The €995,000 Kempers 2200: A One-Off Steel Cruiser Built for the Long Haul
Twin Caterpillar diesels, retractable stabilisers, a genuinely comprehensive recent refit, and a builder pedigree that makes her the only one of her kind.
If you have subscribed to this newsletter for any length of time, then you will know that I am always on the lookout for exceptional boats. Whilst one’s own definition of ‘exceptional’ can indeed differ, I like to think that I have a good appreciation of what you, my subscribers, like when it comes to explorer-style motor yachts.
And I think you will love this boat, for reasons which will be abundantly clear as you read on.
M/Y ‘Our Choice’ is a Kempers 2200 built in 1992. She is, of course, steel and is currently lying in Copenhagen awaiting her new owner and is listed for sale for €995,000, VAT paid.
When I first glanced my eyes across her impressive spec sheet, it became obvious that she is a serious long-range cruiser capable of the sort of trans-oceanic passages which suit the explorer yacht community.
But, as I started to research more into the details of this boat, I surfaced some intel that appears to have dropped off the radar, but that tells you a lot about exactly what kind of explorer yacht you would (could) be buying.
The boat herself
She has an LOA of 22.6 metres, with a beam of 5.76 metres. Her draft is just 2.05 metres, and she displaces 90 tonnes. Along with her steel hull, she has an aluminium superstructure, so overall weight is kept down, which is important for fuel efficiency.
Below deck, she has two cabins (more on that later), six berths and a clever layout that puts the aft deck, saloon, galley and owner’s cabin on a single deck. So, if you have been looking for a sub-24 metre boat with an owner’s deck, then this vessel could be very interesting.
The pilot house is above the owner’s deck (yes, some boats have the pilot house below the owner’s deck!).
She is powered by twin Cat 3406B diesels (300HP each), which are the same powerplants installed when the vessel was built. However, these engines have just 2,550 hours on them, which means that they have been run, on average, just 75 hours a year. Suffice to say, these Cats have plenty of working life ahead of them (I will also come back to that a bit later on).
She is fitted with a hydraulic bow thruster but, rather unusually, her stern thruster is electric. She has five-bladed props on stainless steel shafts and is fitted with Koopnautic Searock retractable stabilisers (refurbished in 2023).
The current owner has clearly spent a good amount of money, ensuring that this vessel is ready to set sail. Her exterior paintwork was redone in 2022, and the entire hydraulic system was completely renewed, at considerable cost, in 2021. The electrical system was renovated, with the work being completed in 2023.
She was also fitted with a six-camera monitoring system in 2021, and her galley was refitted with Siemens, Bosch and AEG appliances between 2020 and 2023. If a potential owner is thinking of operating this boat in European inland waterways, then some come with a valid CVO certificate
What does all of this tell us? Well, whoever owns her now has clearly treated her as a long-term asset rather than something that they have had enough of. Having filmed over 500 boats for my YouTube channel, the relatively minor maintenance being left often means that the major maintenance also gets overlooked, but given less priority. Of course, there will always be exceptions to this rule.
The Builder.
This is where the story became even more interesting as I researched this boat, and it reminded me of the largely forgotten Dutch yard behind the 1971 Haak 60, which is another case where a boat’s real story only shows up once you turn up the gain on the research radar!
The Kempers name traces all of the way back to 1894, when Theodorus Kempers was given permission to set up a shipyard in Alphen aan den Rijn. The facility started as a repair yard and grew into “TH. Kempers & Son Shipbuilding and Repair Yard” (eventually renamed Scheeps- en Jachtwerf Kempers B.V. in 1979).
One source dates the yard’s founding to 1894. Another, from the Doeve brokerage’s own brand history, simply states the yard was “founded in 1900”.
The better-supported reading is the 1894 permission date, since it comes from the more detailed of the two accounts. But either way, we are talking about a yard with well over a century of history behind it before it changed hands.
Throughout most of the 20th century, the yard built hundreds of steel Kempala cruisers, which are hard-chine motor yachts that built up a reputation for being extremely tough. Indeed, many of them are still cruising today!
In 1994, 2 years after she was launched, the yard was taken over by Van der Valk (the Dutch hotel and leisure group) and was renamed’Scheepswerf Falcon’. So, the Kempers-branded yacht building era ended there after what was a very successful period of 1st class boatbuilding. According to my research, the family business carries on today as Kempers Watersport, a marina and dealership in Aalsmeer, but, alas, it no longer builds yachts.
