European produced Beneteaus in the US

[Torbjorn Ergon]

Dear Beneteau list,I am a Norwegian guy living in the Annapolis area until next spring. I am thinking about buying a sailboat and sail it back home next summer. Due to import regulations in the European economic region it will be a lot easier and cheaper to import a European produced boat. I know Beneteau boats are produced in both the US and in France. Is there an easy way of telling where a given model is produced? Are there some models that are only produced in France?I would be very grateful for any help on this.Cheers,Torbjørn Ergon

 

[jmcclain]

Identifying French Beneteaus!

Torbjørn,Depending on the age of the vessel, there are various ways to determine the manufacturing location. The most certain way is by the Hull No: country of origin is identified in the Hull No: There was a thread on the Beneteau owners site not long ago that covered this topic in detail. Naturally I did not archive the posts that identified the sequences of characters. There are other ways to quickly tell as well. All boats with the "seahorse" style Beneteau logo are European (French). Many models in the 28' to 40' range were manufactured in the USA and France. Most or all vessels over 45' are French, and the same is true for all center cockpit boats. If no one else offers the code sequence, you can contact Ward Richardson, Customer Service, at 843-629-5300 or 843-629-5329 (Fax) or ward.richardson@beneteauusa.com