Windelo sailboats: an eco-composite catamaran built from one family's search for a seaworthy cruiser
Windelo builds cruising catamarans in France around a composite construction program the company frames as a lower-carbon alternative to standard fiberglass. The project traces back to entrepreneur Olivier Kauffmann's own search for a family cruising catamaran, and it drew naval architects Christophe Barreau and Frédéric Neuman and production expertise with roots at Catana into building the boat program around basalt fiber and recycled-PET construction from the start.
Origins and ownership
Before starting Windelo, Olivier Kauffmann had chaired Décathlon France's executive board, run Orange Marine, directed Cabesto, and held executive roles inside the Alcopa and Mulliez groups. BoatIndustry.com reported that his children Hélène and Gautier were already involved in the initial project and joined him for Windelo's launch; Multihulls World later called Windelo a family story, describing Gautier — previously a sales manager at Orange Marine — as a young engineer with a passion for innovation. Kauffmann named the project Windelo, a contraction of "Wind" and Mindelo, the Cape Verdean port sailors know from long ocean passages, and described the brand's founding goal simply as building a genuinely seaworthy, "marine" boat. The project was unveiled at La Grande Motte's International Multihull Show in April 2019. Multihulls World reported the founders brought in outside expertise to build it out: Jean-Pierre Prade, who co-founded the Catana shipyard with Thierry Goyard, joined as industrial director and consultant, while Jean Paul Siaudeau of JPS Concept, with a background in Imoca and Ultimate racing programs, took charge of electrical systems and propulsion.
The designers
Naval architects Christophe Barreau and Frédéric Neuman, who have worked together since 2006 on long-distance cruising multihulls and professional vessels, designed Windelo's boats. Their own firm credits Barreau with a body of work at Catana and Outremer, including the Catana 471 and the Outremer 45, 49, 51 and 4X, plus the TS3, TS5 and TS42, before turning to newer eco-design projects including Windelo. On the Windelo program, Barreau said his team ran CFD calculations and digital modelling to develop hull shapes that reduce drag, while BoatIndustry.com reported the pair's early work focused on optimizing use of onboard space; Kauffmann described the resulting opened-up living area as "like a loft, a large space to modulate."
Construction through the eras
Manufacturing began in spring 2019 in a leased plant in Canet-en-Roussillon before continuing in a purpose-built facility Windelo describes settling into after roughly a year of construction work: a 1,600-square-meter production building on a 4,000-square-meter quayside plot the company calls the first phase of the boatyard's development. Gautier Kauffmann said the concentration of marine professionals and facilities around Canet-en-Roussillon made the area a hub of excellence for every part of the catamaran business, and the main workshop is arranged so three boats can move through construction at once. Researchers Patrick Ienny and Didier Perrin of the École nationale des mines d'Alès contributed to the underlying materials work, which Windelo credits with the eco-composite sandwich, prototyping of assembly methods, and shock-absorbing hull materials used in production. Multihulls World found that sandwich pairs basalt fiber — spun in Russia and woven in Belgium, giving it a black finish evoking carbon — with a high-quality polyester resin, PET foam in low-stress areas, and PVC through bulkheads and other high-stress zones; the company describes the PET component as made partly from recycled plastic bottles. The company says the resulting composite cuts carbon emissions by nearly 50 percent compared with traditional GRP manufacturing.
Who Windelo is for
Windelo suits cruisers drawn to a catamaran built around lower-impact materials as much as outright performance, backed by a design and production team with roots at Catana and Outremer rather than a first-time yard. Kauffmann's founding aim — a boat that is, above all, genuinely seaworthy — runs through the brand's own account of itself, alongside the story of a family that built the boat it couldn't otherwise find.