- Founded
- 1998
- Headquarters
- No. 8008 Zhuhai Avenue, Pingsha Town, Gaolan Port Zone, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
- Shipyard location
- Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
- Official website
- https://www.seleneoceanyachts.com/
Brand Overview
Long-range trawler and explorer-yacht builder founded by Howard Chen in 1998, building in its own yard at Zhuhai, China — Classic Explorer and Voyager trawlers from 12.7 metres, Ocean Explorers to 30 metres, the faster Artemis line and the 39-metre Selene 128.
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
Selene Yachts was founded in 1998 by Howard Chen, a Taiwanese-trained architect who named his yachts after a memorial to the Apollo 11 moon landing designed by his professor at Tunghai University, Dr. Da-Hong Wang. The first yard opened in Dongguan in 1998 and the first yacht reached the United States in 1999; a second, larger yard at Zhuhai near Macau followed in 2008, with two workshops of about 150,000 square feet each, and since 2018 all boats are built there, the company saying it can build up to a hundred yachts a year and that more than 400 Selenes are cruising worldwide. The range is the Selene Classic Explorer pilothouse trawlers (45 to 72), the Voyager trawlers (38 and 42 aft-cabin, 42 and 50 sedan), the Ocean Explorers by the Dutch designer Guido de Groot (60 to 98), the faster Artemis motor yachts (39, 43, 48) and the Selene 128 Ocean Expedition. The trawlers feature the yard's Deep-Hull and Cruiser Stern designs, raised pilothouses, Portuguese bridges and large fuel tanks; the pages quote ranges of 2,000 to more than 3,000 nautical miles at about 9 knots, and John Deere, Cummins or MTU diesels in single or twin installations.
Who sails them
Selene owners are long-distance cruising couples and liveaboards — people crossing the Pacific, doing the Great Loop or cruising Alaska and the Mediterranean — who want a heavy, full-displacement ocean trawler with traditional joinery, range for remote passages and a builder whose founder remains personally involved in each boat.
Signature models
The Classic Explorer pilothouse trawler, from the Selene 45 to the 72, is the signature, with the Selene 49 as the 'flagship of the small Selenes'; the Guido de Groot Ocean Explorers and the 39-metre Selene 128 carry the idea to expedition size.
Strengths
Selene is known for full-displacement long-range trawlers with fuel for 2,000-plus-mile passages, the Deep-Hull and Cruiser Stern design, raised pilothouses with Portuguese bridges and sheltered side decks, extensive teak joinery, its own stainless-steel workshop and large Zhuhai yard, and a range that runs from a 12.7-metre trawler to a 39-metre expedition yacht.
Considerations
The technical sheets are inconsistent: some give imperial figures only, several print imperial and metric values that disagree (the 98's length, the 92's and 78's displacement, the 54's holding tank), the 72 and 72 Ocean Explorer share one sheet, and the Artemis 56 page repeats the Artemis 43 sheet, so it is not listed; the header 'speed' and 'power' figures are not labelled as top or cruising speed or per engine; engines are often described only in the text; and the site itself was last fully updated around 2021.
Analysis generated 10/18/2026
Part of
Selene Yachts · since 1998
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 23
- Length range
- 11.98–39 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 23
- Cabins
- 2–6
Models by this brand
23 models
Artemis3
Voyager4
Classic Explorer9
Selene 45
LOA: 14.76 m
Selene 49
LOA: 15.8 m
Selene 54
LOA: 18.24 m
Selene 56
LOA: 19.05 m
Selene 58
LOA: 19.38 m
Selene 60
LOA: 19.84 m
Selene 62
LOA: 20.98 m
Selene 66
LOA: 21.77 m
Selene 72
LOA: 23.09 m
Ocean Explorer6
Ocean Expedition1
History
Selene is a division of the Selene Yachts Group, founded in 1998. The name goes back to 1970, when the Taiwanese architect Da-Hong Wang designed a memorial to the Apollo 11 moon landing and called it Selene, after the Greek goddess of the moon; years later Howard Chen studied under him at the School of Architecture of Tunghai University and, learning of the memorial, gave the name to his new line of yachts. The first shipyard opened in Dongguan, China, in 1998 — the historic headquarters is still in Hou-Jie, a town known for high-end furniture whose woods, veneers, granite and skilled labour suited yacht interiors — and the first yacht reached the United States in 1999. Since 2006 the company has had its own stainless-steel workshop. In 2008 it opened a second yard at Zhuhai near Macau, which Howard Chen landscaped himself, with two workshops of about 150,000 square feet, a 32,000-square-foot warehouse and four 100-ton cranes. For years the smaller yachts were built in Dongguan and the larger in Zhuhai; in 2017 the molds and tooling were moved, and from 2018 all boats are built at Zhuhai, which the company says can produce up to a hundred yachts a year. Over some twenty years Selene has built almost 400 yachts from 38 to 103 feet.
History written fromseleneoceanyachts.com/history/· Historyread 10/18/2026