One way to gauge the relative success of a production sailboat is to look at the size of the model’s run: the quantity of hulls sold or the number of years it was offered. After investing in research and development, not to mention tooling and marketing, a company needs to spread those costs over as many boats as possible. To be a winner, a new model should be versatile and appeal to as many buyers as possible. Often, this means multiple layouts and options to meet the needs (and budgets) of private owners and charter companies.

But for the latest sailboat in the Jeanneau Yachts range, the French builder decided to focus primarily on owners. This 55-footer has a layout that borrows concepts more often found on midsize multihulls. There are spacious accommodations for the owner, separate staterooms where guests can come and go without disturbing one another, multiple places to gather or find privacy, and protected spots to navigate and spend time off watch—without having to be down below.

The result is a very different sort of sailboat. In fact, it would be safe to say that Cruising World’s Boat of the Year judging team had never seen anything quite like it when we arrived for a dockside inspection during the Annapolis Boat Show this past October in Maryland. In the end, we obviously approved of the concept. The Jeanneau Yachts 55 not only earned the title of Best Full-Size Cruiser, but it also it went on to take top honors as the 2024 Boat of the Year.

With so much that’s new and different about the 55, let’s start with what you discover the moment you board using the fold-down swim platform. You then step up to encounter a living/lounging/working area that starts at the transom and stretches forward to take up nearly half the boat’s topsides. The builder calls it a dual-cockpit layout, but that barely begins to describe all that’s going on there.

Two cushioned seating areas—one is U-shaped to starboard, and the other is an upside-down L-shape to port that opens up a walk-through path for boarding—are located across the transom. Each one surrounds a table that can be lowered to create party-size sun lounges. With the boat’s beam of 16 feet, 4 inches, that’s a lot of room to kick back and relax.

Under the port seats, there’s life-raft storage, and between the tables, there’s access to a garage below the deck. It could handle toys, an inflatable or even a Tiwal sailing tender.

Between the lounges and the pair of helm stations located just forward of them, there’s access on either side of the boat to the walk-around side decks that have become a Jeanneau trademark.

A fiberglass cockpit arch rises up just forward of the steering wheels. On the boat we visited in Annapolis, it connected an optional hard spray hood that covered the forward portion of the cockpit and main companionway, and a hard Bimini top (also an option) that protected the aft area. The Bimini had a nifty sliding fabric panel in the middle that could be opened for sun and stars, or shut for shade and rain.

Two more companionways are just under the arch, providing access to two private port and starboard guest staterooms. We’ll get to them in a minute. But first, let’s complete the tour of the topsides.

Tucked up forward, under the rigid spray hood, there is another smaller table to starboard with U-shaped seating around it. Call it a breakfast nook or a fine spot to sit and enjoy a book, no matter the weather outside. It’s opposite a forward-facing navigation desk with a chart plotter. Here, a watchkeeper is protected from the elements but still has a clear view all around.

Much like on a catamaran, there’s a provision for another cushioned lounge area on the broad foredeck, giving guests another place to enjoy the great outdoors.

The 55’s interior accommodations, designed by Andrew Winch, are just as unique as those found topsides. The builder describes the layout as being “owners first.”

I mentioned that two guest staterooms are accessible only from the cockpit. These give the crew (and owners) privacy that’s not possible on a conventional monohull, where all of the staterooms open into the salon.

To port is a VIP stateroom with en suite head and shower, and enough additional space to allow for a small sitting area with a desk or vanity. The starboard guest stateroom, also with en suite head and shower, is a bit smaller because of the location of the galley in the salon, but it still has a double berth. Both staterooms have 6-foot-5-inch headroom.

Stepping down the main companionway and into the salon and master stateroom, the first thought that comes to mind is that it resembles an efficiency or one-bedroom condo in some urban center. In fact, two-thirds of the interior space is intended for those paying the bills. A dining area with L-shaped seating takes up the port side of the salon, with a large-screen television mounted on the forward bulkhead for movie nights.

A galley is opposite, with an island counter amidships, giving the cook a solid place to brace while preparing meals underway.

Ports in the cabin top and hull let in loads of light, and white walls and overhead panels help keep things bright. The boat we sailed had teak-colored Alpi bulkheads and furniture; white oak is another option.

The owner’s stateroom is forward, through double doors. A double berth is offset to port, with lockers and a sitting area to starboard. A spacious head and shower compartment is farther forward.

