In virtually every industry, new technology leads to innovation in other, sometimes unexpected areas. Joystick operation is an example. It gave boat drivers more control in close quarters by manipulating multiple engines with a single apparatus and, eventually, integrated equipment like bow thrusters into the package.

The problem was that boat operators were using the joystick to hold position for longer durations than bow thrusters were designed to run. The thrusters would shut down or reduce power to eliminate overheating after a few minutes. To overcome this problem, Vetus in 2018 introduced the Bow Pro series of thrusters. They revolutionized the thruster market with a brushless motor that, basically, won’t overheat. Development of the Bow Pro series illustrated how the Vetus company has evolved throughout its 60 years in business.

In 1964, Willem den Ouden lived in Rotterdam, Holland, and frequented the country’s canal system in a small diesel-powered boat. The country’s marine industry was made up of small boatbuilders that told den Ouden about a recurring problem. “He ran into a theme of boatbuilders needing products they couldn’t get,” says Chris DeBoy, who started with Vetus in 2007 and became the company’s U.S. president in 2020. “He saw a need and opened up a distribution business in 1964.”

The company was called Vetus den Ouden and was based out of den Ouden’s garage. Within a year, the first catalog was printed, and den Ouden was selling products manufactured by other companies. In 1968, he hired his first engineer to design an intake sea strainer for a small engine. It was composite and had a basket that could be removed easily for cleaning.

Since then, Vetus has grown by listening to customers and making products to solve their problems. The company has also strategically acquired businesses that make in-demand products. Today, it has about 200 employees around the world, including at its headquarters in Schiedam, a Rotterdam suburb, its U.S. office in Maryland, and locations throughout Europe, the Far East and Australia.

“He said, ‘Where else can I look at something and design another product?’,” DeBoy says of den Ouden. “That led to the development of exhaust systems and the around-the-engine components we see today.”

Thrusting Ahead

Walk the docks at a marina and ask boaters about the first thing they think when they hear “Vetus.” The most likely answer will be bow thrusters. This has been true for decades.

The sloops that plied the waters of Rotterdam, thanks to their single inboard and keel, were not known for maneuverability. In 1980, den Ouden created something that would help those boaters: a small, DC-powered jet thruster. It worked well for smaller boats, but was limited. “The first thruster didn’t have the capabilities the boatbuilders were looking for,” DeBoy says, “so in 1982, his engineers designed the first recreational, propeller-driven thruster.”

The technology remained the same for decades, with Vetus creating larger thrusters for an array of boats. It wasn’t until the joystick integration that thruster technology needed to be advanced.

Before joysticks, a skipper would primarily use the shift and throttle controls to move the boat. Drivers would occasionally deploy the bow thruster with its own joystick, or toggle, to position the bow. When less-experienced operators leaned on a joystick for minutes at a time at full power, the thruster was engaged longer and would shut down or reduce power to prevent overheating. “We were doing a lot of projects where people were integrating thrusters with joystick docking, and they were overusing them,” DeBoy says.

Engineers at Vetus were tasked with developing a thruster with an engine that could run longer without overheating. The heart of the Bow Pro series is a brushless motor, and the company developed a DC-to-AC converter that DeBoy says “allows a continuous-run, propeller-driven thruster.”

Today, Vetus thrusters are integrated with Mercury’s Joystick Piloting, and the company makes thrusters for boats as large as a couple-hundred feet. “We guarantee the product to run for 10 minutes continuous, and we’ve had customers tell us they are using them much longer,” DeBoy says.

In addition to thrusters, Vetus is known for exhaust systems and components, fuel delivery, wastewater and small electric propulsion packages. For the overseas markets, Vetus also marinizes diesel industrial engines.

Personal Attention

In 2008, Vetus management identified windlasses as an in-demand component and acquired Maxwell, a prominent name in the segment. The company was founded in New Zealand, where it is still located. “More boats get windlasses than bow thrusters,” DeBoy says. “We’re seeing windlasses on everything from 20-foot center consoles to super­yachts.” Vetus’ parent company, Yanmar, doesn’t release sales figures, but DeBoy says Maxwell continues to gain market share in the windlass segment.

In addition to acquiring Maxwell, from 2010 to 2021,Vetus opened locations in Denmark, India, South Africa, Italy, France, Poland, Portugal and Germany to better serve local clients. “We had distributors in many European countries, and with these distributors focusing on a broad range of products and trying to work with the different builders, we weren’t getting the focus we desired,” DeBoy says. “Some builders needed engineering support and fitting the products within the builders’ models, so we decided that we needed to provide direct support in these European countries to get our customers the support they needed not only before the sale but after the sale.”

At that time, Vetus was owned by a private-equity firm. That changed in 2013, when the Yanmar Group acquired Vetus. “Being purchased by Yanmar was a big benefit,” DeBoy says. “They understood the industry. They had their foothold with the engines in this country, and they realized the products we had and how they could fit together with what they were offering.”

The other benefit of a parent company being in the industry is that companies like Vetus and Maxwell can take advantage of technologies they might not be able to use because of the cost. Yanmar gives Vetus access to equipment such as 3D scanners and augmented reality. Additionally, Yanmar recently partnered with Smartgyro stabilizers that can be integrated into a boat management system with products from Vetus and sister companies.

Ideally, DeBoy says, Vetus will become a one-stop components supplier. “It’s going to be a long time, but the goal is to help customers and provide them with the solutions they’re requesting,” he says.

As part of its 60th anniversary, Vetus is building a new headquarters in its hometown that will be on the water. There will be grand-opening celebrations, and products will be introduced at the International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference in Tampa, Fla., in October, as well as at Metstrade in Amsterdam in November.

While demand for electric marine propulsion appears to have ebbed somewhat in the United States, DeBoy says, Vetus is seeing more demand for its 11-kW electric motors in countries where canals are popular. “In Europe, they see more activity in electric propulsion than we do, so for Vetus, we’re into the small, displacement-speed electric propulsion products,” DeBoy says.

In some cases, the company’s electric motors are replacing diesels on the same sloops that den Ouden started the company to support 60 years ago.

This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue.