A long and successful road travelled… from the original Archambault Surprise (below left) to the brand new Sam Manuard-designed SKA Mini 650 (left), with a distinctive full bow that tapers away further up to save weight and windage. In between came the successful debut of the company’s larger A13 IRC racer-cruiser (below) which won first time out during the 2014 Commodores’ Cup
Thomas Duhen at the helm of Archambault the boatbuilder After a promising start in the US market, the original owner of the Archambault shipyard decided it was time to move on. Thomas Duhen took the opportunity to make an offer for a company with which he already enjoyed a successful relation- ship. The bid was accepted, and the new ownership became effective in April 2014. In the months leading up to the deal, Archambault had been developing a new version of its immensely successful A35: the A35R, which in turn immediately started winning IRC races at Spi-Ouest France over Easter 2014. Then under the new ownership, the new A13 (which should really have been called A43…) itself immediately became famous after
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being launched just in time for the 2014 Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup where it dominated the long offshore race. Archambault has enjoyed a very longstanding relationship with designers Joubert-Nivelt and the A13 is the latest example of that successful collaboration. Thomas Duhen believes strongly that Bernard Nivelt is among the very best designers in the world in terms of creating an IRC boat. Today it is taken as expected that boats like the A35R and the A13 will consistently be in the top in IRC events… which is a nice position to be in. Other IRC-optimised boats by Archambault include the A27, A31 and A40RC. Meanwhile, the company’s success in IRC competition has been further boosted by the vigorous and expert support of
Archambault’s representatives in the UK, Wavelength Projects in Plymouth who, led by Neil Gledhill, have played a big part in ensuring that similar IRC success was enjoyed by this French brand on both sides of the English Channel.
Of course, aside from their IRC success Archambault first became famous with one-designs like the ubiquitous Surprise. To date 1,780 Surprises have been launched, and even in 2014 the model remains the yard’s top seller. Other Archambault one-designs include the Sprinto, the Grand Surprise and the S34, a daysailer version of the M34 – recently used in the Tour de France à la Voile. And there is one more… building upon the fact that Archambault was the first builder to offer a production Class Mini
BRUNO COCOZZA/DPPI
RICK TOMLINSON
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