I´ve received quite some interesting feedback – as every year, to be honest – after publishing my article in the aftermath of Cannes Yachting Festival 2026. Some found it too harsh, some asked if there was more to it that I´d rather better not communicate. Which ever side you´re on, one thing is clear: The boat market is in very turbulent waters. Shipbuilders and dealers, suppliers and customers are more or less desperately looking for an answer. So, here´s one: I´ve made a surprise visit to Hanse Yachts, to try and find answers directly on location.
Of course, you can´t just drive to Greifswald, park your car and walk onto the shipyard´s premises. You´ll need an appointment. And for that, you need to know somebody to call in the first this. I do. Vice President Maxim Neumann and Andreas “Andi” Unger, Product Manager for the sailing yachts at Hanse, welcomed me at the factory gates.
It´s not my first time here in Greifswald. If you are interested to see how Hanse, Dehler and Moody are built, you should check this article which is a complete shipyard tour with every station of a yacht in making, from loose fiberglass-matts to the stepping of the keel. This time, my focus was not so much on the technical and production side, but on the current state and … the health of the company, if you will. Because, there were indeed some irritating news lately.
Challenging times, for sure
I am referring to an article published a few weeks ago in the German “Manager Magazin”, comparable to “Bloomberg Business Week” or the “Fortune” in the US. I don´t want to re-iterate in the details of this article, but it painted a rather somber picture of the current state of the shipbuilder, insinuating financial problems and, you won´t believe it, broken toilets for workers who´d had to wash their hands with ice-cold water. To me, personally, this sounded more like a little personal “vendetta” of an ex-employee rather than well-researched facts, as some of the stated numbers were plainly wrong. Anyway, to start with the most pressing question: I´ve checked the loos and I was able to wash my hands properly. With warm water.
Far more interesting than those little juicy details are, of course, tangible, real informations. Like: How many units are in building right now? How about the order book, is it filled? What about quality issues and warranty? That´s far more pressing and, I´d say, more revealing and telling than some slipslop from the worker´s toilet. So, as we were walking from the parking lot, we passed the different workshops. One of which was the large hall where the yachts up to 45 feet would be thoroughly end-checked before delivery to their dealers and clients. See for yourself (above), I´d say there are plenty of boats currently in delivery.
Robots can´t lie
Of course companies have to spread positive news. What else should they do? I mean, they have to convince potential clients that it is a very good idea to buy their products. This goes for each and every product or service you can think of – and it´s valid for yachts too. Of course, prices have soared since Covid, so what? It´s a fact that cannot be denied, nor downplayed. The Euro has devaluated significantly, energy and labor costs are on the rise – but that goes for everything. But neither Hanse nor Jeanneau nor Oyster nor anyone can do anything about this fact. So why are people looking for a “stance” on that? They can´t be! On the other hand, here´s some good news …
I have found a nice indicator that cannot be “tuned” nor influenced: The robots. Here at Hanse, the carpentry is fully automated. Andi Unger explains it to me while we were standing in front of a huge production line. It was fully encompassed in a fence, light barriers guarded what was inside. Essentially, it works this way: There are two opening gates at either side. The first one is needed to bring in new raw material, which are huge piles of boatbuilding plywood, with and without veneers, in all possible thicknesses and material properties. The second opening is at the end of the line, where workers take out the finished parts for further treatment. Everything in between is automatic.
The thing about this robot is, that it works completely “chaotic”. This means, it can make all sorts of parts for all brands and boat types built here. Workers have no influence whatsoever this robot is building – it decided by its own according to live data from the production, which boat would need which parts at which point. Pretty clever, right? But it´s also a nice indication for the production as a whole: Because, when the robot is busy churning out parts, that means that in the fitting workshops these parts are needed. Otherwise, it would not make them.
Judging by the speed and the activity of this robot, there is a lot to do right now! There were thin plywood sheets, then it took in a thick plank, maybe for a bulkhead, and then some other parts with different veneers. Robots don´t lie: If these guys have plenty of work to do, then there is plenty of work to do. Andi confirms that right now, Hanse Yachts cannot complain at all about low orders. In relation to the overall state of the industry, these guys are pretty satisfied and happy.
