Contents Multihulls World #194 -

The American multihull dream

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Publié le 25/01/2024

Par Emmanuel van Deth

Numéro : 194

Parution : Mar. / Apr. 2024

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Exactly 40 years ago, Lagoon (or to be more precise, the Lagoon 55) was born at the Jeanneau shipyard at Les Herbiers, France. The directors of the leading sailboat builder of the day didn’t have much faith in the future of multihull yachting, and yet, 7 years later, a second Lagoon was launched: the 42 was already destined for the American market, with this catamaran being built in Newport, Rhode Island.

For Multihulls World, it’s much the same (except that Lagoon today must be worth around 500 times our sales, but that’s a minor detail): our first issue came out in France in 1985, and by 1990, our English version was being distributed in the USA. We were even faster than Lagoon! Permanent correspondents, attendance at all the major US boat shows - our American involvement has never wavered. Multihulls very quickly became an essential part of the charter fleets under American “influence”: bases in the BVI and the Bahamas were quick to offer cruising catamarans.

In the US, the multihull market took a little longer to establish itself, until the explosion of the powercat. Now, whether in Annapolis or Miami, multihulls are gaining ground every year, to the detriment of monohulls. And it’s obviously the same in the marinas. New builders are appearing - Americans, South Africans, Australians, Dutch, Italians and Spaniards - to bolster the French offer, which is itself particularly progressive and always well represented in the United States.

This will be in evidence once again at the Miami International Boat Show (we’ll have invitations for you, so don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive them!). This ever-growing presence of multihulls merited a special feature on Florida in this, the first issue of the year.

Enjoy reading!

Emmanuel van Deth
Editor in chief