BOAT International on board the Wajer 44
This 13-metre fills a gap in the Dutch builder’s line-up with a model everyone seems to love. A boat that marries superlative engineering with a stealth wealth aesthetic...
At this point, Wajer Yachts should be a case study for Harvard Business School. The three-decade-old builder has hurdled its way up the food chain, from marketing smallish lake boats to becoming the 360-kilo gorilla in the superyacht tender market, thanks partly to a “stealth wealth” aesthetic that has become so en vogue over the past few years.
There isn’t much flash to a Wajer – and yet, just as the tiny label on a Loro Piana peacoat advertises by not advertising, a Wajer tied up at the dock seems to whisper: there might be a Lürssen nearby.
The builder’s latest entry into this rarefied world is the 44. It slips sweetly in between the existing 38 and 55 models, while taking some design cues from the Wajer flagship, the 77. Company brass thinks this is their greatest launch yet.
“Just from looking at the proportions, this is the best one,” says Wajer’s director of operations Ronald van Hulst. “The width, length and freeboard height work together so well; this is our most beautiful boat.”
Van Hulst’s boss, managing director Dries Wajer, echoes his sentiments. “We take this one down the Intracoastal [waterway] and people literally chase us down everywhere, asking questions. It’s a real head turner,” he says.