From artisans to industry
When it moves into the second half of the 20th century, French recreational boat building is not very different from what it was like 50 years earlier. Dozens of small-scale yards can be found along the coastline or in areas outside of major urban hubs. Almost every port seems to include a boathouse that releases one or two sailing yachts each year, or sometimes one unit every two years for larger models, all built with classic boards on wooden rib frames and rails. The techniques have not changed for centuries, and nor have the various steps taken by the builders. The timber drying and bending processes, just like the tools, such as the plane, jointer or adze, mean that boatbuilding is more like an artisan activity than an industry. The majority of the yards are still family businesses, often created on the initiative of a daring family member whose energy reserves often significantly exceed their bank balance.
Boatyards throughout France
The Paris region is home to a number of historic yards, including Silvant in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Jouët in Sartrouville or Ateliers et Chantiers in Meulan. This is mainly linked to the capital’s proximity and the presence of a wealthy clientele.
The same conditions can be seen around major urban centers elsewhere in France, including Nantes. Despite its horrors, the Second World War opened up new perspectives: emerging from these dark years, employees at the major yards in Nantes decided to change their lives. Léon Bézier was a team leader at Dubigeon. He crossed the River Loire to set up his own yard. Lebeaupin or Berthaud, who worked at Ateliers et Chantiers in Brittany, took the same step. Unlike their colleagues, who lose their way building fishing boats, they find their salvation in sailing cruisers. They set up their yard to the south of the city, in Rezé-les-Nantes, where land alongside the River Loire is still affordable. Their small teams, reduced to just a few members, produce units on demand.
For their part, the microenterprises along the coast resume their activities which were shut down in many cases during the five years of the occupation. The building of recreational boats was at the time, if not impossible, at least inconceivable. Labbé in Saint-Malo, Moguérou in Carantec, Pichavant in Pont Labbé, Craf in Bénodet, Stephan in Concarneau, Derrien or Laurent in Pont Aven, Costantini in La Trinité-sur-Mer, Bureau or Leroux in Le Croisic, Chassaigne or Hervé in La Rochelle, Bombal in Mortagne, Bonnin or Matonnat in Arcachon, Boudignon in Arles, as well as others in Martigues, Saint-Tropez or Antibes, and the list goes on, all build individual units or very small series. Doctors, lawyers, business leaders and other high net worth individuals are the first enthusiasts of the “sport of kings”. They enjoy a luxury leisure activity that is still known as yachting. But it will not be long before the “middle classes” follow their lead.
In just one decade, this still embryonic economic sector changes worlds, scales and even names. It will now be called recreational boating, and the success of Jacques Perret’s best-seller – the “Rôle de Plaisance” – published in June 1957, illustrates this transformation.
Growth, credit and taxes
Who could have forecast this transformation in a country of less than 43 million people, where nearly half of them are still living in rural areas, and where bread rationing is not phased out until 1949? Where the Marshall Plan has no doubt helped the economy to start up again in the immediate post-war period, just like the Pinay Loan Plan, backed by gold, which “saves the franc”, but where inflation is sometimes rampant, political instability permanent, and budget deficits recurrent? Not to mention the fact that France is still a country at war. Shortly after the Dien Bien Phu agreements were signed in 1954, the “events” in Algeria take over from the Indochinese conflict. In 1958, the return of General de Gaulle, accompanied by Antoine Pinay, saves France from a political shipwreck and economic disaster. The franc is devalued by 17.5%, but trade is freed up for 90%.
Following the dark years of the previous decade, the 1950s see a spectacular upturn. Purchasing power growth and increased free time go hand-in-hand. Wages, which had been blocked since 1939, are freed up. February 1950 marks the introduction of the “guaranteed minimum inter-professional wage” or SMIG: 78 francs for 40 hours of work per week. A third week of paid leave is introduced in 1956. At the same time, inflation has eased sufficiently and consumption has picked up enough – boat loans are authorized in 1954 – for the tax burden to start increasing again. VAT is introduced in 1954, quickly followed by the vehicle registration tax (1956). In the meantime, the privileges available to yacht owners – zero tax on boats and their equipment or supplies – are gradually withdrawn. A 31.23% tax is applied for boats on inland waterways, while another progressive tax covers yachts over five tons. These are now included in the calculation of “lifestyle elements”. But there is nothing here that can hold back the trend for leisure boats or the recreational boating wave.
