Moonen Founder Passes

Rien Moonen who was the founder of Moonen Yachts passed away earlier this week while he was in Spain. Rien Moonen (1936) was the second son of 11 children. He started to work at his fathers’ painting company when he was only 15 years old, and took over the business when he was just old enough to run it. His entrepreneurship, in combination with his remarkable personality, turned the company into a profitable and well known entity. Through this success, he was able to buy his first boat, an 11m steel cruiser, which he purchased at De Ruiter Shipyards. When Rien Moonen moved from painting into real estate, he offered De Ruiter a plot in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. A nice shipyard, where they could expand. They did, and built beautiful boats that live on in the Moonen brand until today. At a certain moment in time Rien had the opportunity to take over the yard and renamed it Moonen Shipyards. Helming the company enabled him to combine his entrepreneurial skills with his biggest passion: yachts!

Rien was the driving force behind the switch to start building stylish elegant and timeless superyachts with great seaworthiness. This is what Moonen Yachts, after all these years is still famous for. He created the brand, established the iconic Moonen DNA and gave the brand its unforgettable logo by using the two interconnected OO’s from his family name. May he rest in peace.