CAREER IN THE MARINE INDUSTRY Leon Slikkers, a marine industry pioneer, whose career building boats dates back to the 1940s, announced his retirement from Tiara Yachts in September of 2021. An industry trendsetter who bucked conventional wisdom when it came to building boats out of fiberglass instead of wood, Slikkers, now 93, founded S2 Yachts in 1974. The company initially focused on trailerable sailboats, but as it grew – armed with greater access to capital and Slikkers’ unrelenting drive to innovate in a highly competitive industry, S2 began building power boats shortly thereafter. That eventually led to the creation of Tiara Yachts, an industry leader in mid-sized luxury yachts that currently employs over 600 people at its state-of-the-art 800,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan. Leon Slikkers’ career began as a carpenter for Chris-Craft in 1946. In the mid-1950s, he took a risk, selling his home to raise capital to start building mahogany runabouts under the name of Slickcraft Boat Company. Shortly after starting Slickcraft, he began experimenting with fiberglass and composites. He sold Slickcraft to AMF, Inc. (American Machine and Foundry) in 1969 and remained as its president for four years, before founding S2 Yachts with a sole focus on sailboats. In 1976, S2 began manufacturing sport boats under the Tiara brand and, in 1978, added Pursuit sport fishing models to its catalog. Customers quickly embraced the products, and a variety of improvements and new models have been added over subsequent decades
The Leon
LEGACY By Tiara Yachts
66 | walstrom.com
Leon & Delores early 1950s
