PBS director Lee Condell recently travelled to Europe to handover a brand new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 410 to some very happy Australian sailors.
A European delivery of your new Jeanneau is the start of a life adventure for many Australians who are keen to travel and explore the diversity and rich history of Europe and beyond.
Taking delivery in Europe enables you to save on all of the significant costs of the transport of a yacht to Australia. This includes such things as freight, cradles, shrink-wrapping, insurance, truckling at both ends, and fumigation. Also, the delay of paying duty and tax until the vessel arrives to Australia, subject to the regulations of the countries travelled though.
For Sarah and John, the new owners of the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 410 I just handed over on the French Atlantic coast at Les Sables-d’Olonne, there was also the opportunity to visit the Jeanneau factory where their yacht was built. They were taken on a tour by Matthieu Quélin, the Jeanneau customer relations manager, and it gave them a whole new perspective on the sophistication and detail involved in building a modern production yacht, and the care and pride taken by all of the Jeanneau staff.
The SAS yard in Les Sables-d’Olonne was chosen to commission the yacht as they are hugely experienced in this role for all of the Beneteau Group brands. We have also used their sister yard on the Mediterranean coast. PBS had liaised for several months with yard manager Jean-Christophe Dupre at SAS to also source local options such as a tender and safety equipment and he proved to be extremely helpful through the entire process.
Well known in yachting circles as being home of the Vendee Globe single-handed non-stop race sailed in IMOCA 60’s, Les Sables-d’Olonne is situated in the Vendee region of France between La Rochelle and Saint-Nazaire. The Cholet factory where the Sun Odyssey 410 is built is just one hours drive North East, and the Jeanneau head office is in Les Herbiers, a pretty rural town halfway between Cholet and the regional capital Nantes where I flew in to.
I spent a day going through the new yacht in detail on my own to satisfy myself that everything was 100%, and I found the finish and preparation to be excellent.
The following day the new owners joined me and we spent the day going through every aspect of their new yacht and talking through preventative maintenance and service schedules before taking the yacht out for a maiden voyage the following day.
The next day the weather was a little unpleasant with heavy showers in the morning and a cool 12 degrees with 20 knots of wind. Heading out of the harbour where the Vendée Globe fleet start and finish the round the world race with 10s of thousands of spectators line the sea walls was quite special, and having negotiated the relatively shallow entrance with wind against tide we set the sails and powered away on a reach with full main and a slightly reefed headsail at 8.5 knots.
Over several hours we sailed at various angles to the wind as I checked the mast tune and made notes to pass back to SAS for some fine tuning, then tested the mainsail reefs before sailing back in from the Bay of Biscay. Sarah and John were delighted with the performance and handling of their new yacht, a shoal draft model.
My final morning was spent going through the paperwork with them, and signing off the delivery and release documents which establish the warranty on the yacht.
Sarah and John’s plans are to spend the first few weeks doing short passages on the local coast, before setting off for Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and then into the Mediterranean for the Northern Hemisphere summer. Ultimately, the goal is to then do the ARC Rally to the Caribbean, before passing through the Panama Canal for a Pacific Ocean crossing back to Australia.
We wish them well on their adventure and look forward to hearing of the adventures of “Aquaroo”!
Lee Condell
