A native of Brest
Born in 1959
After several years dinghy sailing in Brest harbour, at the age of eighteen he bought his first 9-meter yacht with an empty hull that he spent his free time fitting in the family's cabinet-making workshop.

All his spare time was spent sailing, sail boarding and deep sea diving.

While a yacht instructor at UCPA, he met his future wife during a training course (she was then a dinghy instructor).

Since then, and now with their four children (all bitten by the same bug), they spend their holidays sailing.

Christian Picard also enjoys cross-country biking and jogging, two sports that demand stamina and tenacity.

Business background
Trained as a carpenter and cabinet maker
Worked in the family business
One year spent in the merchant navy as head waiter, doing more sailing and learning astronomy.
Joined the Jeanneau company as marine carpenter
Christian's enthusiasm for boats and his knowledge of water sports enabled him to tackle many different jobs in the workshop, from running the sales force to responsibility for the Jeanneau used boat division. In all, he gained 10 years experience of everything from boat building to pre-owned boat sales, everything about shipyards and their decision makers.

This experience and his enthusiasm led him quite naturally to found AYC in February 1994, the first French brokerage company for used yachts, based at La Roche sur Yon in the Vendée (a region where yachting is a byword).

After setting up a minitel site for AYC, Christian Picard, open to new technologies and aware of the probable impact of the Internet, was the first to offer boats on his own Internet site in 1996.
He very soon set up procedures providing for secure transactions (for vendor and purchaser), plus assessment, advice on financing and insurance, administrative formalities - offering the guarantee of an independent and impartial consultant.

13 years on, after the sale or resale of several hundred boats, Christian Picard set up branches of AYC in Cannes, Montpellier, La Rochelle and most recently in Lorient (September 2006). His employees, devotees too of sailing, motowater sports, yachts and regatta vessels, support him with enthusiasm and professionalism.
Today, in parallel with pre-owned boats, Christian Picard is developing a new boat sales division (yachts and catamarans) through shipyard contacts that are entrusting him with exclusivity for selling their boats and in response to the increasing demand for vessels suitable for long, family voyages.