Wauquiez Yachts for Sale

Henri Wauquiez was the heir to a family of tanners in the north of France who bought a Kim Holman designed Elizabethan 29 in 1964, offered to sell the boat in France, took seven orders by the end of the summer, and then converted part of the tannery to build them himself when the English yard could not keep up. The yard he put his name to in 1965 went on to work with Holman and Pye, Ted Hood, Britton Chance, Dubois, Berret Racoupeau and Lombard, and built the Centurion, Gladiateur, Pretorien, Amphitrite and Hood ranges before the Pilot Saloon arrived in 1991.

A Wauquiez is a small series boat, around a dozen a year now, built at Neuville-en-Ferrain near Lille with infusion and carbon alongside old fashioned joinery, which is why the interiors are the first thing owners talk about. The Pilot Saloon is what most buyers come for: a raised saloon with real windows, an inside steering option and good protection, which suits a couple who cruise in weather rather than in a magazine. Ownership has changed hands repeatedly, from Beneteau between 1997 and 2008 to Verdoso, then Experton Revollier in 2011 and Exel Industries in September 2021, so continuity of factory parts for an older hull is patchy and the owner community and specialist suppliers matter more than they would on a mass produced French boat. Survey the deck hardware, the rig and the keel bolts, and ask what has been replaced rather than what has been maintained.