MASHUA BLUU UNDER REFIT AT JFA SHIPYARD

Finally MASHUA BLUU has found a trustworthy and talented yard to be finished. This Blubay 95 was left unfinished in Caen when Yacht Industries went bankrupt. JFA was missioned to finished the RAFOLY's brother. It is also to be mentionned that JFA has built a new building to welcome large catamarans projects such as the VPLP 110. We'll learn more about it in the coming future.


This is a press release from the yard.

Following the effects of the crisis in the nautical industry, some yards have unfortunately closed down. It is the case of Yachts Industry in Caen (France) that went bankrupt in February 2009. This yard was delivering a 95’ catamaran named Mashua Bluu issued of the Blubay Yacht Brand (closed also). The ward was unable to carry out tirals & finish the boat properly.
The owner came then to JFA shipyard in order to finalize the boat. Mashua Bluu has just arrived in Concarneau, Britanny. The work will begin with the electrics, lots of piping jobs, some inside layout wood work, a servicing for rig validation and completion of BV and MCA compliancy. JFA will then proceed to trials in order to deliver a finished yacht ready for charter.

LUXURY CATAMARAN - MEGA CATAMARAN SHORT NEWS

SUNREEF 102 and SUNREEF 104

The production of those two mega cats is going along well. The hulls, the deck and the flybridge of the SUNREEF 102 have been fitted together. Now we start to guess what this spacious and confortable SUNREEF will look like. The carpenters have started to work on the interior fittings and the yacht should be launched second half of 2009. The SUNREEF 114 structure is beeing built upside down and will be flipped over by February 2009 for a launching I guess in 2010. A third mega sunreef is actually being negociated by the shipyard.


BLUBAY 95


Yachts Industries which is going through hard times has launched the last BLUBAY a 95 footer on the 25 th of November. The dark blue hull looks really nice. I look forward to see this new BLUBAY sailing.

YAPLUKA 85 DD Apparenlty the production of the first DD still goes on and this unit is schedule to be launched next summer.

BLUBLAY 92 - PURE BEAUTY

With the BLUBAY 92, and the BLUBAY 95 soon to be launched, Yachts Industries (also builder of the YAPLUKA range) based in Caen (France) is really acquiring the image of a mega catamaran builder with top quality production.

. This first BLUBAY 92 (a second for private use only is in production to be launched soon) is optimized for charter. It features four double suites for 8 guests and accomadations for a crew of 3 all with independent access to the salon. The salon/deck platform is huge and very confortable as you can see on the pictures. The interior design by Pierre Frutschi by was optimized for charter use and ease of circulation for guests and crew. The design is contemporary mixing dark floors with white furniture and light woods. The effect is relaxing. There is also a nice in house pilot house with a great view on the sea at mast foot. The flybridges hosts a good size jacuzzi and relaxing matresses.

Built in Sealium, a very light yet strong Aluminium, it should be quite fast at sea. During sea trials at the shipyard a speed of 14 knots was achieved under sails with force 3 winds.

I am sure this BLUBAY will have a lot of success in charter.

YACHTS INDUSTRIES - NEW WEBSITE

YACHTS INDUSTRIES recently launched its new website and the BLUBAY 92

Yachts industries has now a much better website with lots of great pictures and explanations about the shipyard and the two brands they are building and marketing YAPLUKA and BLUBAY. I have already posted their videos which I am a great fan of. When I am bored sometimes I look at them and also Lady Barberetta's. The video's are not on-line yet but they should be soon. Since the beggining with Yapluka the company has invested in good quality marketing tools which I think are very important in the business. I think when you have a good quality video it should come on the first page of your website.

Yachts Industries was very brave when they launched their lastest adverstising not showing catamarans pictures but a Rubik's Cube made of leather, wood, aluminum... Most of the time Yachting advertising is so concervative. I know what I am talking about since when I propose clients or potential clients to innovate in terms of advertising or public relation they are really afraid of changes. So congratulations to them.

Yacht industries also launched the BLUBAY 92, a very nice looking catamaran. I look forward to see her at the Cannes International Boat Show, there will be a lot of cats there which shows how this market market niche is doing.

More on the BLUBAY 92 in a future post.

CANNES BOAT SHOW 10-15 SEPTEMBRE 2008

Like every year the Yacht show season in Europe will start in September with Cannes followed by Monaco. This year Cannes will be very interesting for luxury catamarans.

Cannes - 10-15 Septembre 2008

LE BRETON YACHT will exhibit for the first time the SIG 45. It is the first unit for this shipyard with its news breaking project.

SUNREEF will be there and strong with 3 SUNREEFs.

• The SUNREEF 70 POWER "JAMBO" see my previous post.


• The SUNREEF 70 : the first 70 foot sailing SUNREEF with a Japanese interior.


• A SUNREEF 62 : another of this very successfull range of 62 footer.
  

YACHTS INDUSTRIES with their latest BLUBAY 95.

A LIST OF MEGA SAILING CATAMARANS ABOVE 100 FOOT

Following is a list of mega sailing catamarans above 100 foot being built or just at the state of project. The interest for large sailing catamarans is growing yet few projects above 100 feet are actually being built compared to sailing monohulls not to mention motoryachts of course. I think the launching of HEMISPHERE at the end of the year will push the market forward. Let me know if you know of any other projects than those listed.

IN PRODUCTION
HEMISPHERE (ex GEMINI) - 145 '

The largest sailing catamaran ever.

