Prestige Yachts is turning 25

PRESTIGE YACHTS, A BRANCH OF THE BENETEAU GROUP FAMILY OF BOAT BRANDS, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. We caught up with Nicolas Harvey, the newly minted president of Prestige North America, to talk about what the company has in store for their big year. PMY: Does Prestige have anything special planned for the 25th anniversary? HARVEY: Yes, we are preparing for a celebration during the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show. The event will combine the launch of the new Prestige 750 and the 25th anniversary. PMY: The Prestige 41 was the first boat, and now the company has a brand new Prestige 420 (shown above) for the anniversary. Can you tell us a little about the two boats? HARVEY: The Prestige 41 was designed by the Garroni design team, and they have designed all of our boats since, so we feel it is special that after 25 years we’re launching a new boat almost the same size as the 41, the Prestige 420. Each new generation of Prestige brings something new to the table. We have always focused on building a solid boat that is fuel efficient. PMY: With Beneteau’s recent acquisition of Michigan-based Rec Boat Holdings, with brands like Wellcraft, Scarab, Four Winns, and Glastron, does the company intend to begin bringing its smaller, outboard driven boats into the U.S. market? HARVEY: That is indeed the strategy that we are developing at present, distributing the boats through the dealer networks of Rec Boat Holdings. PMY: Does Prestige plan to begin any kind of manufacturing at the factory in Michigan? HARVEY: It is unlikely that Prestige brand boats would be built here, but I am not in charge of the industrial strategy of the group. PMY: With such growth in only four years, does Prestige see the U.S. market as its key, and has this affected the designs of the boats? Thanks to the U.S. market, have the boats become more “Americanized?” HARVEY: Yes, the boats have certainly become more Americanized. A lot of our success has come from these adaptations, and also from finding the right distribution partners to work with throughout America. We count on some of the best professionals in the world of yacht dealerships. PMY: Now that the 750 is in the water, the Prestige line runs from 42 to 75 feet. Do you think that the boats will continue to grow larger or do you think that this is the market sector the company is focused on? HARVEY: Prestige is where it wants to be, but we are considering going bigger, though there are no official plans yet. Senior Editor Kevin Koenig had some fun in the sun with Indy Car racer Townsend Bell, racing around Malibu on Bell’s Beneteau Barracuda 9. “SoCal is an underrated boating destination in my humble opinion. The ocean is teeming with life, and the views are simply unbeatable,” Koenig said when he got back. Read about Koenig’s time with Bell and his brand new boat in “Townsend Bill Is Slowing Down,” on page 122.