As leisure boats become large-scaled and high value-added, their design requirements gradually get more complicated and accordingly their manufacturing processes get more complicated than those of existing ones. Leisure boat builders overseas make efforts to overcome this circumstance by establishing a 3-D model-based design system which is based on the concept of PLM. On the other hand, Korean shipbuilders still remain in the development process of traditional leisure boats which are mainly based on 2-D drawings. There have been some efforts made to have the 3-D model-based design system; however, they belong to a very early stage. This study carried out initial research to apply DMU technology to the development process of leisure boats. It established the design process based on a DMU model and proved its usefulness through a case study on the design of 40-ft class aluminum leisure boats.