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Heritage
The X-Yachts Story
The X-Yachts Story
In 1979, one of today’s most successful and quality orientated production yards was established in Denmark.
During the 1980’s, X-Yachts designed and built winning IOR yachts for World Class Racing. Our success with this market attracted the attention of the cruising market, which was then looking for fast, high quality and comfortable sailing yachts. It seemed very clear to us that we should use our boat building experience from the fast racers and combine this with building high performance cruising yachts.
Throughout the 1990’s, X-Yachts Range of Performance Cruisers was established. The X-412 was the first model in the new line, and was followed by the X-512, X-382, IMX 38, X-442, X-362, X-332, X-302, X-612, X-482 and finally, in 1999, the X-562.
The new millennium was celebrated with the introduction of the IMX 40 racer - an almost unbeatable IMS and IRC performer. In early 2002, the IMX 45 followed her little sister onto the race course and continued the successful tradition worldwide. The first X-Yacht 73, built in 2001, was another milestone in the yard’s history. She represented our entry into the luxury “deep water, cruising market”.
With the launch of the X-43 and X-46 in 2003, a new generation of performance cruisers was born. Three new models followed in 2004; the X-40, X-37 and X-50. In summer 2006, the X-55 was launched - a yacht with many of the elegant details of the IMX 70 racer/cruiser which was, itself, launched as a “State of the Art” yacht, with its modern yet classic design, in the summer of 2005.
The new X-35 One Design followed the traditions of the X-79 and X-99, as popular large fleet one-design racers and, in 2007, two hundred X-35s were racing around the world as an ISAF recognized class. In 2007, the bigger sister, the X-41, has started building another X-Yachts one design class with its first World Championship to be held in Copenhagen in July 2008.
The Xcruising range was designed for sailors who want to cover sea miles in style and comfort, yet retaining the same design and build qualities that X-Yachts performance designs are renowned for.
The first in the family, the Xc 45, was awarded the 2009 European Yacht of the Year the year of its launch. It was soon joined by the Xc 42 and in 2010, the range was doubled by the introduction of the Xc 50 and the Xc 38. Today the Xcrusing range consists of the Xc 47. The Xc 47 marks the beginning of a completely new generation of XCruising. The concept is built on years of experience and a desire to accommodate the growing number of sailors looking for a true bluewater cruiser.
"We started work on the new Xp 44 models back in the spring of 2010" explained Niels Jeppesen, Director of Design. "We decided to begin a new Xperformance generation because our existing performance range was originally developed back in 2002 and 2003".
In 2024, the last models of the Xperformance range was no longer availble for sale and a new era started. XRACING and the XR 41 saw the light of the day in 2025. XRacing is where performance meets innovation. The XR 41 is built as a true dual-purpose yacht that seamlessly transforms from a full-blooded Racer to a versatile Sport version—ready for both exhilarating regattas and relaxed cruising.
X-Yachts is currently owned by Ib Kunøe’s holding company Consolidated Holdings which conducts business through a number of fully or partly owned companies . The overall turnover of these companies is 25 billion DKK and has around 8,000 employees primarily in Europe. Consolidated Holdings had an equity of 2.2 billion DKK.
Majority shareholder of X-Yachts & Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Owner and Chairman on the board of a number of companies e.g. Atea and Columbus Partner International A/S. Very passionate and experienced offshore racing and cruising sailor, now enjoys cruising on his new X4³.
Over the last 40 years, nearly 60 designs have been built at X-Yachts; ranging from hugely popular ISAF One-design classes such as the X-99 to large and luxurious performance cruisers such as the X6, X-65, IMX 70 and X-73.