Jean-Pierre Jouët, a key figure in the development of France’s recreational boating industry and the modern Paris Boat Show, has died aged 99.
A shipbuilder, organiser and industry advocate, Jouët helped guide French yachting from an essentially artisanal activity into a wider industrial and consumer market.
His career was closely linked to both the family shipyard and the trade-show infrastructure that helped recreational boating reach a broader public.
The Jouët shipyard traced its roots to Sartrouville on the Seine, where Antoine Blondeau established a boatbuilding business in the 19th century. After the First World War, Paul Jouët joined the company and it became Paul Jouët & Cie in 1927.
Industrialise production
Working with naval architect Eugène Cornu, the yard built a reputation for yachts, service craft and vessels for public bodies and the French Navy.
Jouët, a graduate of the École Centrale, joined the family business in 1951 and later took over its management.
He oversaw the shift from traditional wooden construction towards moulded wood and then polyester, helping industrialise production at a time when sailing was becoming accessible to a wider French audience.
Among the boats associated with the yard were the Bélouga, designed by Cornu, and the polyester Golif, a 6.5-metre cruiser that became one of the symbols of early mass-produced French sailing.
Jean Lacombe’s entry in the 1964 English Transatlantic Race helped show that a small industrially built boat could also be taken offshore. Later Jouët and Yachting France models included the Caprice, Jouët 27, Jouët 760 and Jouët 920.
Fast-growing leisure marine market
Jouët also played a central role in organising the industry. In 1962, with other figures from the sector, he helped create a new pleasure boating show at the CNIT in La Défense, giving the fast-growing leisure marine market a stronger commercial platform.
The event merged with the historic Paris show in 1964 and developed into the Paris Boat Show, later moving to Porte de Versailles and becoming a major European nautical event.
The same group of industrialists helped establish the organisation that became the Fédération des Industries Nautiques in 1964.
Jouët served as president of the Paris show from 1962 to 1970 and later returned as general commissioner through his events company OIP, which also organised exhibitions including FIAC, the Paris Book Fair, Rétromobile and Musicora before being sold in 1994.
His later support for the restored lifeboat Aimée-Hilda, built by the Jouët yard in 1949 and shown at the Paris Boat Show in 2015, underlined his continuing link with French maritime heritage.
