Couach

Couach is a shipyard based in Gujan-Mestras, on the Arcachon basin near Bordeaux. The company was born in 1897, when Albert Couach built his first marine engines in Arcachon. The site brings together the design centre, the research and development department, the engineering office and all the production workshops: yachts and professional vessels are entirely designed, developed and built there, with the basin serving as a testing ground.

The yacht activity covers a range of motor boats presented around the 2300 Fly, 2600 Fly and 3700 Fly, together with the Green Power projects 4200 Lounge and 5200 Yacht. The fleet of units already built runs from the 1100 to the 5000. The yard designs its bespoke projects with outside designers and architects, among them Fantini, Freivokh, Pinto and Espen Oeino.

The department dedicated to professional and defence craft builds interceptors (1200 LMI-O, 1400 and 1650 FIC), patrol boats (2200 FPB, 3200 OPV, 2800 ASW), working boats (1600 PSB, 1200 FIFI, 1600 Pilot) and an offshore, coastal and inland-water rescue range (1700, 1500, 1200 and 800 SAR, NSC3, NSC4) designed with the French sea rescue service SNSM for the renewal of its fleet. The yard states that it has delivered more than 500 professional vessels and has served military, customs and government administrations for more than fifty years.

Production relies on 21 workshops and more than 250 craftsmen: naval architects, modellers and systems engineers in the engineering office, infusion and lamination specialists, carpenters and cabinetmakers, welders, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, painters, varnishers and riggers in the workshops. Composite work is mastered from raw material to finished product: polyester or epoxy resins, glass, carbon and Kevlar reinforcements, sandwich structures and vacuum infusion of hulls, decks and superstructures. In 2021, Couach launched a first unit with a 26-metre hull moulded in bio-sourced resin, with its partner Sicomin.

Created in 2016, the research and development department covers naval architecture, hydrodynamics and CFD simulation, energy efficiency, and structural, composite and electrical engineering. Hulls are validated through tank testing and the yard develops an IPMS integrating power, propulsion, HVAC and auxiliaries. Structural engineering is carried out with the major classification societies (Lloyd's, DNV, ABS), and the bonding of composite structures has been validated with Bureau Veritas.