Archambault Boats was a French boat builder based in Dangé-Saint-Romain. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of monohull

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

History

Archambault Shipyard was founded in 1959 by Emmanuel Archambault. The company ran into financial problems in 2011. In November 2012, Gilles Caminade purchased the business retaining Emmanuel Archambault as general manager. In 2015, Archambault was intended to be purchased by BG Race, a company founded in 2013 by

Louis Burton Louis Burton (born 4 June 1985 in Ivry-sur-Seine, France) is a French yachtsman who competes in ocean racing Yacht racing is a Sailing (sport), sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing ...

and Servane Escoffier, who wanted to move production to

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo language, Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany. The Fortification, walled city on the English Channel coast had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth ...

, planning to call it Archambault by BG Race, but the transaction was not completed. At the end of 2017 the partners sold Archambault to the pilot and amateur yachtsman Jean-Charles Thomas, who had planned to restart production, but by 2023 there was no indication this had been achieved and operations seem to have come to an end in 2014. The first designs produced were the

Brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and the

Atlante Atlante or Atlantes may refer to: * Atlantes, the plural of Atlas (architecture), an architectural support in the form of a man * Atlante San Alejo, a Salvadoran football club * Atlante F.C., a Mexican football club * Atlante (private equity fund) ...

in the late 1960s. The smallest boat produced was the Archambault Bagheera, which entered production in 1968 and had a

length overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also ...

of . The company used the design services of Joubert Nivelt Design for many of its racers, including the 2012 Archambault A27. The 2004 Archambault A40 was the largest boat produced by the company, with a

of The Archambault A31, a scaled-down follow-on to the successful Archambault A35 and Archambault A40RC racers, was introduced in 2009. In a 2009 review of the A31

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

Robert H. Perry wrote, "the Archambault boats are quickly making a name for themselves as quality-built race winners in Europe." The company's M34 was selected as the

one-design One-design racing is a racing method which may be adopted in sports using complex equipment, whereby all vehicles have identical or very similar designs or models, avoiding the need for a Handicapping, handicap system. Motorsport One-make racing ...

class boat for the

Tour de France à la voile Tour de France à la voile is an annual yachting race around the coast of France. Inaugurated in 1978, it links the English Channel to the French Riviera and is held in July. Famous skippers have taken part in the race, including Loïck Peyron an ...

in 2011 and served in that role until 2014. During its lifetime the company was a mid-sized boat builder, neither building "one-off" custom boats nor large production runs. In 2012 it was reported that they were building 160 boats per year, with 60% being exported from France. In a 2014 review of the A13 written for ''Sails Magazine'', Kevin Green noted, "the relatively small number of Archambaults in Australia have had some big wins over the years which says a lot for this small boutique French yard that excels at building competitive cruiser-racers, with the emphasis heavily on the performance side of that equation." One of the last boats built was the

Archambault A13 The Archambault A13 is a French sailboat that was designed by Joubert Nivelt Design, with Bernard Nivelt as principal designer. It was designed as an IRC racer-cruiser and first built in 2014. The designation indicates the boat's approximate ...

, a racer. Intended for mass production by BG Race, only one boat was completed before the company went out of business early in 2015.

Boats

Summary of boats built by Archambault Boats: * Herbulaot Brick - 1967 * Mallard Atlante - 1967 * Archambault Bagheera - 1968 * Archambault Surprise 25 - 1977 * Archambault Suspens - 1979 *

Archambault Coco The Archambault Coco is a French sailboat that was designed by Harlé - Mortain as a Classe Mini racer for racing in the Mini Transat 6.50. It was first built in 1985. Production The design was built by Archambault Boats of Dangé-Saint-R ...

- 1985 *

Sprint 95 The Sprint 95 is a French sailboat that was designed by Joubert Nivelt Design as a racer-cruiser and first built in 1989. The boat's nomenclature indicates its approximate metric length overall in decimetres. Production The design was built ...

- 1989 * Archambault Grand Surprise - 1999 * Sprinto - 2000 * Archambault A40 - 2004 * Archambault A40RC - 2005 * Archambault A35 - 2006 * Archambault A31 - 2009 * Archambault M34 - 2010 * Archambault A27 - 2012 * Archambault A35R - 2014 * Archambault A35RC *

- 2014

References

External links

Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

{{Archambault Boats Archambault Boats French companies established in 1959

History

Boats

See also

References

External links