Set across 12,000 square metres of land area on the site of a historic Dutch cruiseship builder, Leapher Yachts is a newcomer to the superyacht construction scene. It sits is the former site of De Hoop in Tolkamer, the Netherlands, a shipyard that stood for over 130 years on the banks of the Rhine River close to the German border. The once-thriving yard shuttered operations in 2021, and Leapher Yachts purchased the site in 2023.
The new yard is a boutique operation with one yacht – the 60.5-metre Project Lazarus (or Horizon) – in build, but they're already hoping to take the explorer yacht market by storm. BOATPro speaks to the man behind it – superyacht owner, serial businessman and now owner and CEO of Leapher, Yiannis Andriotis...
Did you ever have any plans to take over a shipyard and build a superyacht?
It wasn’t in my plans. It popped up, as everything good in life does, when you meet the right people and the timing is correct. We put a lot of resources into investigating, to confirm if it was viable.
Why the Netherlands?
If you want to start something new, it’s better to do it based on the foundations already laid by others. There is so much knowledge in this country so it’s easier to find good, knowledgeable, talented people who are the best in their field. We have to agree that the Dutch are building the best yachts in the world. It’s not just the marketing of the Dutch yachts, it’s deeper than that.
Would you ever build on spec?
On spec is always easier, because it’s easier to sell. But at this point, I’m not sure it’s the right moment to start building on spec. There’s a lot of instability in the world and you need to be cautious at times like this.
Is there any chance you’ll build the Navix 60 and then sell the shipyard?
No, I’m hooked. Yachtbuilding is addictive.
More so than your other businesses?
This isn't my biggest business, but it’s certainly the most challenging. I have to learn so much about construction, costs and timings. You really have to understand what certain consequences are, how things interact with each other, and what the knock-on effects are of certain things, and that takes so much time. I’m a hands-on person; as the owner of the shipyard, normally you’d delegate some things to senior staff. But we’re short-handed right, it’s early days and we’re lean, so I’m a part of the group.
We can’t cut corners because it’s too expensive, and we can’t make mistakes, because mistakes cost a lot of money in this industry. So [I] have to be hands-on because we can’t afford not to be. In the future, I won’t be as involved, but right now I'm working long days at the yard and overseeing every detail.
Where does the NAVIX50 fit into Leapher’s plans?
In addition to the NAVIX60, we are currently in the development phase for the NAVIX50, a versatile explorer yacht designed for seasoned owners. It is built with the same philosophy [as the NAVIX60] – rugged, efficient and designed to explore without unnecessary complications. We anticipate that construction could begin as soon as the right client aligns with the project. It’s a yacht for those who value capability and endurance over opulence.
How would you describe Leapher to someone who's never been here before?
It’s not a modern yachting facility, this is no-bullshit, no-fuss yachtbuilding. We still have the commercial shipbuilding mentality of the [former de Hoop yard] which means that every yacht that leaves the yard needs to make profit. Once our yachts leave the slipway, they never come back. We don’t want our boats to come back for refits or rebuilds or warranties. We don’t want to see our boats ever again, because we trust that the moment we launch them, they work and they don't need us anymore.
Do you believe in subcontractors?
A boat is built with a list of tasks and when you boil it down, building boat A is the same as building boat B. It’s the same DNA; it’s the last 10 per cent that’s different. So, if you take this core DNA and split these tasks into demarcation tables of who does what, you’ll understand that the shipyard is involved in a lot of ways by bridging gaps between subcontractors The most efficient way to deal with these tasks is by [not letting] people interfere between the beginning of each task and the end of each task. It doesn't make sense to stop the flow.
I’ll give you an example: You order the shafts or propulsion from a company, they produce it and the shipyard installs it. There, we see a gap: "Why don’t we ask the producers to install the shafts they made themselves, rather than let the shipyard do it?" Immediately the cost and the responsibility is transferred to the contractor, who is obviously more specialised than the shipyard to do this task. It’s more efficient to let the specialised people do the specialised work than exchange millions of emails about things that we’re not experts in.
What markets are you targeting?
I do believe in the Asian market, it’s emerging rapidly. And the amount of people [from Asia] that will soon be introduced into yachting will flourish in the next five, ten years, even [for] explorers. Explorers are by definition something different, they are not the standard type of yacht that you’d see parked somewhere in the South of France or Greece. I’m not sure how they’ll be connected to the Asian market, but you know the Asian market is so big, they can absorb so many parts of production.
But the American market is the most interesting in the world, and it's an area we're paying attention to. Americans are boat lovers by definition and they love simple designs, and they see good quality, It doesn’t have to be too 'fancy'.
How do you hope the industry will receive you?
I hope they'll recognise the quality and the value. We want to build yachts that last. When we started Leapher, we gathered all of the most experienced minds we could and put them into a package. We’re building cost-effective vessels because of the way we’re building them, and the cost per GT is extremely [competitive] compared to other yards in the Netherlands. We don’t have huge marketing overheads, we don’t have a huge organisation so our operational costs are extremely limited. This translates into a cost-effective, high-quality vessel.
We’ll be attending some boat shows and we're interested in participating in the Explorer Yachts Summit. It's always good to learn, and it doesn’t make sense if you have all this experience around you and you don’t listen to the competition. The competition has been where you are and it's probably where you want to go. So the best feedback should come from the people who have already done it.
What are your plans for the future?
We hope the future will allow us to build a limited amount of boats every year. We’re not doing it for the money, we're not looking to make our livelihoods from Leapher. But I want to create something new, something something different and I think Leapher is creating a very unique product.