The history of Garcia Yachts

The Garcia Yachts shipyard has been designing and building adventure yachts for extreme sailing since 1974. It was then that two brothers, Jean-Louis and Jean-Pierre Garcia, metalworking students, began building steel boats. Driven by the admiration of travellers such as Bernard Moitessier and Joshua Slocum, they built about 60 boats before switching from steel to aluminium. An acquaintance with naval architect Philippe Harlé set the course for the future of the brand, with the arrival of aluminium Maracuja, Volnay, Malibu, Aubance, Jeroboam and other yachts.

In 1984 for Jean-Luc Van den Heede they made a 60-foot 36.15 MET of IMOCA with which he finished the 1989 Vendée Globe the third. The crew has been actively building custom boats in collaboration with architects Joubert-Nivelt, Berret-Racoupeau, Presles, Nahon, Lucas, and Vaton.

2006 was a turning point, as well as the last year with the Garcia brothers as the head of the company. At the same time, their 90-foot Zurbagan won the Super Yacht Design Award in Fort Lauderdale.

In 2010 Garcia Yachts joined Allures Yachting and Outremer to form the Grand Large Yachting group.

Current status

The brand forms part of the Grand Large Yachting group.

Production

Garcia Yachts has production, design and assembly departments in Cherbourg, where the company shares the base with Allures Yachting. On the other hand, the metalworking site is in Normandy. The combined shipyard can build 10 yachts at a time. Over the years the company has built over 300 yachts, which can be found in different areas of the world.

Garcia Yachts model range

The Garcia Yachts collection includes sailing custom and semi-custom aluminium yachts with hulls of 14-19 metres, as well as sailing catamarans and motorized expedition yachts.

Features

The company’s mission is to push the boundaries of sailing without sacrificing the comfort of life for travellers. Robust, well thought out, comfortable and perfectly insulated, Garcia Yachts can easily adapt to any situation, as well as navigate in extreme conditions in both cold and hot waters. The yachts feature many energy-saving technologies and know-hows, gained by the yard’s specialists over the years.