Going the extra mile
So why is that so? There are other brands and shipyards laying off people and even closing down whole factories. Well, to be honest, that is what Hanse Yachts had also sadly go through. Shrinking their workforce to counterbalance a shrinking market is a brutal, but logical step. If there´s low demand, you need less people making the products to deliver. If there´s more demand, you will hire. It´s called capitalism, nothing special about it. But it would be too easy to just look at it this way. Here´s another robot, it´s the paint-spray machine that lacquers many of Hanse´s joinery for the boats:
It´s busy too, but what catches my interest had been the paint buckets. Hanse has invested quite something to improve their building quality in many respects. One of the many setscrews was, for example, the paint. Instead of just buying what´s there to buy, they sat down with the producer – designers and chemists – and designed their own proprietary “Hanse colors”. This means, painted surfaces in your Hanse will have their special appeal because the color is a one-off exclusive tone you won´t find on any other boat. And this is just one of the many adjustments they´ve made.
Another is the veneer quality. Sure, as almost all big series production boatbuilders, Hanse features wooden veneers from Italian supplier Alpi. But as with the colors as well, Hanse invested in a higher veneer-quality, which Andi shows me: The “old” Alpi-oak from last year – also quite nice – and the new white oak veneer from the current model range. The difference is staggering. The new material quality looks much better and will make for a much more sophisticated atmosphere within the yachts. And we all know how important interior design is for current customers, especially their wives!
So here we are: A second implication, a second way how shipyards react to the current crisis. By raising the quality of their products. It´s no secret that boats – across the series production spectrum – have deteriorated more or less significantly in the quality over the past 20, 30 years. I remember roaming a 25 years old Beneteau Clipper and I was astonished by the amount of really high grade massive woodworks! And now? Veneers which will peel off easily, veneers as thin as homeopathic probes, applied with simple household irons! Well, of course customers do not accept this kind of “quality” anymore – especially in face of these high prices!
Here at Hanse, as Andi tells me – and shows to me so that I can really see, feel and touch it – they tried very hard to maintain all the good side of effective, modular boatbuilding and eliminate the bad sides where possible. Raising the bar when it comes to interior quality was a major factor. I remember very, very vividly when the Hanse 460 came out. That was in 2022, that´s four years ago. I was so astonished to see this boat coming with such a great level of interior quality, that I named my article “The Paukenschlag-Boot”, after the German U-boat offensive against the US in the second world war, when those boats were hitting extremely hard, very successfully, a completely baffled opponent. Well, this boat was hurting its competitors a lot! I cannot tell how many Oceanis 46.1-contracts I lost to Hanse … And because of what? Better interior quality.
An invest into the future
Quality indeed is a very unpersonal thing. Apart from these fascinating, busy CNC-robots, even a series production boat is almost completely handcrafted. And hands, that´s a fact, belong to people. So if you want to raise the quality, you as well have to do it by motivating your employees to go the extra mile as well. This is only partially regulated with their wages. There´s more. Like toilets with warm water, right? Sorry, this joke is too good to let it pass. No, honestly: How do you motivate your employees?
For once by securing their jobs. By investing in their future. Those guys wearing the orange Hanse-sweaters are apprentices. There are many of those “orange-shirts” busily running around within the factory. Andi explains that each apprentice is assigned their personal “old salt”, from which they learn. Apprentices receive lower wages, yes, that´s right, but they also do not produce the same output like a “proper” employee. In the end, a company must invest and spend money for its apprentices. It´s an invest in their future. Bot the future of the apprentices, but also that of the company training them. Currently here at Hanse Germany alone, 22 apprentices work in different departments. I would say, that´s a rather big number.
And then, after passing the carpentry, the prototyping (pictures forbidden, sadly!) and the customization workshop, we enter the main production hall. From start to end, the “conveyor belt” is fully stacked and busy. Well, it was rather non busy because right when I arrived the siren called for the breakfast standstill. But look for yourself, there are a lot of boats in the making! And look even closer: Of the just launched new Hanse 461 as introduced in Cannes just three weeks ago, there is hull #24 already! Now, does that look like a company in crisis?
Return to their brand´s DNA
Of course, not everything is fine. It´s undeniable: The former Captain at the helm of Hanse Yachts apparently did make some decisions which were not really helping. For example, the second “conveyor belt” of the production had been transferred to Hanse Yachts Poland, hoping for more efficiency. Which did not materialize. So the guys now have to bring it back. Also, I personally have a problem to be honest with Hanse´s marketing. As you can see on the picture below, there´s a Hanse in the making. Next to it, a Moody.
The brand conglomerate of Hanse Yachts comprises not only the cruiser-range, but also their performance-brand Dehler, which still has an excellent standing among sailors in all over Europe. And then there´s the British traditional brand Moody, which Hanse incorporated into their house of brands back in 2007. My “problem” with their marketing is that everything I can see out there is just the same old “Early Bird”-offer and bargain promises. But there is certainly so much more to talk about! I mean, Dehler used to be the “affordable X-Yacht” with serious sailing power and racing capabilities, at least for amateur sailors. And Moody? This deck saloon yacht could and should be marketed as an ideal true blue water cruiser.
