THE JEANNEAU 64 – YOU GOTTA SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT
By Paul Fenn
With the light just starting to fade, the Jeanneau 64 sits quietly at anchor in a snug little harbour just off the coast of Corsica.
Just about a year ago, I took a trip to France to the town of Le Poiré Sur Vie in theVendee region to see the first 64 being built. As you can easily imagine, building a 64 foot sailing yacht is not exactly a small accomplishment and in fact due to the dip in the economy, the project had been started and stopped more than once. Seeing the boat for the first time had been impressive. Construction had been about two-thirds of the way along and while the deck had not yet been installed, a good part of the interior had been. Seeing the boat at this stage of the build process was ideal because it provided an unobstructed view into the hull and all the equipment that is required on a boat of this size; generator, engine, water-maker, batteries, washer/dryer, wine cooler, etc. It was pretty much all installed and easy to see.
Fast forward six months to June 2014 and that same boat, hull #1, was now strutting its stuff around the island of Corsica in the Mediterranee. Once again I was fortunate enough to travel to Europe to see this boat and actually got the chance to help sail it fromCorsica to Marseille, about a 24 hour passage. It was an amazing feeling to see and sail the finished product after seeing it on the production line with all its guts hanging out just 6 months before. Right from the beginning I was totally awed by this yacht from her gracious lines to her sailing characteristics to her interior accommodations to her overall quality. It was truly Love at First Sight!
Dressed all in black, the newly painted Jeanneau 64, Trois Vignes, sits at the factory in Poiré. She is scheduled to sail in mid-March from Les Sables- d’Olonne to Chicago by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Fast forward again to last month when I made A Return Trip to Le Poiré to again visit the 64 on the production line. This time, instead of seeing just one boat under production, there were more like four or five. These boats were all in various stages of construction from the very beginnings to pretty much finished and ready to go. What’s more, I learned that 20 boats had already been sold and that the lead-time to get a boat was now stretching out some 18 months. It was also interesting to learn that many of the 64s that have already been sold were going to current Jeanneau owners, especially to owners of the extremely popular Jeanneau 54DS. I found this to be a great testament to the brand, the company, and to the Jeanneau staff. The bottom line is that anyone looking to purchase a 64 foot yacht and spend between one and two million dollars is going to look around at other boats and the fact that so many of these people chose the Jeanneau 64 is really quite a compliment.
One of the major selling points of the 64 is that the boat has been designed and engineered for choice. What this essentially means is that a number of well-thought-out, highly engineered layouts and features have been pre-designed giving customers a wide choice of interior configurations and options to choose from. And because these were all engineered into the design ahead of time, it literally saves thousands of dollars of expense allowing the boat to be sold at a price well under that of other yachts of this size and quality.
Working for Jeanneau as I do, I have probably visited the factory at least 50 times over the past 18 years. And while seeing a 36 footer roll down the production line is one thing, seeing a 64 go together is quite another. I’m biased I know but I have to say with complete sincerity, the 64 is one impressive machine. But as the title of this story suggests, you gotta see it to believe it.
The true guts of the boat were easy to see and understand at this stage of construction. You can see much of the front cabin was installed at this point.
