Nico Rode – 30 years in X-Yachts

Nico Rode is one of the people who has been on board X-Yachts for 30 years, starting as a rigger at the age of 21 in 1990, on 2nd of January. In 2005 Nico became a project manager of production startups and continued boat show setup and logistics.

Nico is the son of the boatbuilder Kristian Rode, who founded ‘Rode Yachts’. Nico became a boatbuilder himself, and shortly after finishing his boatbuilder education, he started at Elvstrøm Sails and worked as a sailmaker for 2 years.

Recruited by X-Yachts
Lars Jeppesen (X-Yachts founder) spotted the young Nico when he was working on an X-119 at the X-Yachts harbor, Lars saw that Nico was very committed and interested in his work. Only 6 weeks later, Nico started his X-Yachts’ career. Since then, Nico has rigged more than 1000 X-Yachts, starting by the first X-412…

In 2005 Nico became the project manager of all new X-Yachts.

As project manager, Nico’s first project was to create the production set up for the X-35 one design model.

Over the following years, Nico has been the head of planning and setup of all boat shows. Today Nico has been involved in more than 115 boat shows. Through his employment time, Nico has developed a trendsetting crane system specially designed for boat shows.

“Through his many years of dedicated efforts in various departments of X-Yachts and through his craftsmanship background, Nico has gained a unique and highly valued insight into both the development and production of our products.” – Thomas Mielec, Director of Design & Engineering.