6/21/2023 0 Comments Centurion boat reputation![]() ![]() The Pilot Saloon line seeks to combine sailing performance with raised coachroof profiles designed to increase viewing area from below decks. Having the resources of Groupe Beneteau should enhance the company’s reputation and offset whatever negative press it had to endure as a result of previous financial shortcomings.Īs with most of Beneteau’s subsidiaries, Wauquiez designates product lines by their intended use: the Centurion combines performance and comfort with traditionally shaped sloops. Even during hard times, Wauquiez produced sailboats that have an excellent reputation as being durable blue-water sailors, the cost of which may have contributed to its downfall. ]As with other acquisitions made by this new owner, the foundering builder now has access to Beneteau’s deep pockets, mass purchasing power, and state-of-the-art production techniques. Then, in 1997, Prouvost sold it to Beneteau. With financial difficulties continuing, Wauquiez brought in a financial partner, Olivier Prouvost, who eventually took over the firm. It re-emerged in 1983 and produced 200 boats in the ensuing five years. Like many one-man operations, the company endured financial ups and downs typical of the boatbuilding industry of the 1980s, and was placed in receivership in 1982. Once established, Wauquiez introduced designs ranging in size from 28 to 47 feet, including the Chance 37 and Wauquiez Hood designed by Ted Hood, which was later produced in the US as the Ted Hood Little Harbor 38. That decision put the company on the map in the French sailing community, and established its reputation for producing fast, solid cruising boats. The Wauquiez enterprise was founded in the 1960s when Henri Wauquiez decided to form a boatbuilding company that would produce copies of his own yacht, a Pye-designed Elizabethan 29. That changed when Beneteau acquired the company in 1997. were purchased on the used market from owners who bought them in Europe. As a consequence, many of the company’s boats sailing in the U.S. Wauquiez, the French boatbuilding firm, has existed on the fringes of the American sailing community for two decades, but throughout the majority of that time the company hasn’t enjoyed the benefit of top-drawer representation with a nationwide dealer network.
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