- Founded
- 1974
- Headquarters
- 725 E 40th Street, Holland, MI, United States
- Shipyard location
- Holland, Michigan, United States
- Official website
- https://www.tiarayachts.com/
Brand Overview
Family-owned American builder of outboard luxury yachts from Holland, Michigan — nine Mercury Verado-powered models in the Luxury Crossover, Luxury Sport and Luxury Express series, from the 10.6-metre 34 LX to the 17.1-metre 56 LS, built by the Slikkers family since 1974.
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
Tiara Yachts dates itself to 18 February 1974, when Leon Slikkers — who had started building boats at Chris-Craft in 1946 and founded SlickCraft in 1955 — set up S2 Yachts, Inc. with his sons David and Robert, at first to build sailboats, and began a 72,000-square-foot plant at 725 East 40th Street in Holland, Michigan. The first Tiara powerboats followed in 1976, the Pursuit fishing line was added in 1977 and later moved to a Florida plant, sailboat production ended in 1987, and in 2018 the company divested Pursuit to concentrate on Tiara. The yard's timeline marks it as one of the first builders to fit Volvo Penta IPS (the 38 Open, 2004), its first outboard model with the 38 LS in 2017, and in 2021 the 48 LS, which it says was the first boat by any manufacturer designed for Mercury's 7.6-litre V12 600 hp Verado. Leon Slikkers retired in 2021 at 93; the second and third generations of the family run the company, which celebrated fifty years as a family-owned builder in Holland in 2024. The current range is all outboard: the 34 LX Luxury Crossover; the 35, 39, 43, 46 and 56 LS Luxury Sport models; and the 39, 43 and 48 LE Luxury Express models with cabins below, on twin Mercury Verado V10s (35 LS) or two, three or four V12 600s. Boats are sold through factory-authorised dealers, and every hull can be ordered in a custom paint colour.
Who sails them
Tiara owners are American families and couples who want an outboard-powered yacht that cruises with the finish of a larger boat — social zones from bow to stern, a galley and comfortable cabins below — and who value the Adventure Module fishing options, Garmin glass helms with joystick piloting, a custom hull colour and a dealer network that arranges sea trials and service.
Signature models
The 56 LS, on four Mercury V12 600s, is the largest outboard-powered boat in Tiara's history and the flagship of the range; the 48 LE leads the Luxury Express series; the 35 LS, shown with preliminary performance figures, is the newest Luxury Sport; and the 38 LS of 2017 and the 48 LS of 2021 mark the yard's turn from inboards to outboards.
Strengths
Tiara is known for fifty years of family ownership and in-house building in Holland, Michigan, an early lead in outboard-powered yachts built around Mercury's V12 Verado, deep-V hulls with 21-degree deadrise at the transom, aft cockpit modules that switch between lounging and fishing, walk-around decks and hullside terraces on the larger LS models, integrated Garmin electronics with joystick control, and its Paint Your Tiara custom hull colours.
Considerations
Each model page prints one table with Imperial and Metric tabs — length with the integrated swim platform, beam, dry weight, height to the hardtop and radar, draft, tanks and deadrise — and only some pages add staterooms and heads; there is no engine row, so the engines come from the performance-report links and the top speed from the models menu, in mph; the 35 LS draft's two columns disagree (3'4" against 0.91 m) and the 43 LE's radar height likewise, so both figures are kept as printed; there is no CE category; and the EX 54 and EX 60 no longer have model pages.
Analysis generated 10/17/2026
Part of
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 9
- Length range
- 10.59–17.12 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 9
- Cabins
- 2
Models by this brand
9 models
Luxury Crossover1
Luxury Sport5
History
Tiara's story starts with Leon Slikkers, who began building boats at Chris-Craft in 1946 and left in 1955 to build wooden runabouts under his own SlickCraft name; he was experimenting with fibreglass a year later, and by 1960 SlickCraft built nothing else. In 1969 he and his wife Dolores sold SlickCraft to AMF, and on 18 February 1974 he founded S2 Yachts, Inc. with his sons David and Robert, at first to build sailboats, starting a 72,000-square-foot plant at 725 East 40th Street in Holland, Michigan that same year. The first Tiara powerboats, a 20-foot Overnighter and a 25-foot Vacationer, came in 1976, and the Pursuit fishing boats were added in 1977 and later concentrated at a plant in Fort Pierce, Florida, leaving Holland to Tiara. Sailboat production ended in 1987. The timeline counts Tiara among the first builders to use Volvo Penta IPS, on the 38 Open in 2004; the 38 LS of 2017 was the first outboard-powered Tiara, and the 48 LS of 2021, built with Mercury Marine, is described as the first model by any maker designed for Mercury's 7.6-litre V12 600 hp Verado. S2 Yachts divested Pursuit in 2018, Leon Slikkers retired in 2021 at 93 after a 75-year career, the EX 60 of 2022 became the largest model the company had built, and in 2024 Tiara marked fifty years as a family-owned builder in Holland.
History written fromtiarayachts.com/our-story· Tiara Timelineread 10/17/2026