Three and a half months of smig
We know that with the reemergence of sailing schools and clubs, along the entire coastline and on inland waterways, the Centre Nautique des Glénans, which emerged from the CFI (international training center founded in 1947), leads a first revolution. The prototype for the Vaurien, commissioned from Jean-Jacques Herbulot in 1952, is built by the Nantes-based Aubin – the yard just founded by two brothers, winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France award for the country’s best craftspeople, which moved to Rezé in 1962. This new dinghy, just over 4m long, is available for 50,000 francs (it will quickly sell for 55,000 francs), equivalent to around three and a half months of the SMIG minimum wage, while the Citroen 2CV represents 20 months of average earnings. Half the price of the most popular sailing dinghies at the time, built at six different yards – on its own, Costantini built 200 in 1952-53, in Trinité-sur-Mer – the Vaurien is like a pilot fish for large-series production, pioneering the large-scale migration from artisans to industry. There are 3,500 at the end of 1958 and 1,500 more one year later. Released in 1954, the Corsaire plays a similar role for live-aboard yachts.
Even better, alongside the growing number of production centers, an innovative distribution system responds to the rapid growth in demand. The chartered accountant Jacques Derkenne teams up with Herbulot to create Compagnie de Développement du Yachting à Voile (CIDEVYV). This modern centralized purchasing and promotional hub becomes the core of a network of boat and equipment manufacturers. It supplies the points of sale or directly sells series production yachts, kit models, masts, sails, deck gear, etc. It very quickly conquers more than one third of the live-aboard sailing market. Forging ahead, Derkenne works with Pierre Lavat to create a magazine (Bateaux, 1958) that quickly establishes itself as a major hub for advertising.
Motorboating, an industrial pioneer
At the same time, another economic transformation takes shape. This transformation does not quite have the same prestige as sailing, continuing to bask in the glow of the achievements of Gerbaud, Bernicot, Bardiaux or Le Toumelin, the first giants of round-the-world solo racing. This revolution is inspired by the widespread interest across France in powerboat racing and acrobatics, which are very popular at the time, as well as the growing trend of waterskiing.
In Vitry sur Seine, the two sons of an Italian immigrant called Rocca dare to convert their workshops from producing wooden canoes and outboard motorboats to building with polyester. This new material opens up access to groundbreaking production speeds, combined with a spectacular drop in manufacturing costs. As it is virtually maintenance-free, unlike wood, “plastic” can attract a clientele freed up from the constraints of boat ownership.
Rocca will go on to enjoy phenomenal success. Throughout the decade, the yard will see annual growth of over 20%. In 1957 alone, its workshops produce 1,500 motorboats. Two years later, the 100 staff working for France’s first recreational boat company will build 2,400 units, which represents around 10 each day! We have now moved on from the slow pace and traditions of the artisan approach. While Rocca has not yet standardized its production like the Ford model, it does not have very far to go.
But to achieve this, it would be necessary to start from scratch, building a production unit that no longer has any links with any of the old wood-based techniques. This initiative will be taken up again in 1958 by the heir of a Vendée-based hardware store. This powerboat racing enthusiast tests a first outboard hull in reinforced polyester. Just to see. His name is Henri Jeanneau. He is so quickly convinced of this material’s benefits that he decides to build the first factory for the series production of plastic boats in Les Herbiers. But his first steps are difficult, he needs to learn everything and its production using wooden molds – which take a long time to make – does not reach more than 12 boats per month. This will change quickly. A few hundred kilometers to the south, in Arcachon, the French inboard engine manufacturer Couach, which becomes Diesel in 1957, has successfully launched the production of cruisers under the Arcoa brand. It produces 200 units per year of its 520 model (5.20m long), then 50 of its 570 model.
Elsewhere, the French outboard engine manufacturer Goïot must resign itself to shutting down its production: in 1958, when the trade barriers are lifted, it cannot resist the tidal wave of American firms, with Mercury, Johnson and Evinrude. Supported by their huge and booming domestic market, the American brands produce more powerful systems that are less expensive than their French rivals. In a few years, they conquer the entire French market.
Thousands of sailing cruisers
At the end of the decade, according to the Merchant Navy, there are around 40,000 recreational boats in France, three quarters of which are less than two tons. The hundreds of small businesses in the recreational boat sector employ at the most around 20,000 people. Nevertheless, the leisure sectors in general, and the boating sector in particular, are rapidly conquering new customer segments. Illustrating this, the production of live-aboard sailing yachts reaches volumes never seen before: in 1959, 2,850 of these units are made by French yards, including 650 Corsaires, 750 Corvettes (7m Herbulot), 648 Bélougas and 136 Estuaires and Super Estuaires. The construction of these popular series has clearly benefited from plywood and molded wood. But things are only getting started. The polyester revolution will enable modern industrial production to really develop over the following decade.
