Founded in 1918, Amels Yachts is a Dutch shipbuilding brand that continues to surpass industry standards of excellence under the Damen Group umbrella. Amels Yachts has become one of the most successful superyacht manufacturers in the world, with many highly sought after luxury yacht builds for sale or charter. Amels Yachts is world-renowned for its successful Amels Limited Edition range, which includes six luxury motor yachts designed from 180-272 feet in length. To date, over 40 Amels Limited Edition yachts have been delivered to happy customers all over the world. This fleet revolutionized high-end yachting, representing an excellent balance between full custom and semi-custom builds while reducing the delivery time to as little as a few months. Their reputation for quality and build speed makes Amels Yachts a favorite on the sales and charter market.
History of Amels Yachts
Amels Yachts began in 1918, drawing its heritage and skilled artisans from the town of Vlissingen, Netherlands, the Dutch centre of shipbuilding since the 14th century. The Dutch yacht manufacturer started out producing wooden fishing boats up to 65 feet. With a dream to build bigger, Amels Yachts began working on larger commercial ships and coasters. It wasn’t until the 1970s when the company started to diversify into the high-value luxury yacht segment. In 1982, the successful launch of "Katalina" catapulted the Dutch boat builder into the specialization of luxury superyachts and established Amels into the yachting community.
The Damen family acquired Amels Yachts in 1991, which was by then synonymous with luxury yacht building. Since then, the Damen family has been committed to the yacht building business, which is a cornerstone of its iconic shipbuilding group today. Today, the Damen Shipyards Group is the worlds leading specialist shipbuilder with 12,000 employees and 35 shipyards around the globe. The division combines the pedigree and heritage of Amels yachts with their growing portfolio of SeaXplorer yachts and Yacht Support vessels.
Since moving the Amels operations to Vlissingen in 2003, the Damen Group has established the largest superyacht facility in the Netherlands. In 2005, the 50m Tigre d’Or was the world’s first MCA-compliant certified superyacht, which was the start of Amels semi-custom Limited Edition series of superyachts, designed by Tim Heywood. These yachts are built on proven, blueprinted hull-and-engineering platforms from 55m to 83m.
