A 1st Lagoon built by JTA, in Les Herbiers
At the beginning of 1983, the Jeanneau shipyard created a small "competition" department, called Jeanneau Techniques Avancées or JTA. The genesis of this workshop is closely linked to the cordial relationship between Yves Gonnort, Fleury Michon's boss, and Michel Richard, Jeanneau's boss, as well as the complicity between the already great champion Philippe Poupon and the builder Jean-François de Prémorel.
The sailing competition sector is doing well. There are many projects for the construction of racing yachts. It is the beginning of the Formula 40 and the IOR still generates several monohull competitions that attract the world's elite, such as the "Ton Cup" or the Withbread.
Jean-François de Prémorel, the rising star of racing boat production
It is not by chance that "Prémo", the nickname of Jean-François de Prémorel, has been promoted to department manager. He had already supervised the construction of the "Gérard Lambert" foiler based on VPLP and Fleury Michoneuros7 plans, a 26-meter catamaran designed by Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt. This multihull unfortunately ended its career prematurely due to dislocationeuros but these things happen in the world of competition.
At JTA, things are going well. As soon as it was commissioned, the new workshop had a full order book for many months: 3 "Formula 40s" and a 26-meter trimaran designed by Nigel Irens, which will soon be followed by a second series of F40s, 2 One Ton boats designed by Daniel Andrieu and an Imoca monohull designed by Philippe Briand. Without forgetting the motor racers for the "house" pilot, Michel Rousse. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and the boats went out. It was still necessary to call on Charlie Capelle and Thierry Elluère to reinforce the team of masters.
A necessary diversification
The victories follow one another, the notoriety soars and Prémo receives numerous requests that it studies and treats with care. All this is exciting, but all good things come to an end and the sailing competition sector is facing a temporary crisis. JTA is going to run out of work. It would be a shame to have to cut back on such a successful team.
It is at this point that Florence Cathiard, the person behind Lagoon, enters the scene. She asked Prémo to build her a beautiful high-performance cruising catamaran based on VPLP plans and brought with her a second client. The management accepted and entrusted the project to one of its workshop managers, yours truly.
The building that houses JTA is not really adapted to catamaran building, but we manage. The ceiling is very low, and the catamaran's deck will have to be taken out into the yard on a Saturday, so as not to disrupt the daily operations of the Jeanneau yard.
The deck and bottom molds are made of wood for cost and time reasons. They are intended to make two boats, not more (they will make 7 in the end...). A road crane will turn the bridge over, opening the way to the decking of the boat. A few weeks later, the first Lagoon 55 in history leaves the small JTA workshop. She is painted, structured and motorized, but empty.
Convoying the first Lagoon 55 by road
The first trip of the Lagoon 55 n° 1 takes place by truck. The boat was empty, as her fitting out had been entrusted to "La Griffe Marine", a subcontractor located in Trentemoult. It was transported there by the brand new tipping trailer designed and developed by Etienne Multrier, a great first! An epic adventure, with the dismantling of Christmas garlands and a bus sheltereuros. Then, the boat is launched by a harbour crane and transported by motor to the slipway of La Griffe Marineeuros!
Lagoon: a baptismal name bequeathed to the series
Lagoon is the name of Mrs. Cathiard's sailboat. She named it that way because it was the name she had chosen for her previous boats.
It should be noted that this catamaran as well as the next one are the object of a one-off order. The primary motivation is simply to fill a momentary drop in JTA's workload and there is no question of creating a series. Especially since Jeanneau's director does not believe in the future of the cruising multihull, which he considers a "niche market" (sic).
However, what was predictable happened, this catamaran was very popular. As soon as Lagoon started to show off its refined elegance and its nice performance on the water (1988), many people were interested in acquiring a sistership. Their quantity and their eagerness will be such that a specific production unit is soon created.
Birth of the Lagoon Catamarans brand
Events followed one another at a steady pace. The project manager who led the first two builds has left Jeanneau following a serious difference of opinion with his management. But he took care to leave behind him a small booklet entitled "How to build a Lagoon". Then Jeanneau went bankrupt, Beneteau was favored by the commercial court.
Annette Roux then became the boss of Lagoon. With a different personality than the former boss of Jeanneau, she immediately understood the potential of Lagoon and gave it the means to develop. Like Florence Cathiard, she liked the name "eurosLagoon", which was already well known. But this is not to the liking of Mrs Cathiard and it will be necessary to go before the courts which will decide in favor of Annette Roux. The future world champion of the cruising catamaran is born