For too long the business – and this is from my point of view not only valid for these guys – focused too much on stuff that wasn´t really the “boats”. Their communication did not tell anything about their yachts, their DNA, their heritage, their capabilities, but it rather appealed to the ever same cheesy and boring stereotypes. This is sucked dry by now. People want the “real thing”, they want to know, what makes my Hanse a Hanse? What distinguishes it from the French or Italian boats? What´s so special about my Moody and where´s her British nucleus?
I can only hope – and suggest this to every shipyard – that they bethink themselves of there origins, their originalities and their heritage. And that they bring forward a modern interpretation that incorporates their history into a modern, forward-looking style. As for Hanse, I see so much potential here, especially for the Dehlers and Moody-yachts! Especially in a difficult market, brands should be very clear about their communication, just remember what happened to Jaguar not all too long ago …
The run for the millionaires
Sure, big boats over 50 feet still sell very good. That´s the same for Hanse as for any other shipyard. Andi confirms that the big, big units for the sailboats and even more the flagships of their power boat brands, leading with Fjord Yachts, are kind of untouched by the crisis in boat sales. Back in the day when I was still selling yachts – that´s two years ago – I started to notice that I would either sell smaller sized boats, daysailers and fast, easy performance boats, or the biggest yachts, 55 to 60 feet. In between? Very difficult, to say the least.
The “run for the millionaires”, which set in after the biggest jumps in prices occurred, seemed the only logical way out. Millionaires aren´t as sensible to price jumps as their high-end luxury lifestyle costs millions anyway. One more or less does bother them a lot less, than the price increase would hurt an “ordinary” sailor. So, of course Hanse Yachts also cashes in from that side. But Andi insists that this is not a very good long-term strategy. Because, frankly, there aren´t all too many millionaires. At some point, they will all have their boat. That said, Hanse indeed tries to find answers for the middle- and smaller-sized boat customers. Their classic core-client, which is a 35-40 feet Baltic Sea skipper, for example.
Outside at the Hanse delivery pontoons, I can see one of the short-term answers in this respect. The first unit of the brand new Dehler 34 SQ receives her final strokes of bottom paint and will be brought into the water thereafter. Hanse invests in smaller boats, trying hard to make them not only appealing to the “middle class”-sailor, but also affordable. Which is a walk on razor´s edge: I remember their Varianta 37 and Varianta 44-campaign of 2011/12. These were true “no frills” sailboats, offered to never-again-seen low prices! The outcome: People happily accepted the low cost price, but demanded design, quality and service of Hallberg-Rassy. Not a good combo.
Buckle up! There´s something on the horizon …
Andi invites me to sail the Dehler 34 SQ with him in a few days, which is an occasion I of course accept. But will this be enough? Reviving, refreshing and refurbishing old boats and re-launch them as new boats into the market? Of course not! Andi knows this and so does Hanse. That said, we enjoy a last cup of coffee in the Hanse meeting room and Andi connects his laptop to the big screen. And, yes, I am not allowed to take any pictures nor can I disclose all too much of what he shows me. But honestly guys, buckle up! There´s a big banger coming!
Having seen the newest of the older Dehler out in the crane half an hour earlier, I now get the full presentation of the new Dehler. It´s a brand new design. From a wonderfully talented designer. Not your ordinary Racoupeau nor the usual Judel/Vrolijk. It´s something quite unusual, fresh and never seen before. I literally jump out of my seat and press my nose directly into the screen: This new boat will stir up the industry! Not only that, it will surely elate Dehler owners and win over new ones! What I have seen here is the accumulation of everything I spoke about in this article: Style, quality, originality, heritage and soul. Believe me, this new boat will be awesome!
By the way, you should subscribe to my monthly newsletter so that you won´t miss any new article. Maybe you will be the first to get to know more about this new boat I cannot really talk about right now?! I will be on it, trust me!
So, back to Hanse. Have they told me everything? Of course not. I am just a journalist and as with any guest anywhere my hosts were akin to point to the good things. But honestly, no matter how hard I tried to ask, no matter how closely I looked, I couldn´t see bad things. Boats are being built here. People were cheerful, nicely clothed and friendly smiling. Andi and Maxim, no matter what happens at the top of the company, are the “old school” power-couple running the company here. With a lot of heart and with a lot of enthusiasm. And I think, this really more positive news.
You like more on Hanse? Here are some other interesting articles:
The Paukenschlag-Boot: Introducing the (then) new Hanse 460
Aboard the Dehler 30 OD – the Mini-Imoca
Palace under sails: Hanse 590 detailed walkthrough