Depending on how an owner plans to use the boat, the forepeak can be either a sail locker or a crew cabin.

Buyers also have options when it comes to a standard keel (8-foot) or shoal draft foil (6-foot-2-inch), and either a standard in-mast furling rig or a performance spar with full-batten main. The boat we sailed had the former, coupled with a versatile three-headsail sail plan that included a self-tending jib to simplify tacking upwind, an overlapping genoa for light-air days (both with electric furlers), and a downwind sail that’s flown from a continuous-line furler.

For motoring, the 55 is equipped with a 110 hp Yanmar diesel with a shaft drive and a three-blade Flexofold prop—and a bow thruster for close-quarters maneuvering. If I had to pick a nit, it would be engine access, which was through a hatch in the cockpit sole. It seemed adequate enough, though not necessarily convenient.

Loaded up with electronics and options, the price tag on the 55 in Annapolis was right around $1.4 million. That included Jeanneau’s Seanapps system, which provides remote boat monitoring, alerts and maintenance recommendations.

Underway, I found the 55 comfortable. The walk-around decks made it easy and safe to move about, and when I wasn’t doing the sailing, there were numerous places to relax and take in the sights.

When my turn came at the wheel, visibility all around was excellent, and electric winches made trimming sails effortless during singlehanded maneuvers. Steering by hand, you can stand inboard, out of the elements, or step out onto the side deck to feel the breeze in your face as you lean an arm over the stainless-steel life rail that encircles the cockpit.

Our test sail took place on Chesapeake Bay in variable conditions that ranged from nearly no breeze to gusts well into the high teens. Tacking in light air—about 5 knots or less—boatspeed was 3 to 4 knots. Later, reaching in 17- to 20-knot puffs, we trucked along effortlessly at 7-plus knots. Some boats do well in light air; some like big wind. The 55 lit right up in both. No wonder it’s a winner.

Designing Outside the Box

A casual sailor walking the docks at a boat show could be excused for thinking that these days, new boats all look pretty much alike. Sure, “innovations” are introduced annually, but a barbecue grill built into the transom or two cockpit tables instead of one are hardly radical innovations. And chines in the hull? Yup, pretty much everybody’s got ’em too now.

But in fall 2023, there wasn’t any other new sailboat introduced to North America that looked anything like the Jeanneau Yachts 55.

When the concept for the boat began to take shape under the shadow of the pandemic, Erik Stromberg, currently the vice president of power and motor yacht development at Jeanneau, was still a sailboat guy and leader of the design team. Tasked with coming up with a sistership for the Jeanneau Yachts 60 and 65, his logical step might have been to simply scale things down. And in fact, designer Philippe Briand did just that.

But the design team also asked, “What happens if you take a 55-foot boat and design it the way people actually use and live on the boat?” Stromberg says. Answering that question led them down a concurrent conceptual path—still toward a big, elegant cruising yacht, but one with more protection and bigger spaces to live in on deck, not to mention a different approach to staterooms that might not be used all the time.

Briand and interior designer Andrew Winch listened to the ideas and went to work.

Ironically, this owner-focused boat drew inspiration from an earlier Jeanneau model called the Sun Loft 47, a six-stateroom vessel designed strictly for Yacht Week events in Europe, where charterers pack the boat with as many people as possible. To make room for six staterooms belowdecks, the galley and entertaining area on the Sun Loft were moved topsides. With the onset of COVID-19, though, chartering shut down, and demand for the Sun Loft waned.

Stromberg says that so far, Jeanneau has orders for more than 30 of the 55s, and the boat is showing broad appeal in Europe and Asia. Here in the States, two were sold during the show in Annapolis—one to a couple who plans to go cruising with their 10-year-old daughter, and another to a couple on the Great Lakes who want a boat to sail and entertain friends. A third is under consideration by a couple of engineers who want to have their offices on board.

Stromberg says that the yard can build 17 or 18 boats a year, and the production run should fall somewhere in the 60- to 70-boat range. He calls the Yachts 55 an interesting project, the challenge being to stay within the limits of what has to work on a sailboat while still being creative.

“We need to keep innovating,” Stromberg says.

The post Sailboat Review: Jeanneau Yachts 55 appeared first on Cruising World.

