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Ten shipyards account for roughly 70 percent of the global 40m-plus superyacht order book, depending on which year and which definition of new-build delivery is used. The rest is split across about 50 smaller yards, mostly in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and Turkey. We cover the ten that matter for a buyer or a charter client trying to understand which hull they are about to spend money on, and where the resale market will land in seven years.
A Feadship and a Benetti at the same length sell at different prices for a reason. A Heesen built in 2018 and an Oceanco built in 2018 are different products, even when the LOA and the guest count match. The yard sets the build quality, the refit cycle, and the resale ceiling. The interior designer sets a smaller share than most owners assume.
How the builder market is organized
The top end of the superyacht market splits into three tiers, with overlap at the edges.
The Dutch and German tier (Feadship, Lürssen, Oceanco, Amels at Damen, Abeking & Rasmussen, Heesen) builds 50m and up, almost exclusively to commission, with build slots three to five years out at most yards. Build cost runs €1.5M to €3.5M per meter of LOA at the high end. Resale holds value better than any other segment.
The Italian tier (Benetti, Sanlorenzo, Perini Navi, plus CRN, Codecasa, Baglietto, Rossinavi, ISA, and a dozen others) builds across 30m to 100m, mostly to commission above 60m and on speculative or semi-custom platforms below. Build cost runs €0.8M to €2M per meter. The interior options are stronger than the Northern European yards. The resale curve is steeper.
The specialist sailing tier (Perini Navi, Baltic Yachts, Wally, Royal Huisman, and a handful of others) builds sailing superyachts to commission with build slots two to four years out. The market is smaller, the buyer pool is sharper, and the resale on a well-kept Baltic or Royal Huisman is the best preserved on the water.
The 10 builders we cover
- Feadship. Dutch, 50m and up, build slots to 2030, the resale benchmark. Royal Van Lent and De Vries yards combine on most deliveries. Recent deliveries include several 80m-plus hybrids. The yard's reputation rests on build quality at handover and on a 20-year resale curve we have not seen another builder match.
- Lürssen. German, 60m and up, the largest superyachts on the water are mostly Lürssen. The yard's strength is engineering and finish at scale. We have notes on yard wait times and refit pipeline.
- Oceanco. Dutch, 80m and up, fewer deliveries per year than Feadship, more architectural risk in the recent book. Black Pearl and Bravo Eugenia are the recent reference points.
- Benetti. Italian, the broadest range on this list, from 30m semi-custom to 100m fully custom. The Diamond and Oasis platforms have driven volume. The custom side competes directly with Feadship at the top end. We have separated the production lines from the custom in the review.
- Sanlorenzo. Italian, 30m to 70m, public company since 2019, the strongest mid-market yard by reputation and pipeline. The SD and SL lines are the two volume platforms. The X-Space concept is the recent design direction.
- Heesen. Dutch, 30m to 80m, mostly aluminum and steel hybrids, the fastest yard at delivering 50m fast-displacement yachts. The 5000 Aluminium and FDHF series are the recent volume.
- Amels (Damen). Dutch, the Limited Editions platform at 60m to 80m has been the best-selling semi-custom superyacht line of the last decade. Custom side is at the top of the Damen group.
- Abeking & Rasmussen. German, smaller yard than Lürssen, with a strong reputation for engineering and a build book in the 50m to 90m range. Aviva is the headline example.
- Perini Navi. Italian sailing yard, restructured in 2021 under the Italian Sea Group. The order book is recovering. The fleet of pre-restructure deliveries is the strongest 50m-plus sailing inventory on the secondary market.
- Baltic Yachts. Finnish, sailing-only, mostly 30m to 60m, the lightest-built and best-engineered sailing superyachts on the water. Build slots are tight. The fleet of recent deliveries has the cleanest resale curve of any sailing builder.
Yards we have not put on this list
We will not list a yard until we have visited it, talked to two recent owners or captains of yachts it has built, and seen at least one delivery in the last three years. CRN, Codecasa, Rossinavi, Baglietto, ISA, Tankoa, Picchiotti, Royal Huisman, Wally, Vitters, and Holland Jachtbouw are all in the review pipeline. Several smaller yards have been moved from the pipeline to the not-yet column because the build quality or the financial stability does not support a confident recommendation in 2026.
We are also not covering Turkish yards (Bilgin, Turquoise, Sarp, Mengi Yay) on this list. Most Turkish builders have produced 70m-plus deliveries we would consider, but the buyer concerns around classification, registration, and resale outside the Mediterranean are still active enough that we want a longer record before publishing rankings. The 50m and below Turkish gulet market is covered separately under the Turkey charter and Bodrum pages.
How we review a builder
Each builder review covers ten things. Build history, fleet at sea, recent deliveries, recent refits, design partners by frequency, owner repeat rate, captain repeat rate, public-yard issues we have logged, market position by price per meter, and resale ratio at 5, 10, and 15 years. We name the build slots we would book and the ones we would not. We name the models on the secondary market we would buy and the ones we would pass on. The review is rebuilt every 12 months and corrected within five working days of any reader-submitted factual issue.
What this list is not
It is not a directory of every yacht builder. Twelve yards we have notes on are not yet on the published index. It is also not a ranking of "the best" superyacht builder in the abstract. Best for what depends on whether you are buying new, buying pre-owned at five years, buying pre-owned at fifteen years, chartering, or planning to refit a hull for re-sale in three years. The reviews answer the specific question. The index above is alphabetical-by-strategic-cluster, not ranked.
Where the builder pages connect to the rest of the site
A builder review links to the yachts-for-sale by builder pages where the secondary-market inventory of that builder is ranked. It links to the comparison pages where direct head-to-head decisions sit. It links to the refit costs guide and the new versus pre-owned guide where the build-versus-buy decision is worked. And it cross-links to the charter destination pages where most of that builder's fleet actually operates.
A buyer commits to a yard before committing to a yacht, in most serious cases. The builder is the first decision. These reviews are the input to it.