Open catamarans from all over the world
Until a few years ago, the pleasure catamaran was reserved for sailboat cruisers who wanted a large living platform on board, for charter or for long voyages. The available volume then appealed more widely, with the emergence of ranges of motor catamarans for long-distance cruising, up to large sizes. But small powerboats remained rare, apart from a few American brands.
Strolling along the quays of the Cannes Yachting Festival 2023 was enough to demonstrate the change in trend. Just a few meters from each other, visitors could find the TH36 from Four Winns, presented as a prototype in 2022 but now finalized, the new YOT 36 by Catana sufficiently convinced of the emergence of the concept to create a dedicated brand, and the Tesoro T38 from the Spanish shipyard Tesoro Yachts .
Aquila Catamarans, which did not bring along its smaller models, was nonetheless delighted with this trend: "Up until now, we haven't been presenting small models in Europe, but now we're going to be able to do it. Together, this shows that the market is ripe."
Aventura Catamarans is also developing a 36-foot open motor yacht.
More or less durable arguments
These new catamarans have more than one advantage for the customer. The available deck space is greater than that of a monohull, and although the hulls are narrower, they can accommodate all the amenities required for day cruising.
From a performance point of view, the multihull's slim hulls bring a significant gain. It remains to be seen how to use this advantage, by increasing speeds or reducing fuel consumption, while maintaining a reasonable displacement to keep the hulls slim. If we are to adopt a more sustainable approach, shipyards and yachtsmen must not forget this crucial trade-off.
