New sensation

The Excess 15 is a yacht hoping to bring some of the fun back into multihull sailing. Sam Jefferson discovers whether the new boat strikes the right balance between fun and function

- Sam Jefferson

Cast your mind back a few weeks and you may recall that Dominic Cummings – everyone’s favourite unelected loon/ visionary genius (depending on your political persuasion) – sent out an urgent missive stating that he was in search of ‘weirdos’ to help him out at 10 Downing Street. Whatever your political persuasion, it was hard to see this as anything other than advertising for a very large shipment of coals to be taken to Newcastle. Anyway, it did occur to me that Mr Cummings would have profited from the kind of people who pioneered multihulls back in the day. Yes, back in the 60s, 70s and even 80s, multihulls were deeply esoteric boats on the whole – often very fast and just a tad out of control, and featuring coffin-like accommodation. These were wild, raw, extremely exciting boats that were mad, bad and dangerous to sail. All you knew was that when you did eventually pitchpole down the face of a wave, you’d probably die with a smile on your face. These pioneering vessels were generally owned by very earnest sailors who were prone to cornering you in some sailor’s watering hole and telling you in detail why multihulls were to die for. In some ways, perhaps, peak multihull was achieved in 1969 when Donald Crowhurst set out in his trimaran Teignmouth Electron to compete in the Golden Globe Race. Given his intense character, mathematical wizardry and slightly odd relationship with the truth, I’m sure Crowhurst would have been ideal fodder for Mr Cummings.