Dehler Yachts

Dehler is a German brand for seagoing sail yachts. It is originated in the former Dehler shipyard that was founded by Willi and Heinz Dehler in the 1960s.

History

Founding and rise

Willi Dehler (1929-1999) was one of the first in Europe, who recognized the capability of GRP-plastic for boatbuilding. In 1963 he started to produce small dingies in a former cinema auditorium and had success.^[1] He took his brother Heinz in and in 1966 they launched the Varianta, a 21 ft long cabin boat with keel centerboard and removable coach roof (design: E.G. van de Stadt). The Varianta became the most successful family cruiser ever with a total production of about 4000 units until 1982.^[2] Further cruising models like the Optima, the Delanta, the Duetta and the Dehlya followed and Dehler Yachtbau rose to a leading manufacturer of sail yachts in Germany.

Sportive successes in the 1970s and 80s

In the 1970s Willi Dehler also began to develop innovative boats for racing. He launched the Sprinta (design: E.G. van de Stadt/Cees van Tongeren), a Quarter-Tonner whose sharpened version - the Sprinta Sport - became a popular one-design class and could excel in IOR regattas.^[3] As a licensed manufacturer of 470 class dingies since 1974 Dehler could record a gold medal in the Olympic Games 1976 won by Frank Hübner and Harro Bode.^[4] In the Three-Quarter Ton class the db1 (1979) and db2 (1984) made a splash (both designs: E.G. van de Stadt/Cees van Tongeren).^[5] The cruising version of this models - the Dehler 34 - is popular till now.

Changes of ownership and further development

In 1979 Heinz Dehler left the company, Willi Dehler followed in 1995. In the wake of the slump in yacht building during the mid-1990s Dehler Yachtbau got into an economic crisis which culminated in a first bankruptcy in 1998. The shipyard was taken over by the Dutch Neptunus Group.^[6] In cooperation with the yacht designers Judel/Vrolijk & Co a new range of fast cruisers up to 47 ft was launched.

In 2004 Dehler was sold to the Dutch businessman Wilan van den Berg who joined as managing director, appointed a cooperation with the yacht designers Simonis Voogd and forced growth. In 2007 the German private equity investor Buchanan Capital Partners acquired a minority stake in Dehler.^[7] Few weeks later Dehler announced the acquisition of the Belgium yacht manufacturer Etap.^[8] In 2008 a Dehler 60 was introduced, the largest Dehler ever,^[9] which was too costly for the company at that time. Hull number one remained a single piece.

During the financial crisis 2008 Dehler Yachts had to file bankruptcy again. Etap was cut off and Dehler was taken over by the German HanseYachts AG in 2009.^[10] As a consequence the cooperation with Judel/Vrolijk & Co was renewed. In 2012 HanseYachts announced the close-down of the Dehler factory in Freienohl and relocated the production to HanseYachts headquarters in Greifswald (Baltic Sea).^[11] Since then Dehler is part of the brand family within HanseGroup.

In 2014 the Dehler 38 was displayed as "Europen Yacht of the Year" in the category "Performance Cruiser".^[12]

Current range

model (year of launch)

• Dehler 29 (1998)
• Dehler 32 (2010)
• Dehler 34 (2016)
• Dehler 38 (2013)
• Dehler 42 (2016)
• Dehler 46 (2014)

Naval architect/design: Judel/Vrolijk & Co

References

External links

• Review of the Dehler 38. Sail Magazine, January 2014
• Collection of non-official videos showing yachts produced by HanseGroup, Facebook podcast