RM

RM has built fast cruisers in Périgny, on the edge of La Rochelle, since 1989, and remains the only serious production yard in the world that builds its hulls of epoxy-saturated plywood. Stiffer, warmer and quieter than plastic, say its engineers, and repairable even at sea. Hard chines and violent colours (the house acid green, the lemon yellow) made the boats instantly recognisable, and a devoted owners' association keeps, among its technical bulletins, a member-maintained register of beaches where the twin-keel versions dry out at low tide.

The yard's history broke in two in February 2020, when Fora Marine, drowning in its own order book, went through insolvency and passed to the Grand Large Yachting group (Allures, Outremer, Garcia). For a used-boat buyer, the era of a hull now matters as much as its year. The RM 1180, launched in 2019 with seventeen boats sold before hull number one touched water, was voted French sailboat of the year 2020.