Sommaire pour Fall 2017 de Multihull Sailor

A recent visit to France drove home just how much of an influence that country has had on the multihull scene (and the monohull scene too, for that matter). While the British were the pioneer multihull builders and racers on that side of the Atlantic, it did not take long before the French caught the bug. Once the new breed of sailing superstars like Eric Tabarly and Alain Colas started racing catamarans and trimarans, the future was set for the cruising multihull. However, it took a lucky tax break in the mid-’80s to really set the French boatbuilding industry on its path to European domination. The Loi Pons provided hefty tax breaks for citizens or companies putting boats into charter management in the French Caribbean and French Polynesia, which accounts…

A three-year voyage came to an end in June when the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hókúle‘a sailed into Oah’u’s Magic Island. The 62ft catamaran, based on the craft that took Polynesian voyagers all over the Pacific centuries ago, made the epic voyage as part of an effort to heighten awareness of, and involvement in, environmental issues. The Málama Honua Worldwide Voyage was the brainchild of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, which maintains the traditional art and science of Polynesian voyaging under sail. Hókúle‘a was launched in 1975. Combining old elements with the new, Hókúle‘a is built with some modern materials such as hulls made from fiberglass and held together with synthetic lashings. She made her voyage without the use of modern navigational aids, instead applying the traditional arts that the original Polynesian…

It’s good to have choices. That’s why I like Lagoon’s approach to its 45ft catamaran, which now also comes as a “SporTop,” as the French builder calls it. The new 450S is the refreshed version of the 450F (flybridge), which was introduced in 2011 when it replaced the very popular 440. The addition of the sporty version adds variety and lets owners choose more than just fabrics and wood colors. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION The naval architects at VPLP designed the 450F seven years ago. In the SporTop refresh, larger hull windows bring more light below, and the mold was modified with a chine that makes the hulls wider above the waterline to add volume inside the cabins. The glazed vertical windows of the coachroof continue as Lagoon’s signature look, even…

For the last six years I have run a charter business in the Virgin Islands on my 1997 Lagoon 410, Guiding Light, and have gotten to know the islands very well. This year I chose to shake it up a little bit and celebrate Guiding Light’s 20-year birthday by taking her on a six-week cruise of the Leeward Islands with my girlfriend, Melek. The Leeward Islands are the northernmost chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean, spanning from Puerto Rico’s Spanish Virgins down to Dominica, just north of Martinique. Since I am based out of the Virgin Islands, I chose to start my cruise from Virgin Gorda in the BVI. We planned a loop down to Barbuda, over to Montserrat and back up to the BVI. I could fill up…

What to make of the 35th America’s Cup? After all the hype, it was darn close to a sweep. Not only that, but the fact we were witnessing a rout in the making seemed pretty obvious after just the first couple of races. If the wind had ever figured out a way to climb out of the low teens—max—things might have been a bit more suspenseful. The winner, Emirates Team New Zealand, did after all capsize in heavy air while racing against Land Rover BAR only a week or so earlier in the challenger playoffs, while the De Defender, Oracle Team USA, seemed undaunted by big wind. However, Bermuda remained true to early-summer form, and the placid aquamarine waters of the island’s Great Sound stayed just that—placid—conditions in which ETNZ…

One of the most vexed questions for long-distance sailors is how to keep the batteries topped up without resorting to running the engine. In the past, that might have meant a few amps for navigation lights, GPS and a radio. But these days, yachts are much more energy intensive, burning through hundreds of amp-hours of battery capacity each day. Hydro-generators are fast becoming a mainstay in the renewable energy mix for cruising boats, after gaining real traction during the 2008 Vendée Globe round-the-world race, when they were widely fitted to the IMOCA 60 fleet. Wind turbines and solar panels still do the lion’s share of the work, but they can be problematic. Each is only as good as the weather allows. Solar panels reach their stated output only for a…

There are few accolades in sailing more sought after than the title “record holder,” and there are few records more sought after than that for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, west to east. The record is for the fastest time from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, at the entrance to New York Harbor, across the Atlantic Ocean to an imaginary line stretching south from Lizard Point on the southwest corner of England. Generations of sailors have gone after this Transatlantic record and many have failed spectacularly. The North Atlantic can be an unpredictable and volatile place, where cold fronts sweep across a windswept ocean dotted with bits of ice that have floated down from the Arctic. With that in mind, the recent shattering of the record, not once but…

BANULS 60 Financier Raphael Blot wanted a high-performance catamaran for family cruising, but couldn’t find an existing design that suited him, so he commissioned naval architects Renaud Banuls and Charles Simonin to draw a boat to his specifications. Banuls, who has worked with multihull maestros VPLP on a number of projects, came up with a sharp-looking boat that weighs in at just 9.3 tons dry. Built by McConaghy Yachts in China, the Banuls 60 is a no-expense-spared carbon fiber rocket that also has all the essentials for comfortable family cruising. The four-cabin accommodations are trimmed out in carbon fiber composite panels with nary a hint of wood to be seen—even the toilet bowls are carbon fiber. Engines are located amidships to reduce pitching and where the curved daggerboards provide optimum…

