Eddie Buizen, an Industry Legend passes

by Buizen Yachts on 13 Mar 2017 We advise with great sadness the passing of Buizen Yachts founder and a true industry icon, Eddie Buizen, on the 28th of February.

Few would argue that Eddie Buizen created the benchmark for the highest quality cruiser sailing yachts of the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, ever built in Australia, and many consider, in the world for that matter.

His Buizen Yachts were and continue to be considered the ultimate in cruising yachts and amongst the most highly desired in the Australian cruising yacht fraternity.

Eddie was hugely respected for his contribution to the Australian Marine and Boat Manufacturer’s Industry. He leaves an enormous legacy and one our industry is very proud of.

His model ranges included the Zeston 40 and 36, and the Buizen 40 and iconic Buizen 48.

Eddie’s passion was focussed on the design and building of sail cruising yachts engineered to meet the demands of trans ocean passage making whilst cocooning it’s owners in the highest quality joinery and luxury interiors. It produced a boat building standard previously unobtainable in the Australian market and quickly established a very willing domestic following.

His unique Pilot House or Deck Saloon designs broke previous yacht design paradigms, and whilst they were often copied, they were never bettered.

When the influx of the mass produced European yachts begun in the 1980’s and increased throughout the 90’s, Australian sail yacht builders began to succumb and slowly disappear.

That is however with the exception of the Buizen Yacht, because the imports could never touch the design and quality of Eddie’s yachts.

Eddie Buizen was a true gentleman and many of his owners became his friends. His focus on building quality in every element of his boats instilled an unshakeable confidence by the owner in their yacht’s capability.

At the time of Eddie’s retirement in 2005, he had built 80 semi-custom cruising yachts for very satisfied owners.

Industry Legend is a term that can sometimes be loosely thrown about, but in the case of Eddie Buizen it’s a term that aptly fits.

Our sincere condolences to Eddie’s wife Jeanette, son Tony, daughter Tanya, brother Frits and extended family.

Additional info

Eddie Buizen, emigrated from Holland to Australia as a 20 year old in 1953 and quickly established himself as a quality builder of homes and commercial buildings in the 1960s. Eddie’s keen joinery and cabinet making skills combined with his passion for marine led him to create the joinery company Boat Interiors and then Mastercraft Marine in the Sydney suburb of Terrey Hills in the 1970s.

Eddie, and his brother Frits who followed his older sibling to Australia, came to be known for producing some of the highest quality joinery and cabinetry work, and it wasn’t long before another industry icon Bill Barry Cotter, had engaged Eddie to produce the timber fit out kits for his range of Mariner and Riviera Cruisers when they were being built in the Sydney Mona Vale factory.

Soon after, many of Australia’s established yacht builders including Cavalier and North Shore Yachts enlisted Eddie’s timber kit services too, however Eddie was quietly developing plans for his own sailing yacht.

Eddie’s vision was to create a cruising sailing yacht with proper accommodation and single level access whilst maintaining visual contact with the outside from within the main saloon. A design which came to be known as the Pilot House or Deck Saloon design.

Joe Adams was enlisted to design the hull whilst Eddie designed the superstructure, and so the Zeston 40 was born, soon to be followed by the Zeston 36.

The standard of build and joinery quality the Zeston’s provided was previously unobtainable in the Australian boat manufacturing industry, and the factory was soon reaching it’s capacity as orders built quickly.

Eddie soon began to conceive of a larger more luxurious yacht and began penning the lines of the yacht that became the Buizen 48. The first Hull 1 of the 48 was launched in 1992. The Buizen 40 followed in 1996.

By the time the final Hull 36 of the Buizen 48 was launched in 2012, the Buizen 48 had firmly become an iconic model of the Australian Boating Industry.

The respect for Eddie’s yachts both from within the industry and the wider public market certainly established Buizen Yachts as one of the more noteworthy Australian Boat Builders and one the industry is immensely proud of.

Eddie retired from boat building and his business in 2005, but his contribution to the Australian Marine Industry places him among a number of iconic figures in the industry’s “Hall of Fame”.