Naval Force 3 in receivership
The Naval Force 3 shipyard, which has specialised in recent years in subcontracting composite parts, was placed under a safeguard procedure in November 2020. The company, located on the nautical platform of La Rochelle, supporting 8 employees and a manager, Philippe Joneau, had accumulated a significant debt. To allow the transfer, the collective procedure was finally converted into receivership on 26 January 2021, postponing the study of two offers from neighbouring companies Neel Trimarans and Chantiers de l'Arsenal, builder of the Day One catamarans.
A joint Neel Trimarans / Chantiers de l'Arsenal offer
The situation has finally changed as a result of the new procedure. The two candidates confirmed that they had submitted a single joint bid, the only one we know of. They do not wish to give further details of their joint project until the Commercial Court of La Rochelle has made public its choices, which are expected on 16 March 2021. For his part, the manager of Naval Force 3, Philippe Joneau, is worried about a new offer that he announces to be much lower than the previous ones.
A complex space issue for the nautical industry in La Rochelle
The steps taken to take over the Force 3 shipyard are taking place in a delicate local context for the yachting sector, in terms of land. The spaces on the nautical platform, near the lifting equipment and the trawler basin are limited and sometimes questioned for their nuisance for the neighbourhood. Neel Trimarans had already bought out its subcontractor TechniYachts Pinta in June 2018 to expand its production capacity. Chantiers de l'Arsenal, whose composite part of its Day One catamarans was previously built at TechniYachts Pinta and Naval Force 3, opened a temporary structure in September 2020 in the industrial port of La Pallice, also in La Rochelle, to internalize its composite production. Beyond that, Yannick Bestaven's victory in the Vendée Globe has revived the political will to create an ocean racing centre in the port of Charente, which again requires space. Without prejudging the outcome of the procedure, certain tensions surrounding the operation show the importance of what is at stake, in addition to the future of the employees.