One of the coolest aspects of the sailing lifestyle is the ability to travel to sun-soaked ­paradises, charter a boat and enjoy a holiday with your family and friends. These adventures are an opportunity to ply new waters, cultures and gunkholes, as well as the chance to sail a new (to you) boat and use equipment and electronics different from those you might carry aboard your own steed. While this latter point has sometimes led to headaches as charterers master the vessel’s chart plotter or stereo, skippers these days are aided by wireless devices that enable you to navigate using familiar screens, software and cartography, plus other portable electronics that help infuse a sailing trip with your familiar trappings of home. Here’s a look at some electronics that could help improve your next charter experience.

Castables

If you cruise with children, or if you enjoy the odd bit of angling, Lowrance’s FishHunter Pro and FishHunter 3D castable sonar transducers deliver underwater imagery onto paired smartphones or tablets (Android and iOS friendly) using Lowrance’s FishHunter Pro app (free).

Both versions of the buoyant FishHunter can electronically sound depths to 160 feet while also maintaining their Wi-Fi connection with a paired device over distances up to 180 feet. However, the units deliver different functionality. The FishHunter Pro transmits on three frequencies (381, 475 and 675 kHz) using a single tri-frequency transducer to deliver sonar imagery at different depths, and allows users to create custom bathymetric charts using the FishHunter app, while the FishHunter 3D uses five independent tri-­frequency transducers (also 381, 475 and 675 kHz) to deliver 3D sonar imagery and allow users to create custom cartography of their fishing grounds or anchorage.

Tunes

While options abound when it comes to travel-friendly, Bluetooth-enabled speakers, precious few come with the weatherproof rating and ­marine-specific design and DNA of Fusion Marine’s fully buoyant StereoActive. This highly portable, crisp-sounding one-piece sound system ­features an IPX7 weatherproof rating, an AM/FM radio receiver and, when used in North America, access to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio. The entertainment powerhouse also has Bluetooth audio streaming, as well as twin 21⁄2-inch 40-watt speakers that work in concert with each other and a passive bass radiator to create a fully marinized directional speaker system. StereoActive is available in red, white or blue, and can be controlled via a smartphone running the Fusion Link app (iOS and Android ­compatible) or via a Garmin quatix smartwatch (see below). The speaker’s portability and rugged construction lend ­itself to adventures onshore or aboard the dinghy or stand-up ­paddleboard. Listeners can play MP3s via a USB flash drive (included) that StereoActive accommodates in a waterproof compartment, and they can also stash valuables, such as a smartphone, credit cards and cash, in the optional IPX7-rated ActiveSafe, which is buoyant and attaches to the speaker’s base.

For charterers looking for big sound but on a smaller budget, the Bose SoundLink Micro Bluetooth and the bigger SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker II are worth investigating. These colorful speakers feature a durable silicone rubber exterior; the Micro Bluetooth features fully waterproof construction, while the Color Bluetooth Speaker II is water-resistant. Users can pair these tidy stand-alone speakers with their Android or Apple mobile devices (via Bluetooth) and enjoy their choice of audio content — MP3s, apps and streaming services — and legendary Bose sound.

Night Eyes

One of the coolest ­technologies to have recently entered marine markets is today’s generation of reasonably priced handheld thermal-­imaging cameras, which are available from manufacturers including ComNav, FLIR and Iris Innovations.

These can-do cameras punch well above their weight when it comes to enhancing situational awareness, but unlike light-magnifying night-vision equipment, thermal imagers employ highly sensitive microbolometer sensors that measure tiny thermal discrepancies between objects and their surroundings (for example, FLIR’s sensors are accurate to one-twentieth of a degree Celsius), which they harness to deliver picturelike video imagery, and they can deliver this same performance at 0100 and 1300 hours, making them ideally suited for scanning glare-rendered horizons for approaching vessels or for finding the boat after a big dinner ashore. Built-in color palettes and digital zooms allow users to fine-tune their cameras for their specific conditions and ranges.

Right Here

While numerous options exist for navigation apps, be it cartography or waterproof cases for smart devices, Garmin’s GLO offers an interesting way of bolstering these devices’ accuracy. The GLO contains a receiver that works with the GPS and GLONASS satellite networks to attain position information that’s accurate to roughly 10 feet, which it shares with Android and iOS phones and tablets via a Bluetooth connection. The GLO is especially useful for charterers who are visiting areas with minimal cell coverage, and its internal lithium-ion battery (1100 mAh) delivers up to 12 hours of continuous use in between recharges, which can be tackled either via USB or 12/24-volt cigarette-lighter adaptor. An optional friction mount helps keep the satellite device secure and in full view of the sky. However, a word of caution: GLO isn’t water-resistant.

