The last Düsseldorf Boat Show was an opportunity to discover in Hall 1, on the Bénéteau stand, a magnificent Alpine A110 in metallic France Blue (second-hand), posing proudly alongside a Gran Turismo. Why such a display, which seems quite logical when one is interested in the strategy of the two brands.

This Bénéteau-Alpine partnership seems logical for both partners, and first and foremost for Bénéteau, which has two ranges on the inboard motorboat market, one successful and the other struggling.

The successful one is undoubtedly the Swift Trawlers family (6 models from 35 to 62 feet after the discontinuation of the 30-foot model), these timelessly designed cruisers, a market in which the shipyard reigns supreme after breaking the mould by opting for semi-planating hulls enabling it to exceed 20 knots, when traditional trawlers were blocked by the limits of their displacement hulls.

The family that is struggling is the Gran Turismo family (four models from 36 to 45 feet), Bénéteau's express cruiser family, sports launches with a wheelhouse that is generally open at the back, which Bénéteau had for a time equipped with a flybridge and which the French group thought it could boost sales by stopping its competitor Jeanneau Leader, replaced by the famous DB Yachts. Unfortunately, sales of Gran Turismo did not increase, and even suffered from the development of new, very dynamic brands that made them look really old, such as Axopar (from 22 to 45 feet) and Saxdor (from 20 to 40 feet).

Axopar and Saxdor are in fact the two brands that are really taking off at the moment. Two brands that have broken the mould and innovated in the motorboat market, both in terms of style (an Axopar was bought by a German manufacturer for a reverse engineering programme) and functionality, with well-positioned prices to boot. Axopar, a brand that came out of nowhere, already has a turnover of almost 175 million with a range that is as limited as it is sexy.

Axopar has also managed to establish a partnership with... Brabus, the German manufacturer of luxury cars and now motor boats, which brings us straight to... Alpine, an iconic luxury car brand in France and Japan, which has great ambitions with its future SUV, but which needs to establish itself internationally.

Let's be clear about this: the two brands were made to meet, with the image of yachting only benefitting Alpine, and Alpine's sporting DNA only benefitting a new generation of Bénéteau Gran Turismo, which could position itself in the segment cleared by the two Finnish brands Axopar and Saxdor.

Such a repositioning of Gran Turismo, combined with Alpine versions, would undoubtedly be a lifeline for this range from the Bénéteau shipyard, with questions to be answered: whether or not to stay with inboard engines, when today's outboards are so optimised and torquey with the V6 and V8s from Mercury, Yamaha and Honda, and take the risk of competing with the Wellcraft brand, a brand of the Bénéteau Group that is repositioning itself in the adventure boat segment, the very segment of Axopar and other Saxdor.

The coming weeks should provide more information...