In 1974, two metalworker brothers, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Louis Garcia, as passionate as they were talented, had the audacity to set-up a shipyard in the heart of Normandy.
Forty years later, the sincerity of their approach, their rigour at work, their ability to listen to their customers, combined with the excellence of the more than three hundred ocean cruising boats that have emerged from their workshops, have made Garcia a name and a benchmark known throughout the world.
The history of the Garcia shipyard
40 years of passion
For more than 40 years, Garcia Yachts has been building exceptional boats for discovering both the northernmost latitudes and the warmest seas. Boats with strong character, fully assuming their destiny, protective, reliable and powerful, but always with a very high-quality finish. The experience and excellence of their metalworkers have made Garcia Yachts the benchmark in the world of aluminium vessels, particularly in centreboard boats.
And yet it all began with steel….
In 1974, two brothers, Jean-Louis and Jean-Pierre Garcia, both metalworkers by trade, started building steel boats. Carried by the admiration they had for sailors like Bernard Moitessier and Joshua Slocum, they built about sixty boats that launched the reputation of the yard on the main offshore cruising routes.
But quickly the boldness of the Garcia brothers led them to experiment with another, even more efficient material, aluminium. But it was their meeting with naval architect Philippe Harlé which was to shape their destiny. The passion and ingenuity that brought the three men together gave birth to a famous line of sailboats, from the first Maracuja which Volnay, Malibu, Aubance, Jeroboam and many others would follow. All were to be the result of meticulous work with the promise of pushing the boundaries without ever sacrificing comfort.
In 1984, during a visit to the Harlé office in La Rochelle, they met Jean-Luc Van den Heede, with whom they designed the 36.15 MET, a 60-foot minimalist sailboat that would take 3rd place in the first Vendée Globe. Following on from this boat, Alain Mortain and Yannis Mavrikios, Philippe Harlé’s collaborators and partners, were to continue the series of centreboarders with the now legendary Passoa range from 43 to 55 feet, and Nouanni.
Constantly on the lookout for new challenges, the audacious Garcia Yachts shipyard works in parallel with some of the greatest naval architects (including the Joubert-Nivelt and Berret-Racoupeau partnerships, but also with Presles, Nahon, Lucas, Vaton and many others) for ever more prestigious boats.
Curious and attentive to the desires of future owners, the small Normandy shipyard has established itself as the benchmark for tailor-made solutions in the nautical world.
From the 2000s, one-off boats built by Garcia Yachts were becoming bigger, more impressive, and more sophisticated, like Levana (75 feet on Joubert-Nivelt plans, with design by Franck Darnet) or Poil de Carotte (110 feet on Vaton plans).
2006 was to be the year which saw the last boat constructed under the benevolent eye of the Garcia brothers. The magnificent Zurbagan, a 90-foot Gilles Vaton plan (with Hugon and Couedel design) sailboat went on to win the major international award “Superyacht Design Award Best Sail” in the 23 to 36 metre category in Fort Lauderdale.
In 2010 a new adventure began, when Garcia Yachts joined Allures Yachting and Outremer as part of the Grand Large Yachting group, which has since perpetuated the tradition by designing unique aluminium boats with an exemplary-quality finish. Jean-Louis Garcia honoured his successors, entrusting them with the construction of his own boat. This became the GT 54, a particularly innovative trawler yacht, both technically and in terms of design, which was elected European Boat of the Year in 2013.
The following year, Garcia Yachts launched the Exploration range inspired by the famous sailor Jimmy Cornell for taking on the Northwest Passage, which he succeeded in crossing two years later. Aluminium centreboarders (the Exploration 45, then the Exploration 52 and now an Exploration 60) whose programme can be summed up in one sentence: “There is nowhere you can’t go!” A philosophy that naturally extends to the Explocat 52 catamaran.
With 40 years of experience and numerous collaborations with the best French naval architects and designers, Garcia Yachts continues to build exceptional boats, allowing you to consider all possible destinations under sail, far from the crowds and beaten paths, to discover in a privileged way, rarer landscapes, often exceptional ones, which will remain forever engraved in your memory and which will perpetuate the history of the Garcia Yachts shipyard.
The Grand Large Yachting Group
Founded in 2003 by Xavier Desmarest and Stéphan Constance, the Grand Large Yachting group is THE great history of boating over the past fifteen years. Indeed, beyond commercial or technical successes, it now has some real assets:
Garcia Yachts and Allures Yachting, 2 shipyards specialising in aluminium; Outremer and Gunboat, 2 emblematic multihull brands.
In addition to the design and construction of boats, these shipyards offer future owners full support through the group’s service company, Grand Large Services. From the beginning of the project to its completion, the future owner benefits from careful listening and a personalized follow-up, before, during and after sailing. Beyond the boat that brings us together, we want to build a long-term relationship of trust with you, based on transparency and sincerity.
The aluminium leisure craft department
With the exception of metalworking, which requires dedicated spaces, Garcia Yachts and Allures Yachting sites are physically located in Cherbourg in northern France, and share the same premises. This proximity was desired and implemented by the founders of Grand Large Yachting to provide them with a local production tool, totally controlled and capable of offering great flexibility to each of the projects. Open to future owners, this shared space makes it possible to meet their specific requests.
This integrated production tool is a real strength of the Allures Yachting and Garcia Yachts shipyards. It includes:
- Two design offices in Cherbourg, working – according to requests – hand in hand in an intelligent sharing of their know-how
- Two metalworking shops, one in Brittany, the other in Normandy
- A carpentry shop in the Vendée, on France’s west coast
- A composite manufacturing site in Normandy
- An assembly hub in Cherbourg capable of accommodating up to 10 boats simultaneously
So Garcia Yachts and Allures Yachting are able to offer very different products (both in the programmes targeted and in the line of yachts produced or in their equipment) but which all benefit from the know-how and experience of the engineers, craftsmen and staff who work every day designing and building boats.