Portable Juice

Given the dominant role that wireless devices play in contemporary life, careful mariners carry a reserve power bank (or two), and options abound, including waterproof batteries and banks with different voltages and milliamp-hour capacities. One tempting option is solar-powered battery banks, which are roughly the size and shape of a smartphone and feature rugged, waterproof or water-resistant construction. Here, some interesting players include Zenos, DiZaul and Jetsun. However, users need to understand these may take some time to recharge. For cruisers seeking faster gratification, companies including Ecoxgear, Wildtek, Solio and SoKoo make multipanel systems that power a reservoir battery (sometimes integrated, other times external) that sports at least one USB charging port. Finally, svelte battery-only banks make for smart travel companions, especially for cruisers nursing aging devices with suspect internal batteries.

Keep In Touch

If maintaining contact with the outside world via email, phone or text messaging is important, a smart option might be to carry a small satellite hotspot device that establishes a data connection and shares it, via Wi-Fi, with networked smartphones and tablets. While Sat-Fi systems like Inmarsat’s IsatHub, Iridium’s Go and Globalstar’s Sat-Fi are highly portable, it’s important to remember that the speeds they deliver enable email, texts and sometimes voice communications, but they don’t deliver anywhere near the bandwidth needed to stream online content. Of the three systems mentioned, IsatHub, which operates on Inmarsat’s I-4 network, offers the quickest speeds (384 Kbps down and 240 Kbps up) and near-global coverage. However, anyone who is considering a high-latitude expedition ­charter might be better served with Iridium’s Go, which ­operates on Iridium’s fully global network.

Who’s Where?

The automatic identification system revolutionized marine safety by providing AIS-equipped sailors with the names, locations, speeds, ­headings and contact ­info of vessels carrying their own AIS transponders. Plus, AIS data includes the unique Maritime Mobile Service Identities of other boats, which means you can reach them directly via VHF radio.

The trouble for charterers, however, is that nearly all AIS transponders and receivers are permanently mounted, and require antennas and access to networked instrumentation. Digital Yacht’s Nomad has solved this problem with a portable, USB-powered Class B AIS ­transponder. The ­device has its own GPS antenna and receiver, and a wireless local area ­network card for Wi-Fi connectivity. All of this comes packed in a small, travel-friendly black box; a suction-cup-mounted VHF antenna under 10-inches in size completes the hardware. Users can access Nomad’s AIS information via their favorite third-party navigation and cartography apps and their mobile devices (or computers running third-party navigation software). If you’re aboard a boat with a registered MMSI number, it can operate as a transponder; if not, it functions in receiver mode.

Save the Moment

Given the dramatic scenery, fun sailing and wonderful times that define a great charter trip, portable, waterproof video cameras are a great way to archive memories. Garmin and GoPro both make high-definition video cameras that have been turning sailors’ heads for years. Garmin’s Virb Ultra 30 delivers ultra-high-definition 4K video imagery, image stabilization, high-sensitivity audio and waterproof performance to 131 feet (with included case), while GoPro’s Hero6 is an ultra-high-definition video camera (maximum resolution is 3840 by 2160) that’s waterproof to 33 feet without a housing. Hero6 responds to simple voice commands, offers focus-free performance and comes with GoPro’s “you break it, we’ll replace it” warranty. Both cameras also shoot still imagery, come with 12-megapixel sensors and can be fitted with a variety of housings and mounts.

Wearables

Garmin’s quatix sailing-­specific smartwatches deliver serious capability for charterers given the redundancy and device familiarity that they afford. Both the quatix3 and quatix 5 watches are designed to talk wirelessly with Garmin chart plotters to share position information (this reduces battery draw on the GPS- and GLONASS-equipped watches) and network data. However, all quatix models are equally adept at spitting out latitude, longitude, altitude and barometric pressure information in stand-alone mode, and the watches’ three-axis compasses deliver bearing information, ­irrespective of your speed. Both watches can also run a menu of apps, display user-customizable watch faces and control Fusion stereos. The quatix 5 wins the James Bond award for its ability to wirelessly control compatible Garmin autopilots, and for its internal gyroscope, which sharpens position ­accuracy when it’s operating in its UltraTrac battery-saver mode.

