- Founded
- 1964
- Headquarters
- Périgny, France
- Shipyard location
- Same as headquarters
- Official website
- https://www.dufour-yachts.com/
Brand Overview
French sailing-yacht builder founded by Michel Dufour in 1964, building monohulls at Périgny near La Rochelle and part of the Fountaine Pajot group since 2018 — six models from the Dufour 37 to the Dufour 54, hull lengths 10.77 to 16.84 m, two to five cabins.
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Dufour dates itself to 1964, when the engineer Michel Dufour started building sailing yachts at La Rochelle on France's Atlantic coast. The yard is now registered and builds at Périgny, on the edge of La Rochelle, where its owner Fountaine Pajot — which agreed to take a majority stake in 2018 — makes its monohulls of 37 to 61 feet, with hulls laminated entirely by infusion. Today's range is six cruising monohulls, the Dufour 37, 39, 41, 44, 48 and 54; the pages for the 37, 39 and 41 credit the naval architect Umberto Felci, the 39 and 41 with the designer Luca Ardizio, and the 41, 44, 48 and 54 are also offered as hybrids. Each model page prints hull length, beam, draft, unloaded displacement, standard and optional engine power, and water and diesel tanks, and lists every interior layout: the 44, 48 and 54 come in four, from three cabins to five.
Who sails them
Dufour owners are cruising couples and families who sail more than they motor and live in the cockpit: they choose among three, four or five cabins and between a forward or a longitudinal galley, use the outdoor galley at anchor, and buy a French-built boat from a yard that has made sailing yachts at La Rochelle since 1964.
Signature models
The Dufour 54, the flagship with up to five cabins and four bathrooms; the Dufour 44, an offshore cruiser with a self-tacking jib and a hybrid version with up to 1,800 W of solar panels; the Dufour 41, the first of the range drawn by Umberto Felci with Luca Ardizio; the Dufour 37, the entry to the range with an exterior galley.
Strengths
Dufour is known for cruising monohulls built around life outdoors — large cockpits and outdoor galleys — for many interior layouts per model, for Umberto Felci's naval architecture, for hybrid versions from the 41 up, and for French construction at Périgny inside the Fountaine Pajot group.
Considerations
The model pages print hull length rather than length overall, and give no waterline length, mast height, sail areas, ballast or CE category, so those are not stored. Engine power is printed in cv (metric horsepower) and stored as printed; displacement is unloaded. The pages for the 44, 48 and 54 name no designer. Layout descriptions are kept per version beside the figures.
Analysis generated 10/5/2026
Part of
Fountaine Pajot Group↗ · since 2018
Also in the catalogue
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 6
- Length range
- 10.77–16.84 m
- Hull forms
- Sailing Monohull 6
- Cabins
- 2–5
Models by this brand
6 models
History
Michel Dufour founded the yard at La Rochelle in 1964, and its timeline credits that first boat, the Sylphe, as the first production fibreglass sailing yacht sold ready to sail. The Arpège of 1970 took a reverse transom that stretched it to 9.25 m and was built 1,500 times; in the 1980s, under the impetus of Marcel Bich, the yard turned towards performance and racing with renowned naval architects, a period the 3800 and 4800 stand for; and in the 1990s the Classic range ran to fourteen models from 30 to 50 feet in five years. Umberto Felci's Dufour 40 of 2002 brought modern lines and, by the yard's account, the Sailing Yacht of the Year title for 2003, and the Dufour 365 Grand Large was named Sailing Yacht of the Year in 2006, opening the Grand Large range of fast, comfortable cruisers. After modernising its production and widening its ranges from 2008, Dufour joined the Fountaine Pajot group as a majority-owned company in 2018, moving to infusion and further upmarket; in 2021 it fitted a hybrid-electric drive with hydrogeneration to the 41, 44, 470 and 530, and in 2026 it set a new course centred on life outdoors. The yard counts more than a hundred models and some twenty-five thousand yachts since 1964.
History written fromdufour-yachts.com/en/our-path-instinctivism· Our historyread 10/5/2026