cut about twelve weeks out of the schedule, and build time is now near ten months. A composite hull of the same size comes out of a mold in about six weeks, which is the trade LEKKER has chosen against: no mold means no two boats have to be alike.

Much of the demand for the smaller boats comes from the large-yacht market. Roughly 40 percent of LEKKER's output goes to owners of yachts from 60 meters up, as tenders and chase boats, and the 38 exists because owners of 35-meter yachts wanted something towable. The 45 had nothing above it, so an owner who outgrew one had to leave the brand. In the United States exactly one LEKKER has been resold, and only because the owner moved to a 40-meter yacht and could not tow a 45 behind it. Above the 60 sits the 6x, a fully bespoke line covering the 60 to 70-foot range.

The average LEKKER owner holds the boat 6.4 years. Wolfraad says owners who bought six to ten years ago have resold at a profit, helped by the rise in build costs over that period.

LEKKER has built 250 boats since 2012. Wolfraad has ruled out building outside the Netherlands, on the grounds that customization requires the yard to be walked twice a week, and has ruled out a United States facility because most of the parts would still be imported. On tariffs he has said most American buyers flag the boats overseas, and that those who want a United States flag have been willing to pay the duty. His stated target is fifteen to twenty-five boats a year across the 38, 45, 60, and 6x. He has said he does not intend to go larger.

LEKKER 60 at a glance

The LEKKER range