Who is Grand Soleil?

I'm reminded of those commercials for a certain Australian beer, where the protagonist is forced to peek through keyholes in a desperate quest to discover "Who is James Boag?"

Something like that element of mystique has surrounded the Grand Soleil range of production yachts, for many Australian yachties at least, due to the boats' high profile in English and European sailing magazines, combined with their near absence in our local waters.

That may be about to change, due to an increase in the Italian company's production capacity which is allowing it to seek wider markets, combined with renewed effort by the Australian agent to market the craft here, including a commitment to import two new boats for the Sydney International Boat Show.

This will allow Australian sailing enthusiasts who have been casting admiring glances at that dark-blue Grand Soleil 43 with the teak decks pictured in the overseas magazines, or feeling impressed by the race results of the Grand Soleil 40 at major European IMS regattas over the past season, to step aboard for a proper look and a test sail.

Until that opportunity for a test sail comes around, I won't feel I have a definitive answer to the question: "Who is Grand Soleil?", at least in terms of the sailing performance of its yachts. But I do have a much broader knowledge of the company, its marketing strategy and production values, following a visit to its new factory in Forli, northern Italy, in February.

HOW IT BEGAN
Grand Soleil yachts are produced by Cantiere del Pardo, an Italian company started in the early 1970s by Giuseppe Giuliani, who remains the managing director.

It began building racing yachts in series, reducing costs by producing the fibreglass hulls from moulds, a relatively new idea then. The first boat was a 34ft Finot design, launched in 1973. Later models included the Orca 43, a Dick Carter design which won the Fastnet Race, three designs by German Frers, and more recently designs by Peterson, Farr, J&J Marine, Briand and Judel/Vrolijk.

The company delivered the 2000th Grand Soleil last year and claims to be the third-largest builder of sailing yachts in Europe. At the end of last year, it moved into a brand new, purpose-designed production facility in Forli, a thriving industrial hub between the wealthy city of Bologna and the coastal resort of Rimini on the Adriatic Sea.

According to Christophe de Malherbe, Export Manager of Cantiere del Pardo, the move to the new factory has doubled the company's production potential. "We can build 280-290 boats per year, depending on size, from a current production of 150 boats per year. So now we can look at different markets."

The company has a workforce of around 120 people, divided into smaller separate business units to circumvent Italian industrial laws, which restrict large businesses' ability to dismiss staff in lean times.

Malherbe, a Frenchman who has been with the company for 15 years and has a comprehensive knowledge of the recreational boating industry worldwide, says the 'farmer mentality' of Cantiere del Pardo's local workforce is a valuable commodity. "They are very honest and educated to work hard, they enjoy it and they put money in the bank, because who knows what will happen in a year or two." Production is from 7am-2pm, six days a week.

Marine companies form a vital part of the local industry; major powerboat builder Ferretti, for example, is just around the corner. And business in general is good, Malherbe says: "Every three months there is a new factory opening around here, and there's currently 0% unemployment in the region."

Grand Soleil is expanding beyond the local region, with its acquisition early last year of the major French boatbuilder, Dufour. This adds the Dufour Classic and the Gib'Sea ranges to the stable, and brings economies of scale to purchasing of component materials and equipment.

However, Malherbe says: "We're keeping the management of the two companies completely separate; we don't want to mix it."

UPDATING THE RANGE
Grand Soleil currently produces seven models - the result of a significant drive over the past seven years to update the range - and it is about to launch two more.

The oldest boat in the range is the GS 37, a J&J design launched in 1996. There has been at least one new release every year since then: the GS 46.3 launched in 1997 with more than 100 built since; the GS 43 in 1998; the GS 34.1 in 1999, the GS 40 in 2000; and in 2001 the GS 40 SCRIMP (built for racing, using newer construction technology and a slightly different hull shape maximised to suit IMS rule changes).

The 40 has been a runaway success in terms of demand, Malherbe says: "We've already built 60 of the 40s for cruising/racing and 10 of the 40 SCRIMP for racing, and we've had to have three moulds."

This year the company will release the Grand Soleil 44 Race, a Judel/Vrolijk design which will be campaigned hard at the major IMS regattas of the season, starting from this month, and the Grand Soleil 56, a new fast cruising design from Philippe Briand.

Without giving anything away, Malherbe says there will be two more new models next year, too.

Oh, and there is also a one-off 70-footer under construction at an outside yard, which will carry the Grand Soleil name. Malherbe says this is an experiment, rather than an indication of the direction the company wishes to pursue. It follows the move towards at least semi-custom building embodied by the other big model on Cantiere del Pardo's books; the 64ft Farr-designed GS Maxi One.

However, Malherbe defines the main focus of the company as 40-50ft yachts: "A combination of cruiser and racer, a boat you can use for family sailing and also racing, getting good results depending on your level, and what you want to spend on racing."

He says: "We spend a lot of time, energy and money researching hull shape, keel shape and rudder shape because, with the 40 for example, we want a boat that can race at a high level and also cruise. It is not easy because sometimes the racing requests are contradictory to the cruising requests. A cruising boat must be a roomy boat, a racing boat must be a narrow boat, and so on."

Although the company has clearly embarked on a big push to achieve major racing successes, from its introduction of the GS 40 through to this year's heavy investment in the new GS 44 Race, Malherbe says: "We have stayed in the medium displacement area because although light boats are fast, they can be difficult to helm and trim, not nicely behaved in a seaway and they cost a lot of money for the materials."

PYRAMID SAILS
Malherbe sees the recreational yachting market as a pyramid, with cheaper, entry level models providing the base, leading up to more expensive, higher-quality boats at the apex, produced in much smaller numbers.

He sees Grand Soleil yachts on a high rung of this structure, with the closest neighbour being the Danish company X-Yachts, a manufacturer of high quality cruiser/racers and the currently successful IMX-40 racer.