Looking at today’s cruising catamarans, a landlubber could easily be forgiven for not knowing that the original appeal of multihulls was their blistering speed: not just on a reach, but close to the wind as well. Exceptions do, however, exist, and some of them even carry a price tag that is within reach of mere mortals. Among the best of these is the new Maine Cat 38. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION A product of the Maine Cat boatyard run by Dick Vermeulen up in Bremen, Maine, the Maine Cat 38 is one of those boats aboard which nothing—and I mean nothing—exists without a reason: boats where even seemingly tiny details are in fact the result of a great deal of thought and planning. This attention to detail can even be found…

Our bareboat charter in southwest Florida had crept up on me, and though I had a fair idea of what awaited us I had not spent much time researching our destination or potential itineraries in depth. My crew had expressed a desire to spend as much time as possible “off the grid” and were excited about seeking out wildlife. Where could this be found? The wonders of Amazon Prime provided a cruising guide the day before departure, which I cracked open on the plane ride from Boston to Fort Myers. As I leafed through the guide it became crystal clear that there was a distinct lack of mooring fields in the area. I was going to have to bone up on my anchoring skills. Distant memories of dragging into mangroves…

Our whistle-stop tour of French multihull builders begins in Bordeaux, famous first and foremost for its viticulture and also as the home of Lagoon Catamarans. If you’ve never experienced a major boatbuilding operation in its pomp, the row of aircraft hangar-sized buildings that house the world’s largest multihull manufacturer and its sister company, luxury monohull builder CNB, will open your eyes. Industrial-scale sailboatbuilding has died a lingering death in the United States, but in Europe it not only survived the recession, it seems to be thriving. France is the epicenter of European boatbuilding, and Lagoon and CNB are part of the mighty Groupe Beneteau, the Godzilla of sail and powerboat manufacturing. As we drive over the bridge across the Garonne river, a line of white hulls moored to the far…

Life seems to have become awfully serious in recent years, and there are times I fear this lack of levity has even come to infect sailing. Does anybody remember when a pair of cutoff shorts, standard-issue leather deck shoes and a cotton T-shirt were considered perfectly adequate for even top-level racing? When a cheap pair of sunglasses was sufficient, and caps sporting Miller High Life labels were as common as those with sailing logos? (Possibly letting my Midwest roots show here…) As now almost inevitably becomes the case whenever I watch any kind of America’s Cup coverage, I recently found myself not only entertaining these kinds of thoughts, but recalling something a sailing buddy of mine once said while we were doing rail-meat duty as part of the oh-so-serious crew…

World Cruising Club, organizer of the successful Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) and numerous other rallies, has added another event to its growing portfolio The inaugural ARC Pacific gets under way in March 2018, when the fleet sets sail from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on Stage One of the rally. The organizers say this will be a shakedown voyage for the main event, the 2,900 mile crossing from Cabo to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. The stage to Nuku Hiva starts on March 15, and the prizegiving will be held in Nuku Hiva four weeks later on April 11. There, the fleet will mingle with boats from the World Arc, and some of the ARC Pacific boats may well choose to join the rally as it makes…

I had no trouble finding the new HH55 catamaran: she stands out in a marina of white plastic yachts like Hulk Hogan at a garden party. She is purposeful. No, purposeful is too wussy a word: she exudes menace. This is a cruising yacht, after all, that can knock off 250-mile days without even breathing hard. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION From the design duo of Morelli & Melvin, who have created the cream of cats from America’s Cup winners to ocean-crossing record setters like Steve Fossett’s PlayStation, this is a yacht designed to get you somewhere, anywhere, fast and comfortably. Whether you call them axe bows, reverse bows or wavepiercers, they give the HH55 a look of speed even at rest. This cat is far closer on the evolutionary chain to…

If ever there was a Swiss army knife of a boat, it’s the Xcat, winner of a SAIL 2017 Best Boats award in the daysailer category. Not only is this a sailboat that doubles as a twin-hulled rowing shell, it also breaks down easily for car-topping or storage, and is available with a variety of add-ons—ranging from hiking seats and a nifty little dry bag with dedicated attachments for keeping valuables safe to a small fourstroke or Torqeedo electric outboard. Extra-long paddles are even available that allow you to use the boat as a kind of two-person SUP. How cool is that? Best of all, every inch of this fun little boat is carefully engineered, so that for all its seeming complexity it is dead simple to assemble, disassemble, launch…

ERIC SANFORD & DEBBIE LYNN PORT OF ORIGIN: HOOD RIVER, OREGON BOAT: LEOPARD 46, INDIGO BLOG: FACEBOOK, SAILING WITH INDIGO We are cruisers who both work in the sailing industry, I’m a semi-retired photojournalist and Debbie is a writer. Originally from New Hampshire, I moved west right after college an d never looked back._Debbie was born in Portland, Oregon. Her first sailing experience was in a tiny dinghy on a big lake; every time they tacked she was certain they were going to capsize and drown. That made the decision to quit sailing pretty easy, although it way- laid her life-long dream to live on a boat and cruise the Caribbean. That vision of the bohemian nautical lifestyle finally came true in 2013 when we purchased INDIGO and took off…

Modern cruising catamarans and trimarans have unique requirements in terms of sail design and construction. The reason for this stems from the stability provided by their wide beams, which in conjunction with their lack of heeling can make it difficult to determine when to reef sails. It is therefore not uncommon to see cruising multihulls carry full sail much longer than monohulls of the same size. This, in turn, means that the loads on multihull sails can often be double that of the sails aboard a comparable monohull. Of course, multihull sailmakers know this and make a point of selecting materials and construction that are up to the task. What follows are some of the design ideas and sail options I have come upon over the years that work best…