Battlewagon Yacht Builder: Ocean Alexander

Ocean Alexander offers yachts as large as 116 feet length overall, with plans in the works to go even bigger in the years to come. Courtesy Ocean Alexander

Attitude is everything. Nearly a half century ago, when Ocean Alexander started building boats, most American boatbuilders were turning out runabouts destined for use on lakes. There was nothing wrong with those popular styles, of course, but it meant that as the owners of those boats wanted to move up to bigger models in the years that followed, the companies basically built bigger versions of those same early boats. The idea was to give buyers more of what they already liked, but in a larger package—which doesn’t always translate so well if those owners also want to change their cruising plans from lakes to coastal cruising or the open ocean.

Ocean Alexander was always different, according to Dan Mundy, head of global operations. “As the yacht market really started to develop, we were ready because we never were a small-yacht thinker,” he says. “We always built yachts for the sea, even when we were building 50- and 60-foot yachts.”

Ocean Alexander President Johnny Cheuh is continuing the legacy that his father, Alex, began in 1977. Courtesy Ocean Alexander

This difference in attitude has long been key to Ocean Alexander’s success, he says, because the brand never had to pivot the way some others have tried to do throughout the years. “From an engineering and design perspective, we were the ones out building the battle-wagons,” he says. “We were building the things that could stand the test not only of time, but of sea conditions, things that could be very robust. As we started to grow and got bigger and bigger, we didn’t have to stop and shift. We didn’t have to change our mentality. We just continued to build larger yachts with that same track record of durability and trust.”

Today, Ocean Alexander is nearly a half century strong. The builder offers yachts as large as 116 feet length overall, with plans in the works to go even bigger in the years to come.

Not a One-off

In the late 1970s, when Ocean Alexander got its start, Taiwan was at the forefront of fiberglass construction. A lot of boatbuilders would use factories there to produce one-off designs. Alex Chueh, the brand’s founder, liked the idea of building in Taiwan, but he didn’t want to build just one hull of the Mark I. He thought a lot of people would like the 39-footer that Ed Monk, Jr. had designed, and he liked working with Monk himself. The builder and designer then joined forces with a Seattle businessman who had an eye for sales, and their vision for launching the company worked.

To this day, the Mark I remains a sought-after classic, one that defined the brand’s early, signature look and that set the bar high for engineering quality. More models followed, and Ocean Alexander’s big-boat attitude likely played a significant role in the brand remaining competitive, especially as yachts got larger and European builders became the preferred choice for a lot of American buyers.

For years, the name Ed Monk, Jr. was synonymous with all of Ocean Alexander’s designs and models. Today, the builder has offerings drawn in collaboration with Evan K. Marshall and Giorgio M. Cassetta, as well. Courtesy Ocean Alexander

“As soon as everybody figured it out, Europe and especially Italy became the epicenter,” Mundy says. “They were always building boats to a different class, a different standard, a different rating. The standards that they were held to were still higher. Who knows if this is the reason American boatbuilding fell to the wayside? The international community was looking to their coast guards, their classification societies that were regulated for passenger and commercial vessels.”

Ocean Alexander, he says, already had an attitude and process that allowed the company to compete with those European shipyards. “I use the analogy that the majority of the industry is a tract-home builder,” Mundy says. “We build custom homes.”

Always Advancing

In 1984, Ocean Alexander launched Night Hawk. The 71-foot custom yacht set a size record for Asian boatbuilding. By 1986, the size of the Ocean Alexander production facility had doubled. In 1998, the factory attained ISO-9002 certification for quality assurance in production, installation and servicing. In 2004, Ocean Alexander became one of the world’s first recreational boatbuilders to use vacuum infusion, as a way to strengthen fiberglass components. The company’s first 100-footer launched in 2005, and things continued to progress from there.

Ocean Alexander’s 35 Puro is 113 feet, 6 inches length overall. Design is by Italy’s Giorgio M. Cassetta. Courtesy Ocean Alexander / We Fly Aerial Media

“There’s really probably one thing that is consistently true, that we are one of the most copied brands,” Mundy says. “Not literally, where someone is taking our product and knocking it off, but people are taking our developments and advancing them across individual companies or across the entire industry.”

As an example, he describes a meeting close to a decade ago when the Ocean Alexander team discussed making a day yacht with the same quality as the company’s larger yachts. That discussion evolved into the 45 Divergence—different from its usual offerings, but almost like a big toy, or support vessel, for large-yacht owners who wanted Ocean Alexander quality in a smaller boat, too. “We came to the market with a $1.5 million open bow—let’s call it that for lack of a better term—with folding bulwarks on each side that you would drop down hydraulically to make this enormous play platform, and outboard motors,” Mundy says. “We built this really incredible boat, and we did it very specifically on a limited run. We built 19 of them over the course of two or three years and sold them all out very successfully, but had no intention of continuing it. Well, all these years later, look at the day-yacht market. Back then, we had no competition. Every company out there, especially a lot of the Europeans, are making these 45- and 50-foot day yachts that are robust. Now you can buy one north of $3 million. I look back, and I see that we put our nose out there first, and now you look at the market saturation—which is never a place that I want to be. I’d rather lead the market and then exit it with something fun like that, with a divergence, and then let the market take over.”

Today’s Offerings

The three lines that Ocean Alexander offers now are Revolution, Legend and Puro. The idea, Mundy says, is that they all have the feel of an Ocean Alexander, but their styling is different enough that they can appeal to a broad swath of potential buyers.

Ocean Alexander’s yachts have never been shopped to be built at multiple yards, and the Taiwanese yard where they are built has never constructed boats for other brands. This allows a strong focus on quality control. Courtesy Ocean Alexander

“When you look at our L series, that’s our traditional, back-to-our-roots design,” Mundy says. “Our R series is a little more edgy, a little bit contemporary and pushing the envelope with space allocation and maximizing volumes. When I worked with Giorgio Cassetta on this P series, it was to add what I thought was missing, which was that international component.”

That’s a hard thing to define, of course, since the world is such a big place, but in Mundy’s mind, it means appealing to a significant cross-section of yachting enthusiasts. “America being this fascinating cultural collection of people, I wanted to be able to sell to a Latin American family that just moved to Miami, but then again, I need to appeal to some Canadians that are using the boat in the Bahamas, and yet, I wanted to go with the conservative values of the Pacific Northwest, but also have something that would appeal to the style-seekers of Southern California,” he says. “With the R, the L and the P series, you can come into Ocean Alexander. If you trust our core competency, which is quality and a luxury brand, then we can find what suits you based on how you see yachting, and how you see yourself being seen as a yachtsman.”

Into the Future

Ocean Alexander’s client base is strong for yachts from about 98 to 115 feet length overall, Mundy says. That’s a solid midrange spread, but the global marketplace is now building far, far larger, well into hundreds of feet long. It’s natural to wonder if Ocean Alexander may consider building even bigger going forward.

Building motoryachts that can handle serious ocean cruising requires brains and, sometimes, brawn. Courtesy Ocean Alexander

“There’s one thing I’m just not interested in doing, and that’s saying goodbye to a client,” Mundy says. “If someone has owned six Ocean Alexanders over 20 years and they want to go bigger, I don’t want to be maxed out.”

He says he’s watching technological advancements in all kinds of areas, including ways to work with tooling and composites. Everything is evolving so quickly, he says, that he’s not making any snap decisions. Even so, if the owner of a 115-foot Ocean Alexander wants to buy a bigger yacht, then Mundy wants that bigger yacht to come from Ocean Alexander. He wants it to be the same level of quality the buyer has come to expect from the brand, with whatever styling the client prefers. “There’s no doubt,” he says, “that we will see bigger Ocean Alexanders in the future.”

Ocean Alexander launched its first 100-foot motoryacht in 2005. Courtesy Ocean Alexander / John Lair Singular Focus

Ocean Alexander’s yachts have never been shopped to be built at multiple yards, and the Taiwanese yard where they are built has never constructed boats for other brands. This allows a strong focus on quality control.

71 Record-Setter

When Ocean Alexander launched the 71-foot Night Hawk in 1984, the custom yacht set a size record for Asian boatbuilding. It helped to give Ocean Alexander a reputation for pushing the envelope in terms of what was possible.

Broad Presence

Ocean Alexander began with a reputation as a West Coast brand. In 2006, the company opened an office in Florida. From that point forward, most Ocean Alexanders were located on the East Coast.

30 or Maybe Just 25

Dan Mundy, head of global operations, says Ocean Alexander will only build 25 or 30 hulls of any given model. After that, the idea is to strive for advancements with new models that help to lead the industry.

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