Märke

Marex

Marex is a Norwegian builder of family motorboats. It was founded in 1973 by Eyvin Aalrud at Rykene, near Arendal in southern Norway; Aalrud had been an export manager for local boatbuilders and started production together with the builder Joda. The first model, the 24 Sun Cab, was a GRP boat on a Joda hull, built from 1974 to 1987 in 432 units, and was followed by the 23 DC and the 32 Friendship. The name combines the Latin mare (sea) and rex (king). After a fire destroyed the Rykene factory, Marex and Joda moved to a former Fjord factory at Fevik, between Arendal and Grimstad, which Marex still uses for service, winter storage and aftermarket work. In the 1970s and 1980s Marex built a wide mix of sports cruisers, displacement boats and aft-cabin boats before narrowing to a family-boat range built around three long-running concepts: the Sun Cruiser (from the 27 Sun Cruiser of 1979 to the current 310 Sun Cruiser), the Holiday and Aft Cabin line (77 Holiday of 1983, 277 and 280 Holiday, later the 320 and 373 Aft Cabin Cruiser), and the Scandinavia line (770 Dogger of 1984, then the 330 Millenium Scandinavia of 2000, whose sliding glass door and opening roof led to the canopy systems used on later models). Eyvin Aalrud died in 1998. His son Espen Aalrud took over the company, and his brother Thomas built up the European dealer network. Around that time Marex began working with Saulius Pajarskas and Raimondas Siugzdinis, who ran a small boat plant in Kaunas, Lithuania, and production moved there step by step, starting with the 270 Estremo. In 2011 the company listed factories in Arendal and Kaunas with about 80 staff. Today the main yard is in Kaunas, with 28,000 m2 of floor space, five production halls and a test pool, and an output Marex gives as 150 to 170 hulls a year, mostly vacuum-infused GRP. Marex describes itself as family-owned. In June 2026 it announced a further 11,000 m2 building at Kaunas, a EUR 20 million investment due to open in winter 2027, intended to allow boats of close to 55 ft. Espen Aalrud has led product development since 2009. Recent models were drawn with Nikl Design (310 Sun Cruiser, 320 Aft Cabin Cruiser, 360 Cabriolet Cruiser, 330 Scandinavia), and the 440 flagship with VOM Creations and Alpha Creations of Slovenia. The 2026 range comprises the 310 Sun Cruiser, 330 Scandinavia, 360 Cabriolet Cruiser, 375, 390, 440 Scandinavia and 440 Gourmet Cruiser. Awards listed by the yard include European Powerboat of the Year for the 310 Sun Cruiser (2017), the 330 Scandinavia (2022) and the 440 Gourmet Cruiser (2024), Motor Boat Awards for the 310 Sun Cruiser (2017) and the 440 Gourmet Cruiser (2024), and Best of Boats awards for the 360 Cabriolet Cruiser (2019), 330 Scandinavia (2021) and 440 Gourmet Cruiser (2024).