The Cannes Yachting Festival will be the opportunity for the French shipyard Jeanneau to enter a new market segment in which it was still absent, namely that of luxury Day Boats. 

The shipyard has not released any information on this new family of powerboats, whose launch seems to be the direct consequence of the repositioning plan of the two major brands of the French Bénéteau Group, Bénéteau and Jeanneau, initiated a year ago, and which is methodically taking shape, over the months.

If no information has filtered out other than the visuals that have been released, then... let's let our thoughts wander, by first looking at the overlapping offerings between the two brands, in terms of powerboats.

A quick analysis leads us to think that the Jeanneau Cap-Camarat and Bénéteau Flyer ranges are each characterized by a strong identity, and a recent and renewed offer, and let's bet, that they are not concerned by this launch, despite their very clear status of day boats, and let's push our reflexion... further.

One segment is of immediate interest to us, and that is the Express Cruiser market, where Bénéteau's offer - with the Bénéteau Gran Turismo range - is particularly complete, and has been enriched in recent weeks with a very successful Gran Turismo 45, while Jeanneau's offer, with the Jeanneau Leader, has been reduced to a minimum in recent months, with just two models, directly competing in style and positioning with the Gran Turismo.

The French Bénéteau Group no longer wants this direct competition, and its new House of Brands aims to ensure, that such situations no longer exist.

Repositioning the Leader brand in the luxury dayboat segment, seems logical, and the sketch shown, with its straight bow and receding roofline, suggests a "Scandinavian" style, which is currently the delight of a handful of specialist boatyards, faced with a flagrant lack of boats due to limited production capacity...

If this were Jeanneau's strategy, the potential of such a range expansion, would be all the more interesting, as it would allow it to address a new clientele, with a renewed offer, which would appeal to both European and North American customers, two priority markets for the French brand, which is very well established there.

The opening of the Cannes boat show will allow us to see if our analysis is right or not, but objectively, it would be very attractive, wouldn't it, a Jeanneau "Scandinavian style"?