Sailing like a hurricane

It is both the emblem and the symbol of French excellence in the early 1970s. The La Rochelle-based company Le Stratifié Industriel, which became Michel Dufour SA, embodies the creativity then the foundations of France’s leadership in the global sailing cruiser industry. It produces four models, from 6.50m to 12.50m, all with a certain cachet. The largest of them, the ketch Sortilège, achieves critical acclaim rather than record sales. But the all-new plant in Périgny, next to La Rochelle, with its 15,000m2 of space, rolls out a rationalized and innovative production organization. It produces one Arpège (9m) per working day, and 300 units per year all models combined. This rate of production is groundbreaking for the recreational boat industry. And things are just getting started. New models appear at a rate never seen before. The company’s sales network covers the whole of Europe. A subsidiary is created in Italy, followed by another in the United States. In just a few years, the Dufour brand establishes itself with an affluent clientele, driving both trends and opinions. Its modern, elegant, desirable and high-performing models boost a market that is thriving. 

In La Rochelle with Mallard or Amel, in Vendée with Jeanneau – whose Sangria (7.50m) will go on to sell more than 2,500 units – and with Bénéteau, which reigns supreme in the sport fishing sector, with Kirié, which moves from the Fifty to pure sailing, in Bordeaux, which is now the capital for dinghy production, as well as in the north with Wauquiez, the southwest with CNSO, or in La Baule with Gouteron, the French sailboat industry is booming. It sees spectacular growth for exports, climbing from zero to 30% or 40%, depending on the companies. 

With its rapid expansion, sailing eclipses the increasingly discreet production of motorboats, although they still have a clear majority. Around the mid-1970s, outboards and cruisers account for more than 60% of the total recreational boat fleet and more than 75% of new registrations. Rocca and Arcoa in particular still have their market, although the first embarks on a decline that it will not recover from. For its part, Zodiac and its 6,000 annual inflatables is really struggling. Despite a strict cost-saving plan, the company will only avoid sinking thanks to the intervention by the French State and various banks.

In reality, motorboats are no longer making headlines. Illustrating this, a dedicated sailing magazine appears in 1971. 10 years later, it is one of the leading specialist press titles. Sailing is setting new trends and dominating the headlines. The major races generate media interest and capture the general public’s attention, while the sponsoring attracts businesses (Club Méditerranée, Ricard, Kriter, Timex and Olympus, followed soon by Elf Aquitaine and others). Alongside this, we see France win medals at the Munich Olympics in 1972, as well as various shipwrecks and lots of dramatic events. Everything to spark the imagination of growing audiences and dampen the excitement of powerboat or water-skiing competitions.

French sailing sweeps everything in its wake. A comparable economic phenomenon, admittedly on a smaller scale, to the triumph of Japanese electronics, it seems impervious to the two storms that shake up the global economy. 

The first oil shock in 1973, following the Yom Kippur War, brings an end to the Glorious Thirties. Crude oil prices shoot up by 400% and an embargo hits the states guilty of supporting Israel, with the United States at the forefront. The terms crisis, inflation and unemployment become ever present in the media and everyday language. In France, GDP drops 3% and growth will stay below 2% for a number of years. The annual rates of 6% from the 1960s are forgotten. Prices double during Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s seven years in office (1974-1981). The number of unemployed people quickly exceeds 500,000, then passes the symbolic milestone of one million. 

Strangely, these developments do not stop or even curb the enthusiasm of French people for the magic of sailing. That is why some business leaders from the recreational boat sector, particularly in Vendée, can honestly say that they have not felt the crisis. But not everyone is in the same boat. In reality, the boat sector faces various depressions, with their warning signs becoming apparent even before the radical decisions taken by the oil-producing countries.

Dufour, the symbol of French success, sees the harmful effects of having too much success too soon from 1972. The yard is undercapitalized and has been unable to adapt to annual growth that has sometimes been over 30%. It finds itself in major financial difficulties. Only support from a passionate industrialist helps keep it afloat. When raw materials and polyester resin in particular rise sharply by 30%, when the dollar, with President Nixon’s decision to end the gold standard, loses more than 10% of its value, which makes Dufour’s prices increase by the same amount in the United States, the bailout by Marcel Bich proves vital. And soon insufficient. The ballpoint pen emperor has to buy out the company’s entire capital in 1976 to save it from sinking.

