Ocean Yachts, Inc.
Ocean Yachts is proudly a privately held, family-owned business, very much in the New Jersey boatbuilding tradition. It is owned by the Leek family, the family of the original founder and handed down from father to son. Employees too, often stay a lifetime with the company, helping to retain the company knowledge and boatbuilding experience.
The Leek family traces their boatbuilding heritage back prior to the founding of Ocean Yachts, in fact prior to the founding of America! They have Leek ancestors building boats in the same town as far back as 1721 - which must be the origins of New Jersey boatbuilding.
Also prior to the founding of Ocean Yachts another family member, C.P. Leek, founded one of the other great New Jersey boatbuilding companies - Pacemaker Yachts. They were originally wooden boats, although Pacemaker went on to build fiberglass boats.
It was C.P. Leek's son, Jack Leek, who founded Ocean Yachts in 1977. He probably would have worked at his father's Pacemaker Yachts but that business had undergone many changes and could not be passed from father to son. Perhaps the lessons learned there were never lost on the Leek family and have helped to guide their decisions at Ocean Yachts. Eventually the company was turned over to Jack Leek's son, John Leek III. More recently John Leek IV, (J-4) has taken over the company and runs it today.
As the company started in 1977, it never built wooden boats, like many of the other New Jersey boatbuilders. But Jack Leek had a clear vision of what he wanted to build in fiberglass. He'd worked in the New Jersey fiberglass boatbuilding business where the Jersey Design had already be developed and was being used by several boatbuilders, including his father's Pacemaker and related Egg Harbor lines. Jack Leek's vision for Ocean Yachts was an affordable high-quality Jersey Design yacht, with 30 knot performance and luxury combined with sportfishing features. They named the first Ocean Yachts model a "Super Sport", which is the model name still used today.
Ocean Yachts has continuously developed their product to meet market opportunities. They have offered a number of motoryachts over the years in the Sunliner, and currently the Odyssey model lines. And they have produced a number of open or express models favored by some sportfisherman. Ocean Yachts has been good at using hulls developed for the Super Sport line in motoryacht and express models. This has allowed them to offer more choice and also keep production and design costs down.