Karver acquires Pontos winches

Karver Systems winch range © Karver Systems

Karver Systems acquired Pontos at the beginning of February 2018. Karver and Pontos are two French companies present on the sailing hardware market with similar DNAs focused on innovation and performance.

Karver has always included in its strategic development plan the creation of a range of winches and was therefore naturally positioned for the acquisition of Pontos.

The product:

Pontos winches are based on epicyclic gear trains associated with automatic load detection technology. Depending on the choice of model this approach can offer either three times more power or six times more speed compared to all other winches on the market. This technology is protected by numerous patents.

Racers gain speed in tacks, gybes, hoist and furling. It is no coincidence that 15 competitors will be at the start of the Route du Rhum on November 4th with our winches including the very popular Loick Peyron.

The phenomenal power of the winch allows you to maneuver effortlessly and without the use of electric winches. 25% of the inhabitants of European countries and the United States suffer from osteoarthritis. We would be proud to participate in making the practice of sailing less physical and more accessible for them.

The use of one of these winches invariably causes a "wow" effect!

Directors declarations:

Marin Clausin Karver Systems CEO: "The work done by the two creators of Pontos, Michel Chenon and Darryl Spurling, and their team is simply incredible. The players of the nautical world have not yet become fully aware of the revolution that this range of winches represents. They are already attracting fans amongst both regatta and pleasure boaters. The work of reliability and performance improvement that we are bringing to the range, will make this winch simply unavoidable."

Michel Chenon, President of Pontos: "With the acquisition of Pontos, Karver becomes the first French equipment manufacturer whose range includes winches. Karver's broad and qualitative offer reinforces its consistency in both the racing and cruising segments. The culture of the two companies with strong innovation bases is reinforced by this acquisition and is a great promise for the future. Innovation is at the heart of the concept for the greatest satisfaction of our sailors."

The next steps:

We are finalizing the "Karverization" of these winches. Through the Karver marking that we will put on each winch, we bring the fruit of 15 years of experience of the Offshore Racing, blue water sailing boats and the Super Yachts.

The new range will be presented at the Mets trade fair in Amsterdam next November. The improvements made will have an impact on prices and technical characteristics. With a few exceptions, we seek to ensure real continuity with the Pontos distribution network. In any case, our historical distributors will market these new Karver winches.

A hundred Pontos winches in stock are still available for sale. There are many development projects, but our priority is to make our winches available before the end of 2018.

Learn more about Pontos and Karver:

Pontos: Created in 2009 in St Malo by Michel Chenon and Darryl Spurling, Pontos was born from the ambition to reduce the physical effort aboard sailboats. The winch, which has not experienced any major innovation since the 1970s, is therefore naturally the subject of the first studies.

The search for innovation and performance requires five years of work before being put on the market in 2014. The commercial success is immediate both with the skippers of the dynamic Class 40, as well as cruisers.

However, capital requirements are still very significant and Pontos is looking for financial support from 2015. It is at this time that strong relations are initiated with Karver which will be finalized by the purchase of the assets of Pontos in February 2018.

Karver designs high performance and innovative fittings for sailboats. Present in three markets: Racing, yachting and Super Yacht, we achieve 70% of our turnover in Export thanks to the involvement and professionalism of a team of 13 passionate employees based in Honfleur in Normandy (France).

Karver celebrates this year its 15 years! CEO, Marin Clausin, is focused on product design and the general direction of the company was entrusted to Tanguy de Larminat in 2015.

Our products (furlers, hooks, blocks, jammers, rails and mast cars... and winches !) are aboard 80% of the sailboats taking part in the Vendée Globe (Imoca) but also aboard the Mini 650s, Class40s, Multi 50s, Ultims, TP52s, Class America's Cups, etc...

We are very proud to become a technical partner more and more present on the Super Yachts (Southern Wind, Baltic, Wally,...). Cruise ship manufacturers are starting to take an interest in our products for their reliability and innovations that make easier for their customers to handle their sails.

Our DNA: Performance, Innovation, Design and Service. We make sure that each of our new products brings a real added value to our customers.

Our ambition: To integrate over the years the missing ranges to finally offer a complete deck plan with Karver products while remaining faithful to our DNA.

The financing of this acquisition was made possible thanks to the efficiency of our banking pool (CIC and Crédit Maritime) as well as the flawless support of the Normandy Region Development Agency (ADN) and the Public Investment Bank (BPI Normandy).