Yachting Art Magazine

This is a genuine strategic turning point announced by Groupe Beneteau in mid-December 2025 in the field of power catamarans. The French group, the world’s second-largest leisure boating manufacturer behind the American Brunswick, has officially announced the reassignment of the TH (Twin Hull) outboard powercat range from its American brand Four Winns… to its French brand Jeanneau. A decision that appears logical overall, but which comes only three months after the launch of two new powercat models, the Four Winns TH33 and Four Winns TH38, presented in Cannes alongside hull number 20 of the TH36.

Three years ago, Groupe Beneteau announced its entry into the powercat market with the creation of a new range in development, the TH range (for Twin Hulls), developed by its American bowrider brand Four Winns, whose very first model was the Four Winns TH36.

Within the House of Brands of the French group, Four Winns was positioned to represent the group in the small and mid-size motorboat segment (22 to 40 feet), both in the bowrider market and in the outboard powercat segment—a market in which the group was previously absent, and which had until then been dominated by the Chinese brand Aquila (around 150 units per year), and into which Catana Group had announced its arrival.

The choice of the Four Winns brand came as a surprise. While rumours had been circulating on the docks about Groupe Beneteau’s arrival in this type of product offering, most observers had imagined that this catamaran range would be carried by the Jeanneau brand, refocused on the outboard motorboat market as part of the repositioning of each brand within the House of Brands.

The discontinuation of the successful Jeanneau NC and Jeanneau Leader inboard ranges, in favour of Beneteau’s Gran Turismo models and the bold DB Yachts concept (outboard and inboard), was expected to be offset by the introduction of a new, high sales-potential range for the dealer network. It seemed logical that this range would consist of the group’s outboard powercats.

The choice of Jeanneau appeared all the more relevant given the size of its dealer network (nearly 400 dealers worldwide) and its extensive installed base of Cap Camarat outboard boats.

Having powercats positioned above the largest Cap Camarat models would have allowed Jeanneau dealers to move their customers upmarket, offering them a new boating experience with enhanced features—still in the spirit of versatile dayboating, but with greater habitability and stability. Indeed, the name “Cat-Camarat” was on everyone’s lips.

This did not happen. Instead, it was the Four Winns brand—little known in Europe but well established in North America—that was given responsibility for expanding the group’s offering in the promising powercat market, likely because Aquila’s success in the United States seemed to favour an American brand, and perhaps also to revitalise Four Winns by giving it a new horizon.

The announcement published today by Groupe Beneteau therefore draws a line under the Four Winns powercat adventure.

The Four Winns press release is concise: “We are proud to entrust the future of this innovative power catamaran range to our partners at Jeanneau. With over seventy years of experience and a strong, committed international dealer network, Jeanneau has all the capabilities required to guide the TH range toward new horizons and promising development. We extend our most sincere wishes for success to the new Jeanneau TH range and look forward to seeing its future flourish.”

There is probably little more to add, except to note that Four Winns is effectively refocusing on its core business—bowriders—according to the Anglo-Saxon adage “back to basics”. On this segment, competition in Europe will be challenging given the strong positions held by established brands such as Sea Ray and Bayliner, while prospects may be slightly more favourable in the United States.

On the Jeanneau powerboat side, the integration of a powercat range significantly strengthens the position of the Les Herbiers-based brand as a generalist outboard specialist, with complementary ranges: Cap Camarat, Merry Fisher and TH. A situation that should delight the dealer network and substantially boost the visibility of the powercat range, particularly for those able to order stock boats.

It should be noted that the range will consist of the Jeanneau TH33 and Jeanneau TH38, as the Four Winns TH36 will not be continued, its surprising and poorly optimised deck layout (side decks and central passage) having likely been a major obstacle to its commercial development.