- Founded
- 1963
- Headquarters
- Greifswald, Germany
- Shipyard location
- Same as headquarters
- Official website
- https://dehler.com/gb/
Brand Overview
German performance-cruiser marque founded by Willi Dehler in 1963, built by HanseYachts AG in Greifswald since 2009 — three judel/vrolijk-designed models from 10.7 to 14.9 m (Dehler 34, 38 SQ, 46 SQ), each with standard and competition rigs and three or four keel options.
Overview written fromdehler.comread 9/19/2026
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Dehler traces itself to Freienohl in the Sauerland, where electrical engineer Willi Dehler took 50 orders for a three-metre GRP dinghy at a 1963 trade fair, launched the Varianta with his brother Heinz in 1965 (Europe's best-selling GRP yacht by 1973, 'the VW Beetle for the water'), built the first series yacht with a self-tacking jib in 1976 and, with the db1 and the 1986 Dehler 34, defined the performance-cruiser category. judel/vrolijk & co have drawn the boats since the mid-1990s; after a run of owners the brand settled under HanseYachts AG in 2009 and all construction moved to Greifswald on the Baltic in 2012, where the 2013 Dehler 38 was Boat of the Year at boot 2014. Today's range is three yachts — the Dehler 34, 38 SQ and 46 SQ — and the platform feed prints each with a standard and a competition rig, standard, competition and shallow keels (plus a deep L-keel on the 46), I/J/P/E rig dimensions, sail areas from main and furling jib to gennaker, Code 0 and Freeride, and a standard and optional engine.
Who sails them
Dehler owners sail for the sailing: club racers and fast cruisers who want a yacht that wins regattas on Saturday and takes the family cruising on Sunday, who choose between the standard rig and the taller competition rig, between a shallow keel for their home waters and a deep one for pointing, and who value German build and judel/vrolijk lines under a big group's production.
Signature models
The Dehler 46 SQ, the flagship performance cruiser with bowsprit, folding bathing platform and four keel options; the Dehler 38 SQ, successor to the Boat of the Year Dehler 38; the Dehler 34, the name that defined the category in 1986; historically the Varianta, Sprinta 70, db1 and the double-handed Dehler 30 One Design.
Strengths
Dehler is known for inventing the performance cruiser, for judel/vrolijk & co hulls with a steep stem and upright stern, for standard and competition rig options on every model, for three or four keel drafts per boat, for German engineering under HanseYachts AG, and for a racing pedigree that runs from the db1 to the Dehler 30 One Design class.
Considerations
The stored figures follow the standard keel and standard rig; the competition rig, the other keels' draft, displacement and ballast, mast heights and I/J/P/E dimensions are kept as the builder's own figures beside them. The line-up page still links the Dehler 30 One Design and 42, but their pages no longer exist and they are not in the feed, so they are not catalogued. No speeds, range, headroom or prices are printed; the interior is credited to Dehler in-house.
Analysis generated 9/18/2026
Part of
HanseYachts AG↗ · since 2009
Also in the catalogue
Where they build
The building sites this yard publishes, in its own order.
Greifswald
Greifswald, Germany
HanseYachts AG (all construction since 2012, dehler.com/gb/history/)
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 3
- Length range
- 10.7–14.94 m
- Hull forms
- Sailing Monohull 3
- Cabins
- 2–3
Models by this brand
3 models
History
Dehler was born in Freienohl in the German Sauerland, where the electrical engineer Willi Dehler, who had turned to caravan building in GRP, exhibited a 3-metre dinghy named Winnetou at a trade fair in 1963 and took fifty orders. With his brother Heinz he launched the Varianta, the brand's first keel yacht, in 1965 -- the Varianta 65 became Europe's best-selling GRP yacht by 1973, 'the VW Beetle for the water' -- and the Optima 83 realised his dream of a fast, trailerable sea-going boat; the Sprinta 70 of 1976 was the first series yacht with a self-tacking jib. The 1980s brought the performance-cruiser category with the regatta-winning db1 and the Dehler 34 of 1986, and the yard focused on yachts over ten metres under the Dehler name. The collaboration with judel/vrolijk & co began in the mid-1990s with the Dehler 29 of 1997, Willi Dehler died in 1999 at seventy, and after a series of owners the marque settled under HanseYachts in 2009, with Karl Dehler rejoining product development; all construction moved from Freienohl to Greifswald in 2012, the Dehler 38 of 2013 was Boat of the Year at boot 2014, and the Dehler 30 One Design of 2019 gained its own class association in 2020.
History written fromdehler.com/gb/history/read 9/22/2026