So, Marcel Bich was not the first industrialist to take an interest in a rapidly growing economic sector. In 1971, the American group Bangor Punta decided to buy French. Its activities range from Piper aircraft to Smith & Wesson pistols and a surprising diversification into water sports. It made the Jeanneau family a buyout offer that they could not refuse. Following this sale, Henri Jeanneau’s son-in-law, Olivier Gibert, founds his own yard (Gibert Marine, later known as Gib’Sea). His new Marans plant harmonizes its production with that of Jeanneau. Initially at least. In 1976, it is the turn of its Vendée-based neighbor Kirié to be taken over by Parfums Rochas. Elsewhere, the Wendel family, who previously dominated the steel industry, decide to create a boat subsidiary for the pressure cooker manufacturer Seb. Operating as Seb Marine, with a new plant in the suburbs of Cannes, it sells its cruiser sailboats under the Aloa brand. In terms of engines, the Renault group buys out Couach in 1972 to form the Renault Marine Couach unit, before tackling the American market.

This is a daring move, especially since we know that Bénéteau thought the American propeller fortress was impregnable. Contacted with various buyout offers that she considers do not offer any benefits, Annette Roux, its chairwoman, observes that attempting to compete with the Yankees in terms of motorboats is simply not realistic. Instead, she focuses her efforts on sailing, confident in the financial resources that she is able to count on thanks to her company’s undisputed dominance of the sport fishing market. In 1976, when the bank responsible for liquidating the assets of the bankrupt La Rochelle-based yard Quéré-Paillard offers her the option to buy, for a giveaway price, the molds of a 9m racing sailboat (winner of the Half Ton Cup with sailmaker and mast manufacturer Michel Briand at the helm), she does not hesitate for long. She approves this project, which is supported by the head of her sailing department, who came from Jeanneau. This leads to the launch of the First, a pure sailing cruiser under the Bénéteau brand. This first unit of a future squadron will pave the way for the yard to become the world number one. The intense competition with its neighbor Jeanneau, which is now the king of sailing cruisers in France, obviously benefits both rivals.

These two competitors manage to dominate the market in France, and soon internationally, while avoiding the trap that proved fatal to Michel Dufour. They manage their double-digit annual growth with a much more robust industrial model. For Bénéteau, we know that the Vendée-based yard built its solid financial foundations by dominating the sport fishing market. Admittedly, its dealership network receives 20% of the price of its boats. But this network around the coastlines also enables it to access a volume of sales which means that it can negotiate beneficial prices with its suppliers. When the Saint-Gilles yard starts producing attractive sailing models, it offers them at prices that cannot be matched by its smaller rivals. These competitors are struggling to become profitable: selling a few dozen units per year does not enable them to record sufficient margins. The opposite is true for the two major Vendée yards: with their constant stream of new models, which immediately go on to sell hundreds of units each year, they are riding the crest of a virtuous circle.

However, this does not prevent daring young entrepreneurs from setting up their own yards. With real success initially for Gilles Le Baud and Kelt Marine in Brittany. And with success that is slower, but more solid in the end, for Yves Roucher with Alubat in Vendée. The latter gambled on a material that was previously reserved for large units or offshore racing: aluminum. He was told that this was certain to fail. The “experts” thought it was impossible to make money with aluminum units under 9 or 10m. This is demonstrated by the Normandy-based Le Guen Hémidy, with its Brise de Mer (9.50m), and Pouvreau in Vendée, with its Romanée (10m): both enjoyed real commercial success with these aluminum units. 

More expensive than polyester, more difficult to weld than steel, more complicated to produce for series, especially for “shaped” hulls, aluminum nevertheless offers solidity, rigidity and lightness. This material offers a number of benefits for people looking to embark on long voyages, a new trend that takes shape during this decade. To such an extent that yards like Métalu or Aluminium & Techniques manage to take up positions on this emerging market. The Aluminium & Techniques yard innovates by launching the Zoufri, the first lifting keel model designed for long-distance cruising, followed soon after, in 1978, by Alubat with the Ovni 28. Two years earlier, Gérard Petipas and Éric Tabarly surprised everyone. They launched the Pen Duick 600, a small coastal cruiser that was simple and affordable, and just 6m long, made of aluminum! It was such a success that Le Guen & Hémidy was not able to adapt its production capacity in line with the demand faced. Nor was it able to make this model profitable, which compounded its struggles.

However, French recreational boating becomes an economic sector in its own right. By the middle of the decade, this sector’s 3,637 companies employ some 24,000 people and generate revenues of 1.119 billion euros. Five years later, the sector’s 3,800 companies have nearly 26,000 employees, with revenues of 1.365 billion euros. Over the same period, while their number rises from 190 to 200, French recreational boat builders see their revenues climb from 120.4 million euros to… 228.7 million euros. But inflation is a factor behind this.

In 1979, the Iranian Islamic Revolution triggers a second oil shock. However, neither Bénéteau nor Jeanneau, which are already competing for the title of the sailing world number one, seem to be affected by this… In 1980, the French fleet of live-aboard sailing models – over 2 tons – passes the milestone of 100,000 units, which is five times more than 20 years earlier.