VICTORIA 67 BY FOUNTAINE PAJOT

Fountaine Pajot is launching a new project : the Victoria 67.

Elegant and entirely contemporary, this large cruising catamaran represents the excellence of the Fountaine Pajot yard. Our staff and the Berret Racoupeau naval architect partnership teams have used all their talent to ensure that this new FLAGSHIP is a success.

Her size has allowed us to incorporate a magnificent flydeck which can be easily accessed from the cockpit.

This genuinely warm and inviting meeting space blends perfectly into the aesthetics of this boat, with features worthy of the comfort provided by the very best hotels.

FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE LA PLAISANCE DE CANNES - CANNES INTERNATIONAL YACHTING FESTIVAL - LUXURY CATAMARANS EXHIBITORS

This is a list of the yards present at the Cannes show involved with luxury multihulls. 

• Alu Marine
• Catana
• CNB
• Curvelle
• Flash Catamarans
• Fountaine Pajot
• Lagoon
• Le Breton Yachts
• Mattia
• Outremer Yachting
• Privilege Marine
• Sunreef Yachts
• Windpearl Yachts

 If I am missing one, let me know.

GALATHEA 65 VIDEO

CANNES BOAT SHOW UPDATE

The Cannes International boat show starts next week. Here is an update of the luxury catamarans docked at the show.



AMBERCAT 210 : This fast catamaran designed by Eric Lerouge and built in Latvia will be exhibited for the first time in Cannes.

CATANA 65 : CATANA will display 4 cats this year including the CATANA 65. Designed by Christophe Barreau and Frederic Neuman, the CATANA 65 was launched in Cannes two years ago. There is a nice virtual tour on CATANA's website.

GALATHEA 65: Designed by Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design with an interior by Jean Jacques Coste, the flagship of the Fountaine Pajot range was launched last year in Cannes.

LAGOON 620 : The flagship of the Lagoon range designed by VPLP with an interior by Couedel Hugon Design has been sold to more than 15 units.

SUNREEF 70 POWER : The successful SUNREEF 70 Power will be exhibit at the same spot as last year. This will be the only large

SUNREEF 102 DD : The largest catamaran of the show. This amazing unit, built by Sunreef yachts will be exhibited for the first time. It is also the first double deck catamaran ever finished and launched.

Charter GALATHEA catamaran with Windward Islands.

FOUNTAINE PAJOT GALATHEA ENTERS THE LUXURY CATAMARAN BLOG

I was invited to the launching of the Fountaine Pajot new flagship the GALATHEA 65 and I have to admit I was really impressed. Nothing to compare with previous Fountaine Pajot in terms of design and finish. The GALATHEA 65 trully is a luxury catamaran and deserves to be in this blog.

From left to right : Olivier Racoupeau, Jean Jacques Coste, the lady in charge of the Galathea project and Jean François Fountaine, founder et CEO of Fountaine Pajot.

The Galathea is designed by Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design with an interior by Jean Jacques Coste. It boosts really a great pedigree. Always built using the infusion process like the rest of the Fountaine Pajot range and with square top sails, it performs well at sea according to JF Fountaine (he is not going to tell me the contrary). Berret Racoupeau have introduced some innovations like a two part flybridge, with all the sails controls at starboard side and a private salon at port side.The Galathea offers numerous places to relax including a very large sunbathing area above the tender which also protects the tender from the rain and water. There are numerous layout available including on with a whole hull for a huge owner suite and one with 6 doubles bedrooms for extensive chartering. Various level of customization are also available, this is a first for Fountaine Pajot. I am sure the Galathea 65 will have a great success on the market. All ready two units have been launched an a few other are being built at the yard.

Charter GALATHEA catamaran with Windward Islands.

BERRET RACOUPEAU YACHT DESIGN

I didn't spend as much time as I wanted with the luxury catamaran blog lately but I have been very busy with work. I am now also doing some PR consulting for Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design.

2008 is a big year for Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design, the design office was created 30 years ago by Jean Berret. He hired Olivier Racoupeau in 1983 and they co-founded Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design in 1994. Jean Berret is now retiring with more than 15 000 sailboats afloat. Jean and Olivier made up a great, very complementary team : the artist Jean Berret with a design degree from the famous Ecole Boulle in Paris and Olivier Racoupeau with an aerospace engineering degree. Olivier Racoupeau now holds the helm with a very talented crew of 9 designers, architects, engineers.

NAHEMA IV - Berret Racoupeau Design

When I visited the office in La Rochelle a few week ago and met with Olivier Racoupeau I was very impressed by the organisation, the management of the office. They are succeeding in remaining creative while providing their clients with a very strict design process from defining the Concept to the delivery of the boat : This is state of the art yacht design. They've designed only sailboats, in fact I could say they are in this way some kind of unique in France. They have created many monohulls for production yards such as BENETEAU, WAUQUIEZ, JEANNEAU, ALLIAGE. They have also designed many winning race boats : 4 world champions, the admirals cup winner in 1985, the BOC challenge in 1989-1990, and 3 mini transat. I will not list all their monohulls designs it would take one hour, back to real boats : catamarans !!!

Eleuthera 60 - Fountaine Pajot - Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design

BRYD is now recognized world-wide as one of the top office in catamaran design. They are working with Fountaine Pajot, the world leader in production catamarans with more than 1 800 units launched. For Fountaine Pajot, BRYD has created the Marquise 56' in 1991 (38 units), the Eleuthera 60' in 2004 (27 units), the Salina 48 ' in 2007 (27 units) and the Galathea 65' (to be launched in 2009). BRYD has more and more requests for larger units. They have also designed luxury catamarans with the YAPLUKA 60 and 70 (WONDERFUL, BELLA DONA, NAHEMA IV), the ALDABRA 60, the CIM 116, and have now in production and on the drawing boards a 75, a 90 and a 98 footer. I will soon write a post about the Z90 an amazing mega cat being built in Italy.

Wonderful - Yapluka 70 - Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design

I am very happy to work with them. I did some re-writing for their website which will be launched by summer time. I will let you know. I wrote their newsletter and will post a copy of it on the blog so stay tuned.

For more information about Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design, you can email Isabelle Ramirez.

WILLMAR USA - MULTIPLAST 90

Willmar USA is a company based in Florida, in Diana Beach and Saint Petersburg. They work mainly as Fountaine Pajot importers but are also brokers for used boats. Philippe Guillemin, Willmar's vice-president, has a long experience of catamaran building and sailing. Willmar is actually working on a "pet project" of a luxury custom 90 feet fast cruising catamaran designed by the Gilles Ollier Design Team and built by Multiplast. I already wrote about Multiplast and Gilles Ollier. They have designed and built some of most famous racing multihulls and also Magic Cat one of the fastest cruising catamaran of her time aboard which I was lucky to spend some times in the caribbean a few years ago. The Willmar/Multiplast 90 will be built in composite with carbon foam on a female mould at the shipyard in Vannes. The interior can be fully customized. The building time should be 20 months. With such a pedigree no doubt this will be a great fast cruising catamaran. I want to thank Philippe Guillemin for all the information and the 3Ds. If you have any questions about this project you can reach him through Willmar's Website.