Full Circle - Owners of the Commander 54

“The Blue Ocean has truly exceeded our expectations and we couldn't be happier with our purchase. We are confident that it will continue to be a reliable and enjoyable part of our adventures on the water for years to come..”

My wife, Carla and I sold our manufacturing business and retired from regular work in 2020. We had spent most of our life on or near the water and enjoyed boating. A friend of ours, who owned a Nordhavn 55, suggested that we might enjoy the cruising life – learning new skills, making new friends and seeing new places. However, the largest boat we ever owned was a 23 ft fiberglass day boat for fishing and cruising coastal waters.

Nevertheless, we started looking and found a Nordhavn 63 for sale (full displacement, 75 tons and 2-meter draft) – we went “all in” and bought it. We named her Sea Chance. – that is a story for another day.

My background is engineering – I was comfortable to manage the electrical / mechanical systems, but we really needed some serious boat handling training, so we hired a Nordhavn training captain for a month. This made a big difference and gave us the confidence we needed to handle a large yacht – and a healthy respect for what can go wrong on the water!

After a year of cruising our Nordhavn, we decided that we wanted a different layout and a more modern aesthetic. We started looking around and found Steeler Yachts. Carla and I had previous experience working for a Dutch company and were comfortable with the people, culture and technical skills. I called Yorrith Joosten and thus began our relationship with Steeler. Steeler offered a portfolio of yachts that met our interests – steel and aluminum coastal yachts – also explorer yachts – all with CE Cat A certification.

While visiting Steeler, we became interested in the “family” of Dutch shipyards that were producing 15 – 25 meter yachts and decided to visit as many of them as we could. It was interesting that most of the yards were building boats from steel and aluminum – not fiberglass. In contrast, nearly 100% of the recreational boats sold in America are fiberglass. The Dutch boats also had a modern, fresh interior look compared to the all-wood interiors of the fiberglass cruising yachts built in Asia and sold into North America. The Dutch boats were a completely different concept – they will one day make a significant market impact in America.

In the end, we settled on a new Commander 54 produced by the Holterman Shipyard in Meppel.

We loved the layout, the aesthetic, the price and the delivery time – so we decided to go forward with the purchase. OK – Yorrith was not happy to lose an order, but he was a gentleman, and we agreed to keep in touch.

A few months after we placed the order with Holterman, Carla and I were in the town of Zwolle. We were walking along the canals one evening and saw nothing but Steeler Yachts – they were everywhere!

It was obviously a Steeler Yachts rally. So I texted Yorrith – he was in town at dinner with the other owners – he texted me right back and told me that we would one day be “part of the fun” when we owned a Steeler Yacht!!

We continued with the build of our Commander 54 at Holterman, but things soon turned dark. We did not know when we signed the contract that that the Holterman Shipyard was unhealthy financially. The skilled team at Holterman – engineers and shipbuilders – was (and is) very skilled – the fit and finish of their yachts was (and is) best in class. Unfortunately, they were not pricing their boats for profitability and were eventually forced to declare bankruptcy. The yard declared insolvency in October 2024.

This was an unsettling time for Carla and me – a bankrupt shipyard with a partially finished yacht – uggh! But then, only a few weeks after formal bankruptcy, the “the waves settled, and the sky cleared”. We received a call from Hans Webbink – he explained that he was active to buy the Holterman shipyard and restart production. For Steeler, it was a perfect opportunity – they had a full orderbook and limited production capacity. The Holterman Shipyard – only 15 min drive from Steenwijk, offered a team of best-in-class shipbuilders ready to do what they do best – build quality yachts.

Hans and Yorrith were able to complete the asset purchase – shipyard property and equipment – in less than a month – not an easy task. Of note is that all the ex-Holterman employees decided to stay at the shipyard and continue with Steeler Yachts – a real show of confidence for Hans, Yorrith and their team. By mid-November, work had restarted on our Commander 54.

So, in the end, Yorrith was right – we would one day “be back with Steeler Yachts”. As the title of this story implies – we came “full circle”. Our boat will be finished in May and will be proudly branded with the Steeler Yachts logo. The Commander 54 will take a rightful place in the S-Class (Long Range) series – between the S50 and the S57.

52S Performance

56S Performance

57S Performance

60S Performance
Centre Sleeper

65S Performance
Trawler

50S Long Range

57S Long Range

59S Long Range

65S Long Range