With a coastline extending nearly 116 km, Calvados has a unique opening onto the sea, at the entrance to one of the busiest shipping routes in the world.

This strategic position gives it easy access to Europe’s major markets, including Paris, the United Kingdom and the whole of Northern Europe.

 

• More than 66 firms, across all the sectors, generating between 750 and 1,000 direct and indirect jobs
• 70 million euros in turnover
• 13 lock-controlled ports, with a total of approximately 4,500 berths
• 75 water sports clubs, 10 Fédération Française de Voile-approved sailing schools, 1 top-level sports training centre.
• 2 inland lakes and rivers suitable for a variety of sports.

Key players

• ACM
  France ’s leading manufacturer of cruise speedboats for the top end of the market
• V1D2
  A firm specializing in the preparation of racing yachts
• Yachts Industries
  Builder of luxury aluminium monohulls and catamarans
• Société Navale Industrielle et de Plaisance (SNIP)
  Distributor, Motorist, Trade / Maintenance
  
• Chantier Naval Garcia
  Custom-built aluminium yachts
• Karver France
  Design and manufacture blocks, furlers and custom parts

Calvados boasts a dense network of firms involved in the yacht industry. These include shipyards, firms specializing in maintenance and repair, sailmaking, motors and superstructure fittings, hire firms, ship chandlers and electronics firms.

Training for jobs in the yacht industry

• Vocational training schools (plastics technology, the use of wood and associated materials for carpentry and fitting out)
• Training for reinforced plastics technicians and for crews of all sizes of yachts.
• Normandy Welding Institute. MIG Aluminium yacht hulls.
• Skills hub dedicated to the yacht industry (materials resistance, mechanical testing, structural calculations, microstructural characterization, optical profile measurement) at ENSICAEN.