CNB Yachts for Sale

CNB stands for Construction Navale Bordeaux, a yard set up on the Garonne in July 1987 by Dieter Gust and Olivier Lafourcade to build large one off yachts. Beneteau bought a majority of it in 1992, its first outside acquisition, and for the next thirty years CNB ran two quite different businesses from the same enormous site: a custom and semi custom division that produced more than sixty yachts between 20 and 32 meters, many of them in aluminum, and a series division that built the fiberglass CNB 60, 66, 76 and their predecessors, big cruising boats designed to be handled by a couple with push button sail controls. The yard also builds the Lagoon and Excess catamarans. In April 2021 Groupe Beneteau sold the CNB yacht brand to the Italian builder Solaris as part of narrowing down to eight brands, production of the 66 and 76 moved from Beneteau's Monfalcone plant to Solaris nearby, and Bordeaux kept the catamarans.

Used, there are really two CNBs and you need to know which one you are looking at. A series boat such as the CNB 64 or CNB 66 is a production yacht in the best sense: fiberglass, built in a run, with electric or hydraulic furling and winches, a deck plan meant for two people and a very large interior for the length. Survey the sail handling systems hard, because the hydraulics, the in mast or in boom furling and the electric winches are what make the boat usable and what cost the most to put right, and check the rig, the keel structure and the steering. A custom CNB, and the aluminum 77 foot schooner in this batch is one, is a different purchase entirely: a one off that has to be assessed on its own drawings, its own build records and, being aluminum, by a surveyor who understands corrosion, bonding and stray current on a metal hull. Either way these are French boats. Systems are 230 volt 50 hertz European specification unless the boat was ordered for the American market, parts and yard knowledge sit in France and Italy, and there is no CNB dealer network here in the way there is for a production builder. Since the brand changed hands in 2021, warranty and factory support for a boat built before then are effectively gone, and for a boat built after it you are dealing with Solaris in Italy. Confirm the US import duty position and the VAT history before you get to survey, because on a yacht of this value that question is worth more than anything the surveyor will find.