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In 1985, Kempers built M/Y ‘Esmeralda’, a 23.89 metre steel motorsailor ketch with exterior design by R. van den Akker. She was powered by a MAN diesel. This project proved that the yard was capable of custom builds over 24 metres LOA. “Our Choice” sits in that same bespoke tradition of one-off large-scale builds.
By the way, if you like a boat with a story behind her, then I think you will also enjoy taking a look at North Darling Yachts, which I featured a few weeks ago.
There is no established, so to speak, brokerage market for a Kempers 2200 because there has only ever been one of them. But for many buyers, that will make her even more appealing, especially as, by all accounts, she has been very well looked after.
A valuation of this boat has to be based on first principles, which is what makes her an interesting find, rather than just another steel explorer yacht
Where she sits against the market
Whilst doing my research for this article, I had a look around for comparable listings for steel motor yachts
I found a Van der Valk Explorer 24M, same year, 1992, slightly longer at 23.74 metres, listed at €649,950, so, some €345,000 less. Her own near-sister vessel from the same closing chapters of the Kempers era, a 1993 Kempers Excellent 65 at 19.75 metres, is listed at €695,000.
However, when you climb up the asking price ladder, a Vripack 69 Expedition Trawler, 2004-built, asks €1,200,000, and a De Vries Lentsch 22M from 1990 asks €1,495,000.
So “Our Choice” sits somewhere in the middle. Above the same-era production Dutch steel boats, below the true pedigree names and the more recent expedition-purpose builds.
The premium that “Our Choice” is asking for over the lower-priced comparable hulls tracks with what you actually get in terms of the recent refit work, the retractable stabilisers, and a one-off hull (rather than one of many).
Buying into that rarity means you are not just buying a Dutch steel motor yacht; you are buying the only Kempers 2200 that exists.
The Engines
The twin Caterpillar 3406B units deserve a mention on their own merits, because this is great news for anyone who is seriously thinking about purchasing this boat.
The 3406B is a fully mechanical, 14.6 litre inline-six, arriving in the mid-1980s as the improved successor to the original 3406, and itself superseded in the early 1990s by the electronic 3406C and 3406E. A 1992 boat running B-series engines is period-correct, not outdated for her age.
These engines are among the most proven, most rebuildable diesels Caterpillar ever made. No engine control unit, no electronics to fail, and a global spares network that still supports them decades after Caterpillar stopped building them new.
Any competent diesel mechanic anywhere in the world, from Copenhagen to the Caribbean, can service a 3406B.
At 300 horsepower per side, these engines are also running well below their rated ceiling, which some variants push past 480 horsepower. That is a de-stressed, longevity-first installation and is precisely what you want to see in an explorer yacht.
It is worth noting that 2,550 engine hours over 34 years is very low use. Of course, low engine hours can be a positive, but an engine, or engines, that sit idle for long periods of time can develop their own issues. But, let’s face it, I doubt any potential future owner will advance beyond initial negotiations without first commissioning a survey
When it comes to her performance stats, no speed or range figures have been published. Based on her hull form and displacement, a boat of this LOA and weight usually has a hull speed of between 9 and 12 knots with a cruising speed of between 7 and 8 knots.
Her fuel tanks hold 11,880 litres (combined) and a stated consumption of around 75 litres per hour, so we can estimate her range to be around 2,000 NM under normal sea states and typical load.
This article continues below, for my premium subscribers. Without the support of my premium subscribers, I would not be able to bring you these articles and my YouTube videos. So, if you are a premium subscriber, then ‘thank you!’
In the premium section, I cover:
- What she can actually do: a full look at her likely speed, cruising range and sea-keeping given her hull form, displacement and twin 300hp Caterpillars
- A genuine builder-history verdict: what buying a one-off, end-of-era Kempers actually means for resale, valuation and long-term ownership
- Full running-cost reality for a 90-tonne, twin-engine steel motor yacht: berthing, insurance, and what those low engine hours really mean for your first survey bill
- My honest assessment of the €995,000 asking price: where she genuinely sits against her nearest comparables, and whether this is a boat worth taking seriously
Why only two cabins?
