Saffier sailboats: a family-built Dutch daysailer maker
Saffier is a small, design-led Dutch builder of daysailers and weekenders, still designed and built in-house by the family that founded it -- a father and two sons who moved between Australia and the Netherlands, sailed the world together, and eventually turned that experience into a yard on the North Sea coast at IJmuiden.
Origins and ownership
Richard Hennevanger's dedication to boats began at twelve. Around 1960, after military service, he and his wife moved to Australia, where he opened his first boatyard in Sydney, building the Santana 22 and 26-foot models. He later worked on Gretel II, the 12-metre yacht built for the 1970 America's Cup and the first non-US challenger to win a race in the finals; during that campaign he met Bob Miller, later known as Ben Lexcen and the designer of Australia II, and together they designed a 56-foot ketch for Richard's dream of sailing the world with his family.
In 1972 the Hennevangers returned to the Netherlands and built that dream yacht, the 16-metre ketch Spirit of Sydney, then sailed the world's oceans together for eight years before settling back in the Netherlands around 1980 so sons Dennis and Dean could get a formal education. Richard started a small IJmuiden boatyard; Dean trained as a naval architect alongside him while Dennis spent the 1980s skippering early mega yachts.
Inspired by a new marina being developed in IJmuiden, Richard set out to build a small, seaworthy sailboat "to enjoy a day sailing around IJmuiden bay," in his own words. During a family evening, Dennis and Dean chose the name Saffier, and Dennis sketched the brand's diamond-shaped logo that night. The Saffier 6.50 debuted at the Hiswa Boatshow in Amsterdam in March 1998, drawing 15 orders within two months. Saffier's own history page separately dates the brothers' formal launch to 1999, so the company's own record isn't fully consistent on the exact year -- the late-1990s framing is as precise as it allows.
Dennis and Dean formally took over the yard from their father around 2000-2001; Richard kept designing -- the 8.00, from 2002, was his -- until his death in 2020, when his funeral was held at the yard. Naval architect Kees van de Stadt of Satellite Yacht Design has since been Saffier's long-running outside design partner, working with Dean and, on some models, Dennis as co-designers across the SE 27 Leisure, SE 37 Lounge, Se 33 Life, and SE 28 Leopard; smaller boats like the SE 23 have often been credited to Dean alone.
Construction through the eras
Every Saffier is designed and built in-house at the family's yard, hand-laid and vacuum-infused; the Se 33's hull, for instance, is an isophthalic resin-infused, vacuum-bagged sandwich of woven rovings and closed-cell foam reverting to solid glass below the waterline, with laminate nearly an inch thick around the keel. The SE 23, launched in 2011, was the first Saffier with electric propulsion and Esthec composite decking instead of teak, and that vacuum-infusion approach carried into the larger SE 33 and SE 37. Saffier opened a new, larger shipyard in 2022 for more space, efficiency, and more sustainable production.
Lines and generations
In 2012 Saffier split its lineup into Saffier Elegance (Se), for modern design, and Saffier Classic (Sc), for a more traditional look. The Se 26 (2008), one of the first 26-footers with a wheel, won European Yacht of the Year, with more than 140 built before production ended in 2020. The Se 33 UD (2013) was the first Saffier able to plane fully while sailed single-handed, with about 80 built. The Se 27 Leisure (2020) drew the largest number of show orders the yard had ever taken, at Düsseldorf, and won European Yacht of the Year 2021; the Se 33 Life followed in January 2022, taking the same award. Saffier introduced its Smart Luxury (SL) line in 2024, debuting the SL46 at Boot Düsseldorf as the yard's first large cruising yacht, built around a galvanized steel grid carrying keel and rig loads.
Who Saffier is for
Saffier suits sailors who want a boat built for the sailing experience over interior volume -- clean decks, light electric propulsion on smaller models, and finish quality from a yard that still designs and builds every boat itself. In a 2020 profile, Sail-World described Saffier as the world's largest builder of luxury day-sailing and weekend yachts, citing more than 800 boats built to that point.