David Schmidt is CW’s electronics editor.

Just in Case

Satellite ­communicators, including Garmin’s inReach and the Spot Gen3, allow users to send pre-scripted messages to their contacts, enable friends and family to track adventure from afar and, in the event of an emergency, support communication with Geos Worldwide’s privately operated International Emergency Response Coordination Center. While both devices provide a safety net, Garmin’s inReach models come packed with ­significantly more functionality, ­including the ability to navigate (either in ­stand-alone mode or when paired with a wireless device) and to access three levels of weather forecasting. Garmin makes two ­inReach models — the inReach SE+ and the inReach Explorer+, the difference being that the SE+ facilitates basic grid navigation in stand-alone mode and the Explorer+ allows users to navigate on-screen using graphically rich cartography. All these devices require ­subscription services.

Vendor Information

• Bose: bose.com, 800-999-2673; $100 to $130
• ComNav: comnavmarine.com, 604-207-1600; from $3,500
• Digital Yacht: digitalyachtamerica.com, 978-277-1234; from $700
• DiZaul: amazon.com; from $25
• ECOXGEAR: ecoxgear.com, 866-446-0961; from $20
• FLIR Systems: flir.com, 877-545-5094; $600 to $3,500
• Fusion Entertainment: fusionentertainment.com, 623-580-9000; $100 to $300
• Garmin: garmin.com, 800-800-1020; $100 to $550
• GlobalStar: globalstar.com, 877-452-5782; call for pricing
• GoPro: gopro.com, 855-635-3578; from $400
• Inmarsat: inmarsat.com, 877-748-4320; call for pricing
• Iridium: iridium.com
• Iris Innovations: boat-cameras.com, 954-533 9381; call for pricing
• Jetsun: amazon.com; from $30
• Lowrance: lowrance.com, 800-628-4487; $150 to $200
• SoKoo: amazon.com; from $50
• Solio: solio.com, 800-764-8610; from $100
• Spot: findmespot.com, 866-651-7768; from $170
• Zenos: amazon.com; from $30

The post Gadgets to Bring on a Sailing Vacation appeared first on Cruising World.

Most boats are nouns; the Maine Cat 38 is a verb — a boat that can be understood only in motion, and preferably under sail with a good breeze blowing.

Last March, I sailed the Maine Cat 38 Tamarack, hull number four, in the Sea of Abaco, Bahamas, with my parents, my college-age daughter and her friend. Meanwhile, one of 2018’s several historic winter storms was blowing through New England and the Canadian Maritimes, sending massive swells down our way and contributing to a squash zone of isobars on our local weather map. In the Abacos, that meant 20-foot seas offshore, rages in the cuts between cays and sustained winds edging toward 30 knots all week. Already on the Monday we flew in, Marsh Harbour’s supermarket shelves were empty of milk and fresh produce; for the next five days, the Bahamian mail boats were forbidden to leave the safety of their docks in Nassau. For us aboard Tamarack, the weather forced us to do all of our sailing inside the Sea of Abaco. But even in this usually protected sound, we encountered seas of 8 to 10 feet, sometimes breaking.

In those conditions, the Maine Cat 38 behaved like no other boat, monohull or multihull, that I’ve ever sailed. “This boat just gets up and frolics,” is how Sue Murphy, my mom, described sailing it.

Dick Vermeulen founded Maine Cat in 1993. Since then, his team of a dozen craftsmen in Midcoast Maine has launched some 140 sail- and powerboats, including 63 30-foot and 24 41-foot sailboats. Recently, Vermeulen created the Maine Cat 38 to return to simpler roots — a boat with no genset, no air conditioning, no microwave oven and just one head; a boat that a single person would be willing to take out sailing, with or without crew. And Vermeulen set himself one other goal: “This boat has to be the fastest cruising cat out there, or I’ve failed at everything I’ve done.” (For details about the genesis of the 38’s design, see “Birth of a Cat,” CW, July 2017.)

