Outer Reef Goes Heavy Metal
A new build and material necessitates a new state of mind for Outer Reef Founder and CEO Jeff Druek.
In September 2024, news broke that Outer Reef Yachts and Lynx Yachts would be merging. A month later came the announcement that hull number one of the Outer Reef Adventure 780 was already underway. The first Outer Reef vessel built at the Dutch yard, this new Adventure series would also be the builder’s first foray into steel vessels.
“We don’t like to use the word trawler, by the way,” Outer Reef Yachts CEO Jeff Druek tells me over a video call, graciously divulging an apparent pet peeve before I have a chance to trigger it as we lean into discussing the new build. “Long-range motoryacht,” he clarifies, sporting a tropical-drink-festooned Hawaiian shirt behind his desk at the builder’s Ft. Lauderdale office.
For nearly a quarter of a century, Outer Reef has done well by itself turning out its long-range cruisers from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a city on the southern end of an island revered for its manually-laid fiberglass handiwork. Many of the builders it calls competitors are neighbors, after all. But when it came time to design a steel hull, Druek knew he would be spinning the globe and setting his sights on northern Europe to begin the search for a shipyard that could handle his aspirations.
Dutch shipyards, of course, precede themselves with their reputations, but simply selecting a nation still left a wide search margin for Druek, who’s no stranger to lengthy deliberations: When he set out to develop Outer Reef, he took years before settling an exclusive contract with the Kaohsiung, Taiwan facility that’s been building his boats since the early aughts.
Have a closer look in the gallery below:
Another complexity of finding a place to build steel hulls in Holland was that Druek, who’s also had a career in construction, has an aversion to purchasing a yard outright. “The one thing I’ve never wanted to be over the years, which I happen to have become, is a shipyard owner,” he says with a smile. “I’ve been too many years in the building business with tons and tons of employees and that was not a business model I was looking to get back into.”
Lo and behold, this past fall, Outer Reef Yachts merged with superyacht builder Lynx Yachts, a Slim Bouricha-founded Dutch yard, known both for its superyachts and its YXT line of shadow vessels. Much as Druek was initially loath to make such a move, Lynx’s facilities span a spectrum of builds in which Outer Reef falls smack dab in the middle.
“It seems like there’s been a demographic shift over the past number of years that people are getting into adventure yachting at a much younger age,” Druek says. “The typical clients we’re talking to now regarding the Adventure series are in their 40s. That’s the average age. And so we’re seeing a trend towards younger couples wanting to go far afield from the normal cruising grounds and they just have a more adventurous spirit, I guess. I don’t know.”
Whatever the case or the reason, the proof is in the order sheets: Druek reported to me that Lynx currently has three 108-foot YXTs under negotiation, two of which are set to bear submarines (and one of those is expected to house a pair of submersibles).
Taking notes from this now in-house playbook, Druek and team are well underway with new designs, even ahead of splashing hull number one of the 780—with 141-foot and 144-foot big sisters are already designed. “One thing great about steel is we can be very nimble in design. That was one of the reasons for looking to build in metal, because it’s basically a cutting file and cutting plates whereas in FRP you have millions of dollars in molds, tooling and the time involved with taking up to a year to build molds before you can even get started.”
There’s no hiding Druek’s excitement, and why should there be? He does concede, however, that the 780 Adventure, and presumably the rest of the forthcoming series, is “definitely a different look,” as he told both me and my colleague Jeff Moser at Passagemaker. His typical clientele is of a yachtier persuasion: “They come out of Burgers and old Chris-Crafts … Swans and Hinckleys,” he says. Renderings of the 780 are decidedly more modern than what we’ve seen from Outer Reef in the past. It has harder lines and lots of glass. The extra glass opens up the interior space, which is notably roomier, too, thanks to the wider beam and less-cumbersome tankage that the steel construction affords. To put that in numbers: The 78-foot, 7-inch, 140-gross-ton adventure cruiser lends 20 percent more interior volume than Outer Reef’s 900, an 89-foot, 2-inch FRP built in Taiwan.
Layout is flexible, says Druek, but generally, accommodations will be four staterooms and two crew cabins, all en suite, or a full-beam master amidships with five staterooms below.
A fast-displacement hull lends speed and seakeeping for an 18-knot clip powered by optional Cat C32s. Under standard power with twin 425-horsepower Cummins diesels, range is expected to be around 3,000 NM at 7 knots, or 1,450 NM at the 11- to 12-knot displacement speed.
Those who like the design of the Adventure line but either don’t have the space, money or time to wait will be glad to read that Outer Reef will soon have a 540 (56 feet, 5 inches) available in FRP.
A builder and designer at heart through and through, Druek couldn’t stop looking forward and building upward even if he tried. Now working with a new medium, he’s a kid in a candy shop.
Outer Reef Adventure 780 Specifications:
LOA: 78’7”
Beam: 22’2”
Draft: 6’6”
Displ: 236,000 lb.
Fuel: 3,962 gal.
Water: 1,050 gal.
Power: 2/425-hp Cummins QSB6.7
