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Yacht building in Poland stretches way back beyond its accession to the European Union in 2004. While the shipyards were building big ships, small firms were starting to produce fibreglass yachts.

Around 300 GRP Carter 30 cruiser racers, for example, were built in Poland from 1972. Then in 1992 Jeanneau started sub-contract building in Poland.

In the late 1990s the Bénéteau Group bought into a Polish boatbuilder and shifted production of many of its smaller Bénéteau and Jeanneau motorboat and yacht ranges to Poland.

The favourable Polish economic climate – benefiting from low overheads, low property prices and low wages – not only produced a cost effective manufacturing base in Poland, it made for tasty margins when the boats were marketed and then sold through dealers in Western Europe.

At around the same time another small family-owned Polish boatbuilder called Sportlake (founded in 1990) was also beginning to cash in on the demand for competitively priced small GRP craft. As well as making trailer-sailer yachts, Sportlake was also contracted to build huge numbers of Quicksilver speed and sport boats for the mighty Marine Power outfit (now Brunswick Corp). These continue to sell in large quantities worldwide.

‘In house’ cruisers

Sportlake invested the profits it made as a sub-contractor into building new factories; which in turn led to increased manufacturing capacity. So in 2003 the family shareholders decided to use this increased capacity