- Founded
- 1989
- Headquarters
- Zone Industrielle des Quatre Chevaliers, Périgny (La Rochelle), France
- Shipyard location
- Same as headquarters
- Official website
- https://www.rm-yachts.com/
Brand Overview
French builder of plywood-epoxy performance cruising yachts from 30 to 45 feet — the RM 890+, 980, 1080, 1180 and 1380, all drawn by Marc Lombard — building at La Rochelle since 1989, with more than 600 boats sailing.
Overview written fromrm-yachts.comread 9/13/2026
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
RM Yachts has built sailing yachts at the Zone Industrielle des Quatre Chevaliers by La Rochelle since 1989 and is unusual in building them in glass-reinforced plywood-epoxy rather than moulded GRP: hard-chine hulls cut from plywood panels and epoxy-bonded, a process the yard describes as both stiffer and more sustainable, with every boat passing through the hands of its own craftsmen and suppliers chosen nearby. Marc Lombard has drawn the offshore-inspired hulls since 1995, and the awards run from the RM 1050 (French Yacht of the Year 2000) through the RM 1260 (European Yacht of the Year 2012), RM 1070 (2016), RM 970 (European Yacht of the Year 2017) and RM 1180 (French Yacht of the Year 2020) to the RM 1080's Pipe en Or trophy in 2024. The company is SAS RM Yachts, registered at La Rochelle. The current range of five — RM 890+, RM 980, RM 1080, RM 1180 and RM 1380 — is named by hull length in decimetres, from 8.90 to 13.30 m, each offered with a single or twin keel (the RM 1380 also with a lifting keel drawing 1.45 to 3.35 m); the model pages give hull length, beam, keel drafts, light displacement, air draft, engine in CV, tankage and the sail plan, and the boats can be ordered in a wide colour range through the online configurator.
Who sails them
RM owners are sailors who want a fast, light, chined cruiser with a bright loft-like interior and panoramic saloon windows, from a 30-footer that a couple can handle to a 45-foot ocean cruiser, and who like the idea of a wooden-composite hull built by hand in France: coastal and offshore cruising, family liveaboard sailing and single-handed passages are the programmes the site itself walks through.
Signature models
The RM 1180 is the flagship of the idea — French Yacht of the Year 2020 and the boat the RM 1380 was built to surpass — while the RM 970 (European Yacht of the Year 2017) established the brand internationally and the new RM 980 replaces it at the 32-foot mark.
Strengths
RM is known for plywood-epoxy construction that no other series builder uses at this size, Marc Lombard hulls with wide beam, raised bows and hard chines for planing speed, twin- or single-keel choices, plenty of natural light below, a limitless colour palette and an unusually long list of yacht-of-the-year titles.
Considerations
The site prints hull length only (no LOA) and engine power in CV rather than hp, sail areas are per sail rather than totals, displacement is light ship with the lighter keel, the RM 890+ and RM 980 pages give no air draft or berths, and the specification labels drift in spelling and case from page to page.
Analysis generated 9/13/2026
Part of
Where they build
The building sites this yard publishes, in its own order.
Périgny (La Rochelle)
Périgny (La Rochelle), France
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 5
- Hull forms
- Sailing Monohull 5
- Cabins
- 2–4
Models by this brand
5 models
History
RM has been building since 1989, and the yard's own archive of every model it has made since then counts more than 600 RM sailing today, around the world.
History written fromrm-yachts.com/historique/· Historiqueread 9/25/2026