"We are very rarely the first boat people buy," Malherbe says. "When people are buying their first boat, especially in the 34-37ft range, they are concerned about price; they don't understand why they have to pay maybe 20% more for a good quality boat, and they don't yet know how to distinguish quality."

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
The new factory has allowed Cantiere del Pardo to institute a production chain with 11 work stations. Hulls and decks are moulded in a nearby factory (soon to be brought in-house) and then the hulls enter the production line one-by-one, while the decks are positioned at the other end of the line.

Every two days, the hulls are moved forward one place in the chain; at each work station a list of tasks and the time required must be strictly adhered to, to ensure the whole chain keeps moving on schedule. Malherbe says each boat takes roughly two-and-a-half months to build, including nine days to produce the hull mouldings, roughly one-and-a-half months to run through the production chain, one week of quality control and checking (including thorough testing in 'the pond'). and a final week's cleaning.

The internal joinery, a choice of mahogany or teak (timber or 'teak-and-holly-look' formica floorboards are also optional), is assembled into accommodation pods in a separate woodworking shop and are wheeled across to the production line when required for placement in the hulls.

Meanwhile, the decks are fully equipped with hardware, teak decking etc, before being lifted onto the hulls at the appropriate stage of the chain.

Keels are also precision-fitted to the hulls at the final stage of the chain, before 'the pond'.

The following aspects of construction are just some of many examples Malherbe cites to indicate the company's commitment to quality:

EXPERT ASSEMBLER
Cantiere del Pardo places strong reliance on outside subcontractors, from the manufacturer of the plugs and moulds for new models, through to the electrics, teak decks, steering systems (by Solimar, another Forli company), and advice on structural engineering (SP Systems), deck layouts, interior design, and so on.

Malherbe says this approach is widespread in Italy: "Even Ferrari uses a lot of subcontractors, and so does the motorbike company Aprilia, for example."

He continues: "We believe it is not possible to be good at everything. You have to be humble to work this way. But we see Grand Soleil as highly professional as an assembler and co-ordinator of skilled supppliers."

THE RACING EDGE
The boom in demand for the Grand Soleil 40, following its good initial performances on European race courses, has no doubt encouraged Grand Soleil in its commitment to the new 44 Race model.

The company is providing the first two 44s free to professional Italian racing teams to campaign for five months in the major IMS regattas starting from the Rolex IMS Offshore Worlds (May 19-25, Capri, Italy) and the Audi IMS Europeans (June 1-8, Punta Ala, Italy).

A third boat will be raced by a Dutch team, starting from June at the Copa del Rey in Spain. Hull No 4 has been sold to another Dutch team, according to Malherbe, who says of the company's investment in racing: "If you want to know how people are building their boats, you look to the race results, because to win, the boats have to be well-designed and well-built. When you submit a boat to racing conditions, you do things you would never do to the boat when cruising. You put it under incredible stresses."

The new Grand Soleil 44 Race is being built of an expensive composite lay-up using epoxy resin and vacuum techniques.

The GS 40 SCRIMP, meanwhile, embodies an alternative approach to the challenge of producing strong, rigid hulls which can withstand the punishment of racing, without incurring astronomical expense.

SCRIMP (Seemann Composites Resin Infusion Molding Process) is a patented resin infusion process developed by a US company called TPI. It involves 'dry' lay-up of the hull materials and then infusion of resin under a high vacuum, which removes all of the air and draws and infuses the resin into the composite.

Other manufacturers employing the system - which has the added benefit of reducing the output of styrene, one of the increasing environmental concerns for GRP production boatbuilders - include J-Boats in France.

Malherbe says that Cantiere del Pardo is investigating a range of possible future alternatives for construction, one of which is an infusion system already developed and in use by some European yards, possibly at much lower cost.

THE FUTURE
Like most major boatbuilders in the recreational market, Cantiere del Pardo has experienced fluctuating fortunes over its 30 years in business, and solid growth since the late 1990s.

"In 1995 we built 27 boats; in 2001 we built 150," Malherbe says. "Last season we grew by 15%. Our biggest markets in Europe are the UK and Holland, and our export and local markets are roughly even.

"What will happen in the next three years, who knows? The boating industry is very closely linked to the stock market; easy money is easy to spend.

"We will look at the US market next year. It's a very big market, half of the world market, and really it is five separate markets. Also at the moment it is in 8% recession. We think it will take a five or six-year commitment to get results."

GRAND SOLEIL DOWNUNDER
Malherbe visited Sydney last year, and besides falling in love with the place as a mecca for sailing, gained the view that it is particularly well-suited to his company's products, because of the proliferation of twilight and weekend club racing as well as family cruising. He believes that the Australian market could yield sales of five to seven Grand Soleil yachts per year.

Grand Soleil has been marketed in Australia up until now on a fairly low-key basis by Ken Langford, through his company Pacific Rim Yachts. Langford is definitely not a newcomer to the marine market, having previously owned the Hong Kong-based international sailmaker, Gaastra, as well as cruising around the world.

Langford also owns the Grand Soleil 37 which was on show at the Sydney Sail Expo in March. Strengthening his commitment to promote the brand, he has joined forces with Mal Hardwick of Southern Aurora Australia and Thierry Masseau to market the yachts through a new company called Yacht Italia.

Yacht Italia has opened a new office at Fergusons Marina, The Spit (NSW) and plans to import first a Grand Soleil 40 and then a GS 43 for demonstration at this year's boatshows, starting with Sydney.

With any luck, we won't have to peek through a keyhole to see them.

For more information, contact Yacht Italia, tel (02) 9969 8577.

Vanessa Dudley visited Cantiere del Pardo courtesy of Pacific Rim Yachts/Yacht Italia.