Fountaine-Pajot is a major French maritime construction company specialising in

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

s both for private leisure, cruising and offshore chartering. The company was founded in 1976 by Jean François Fountaine and Yves Pajot, in the town of

Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis Aigrefeuille-d'Aunis is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France. The inhabitants are known as ''Aigrefeuillais'' or ''Aigrefeuillaises''. By population as well as by economic weigh ...

, in

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime () is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. As of 2019, it had a population of 651,358 with an area of 6,864 square kil ...

. It also now has a factory at

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...

The Fontaine-Pajot business

Fontaine-Pajot has become a world renowned cruising catamaran manufacturer. The company started on an industrial estate in Aigrefeuille d'Aunis, and today is the town's largest employer, with some 250 employees; the group as a whole having about 430. The company started to make public transport catamarans in 1983. Since then, the company has built 21 models and delivered 1,668 catamarans. Nowadays the company makes between 150 and 180 catamarans a year, both sail and power craft. In 2018, the company bought

Dufour Yachts Dufour Yachts is a French sailboat manufacturer which was founded in 1964 by naval architect and engineer Michel Dufour. It was purchased by Fountaine Pajot in 2018, and Dufour remains a separate brand A brand is a name, term, design, ...

, a manufacturer of monohull sailing vessels.

Innovation

Seeking to keep abreast of the competition, the company has a

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

department which aims to develop new processes and designs. Fountaine-Pajot developed a new process of making boat hulls by

injection moulding Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...

. Fontaine-Pajot made the catamarans for the experimental

water taxi A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or o ...

service along the

River Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

, the

Voguéo Voguéo was a water taxi service operated on the rivers Seine and the Marne in the Île-de-France (the area around Paris). The Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF) adopted the service in 2007. It started on 28 June 2008 between th ...

Models

less than 40 feet

*Corneel 26 (1985) *Maldives 32 (1988) (with pop-up saloon roof) *Greenland 34 (1998) (motor yacht) *Tobago 35 (1993) *Highland 35 (2005) (motor yacht) *Mahe 36 (2006) *Louisiane 37 (1983) *Antigua 37 (1990) *Athena 38 (1994) *Fidji 39 (1988)

40 feet

*Casamance 43 (1985) *Venezia 42 (1992) *Bahia 46 (1997) *Belize 43 (2000) *Lavezzi 40 (2003) *Cumberland 44 (2004) (motor yacht) *Summerland 40 (2007) (motor yacht) *Lipari 41 (2009) *Orana 44 (2007) *Salina 48 (2010) *Helia 44 (2012) *Cumberland 47 (2013) (motor yacht) *Lucia 40 (2016) *Saona 47 (2017) *Isla 40 (2020) *Astrea 42 *Elba 45 (2020) *Tanna 47 (2022)

50 feet

*Marquises 53 (1991) *Marquises 56 (1992) *Queensland 55 (2010) (motor yacht) *Sanya 57 (2010) *Ipanema 58 (2014) *Saba 50 (2015) *FP 51' (2022)

60 feet or more

*Eleuthera 60 (2003) *Galathea 65 (2008) *Victoria 67 (2013) *Taiti 80 (1996) *

Alegria 67 The Alegria 67 is a French sailing catamaran that was designed by Berret-Racoupeau Yacht Design as a cruiser and first built in 2018. Production The design is built by Fountaine-Pajot in France. First produced in 2018, it remains in product ...

(2018)

References

External links

*
Official website
Fountaine-Pajot {{france-company-stub