A
nybody who
doesn’t believe the
powercat market
(and catamaran
market in general)
is on the up needs
to take a closer look
at what is currently
going on in the industry. Bavaria has
bought the Nautitech brand and is
building power and sailing catamarans
at a facility in Rochefort. Just last month,
Aurelius Group (owner of Hanse, Sealine
and Fjord among others) acquired
a majority stake in another French
catamaran builder, Privilege Marine, to
expand its impressive portfolio of yachts
and motor boats. Meanwhile, Bénéteau
Group’s popular catamaran brand, Lagoon,
is building the largest powercat it has ever
made, the monstrous Seventy 8. From
stopping production of the 43/44 a few
years ago, Lagoon is now producing two
of the largest production powercats on
the market. How times change.
Why the surge in popularity for twin-
hulled craft? Certainly, in the motor boat
arena, customers’ attitudes are changing
and interior volume, slow-speed stability,
efficiency and comfortable seakeeping are
starting to occupy the top of many people’s
wish lists. Powercats tick a lot of these
boxes from the start, and though their
shape erects a few hurdles for those in
charge of styling, this is bringing them
into closer focus for a lot of boat buyers.
Starting from Scratch
Fountaine-Pajot has been building sailing
catamarans from its base in La Rochelle
since 1976 so is nicely poised on the crest
of this particular wave. Yet the transition
to building powercats has been a steep
learning curve for the yard and it has
quickly discovered that the tastes and
needs of sailors and motor boat customers
are open to a vast amount of variation.
Simply lopping off the mast of a sailing
cat and calling it a power catamaran will
not cut it, so when the MY44 was launched
last year, Fountaine-Pajot made quite the
fanfare about the boat being designed
from the outset as a powercat. Not only
that, the only engine options available use
IPS, which calls for a brand new hull and
an underwater profile suited to pods. “We
are building a motor yacht for personal
use,” says Romain Motteau, Fountaine-
Pajot’s managing director. “This is not
a boat designed for charter fleets, hence
why there is a three-cabin layout that
focuses on comfortable cabins and not
sleeping as many people as possible.”
The distinction between the MY44
and some of the previous more charter-
oriented models is clear and not just in
the cabin configuration. The look and feel
of the interior is much improved from the
last Fountaine-Pajot we tested and there’s
clearly an enhanced focus on perceived
quality. There are still a few rough edges
if you dig deep enough (see engineroom
panel overleaf ) but the objects that you
interact with on a day-to-day basis are
far classier than before. The décor is clean,
modern and inoffensive. It doesn’t try
too hard but it works, and is usable and
practical, a good example being the teak-
laid deck in the area just inside the saloon
where the galley is. This means people in
wet swimwear can grab a drink from the
fridge or use the sink and not worry about
getting a carpet wet.
As practical as the galley is in some
areas, such as the flooring, generous
counter space, plentiful storage and a
full-size fridge and freezer, it frustrates in
others. The eye-level lockers, which will
be popping open all the time for people
to grab mugs and plates, don’t have fiddles
on their edges so it’s all too easy for objects
to fall out if they’ve moved at sea and the
same goes for the galley top, which has
no retaining lip to stop plates sliding off.
A small step leads up to the saloon
where, unlike some powercats I have tested,
you actually feel the benefit of that 21.7ft
(6.61m) beam. There’s heaps of space to
move about, and a sociable seating layout
with opposing sofas and a cosy armchair
facing aft adjacent to the helm. One slight
oddity is that the manual sliding windowsBoat report