For our gang, mere speed wasn’t the priority. Yet the qualitative experience of sailing a boat whose creator took such care to keep the weight out was a revelation to all of us. Tom Murphy, my dad, has worked as a yacht broker for more than 30 years and has made hundreds of coastal and offshore yacht deliveries, often harrowing ones. “The way this boat lifted in 8-foot seas,” he said, “I mean, you’d see a roller coming in, and you’d tense up and steer into it and wait to take the sleigh ride down the back side and bury the bows — and that just never happened. Instead, you’d get up on top of a wave, and it would feel like the wave was flat, and you would just sort of come down with it. No pitch, no roll, no burying the bows or the stern.” Like me, he’d never experienced a boat that felt like this.

Vermeulen is a mechanical engineer by training. The effect he created in this boat is the result of a single-minded commitment to keeping weight out of it, both in the initial build and in the systems that go aboard. He determined that in order to achieve the speeds he was after, he needed 12-to-1 length-to-beam ratios in the hulls. A consequence of that choice is that you can’t then add all the weight of the luxury items you’d find on a typical production catamaran. Narrow hulls lack the buoyancy to carry heavy equipment or big tankage. Unlike similar-size models from high-production builders, the MC 38 isn’t intended to sleep more than five people; there’s just one marine head fitted in one of the hulls; and propulsion is not from twin diesels but from a pair of 9.9hp outboard motors. The galley stove has three burners but no oven. Cabin spaces are ­separated by drapes, not doors.

The construction of the hull and deck is different from that of the high-­production cat builders too. Typically, builders achieve complex curves in sandwich construction by using core that’s scored in slices called kerfs. When you bend a panel of scored foam, the kerfs open up; in the final composite part, the kerfs fill with resin. In a technique Vermeulen saw at Maine builders Hodgdon Yachts and Lyman-Morse, then developed with Gurit Composites, his team “thermoforms” Core-Cell foam in the shape of the final hull; this is unsliced foam, with no kerfs. His team heats the Core-Cell to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in an infrared oven, then infuses the fiberglass and core with vinylester resin. The result is a uniform part, with uniform physical properties. And the weight? “It’s ridiculous,” Vermeulen said. “When we built the first 38 hull, with three bulkheads in it, but 38 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet of depth, it weighed 426 pounds. I could lift the hull out of the cradles.”

“It takes us a little longer to build hulls,” Vermeulen said, “but it’s just bomber.”

The boat we sailed was in charter service, managed by Abaco Multihull Charters based in Hope Town. It was fitted with good-quality cruising sails, but no screacher or full-on performance sails. Our reaching speeds were typically in the 9- and 10-knot range. We put the first reef in at 20 knots; second reef at 25. It tacked easily with both main and roller-furling headsail and both daggerboards down, but struggled to tack under main alone, as most cats will.

Motoring out of Hope Town Harbor into 25 knots and a steep 3-foot chop at 80 percent throttle with the twin 9.9 horsepower outboards, we made just over 3 knots of boat speed and heard the motors cavitate on every third wave or so. In those conditions, the boat felt underpowered. By contrast, in flat water we easily achieved motoring speeds of 6 and 7 knots.

“You probably know the little auxiliary engines on the MC 38 are by design,” Vermeulen said when I described our experience. “When I hear that sailors on other boats are under power 50 percent of the time, I cringe. If I make the engines small enough, MC 38 owners are going to sail all the time. With a screacher or code zero, the MC 38 will sail at 5 knots in 5 knots of true wind. Who needs motors except to dock or drop the hook? The way sailing should be!”

The experience I most enjoyed on the MC 38 was going forward under sail onto the trampolines as we reached past Tahiti Beach under double-reefed main. I lay face-down and watched the hulls move through uncommonly disturbed water. The 38’s leeward hull didn’t dig in; the windward hull didn’t lift out. No wave ever slammed the bridgedeck. The steep chop seldom even reached the longitudinal chine 12 inches above the waterline on each hull.

The Maine Cat 38 is a boat that positively dances through the waves.

CW editor-at-large Tim Murphy is a longtime Boat of the Year judge.

The post Maine Cat 38 Catamaran Review appeared first on Cruising World.

Sitting at the wheel and tweaking the sails of the new Leopard 50 on a breezy afternoon off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last winter was pretty darned enjoyable. But then again, so was lounging around on the flybridge a few steps removed from the helm station, ­watching someone else do all the work.

In fact, strolling about the boat and taking in the expansive views from numerous vantage points, I quickly concluded there are any number of ways to enjoy the newest catamaran from Robertson and Caine. And that’s the whole idea, since the South African builder sells all of its boats into the Moorings and Sunsail charter fleets, and to private owners under the Leopard Catamaran brand. To be successful, a boat like the 50 has to have a little something for everyone, as they say.

