Beneteau Yachts
 Beneteau tradition starts in
1884, when Benjamin Beneteau, shipwright,
founds the Beneteau boatyard at
Croix-de-Vie, France to build sailing
trawlers. In that same year, the first
Beneteau boats are put to sea. Three
generations later, the passion lives on as
Madame Annette Beneteau Roux, Benjamin's
granddaughter, steers the company soundly
into the next century.
Designed by
Andre' Mauric in 1978, the First 30 was the
beginning of Beneteau's very successful
First series. The First 30 was chosen Boat
of the Year at the Paris Boat Show and won
the first leg of the Figaro Single-Handed
Race.
 In 1986 Beneteau crosses the
Atlantic and opens a production facility in
Marion, South Carolina. Within four years,
Beneteau is one of the top three sailboat
manufacturers in America.
By hiring
the services of world's top designers like Bruce Farr or Jean Berret
-even Pininfarina assisted- Beneteau has built some very successful
models.
Realising the importance of the charter market
they started -in 1985- the Oceanis series which offered boats
solely for charters. The Oceanis 350 of 1985, or the
Oceanis
440 in 1992 were selling in 100's as, huge tour operators like
the Moorings or the SunSail as well as dozens of individual yacht owners
favoured these boats for their fleets.
At the same time, the
First series -always in production- was offering cruiser/racer
yachts, winning several regattas and awarded many times as "Boat of the
Year" from magazines and boat shows. Yet, many of the First series
yachts -like the
First 45f5
or the First 42-
made a quite successful career in chartering.
As time advanced,
the Oceanis series boats were upgraded and improved, making a new
category in yachting (I will name it chartering/cruising), similar to
Jeanneau's Sun Odyssey series. These yachts became rather
expensive for chartering, so Beneteau introduced in 2005 a brand new
series -the Cyclades- with yachts built solely for charters.
Today, Beneteau has all (First, Oceanis and
Cyclades) the above series in production, plus two more series in
motorboats (the Antares and the newest Flyer). They
build more than 40 different models, satisfying every possible demand of
the yachting community.
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