Vélite is the international pre-owned yacht broking network launched by the Fountaine Pajot Group (which includes both Fountaine Pajot catamarans and Dufour sailing yachts). Rather than a specific boat model, Vélite functions as a comprehensive, structured pre-owned sales division designed to standardise transaction transparency, safety, and global visibility across the group's network of over 150 international distributors.
The Fountaine Pajot Group has launched Vélite, an international broking network built to handle the sale of used Fountaine Pajot and Dufour yachts and any other brand besides. It's the French builder's first real move beyond the boatyard, into the business of what happens to a boat once someone else owns it.
Nearly fifty years since it started building catamarans in France, the Group now spans two brands, Fountaine Pajot's cruising cats and Dufour's monohull sailing yachts, backed by more than 150 distributors worldwide. Vélite is built entirely on that existing network, rather than a new sales channel bolted on from outside.
The used-boat market has quietly become the real engine of the industry. In France, 87 percent of yacht transactions now involve a pre-owned boat, at a rate of 6.5 used boats sold for every new one. Globally, more than 30 million recreational boats are already on the water, over six million of them in Europe alone.
As Giornale della Vela pointed out when covering the launch, new boats have grown more complex and expensive to spec out, loaded with electronics, custom finishes and safety gear that all add to the price before a boat's even wet. A recent, well-kept used boat, one that's already fitted out and ready to sail, increasingly looks like the smarter buy, without the wait for a build slot or a long options list.
The brokerage market itself, though, has stayed stubbornly fragmented. Standards, service and buyer protection can vary wildly from one country, marina or broker to the next, and Fountaine Pajot built Vélite specifically to iron that out, applying one shared framework of visibility, professional guidance and consistent standards across every market it touches.
Vélite isn't positioned as a replacement for the brokers already working the market, either. The group frames it as a support structure, giving existing brokers access to harmonised marketing tools, wider international visibility and a shared marketplace, while leaving day-to-day client relationships in local hands.
At the centre of the framework sits Nextsail, a certification exclusive to pre-owned Fountaine Pajot and Dufour yachts under seven years old. Every Nextsail boat is independently surveyed by a qualified marine surveyor before it qualifies, then split into two tracks. Nextsail Premium covers boats that have never been chartered and comes with a 12-month warranty. Nextsail Integral, for yachts that have done time in charter fleets, carries six months' cover instead. In practical terms, a Fountaine Pajot or Dufour built in 2019 or later currently qualifies; anything older falls outside the programme.
Owners of other brands aren't left out. Vélite Comfort is an exclusive 12-month mandate that bundles in professional photography, a 360-degree virtual tour and an independent survey, aimed at yachts the network wants to actively market. Vélite Essential is the lighter, non-exclusive option, open to any make or model that wants the reach of the network without signing away exclusivity.
"With Vélite and the Nextsail label, we are bringing a new level of excellence, confidence and professionalism to the pre-owned market, reflecting the values that have built the reputation of our brands," says Erwan Taulois, CEO of Vélite. It's a tidy summary of the pitch: less a marketplace, more an attempt to make buying a used boat feel as considered as buying a new one.
Vélite is live now in French, English, Spanish and Italian, with certified boats promoted through YachtWorld, Boat24, YachtMarket and Rightboat alongside the group's own dealer network. It's part of a wider shift across the industry, boatbuilders increasingly treating a yacht's whole ownership cycle, not just the day it leaves the factory, as their business. For an owner selling on a used Fountaine Pajot or Dufour, that's likely to mean less guesswork and, if Nextsail applies, a warranty that follows the boat to its next owner.
Find more information at Vélite and Fountaine Pajot for NextSail.