Robertson and Caine first introduced the idea of a forward cockpit and watertight door in the front of the saloon with the Morrelli & Melvin-designed Leopard 44, which was named CW‘s Best Multihull and Import Boat of the Year in 2012. Alex Simonis and Simonis Voogd Yacht Design then took over at the drafting table, and the concept evolved over the course of three more models, including the award-winning Leopard 48, which the 50 replaces. It will be sold for charter as the Moorings 5000.

With each iteration, the melding of inside and outside space has increased, interior design has been refined and exterior styling has been sharpened. On the 50, the great outdoors literally pours into the saloon and sleeping cabins thanks to hull ports and overhead hatches and large windows around the house, and a flybridge option has been added to give sailors yet one more place to gather or get away from it all.

The 50 is also offered with a number of different layouts (more on those in a minute), and breaks the cabins-of-equal-size tradition when it comes to the charter market. The boat introduced at the Miami International Boat Show last winter was the four-cabin version — often the most popular for vacationers — but with a twist. Three couples get spacious en-suite accommodations, while one gets treated like true owners, with a master suite that takes up nearly two-thirds of the starboard hull and has its own companionway just inside the sliding door to the saloon. Forward, in that hull, the berth is athwartships, with a head and shower in the forepeak.

Other possibilities include a single cabin to port with storage or a workshop forward, or three en-suite cabins to starboard, bringing the total number of cabins to five. In any of the versions, crew accommodations are available far forward in the port hull.

Exterior options include either a large lifting swim/dinghy platform or traditional davits. The 50P (for performance) model features a raised helm station and overhead solid Bimini. The 50L (for lounge) sports a similar helm arrangement, but adds a flybridge with a U-shaped couch, table and tanning beds located atop the cockpit Bimini. It is reached via stairs from the starboard side deck. I measured head clearance under the boom at 6 feet 8 inches, which, in most cases, would be more than adequate to avoid accidents under way.

What is truly stunning about the 50 is the sense of openness, whether seated in the cockpit looking forward through the house, or in the saloon itself, where you’re surrounded by walls of glass and an overhead skylight that spans nearly the length of the room.

Designer Simonis said with each new model, the design brief calls for more visibility, which means fewer solid structural elements. To achieve that goal on the 50, both in the saloon and in the cabins below, carbon-infused ring frames were used in place of solid wood or composite bulkheads. Even the frame around the watertight forward door seemingly disappears in the design.

The aft end of the saloon opens wide, with sliding doors. In the cockpit, there’s a large table and U-shaped couch to port, and a cushioned settee opposite beneath the helm station.

A second forward-facing dining area is just inside the saloon to port. The table folds and can be lowered for cocktails, or it can open wide to accommodate a dinner crowd. A navigation desk is forward to port, just ahead of the companionway leading to the cabins below. Stainless handrails by the stairs have a clean look, and the dark nonskid steps have stainless nosing, which makes them quite visible.

The galley takes up much of the starboard side of the bridgedeck. A U-shaped ­counter and sink, with refrigeration under, look out onto the forward cockpit, cushioned lounging area and trampolines between the hulls. Just aft of the forward starboard companionway sits a second counter area with stove and oven, and two more drawers of ­refrigeration/freezer space.

A boat fit out like hull number one, which we sailed following the Miami show, sells for right around $1 million; the base price of the 50, delivered to the East Coast of the U.S., is $850,000 (the Moorings charter version, at $899,000, comes fully equipped for rental).

The Leopard in Miami sported a square-top main (a conventional mainsail is also offered) and an overlapping genoa. Combined, they provided plenty of power to push us through choppy offshore seas. On a beam reach in 15 or so knots of wind, the GPS showed us loping along at a steady 9 knots; 10.4 knots in one puff was my personal best for the day. Off the wind, I’d expect most owners would take advantage of the sprit option and fly a code zero or some other downwind sail.

Sailhandling was made simple by having all control lines led to three beefy winches close at hand to the wheel — something that will be appreciated by charterers and cruising couples alike. Still, there was ample room for a second crew to stand by and lend a hand.

In Leopard mode, the new 50 would be a comfortable home, capable of ticking off a good day’s run. As the Moorings 5000, well, let the parties begin.

Mark Pillsbury is CW’s editor.

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