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X-Yachting 2013
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6 x-yachting 2013 x -yachts was founded 33 years ago, when brothers
lars
and
niels
jeppesen met
birger
hansen.
lars
and
niels
grew up in stubbekøbing, a small town in south-east denmark, where bjørn olsen’s boat yard was situated. olsen was a pioneer of modern yacht design in northern europe, and greatly inspired both
lars
and
niels
’s passion for both sailing and boat building. on leaving school,
lars
set out to become a boat builder and
niels
to study yacht design. meanwhile, to the west of denmark,
birger
hansen was beginning his career at another small danish boat yard, banner boats in haderslev.
birger
led their composite boat building for seven years before he was joined by
lars
and
niels
.
niels
had been chosen to design banner boats’s new banner 30, and both
lars
and
niels
helped build the prototype – in a former cow shed, as the company’s own production facilities were full. from that first collaboration, x-yachts was founded. since their first design in 1979,
lars
,
niels
and
birger
have been immersed in the yachting world. in the 1980s they raced with a danish businessman named ib kunøe. at the time ib kunøe sailed one of the fastest ‘one-off’ racer-cruisers on the water, namely the 46-footer vision . vision was often helmed by paul elvstrøm, for years the most successful sailing olympian of all time (until a certain ben ainslie scored his fourth olympic gold in 2012), and won many prestigious offshore races. last year the three founders of x-yachts invited kunøe to become a majority shareholder of x-yachts, not only because of his passion for sailing, but also because of his sense of vision. kunøe’s consolidated holdings a/s has now acquired a 51 per cent stake in the company and he has become chairman of the supervisory board of x-yachts.
birger
hansen will step back from the day-to- day management of the company, while hans viggard has joined strong roots, x-yachts has a new management structure for 2013, further bolstering its strong position in the market the present xp and xc range, and future concept designs
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