Bateaux Archambault

Company history

The Archambault Shipyard was founded in 1959 by Emmanuel Archambault and built sailing boats designed by Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt. Archambault has gained fame primarily due to its versatile high-speed models, which had very affordable prices for everything else.

The bestsellers included, for example, the monotype Surprise, created in 1976. The circulation of this model was more than 1500 units.

The Grand Surprise, launched a few years later, was also popular. The Archambault A35 also proved to be one of the most popular boats and won 20 international and national championships a year.

Since 2011, the company has been experiencing financial difficulties and in 2013 it took over the ownership of a new owner, Gilles Caminade, a passionate yachtsman who for many years owned various Archambault models. His intention was to develop a range of custom racing yachts, but these plans remained.

In 2015, Archambault was taken over by BG Race, a company created by famous offshore racers Louis Burton and Servane Escoffier. They wanted to move production toSaint-Malo and revive the most popular models. However, it did not go beyond intentions, and at the end of 2017 the partners sold Archambault to the pilot and amateur yachtsman Jean-Charles Thomas. Burton and Escoffier, however, retained a small stake in the company and a consultancy position. The new owner planned to restart production and modernize the product range, but there have been no major changes since then.

Status

It was not active.

Production

The Archanbault Shipyard and its production facilities are located in the west of France in the city of Archanbault. Danje-Saint-Romain.

Model range

The Archanbault range of models is represented by sailing yachts with Mediterranean cockpit (including monotypes) in composite hulls 18-40 feet long.

Features

The shipyard has been out of operation for several years, but it is alive and well and literally winning. Archanbault yachts have been optimised for IRC rules and continue to perform well in both offshore and inland regattas.