WIN an Excess 11 Catamaran worth €300,000!
To launch their new range, Excess are giving away a brand new boat in a unique competition – a virtual regatta that’s aimed at experienced sailors and designed to test your passage planning, navigation, racing tactics and weather routing skills. The Excess Challenge involves racing an Excess Cat in real time, with real weather data in hourly increments, across the
anchorages without putting any strain on rudders and saildrives – which is a big advantage in many cruising grounds.
Weight saving is another key design parameter for the Excess range – but without resorting to the carbon fibre construction that makes most high-performance multihulls prohibitively expensive. Instead, the interior furniture is carefully engineered to be 30 per cent lighter than you’ll find on a typical cruising cat. Another substantial weight saving is achieved by mounting the mainsheet track on the aft beam, rather on the cabin top (which must be heavily reinforced if you want it to take mainsheet loads safely). The Excess cats will also have more powerful, less conservative sailplans than your average cruising cat. All boats in the range will have the trademark VPLP rig configuration, designed to minimise pitching: an ultra-high aspect sailplan with a big, square-topped mainsail on a mast located quite far aft, supported by a compression post in the saloon. There are two rig options, both of which offer significantly higher sail area-displacement ratios – and hence more boatspeed potential – than any of the yachts at the ‘comfort’ end of the multihull spectrum. The standard rig gives about five per cent more SA:D and the optional Pulse Line rig delivers a
Above:
Excess aim to restore the joy of being at the wheel. The helm stations are located as far aft and outboard as possible – similar to most racing multihulls – with clear sight lines forward and a commanding view of the sails. The platform is shorter and the hulls are slimmer than on a typical cruising cat, but there’s still plenty of living space. Below: The Excess range starts from 11 metres to 15 metres with five models. The first Excess 12 and 15s will be on show at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September
further 10 per cent of performance potential.
Aesthetics are crucial, Belmont says. Excess owners will expect their yacht to be beautiful as well as functional with a sleek and resolutely modern silhouette. Excess cats will of course have spacious cabins with Queen-size beds and all mod cons, but the lightweight luxury interior fit- out will make a virtue of simplicity, saving weight without compromising the quality of furnishings. On deck, the stanchions and cleats are aluminium plated with titanium. One notable departure from the normal way of doing things is the pricing structure for Excess catamarans. Most yachts are marketed at a “base price”, which can seem misleadingly low after “optional” but effectively essential items such as a windlass, sails and an electrical charging system are added. Excess, by contrast, quotes a standard price for a boat that’s genuinely ready to sail. The range will be competitively priced for a luxury brand, at around €305,000 to €315,000 for the 12m boat and €580,000 to €598,000 for the 15m boat. Next up on the production schedule is an 11-metre Excess cat, due to be launched at Düsseldorf Boat Show in January 2020. 13m and 14m boats are also planned to complete the range.
www.excess-catamarans.com q
Mediterranean from Barcelona to Cannes via the Balearic Islands and the Strait of Bonifacio, leaving Menorca and Corsica to port. You decide on the optimal time to start the race, relying on a real weather forecast since your sailing will be done in real-time weather conditions, drawing on your own knowledge and experience. You choose which sails to use and when to trim or reef them, set your course, program the autopilot (in heading or wind vane mode) and decide on your own night watch schedule. The fastest to finish wins. It costs €9 to enter, which allows you three record attempts. The top prize is a brand new, fully equipped 11-metre Excess fast cruising catamaran worth at least €300,000. Other prizes include a range of one-week charter holidays aboard an Excess cat, from a cabin for two on a shared charter to exclusive use of the four-cabin boat. All entrants have a chance of winning the top prize, but your sailing performance in the Challenge can dramatically improve your chances of winning. The overall winner has his or her chances boosted by 50 per cent; the second fastest to finish gets a 20 per cent boost, and the third fastest 10%. There’s also a team challenge option for up to four players. To enter the Excess Challenge, to find out more about it and to read the rules, visit the website:
excess-catamarans.com/en/ challenge
SEAHORSE 65
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
