Cap Océan: "Our job is more to source second-hand boats than to sell them"

Launching of a second hand sailboat sold by Cap Ocean

While the second-hand boat market is booming, here is a portrait of an important player in the sector, the Cap Océan group. Its founder, Jonathan Boutboul, explains the history, the developments in multihulls and travel boats, as well as the challenges of the situation in a context of scarcity of supply.

Briag Merlet Published on October 29, 2021

A major group in the field of used boats for the general public

Passionate about boating, Jonathan Boutboul founded the Cap Ocean used boat sales group in 2010 with a first agency in Port Camargue. In 11 years, he has made a place for himself on the market, starting with the Mediterranean, westward to Cap d'Agde, Saint-Cyprien and La Grande Motte, then eastward to Marseille, Port Napoleon, Bandol and Cogolin. Today, the group sells between 350 and 400 boats per year, with a turnover of more than 30 million euros and 40 employees. "This is both huge and very small at the same time. We are an integrated group, not a franchise, with one salesman in each agency dedicated to sailing and one to motor boats. Our only speciality is volume. The average price of boats sold is 63,000 euros" explains the founder of Cap Ocean.

Equipe de Cap Ocean avec son fondateur Jonathan Boutboul en rouge au centre — Cap Ocean team with its founder Jonathan Boutboul in red in the center

Specialized brands for niche boaters

However, the entrepreneur quickly saw the need to respond to the needs of boaters to have his specificity recognized. He thus expanded his offer with specialized brokerage entities. "In 2009, I founded Catams, dedicated to multihulls, with Jean-Pierre Fréry (editor's note: sailor and founder of the Chemins d'Océans concession group). He has a very good knowledge of the environment. In the same way, Cap Océan bought AYC YachtBrokers from Christian Picard in 2021, for the travel boat market and the top of the range, because a Garcia 70 owner does not want to be on the same boat as a First 210," explains Jonathan Boutboul. The group also wants to expand in the Caribbean, while AYC will benefit from Cap Ocean's operations in the Mediterranean.

AYC apporte une expertise dans le bateau de voyage — AYC brings expertise in the travel boat

Infrastructure and charter activity

At the same time, Cap Océan has a fleet of 2 boats of 72 and 85 feet for charter in the Mediterranean, which it wishes to expand. With a hundred or so berths and 170 meters of quayside, the group is able to take over from yachtsmen.

A used boat market under pressure

While new boat builders are struggling to serve their customers, the demand for used boats is extremely high. This has changed the job of the brokers. "Since the beginning of the school year, we have received many boats for sale. The average age is 20 years. They used to stay in the catalog between 3 and 6 months in general. Today, the demand is stronger than the offer. Our logic is therefore more to source boats than to work to sell them. Today, it is difficult to estimate the right price for second-hand boats and to know if the price will go down quickly," concludes the manager of Cap Océan