VPLP Design
Interior by Michael Leach
Built at the derecktor shipyard
Aluminum
Due to be launched end of this year
Available for charter with Burgess



NAHEMA 120

Largest in composite
Gilles Vaton Design
Interior by Franck Darnet Design
Built at the H2X shipyard
Composite
Due to be launched spring 2010



SUNREEF 106

Largest Double Decker
SUNREEF Design Team
Interior by Sunreef and Owner
Aluminum
Built at the SUNREEF shipyard.



SUNREEF 102 DD



SUNREEF Design Team
Interior Sunreef Design
Aluminum
Built at the SUNREEF shipyard





PROJECTS

VPLP

• Saïda - huge (could find the lenght on their website).
• Sailor 164
• Racer 164
• Boreas 140
  
  

BERRET RACOUPEAU YACHT DESIGN

• Islander 115' (a lot of living space on deck and inside)

VATON DESIGN

• Nahema 150
  

ALCYON YACHTS

• Alcyon 120 fly

CPA

• Lady C 150'
  

GALILEO

• Arkona 130 '
  
  

MORELLI & MEVIN DESIGN

• Mega catamaran 151'




• Mega catamaran 201' with Cayros design

SUNREEF

• Sunreef 120'



• Sunreef 122'

YAPLUKA

• Yapluka 120
• Yapluka 130'
  
  
  

BLUBAY

• Blubay 122'
• Blubay 142'
• Blubay 162'
• Blubay 182'
• Blubay 202

ONE YEAR OLD - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Luxury Catamaran

I just realized your luxury catamaran blog is one year old.

Champagne..

I started posting on this blog on March 27 th 2007. At the beginning I started to experience with blogs for fun and because I am found of cruising cats. Now, writing a post is real hapiness for me. Plus, I learn a lot about the business.

The luxury catamaran business is really booming with many projects being built and on the drawing boards. I am olding a few info for you for the coming weeks until I am authorized to publish them. New projects to come are really innovative in terms of design and building processes, not just replicas of older cats and that is a sign of well being.

GEMINI the world largest sailing luxury catamaran - 145 '

2008 will be the year GEMINI, the largest sailing luxury cat ever built so far will be launched and I can't wait to see the first pictures.

Great projects such as the NAHEMA 120, the SUNREEF 102, the BLUBAY 95, the BLUBAY 92, , the GUNBOAT 90, the YAPLUKA DD 85, the CATANA 87, the two EXCLUSIVE 76, the third MATRIX 76 will be either launched and sailing or well advenced by the end of the year.

Thanks to those of you who take time to leave some comments.

Thanks to those who have suscribed to the blog through FeedBlitz (right end column) many of you are in the industry. I will send you my short history of catamarans by the end of the week before publishing it on the blog next month.

Luxury Catamaran gets on average (since 1 January 2008) and according to the beta version of statcounter 164 page loads, 82 unique visitors and 14 returning visitors a day from all around the world which is quite good for such a niche subject.

For 2008 I would like to move to a three column template. I have tried experiments with wordpress but it takes me to much time to switch. If any one of you knows a free 3 column blogger templates I can customize through blogger, please let me know.

More to come on luxury catamaran, stay tuned.

SKYLLA - A CATAMARAN SHARE WORLD WIDE EXPLORATION CONCEPT

Yacht Share companies are popping up everywhere. If you don't want to spend most of you time on your yacht I think it is a smart concept. You own part of a yacht (maybe larger you can afford), for part of the price, part of the running costs and you let a third party take care of all the management : crew, insurance, maintenance... You enjoy the yacht without most of the problems.

SKYLLA is an even more interesting concept :

• The yacht is a fine catamaran built by Yacht Industries.


• The yacht will set sail for a Five Year around the world trip. You will be able to join the adventure in very secluded and wild places around the world without "wasting time sailing" (I din't write that).


• Founded by Marc Claussen and Jason Weaver, SKYLLA is about sharing an adventure while respecting the environment, the local people and traditions. You will meet with native culture and untamed animals.

SKYLLA will start in the Caribbean in 2008. The adventures will take from the caribbean to the south pacific, oceania, micronesia, indonesia, indian ocean, atlantic ocean, and finally the mediterranean.

Let talk finance and numbers (look at their website for more complete information) :

• 54 members share sold at 180 000 US$ each.


• One share is one trip each year (for one member and a guest) for 5 years.


• partnership asset value : 5 400 00 US$


• 18 adventure per year


• Vessel sold at the end of 5 years, residual value shared among holders.

The company will be register as a LLC Corporation which has many advantages for its share holder.

I think it is a great way to explore the world on a beautiful catamaran for a very reasonnable cost all along with a great respect for the environment and the people.

YAPLUKA - BLUBAY

It is about time to write a post about Yapluka and Blubay Yachts. Those two brands have been gathered under the Yacht Industries Shipyard ideally located downtown CAEN in France along a river where it is easy to launch large yachts. By gathering Yapluka and Blubay, Jean François Bourdin, Yacht industries president, can offer a large choice of luxury catamarans to his clients. Yapluka Catamarans in aluminium are famous for their confort and quality of construction, and Blubay Catamarans are famous for their performance and design. A new composite production site will soon be built and Yacht Industrie will be able to work on projects up ot 200 feet. Five Yaplukas have been launched IMAGINE, WONDERFULL, NAHEMA, BELLA DONA, SETE MARES, and one Blubay 102 feet ALLURES (look on my blog). One Yapluka 85 is under construction and two Blubay 92. The website has a lot of information and pictures, but I have to say that the videos are really great (almost one for every boat launched), including the one introducing the shipyard. Yapluka is offering the Double Deck option on the 85, 100, 115 and 130 feet. The double deck enables the owner to benefit from a very spacious cabin located on the main deck with an ocean view and direct access to a private bathroom with hydro-jets and a jacuzzi. A double deck 85 is currently under construction at the yard.