Cheoy Lee

Cheoy Lee is a family-run boat and yacht builder with roots in Shanghai and later Hong Kong, now based in mainland China. The company began in the 1870s and has built commercial vessels, sailing yachts, motor yachts, and larger custom superyachts. It is especially associated with long production history and early adoption of fiberglass construction.

Cheoy Lee’s history is tied to the Lo family and a shipbuilding business that began in Shanghai in the 1870s, where it built and repaired steam-powered craft. In 1936 the yard moved to Hong Kong, then a British colony, and later shifted operations to mainland China. The company remained family operated through successive generations and developed from a repair-and-commercial yard into a builder with both commercial and leisure divisions. Its heritage is presented as continuous shipbuilding over more than a century.

By the 1950s, Cheoy Lee was building teak sailing yachts and motor yachts, many exported to the United States. In the 1960s the yard became an early user of fiberglass, then advanced into foam-sandwich composite construction in the 1970s. It later focused mainly on motor yachts and custom superyachts, while also building commercial craft such as tugs, patrol boats, ferries, and supply vessels. Cheoy Lee is widely known for robust construction, long production history, and technical experimentation in hull materials.