Hylas Yachts is a brand of fiberglass, center-cockpit sailboats built in Taiwan by Queen Long Marine Ltd and designed by Sparkman & Stephens and German Frers. The US headquarters are in Marblehead, MA, under the name Hylas Yachts USA. Sizes range from 42 to 70 feet. Joseph Huang, the president of Queen Long Marine, introduced the brand in 1984.
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History
In the early 1980s, Joseph Huang of Queen Long Ltd. partnered with Sparkman & Stephens to build a 47 foot sailboat called the Stevens 47. They named her after Bill Stevens of Stevens Yacht Charters because he ordered so many of the original boats. In 1984, Huang added two German Frers designs of 42 and 44 feet. He branded them Hylas after a Greek mythological youth associated with Hercules and the cruise of the Argonauts.
The Stevens 47 and Hylas 44 foot versions were popular charter sailboats. Along with Bill Stevens, Caribbean Yachts Charters (CYC) under Dick Jachney ran a charter fleet of 44 and 47 Hylases. Jachney split the cost of new Hylas Yachts with private owners in exchange for using their boat in the CYC fleet for a couple years. This allowed the owner to save considerably on a new Hylas. While a former charter boat could have been refitted, in general these are poorly outfitted for cruising and have high engine hours. The presence of high engine hours on chartered Hylas 44's is especially troubling because of the difficulty of repowering. In 1990, Joseph Huang and Dick Jachney joined forces and redesigned the 44 and 47 adding sugar scoop sterns into eventually the 46 and 49 versions. These 46 and 49 Hylases became the mainstay of the CYC fleet.
Around 1998, Hylas introduced a German Frers 54-foot model. In 2000, they introduced a raised saloon model of the same 54-foot Frers hull design. During this period, Hylas cut ties with CYC and became unaffiliated with any charter boat operation. During the 2005 Caribbean 1500 rally from Virginia to the British Virgin Islands, two 54 Hylases lost substantial portions of their rudders. The lower third of the rudders which was all foam and unattached to the partial skeg broke away under the high stress. More recently, Hylas introduced a 66-foot Frers design which has been extended to 70 feet. In 2010, they introduced the 56 Frers, an extended version of the 54.
Models
Hylas Yachts offers 46, 49, 56, 56 Raised Saloon, and 70 foot designs. The 49 is a Tony Seifert modified version of the original Sparkman & Stephens designed 47-footer. All others are by German Frers. Hylas is famous for center cockpits with teak interiors and large aft staterooms. Specifically, they carry beams further aft than most other yachts. Queen Long Marine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan is the sole builder of Hylas yachts. For the 56 and 70 foot models, they use Twaron, a Kevlar like aramid fiber. Twaron makes a hull reportedly as strong as a metal one. Hylas boasts that the fiber makes their yachts bulletproof.