Lagoon Catamarans. A sucess story?

capnsensible

capnsensible

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For a few years now, have seen a lot of these, size various, all over the place.

Its also that time of year when a lot of the new builds are pit stopping in Gib for diesel on their way to the cruising areas of the Med.

Last week, two came into La Linea marina crewed by Russians (need visa for Gib) and over the last two days six more have stopped in marina bay.

So, turns out that one of them has 2 Portugese lads on board, ex students of ours and good friends. They do a lot of deliveries and chatting to them over a few beers yesterday evening prompted this thread.

It seems a lot of Lagoons were delivered to the commissioning yards at Le Sable during Feburary and March, but they all got stuck there with the bad weather, some crews hanging around for nearly a month. End result, 25 catamarans sat there, finally on route. 13 had been bought by one Russian owner! That explains the 2 I saw.

It appears, then, that despite financial woes, this company is doing really well.

Anyone sailed one or seen them around?

CS
 
I was on the 39 at the Salon Nautique. Very impressed with their use of space and especially the design of the cockpit. It's not for racing but would make a very comfortable holiday home.
 
Spent just over two weeks on a friend of a friends Lagoon 440 in the Caribbean. As we spent a lot of time anchored - they are great. Fantastic space, no rolling, really well equipped and cooking and eating either inside or in the the cockpit was easy. Three ensuite double cabins were very comfortable. Sailed okay, but not exciting. It gets you there in comfort, and with twin diesels 20+ feet apart, motoring was a doddle. At 25' beam though, I would not want to be using Marinas too often, and probably explains why there aren't so many in the UK. We either need narrower versions over here or a few good municipal marinas (I wish). Oh and I'd also wish for the ~£250k you would need to buy one.
 
I love the look of Lagoons with their Starship Enterprise windows so when I got the chance to crew one across the Atlantic I was intrigued to find out what they were like inside and whether they could sail at all.

Since then I've sailed a few different charter catamarans and although one had better accommodation, none were in the same sailing league as Lagoons. At anchor or running downwind all cats beat monohulls for comfort, IMO, and by a big margin.

Downsides of Lagoon (compared to mono)
Odd motion when at speed like driving down a track with two big uneven ruts, mostly felt in the bow cabins
When beating angle was at least 5 degrees off what a charter monohull could do
When on a run at speed the wheel needed to be pretty actively managed with vigorous turns one way and the other to keep straight - not much strength needed so little braking force but keeping it on the edge between a potential round up and a forceless dead run took concentration. Enjoyably so with 4 people and weeks of sailing to kill. Reef a little and none of that was needed.

Upsides:
Speed even when loaded with a ton of water, fuel and gear - although we never got faster than 15 knots we spent a lot of time above 10 knots
Reefing - I always felt like we were cheating and practicing a reef on dry land as the motion, size of side decks and lack of slope made a big boat feel twice its size
Being upright - beating for days completely upright at 6-8 knots meant you could live and cook without tiring yourselves out, even though we had awful weather (more wind than rain ) for most of the trip
Helming position so much higher (but on a stable platform) helped particularly in nasty 2 day beat around Finisterre, both psychologically and being able to see over waves instead of looking up at them
The forward looking windows - great internal Autohelming position in foul weather with great views forward and back, and sideways if you leant forward into the curve.

So I'm a fan and would rather do serious ocean and island cruising in one than any monohull but I would want to pick an older model which still had a proper nav desk in the main cabin.
 
Thanks RupertW for that reply. As I mentioned, seen plenty but I've never sailed one. Our friends are now some 30 hours in to their next leg so probably near Algeria now, will be interested to see when they get to Athens although I suspect the engines are taking a spanking!

I delivered a FP Lavezzi a few years ago across the Atlantic and through the Med from St Lucia to Croatia. A much lighter vessel by the sound of it. Getting upwind was hard yakka! The donks were only 15hp each so no real help. With a beam wind she flew but our average was a lot uphill and for the whole trip nearer 6 knots....
 
I crewed on a 40ft from Les Sables to Gibralter. Very comfortable, a lot of the watches we single manned. We found it easy to run the boat single handed, with the only problems being minor teething problems with the fit out.
The only thing Indidn't like was it's motion in a beam sea. As I entered through the Patio Door at the stern and went to slide it shut, the boat lurched sideways I went backwards, holding on to the door handle. As the door slid open, I fell backwards, let go and fell head first down the steps into the Port hull. The bruises and swellings lasted 3 weeks.

So I'm not impressed with it's safety in a seaway.

Think it's a great boat for cruising the Med or the Caribbean though.
 
We chartered a new Lagoon 40 in Guadeloupe. 8 adults on board and it never felt crowded, which says something about the sheer volume of the boat. As a holiday boat they are hard to beat.
As far as sailing performance is concerned, nothing impressive, but you would not expect that.
Horses for courses.
 
The Lagoon 400 may not be the prettiest boat externally but if you can get over that it offers the same amount of space a 50 foot monohull offers and, most importantly of all, my wife and young children (3 and 5) never complain about heeling or being cold or having no space on board.

As much as I like the idea of sailing a sleek monohull, realistically I wouldn't be sailing a monohull with my family very often. A catamaran is a good compromise to allow one to enjoy sailing with a young family/wife who may not be as enthusiastic as you are. They also hold their value extremely well - a 3 year old Lagoon 400 (admittedly in very good condition) recently sold for around £250K in Southampton after being advertised for less than a month in November.
 
capnsensible said:
Anyone sailed one or seen them around?
Click to expand...

There are a couple in our club. The row of windows looks strange to those unfamiliar to them but you have to remember the owners are looking out through all that glass and have a fabulous view from their luxurious accommodation. Boats where the view consists of strips of sky viewed through coachroof windows (or even tiny brass portholes) may look prettier but I know which I'd rather live with.

The motion of cats takes some getting used to for dyed-in-the-wool mono sailors. Because of the light weight the movement is faster; as SWMBO says 'cats don't roll, they bounce'. Beam-on to a steep chop can get a bit wild but downwind, especially in trade wind conditions, is a pleasure, not an ordeal. After a 12000 mile voyage in a cat where I had nothing more than occasional queasiness, I helped a friend bring his 40 ft heavy mono across the Channel with F7 on the beam. I spent most of the trip throwing up!
 
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