Hatteras Yachts

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Hatteras Yachts was founded in High Point, North Carolina by Willis Slane in 1959.

The firm is notable because, breaking with tradition, Slane chose to build his boats out of the then revolutionary material of fiberglass. Hatteras now specialises in sportfishing convertibles and motoryachts up to 100 feet (30 metres) in length. Hatteras was one of the original users of fiberglass to build boat hulls in the 1960s due to the need of the founders to have a fishing boat capable of withstanding the frequently severe waves created around Cape Hatteras near New Bern, NC. Their first boats were excellent and they decided to create a company to build and sell these solid fiberglass hull boats. As their product line expanded in size and complexity, they continued to use only solid fiberglass for the underwater portion of the hull, resisting the temptation to use the more recently developed "cored" sandwich fiberglass, used by many boat manufacturers today, which is lower cost and lower weight but not as strong as solid fiberglass. As a result, Hatteras continues to be a much heavier and stronger boat than many boats currently on the market.