Design The yachtsman’s yacht
Outremer’s reputation for fine long-distance multihulls is driven directly by the personal ocean racing experience of company founder Gerard Danson – for whom safety was non-negotiable
At one end of the scale are the money-no-object speed machines. At the other end are docile cruising cats heavily laden with furniture, equipment and domestic systems. It’s almost a binary choice, but in the middle of the multihull performance spectrum one brand stands alone. Outremer has built a unique reputation as the only major catamaran builder that offers a balanced compromise between these two extremes.
It wasn’t always that way. Most builders started off in the 1980s making cats that were fast, comfortable and fun, aimed at experienced sailors who wanted to cruise long distances and win a few races, too. Then new models from nearly all builders began to get progressively heavier, slower, roomier – and less rewarding to sail. The main driver for this trend, which continues today, is the yacht charter industry. Multihulls tend to have a lot more living space than monohulls and unless overpowered they’re inherently stable. That makes them ideal as a holiday platform for a wider range of charter clients including novice skippers, families with non-sailing members and couples sharing a boat who want a bit of privacy from one another. Thus the builders started producing yachts to charter spec: 40-45ft long with at least 6ft of beam
62 SEAHORSE
in the forecabins to allow full-size double island beds; four big en-suite bathrooms; a foolproof rig; a price tag under €400,000 in today’s money; and a short delivery time. Tax laws also encouraged the charter cat boom, allowing owners to deduct the cost of their boat from their taxable income if the boat was involved in the charter industry.
Outremer’s founder Gérard Danson refused to go down that road. ‘I asked him back then why he was not interested in growing his business,’ says Outremer’s Mattheiu Rougevin-Baville. ‘He told me about his experience in the Transmed Race in 1980, with 60-70kts of wind and six to eight-metre waves. So many boats were lost or capsized. He survived on one of his own designs and became convinced of some non-negotiable safety features.’ Danson’s essentials include long, slim hulls, low freeboard, low centre of gravity, central weight distribution and daggerboards. ‘He was well aware that the company would not grow as fast as the others who were aiming for the charter market but said he wanted to sleep at night, without worrying about owners’ safety,’ Rougevin-Baville explains. ‘It took time to grow but we are very proud that you can meet any kind of weather and still be safe on an Outremer.'
Today, Outremer remains true to
Above: Wheel or tiller – why not both? Multihull
grand master Loïck Peyron at the helm of an Outremer 4X, enjoying the perfect ergonomics of the rather clever deck and cockpit plan that he helped to optimise for efficient and enjoyable sailing. Very few cruising cats have the feather-light yet highly engaging helm “feel” that you get from a well- balanced
monohull... or an Outremer!
Danson’s ideas. Even its sporty models, the 48ft 4X and 60ft 5X, are not overpowered. ‘Both have a sail area : displacement (SA:D) ratio of 14m² per ton upwind and 30m² downwind,’ Rougevin-Baville says. ‘We feel it’s the maximum power ratio to keep a cruiser-racer safety margin.’ Above 14m² per ton the yacht will readily fly a hull upwind, which has serious safety implications for ocean sailing. By contrast, most cruising cats have an SA:D of 7-10m²/ton upwind and 15-20m²/ton downwind. They may have more sail area than an Outremer of similar length, but they’re a lot heavier. ‘The lightest 4X we’ve built weighs 8.5 tons in cruising trim; our lightest 5X is 14.5 tons,’ Rougevin-Baville says. Compare that to 20 or 30 tons for a typical cruising cat. ‘The main difference in performance doesn’t come from extra power, but from reduced drag and better windward ability,’ he says. ‘There are lots of claims about performance but the real one is the ratio between wind force and boatspeed.’
Platform length to overall length is another important ratio. Many cruising cats have a platform nearly as long as their hulls but for Outremer it’s never more than 50 per cent. ‘This is very important to keep the boat light, keep the weight centred and avoid waves slamming
ROBIN CHRISTOL
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