Dufour Yachts for Sale

Michel Dufour was an engineer in La Rochelle who saw what fiberglass could do for boatbuilding and founded his yard there in 1964. The Arpege that followed sold in numbers, took him to a large factory at Perigny and made Dufour a European standard for affordable cruising. He left in 1979 after the oil crisis years. The Italian group Cantiere del Pardo bought the yard in 2001 and brought in Umberto Felci, whose Grand Large and Performance ranges defined the modern boats, and Fountaine Pajot has owned Dufour since 2018.

Dufour reaches the brokerage market in two quite different forms. The early boats, Arpege, Sortilege and their sisters, are heavy, narrow and well regarded as classics, but they are fifty years old and should be bought on the state of the deck, keel bolts and rig rather than the name. The modern Grand Large boats are beamy and easy to sail short handed, and many went into charter fleets in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. An ex charter Dufour is often the cheapest way into a big modern cruiser: check the engine hours, the sail inventory and who looked after her.