Our New Yachts are Coming from Jeanneau

A Rich History of Boat Building

Our boats will soon be arriving from the Jeanneau Factory in Cholet, France – not far from the Bay of Biscay.

The company’s roots go all the way back to 1957. Founder Henri Jeanneau, a hardware store owner, was inspired to begin building boats en masse after finishing first in the Six heures de Paris race, the biggest powerboat race in the country at the time.

In 1961, the company created its first fibreglass boat, which paved the way for faster boat production – now, hundreds of high-quality boat hulls could be created easily using a single mould.

Today, the Cholet factory is one of the most automated boat factories, and even though it can complete several boats in a relatively short time period, a lot of work goes into manufacturing a boat.

The Boat Building Process

Firstly, the hull is moulded as a single component with fibreglass resin, and moved onto the assembly line. There, all of the interior fittings are added, including the engine, plumbing system and water tanks, electrical cabling, walls, flooring and furniture.

All of the interior furnishings are pre-built beforehand, then slotted into place like a jigsaw puzzle, and securely bonded to the boat’s hull. It takes special care to ensure the positioning of all the interior electrics and plumbing match up with the positions of appliances and bathroom systems.

Every two and a half hours the assembly line moves along one space so each boat receives the next stage in the fitting process.

Finally, the deck (which is also moulded as a single piece, and has all the fittings attached) and keel are added to the boat hull, and the whole yacht shrink-wrapped for transportation to the customer!

The boats will be arriving in mid January, and will soon be providing an excellent learning platform for our RYA sailing course students. To find out more about our sailing courses, call First Class Sailing on 0203 006 3717.

Posted by: First Class Sailing