Dufour Yachts Owner's Manual PDF

Dufour sailing yachts - for stylish and bold conquerors of the sea.

Dufour is the only large-scale French shipyard that exclusively builds sailing yachts. Founded in 1964, for half a century now it has been the benchmark for high-quality mass production of yachts along with such popular brands as Bavaria and Beneteau.

The founder of Dufour was the designer Michel Dufour, in whose honor this brand got its name. The location of the shipyard in La Rochelle, a well-known center of sailing in the west of France, distinguished by long-standing sailing traditions, also played an important role in the rapid development of Dufour.

Her very first model, created a year after the emergence of Dufour Yachts, received widespread popularity in the world and recognition of true connoisseurs of sea voyages under sail. The shipyard distinguished itself by introducing new ideas in the construction of sailing yachts, creating a small cruising sailboat that conquered sailing connoisseurs for many years, and setting fashion trends for other creators of sailing yachts.

In 1973, Dufour was recognized as the leading French manufacturer of serial yachts, and already in 1976, due to debts, the founder of the company was forced to sell it to the Italian, who later moved to France, Marcel Biquet. In 1981, the shipyard temporarily suspended production due to financial difficulties, which was subsequently re-established, and in 2010 the Bavaria Yacht Group became the owner of Dufour. Despite such differences between ups and downs and a change of ownership, the Dufour shipyard never changed the quality of its products, and its boats always correspond to a high level of comfort and reliability.

The line up of manufactured models consists of two main areas: Grand Large (length from 9.8 to 15.31 m) - cruise yachts for lovers of long sea voyages and Performance (length 10.6-13.76 m) - racing sailboats for those who values speed and drive the most and wants to reach their heights in sailing. All yachts of this French shipyard have a fiberglass hull, which, thanks to a special technology of creation (two layers of fiberglass are connected using the vacuum method), has a sturdy, robust construction with a relatively low weight. Laminated stringers evenly distribute the load throughout the hull, which also contributes to the reliability of the yachts of this brand.