It's a young shipyard. Located chemin du Hameau Boudet in Barneville-Carteret, Mille Marin was only opened in 2018. Founder and employee-manager Grégory Pigot has been passionate about fishing and boats since his childhood, spent in Denneville in the Manche department. He sums up the yard as follows: "It's a small structure, in the sense that we only have two employees at the moment, but we have a lot of potential with a one-hectare plot of land." Specializing in maintenance, careening and mechanics, Mille Marin also sells boats. It has several hundred occasional and repeat customers. One of the company's strengths lies in the diversity of its services: boat watch, boat and personal watercraft rental...
Dry dock and mechanical package
Grégory Pigot has surrounded himself with several partners, including MV and Cherbourg-based Axe Sail. He continues: "We work with Axe Sail on rigging. We have more motorboats and personal watercraft than sailboats, but we're feeling a tremor, a return to favor of the latter."
The young shipyard benefits fully from the opening of the new Carteret marina. The dry port has also been developed on their own site: "This corresponds to a fundamental trend. Owners increasingly prefer their boats to stay dry in winter, and take out a mechanical package."
A buoyant context for the Cotentin region
Generally speaking, the local context is marked by the return of British customers. Grégoire Pigot qualifies: "They're coming back, the effects of brexit are behind us. We've just brought in a British 38-footer with shore storage. But this trend needs to be qualified in two ways: on the one hand, the Anglo-Normans have never really shunned us, and on the other, this clientele remains very much in the minority." The other underlying trend is the general increase in tourist numbers in Normandy. The Cotentin region, in particular, is attracting visitors for its authenticity. "The succession of hot summers has certainly played a part. And in winter, temperatures rarely dip below 10°c." Some marinas, such as Granville, are already saturated. A new 400-berth marina is planned. Cherbourg is also doing well, particularly in sailmaking.
