SPECIAL REPORT

ELAINE BUNTING ON TRANSATLANTIC MULTIHULLS

- Elaine Bunting

Comfort and space continue to convince many new to sailing to choose catamarans, while monohull owners are increasingly making the switch. But there are some downsides to weigh up, as Elaine Bunting reports

"Would you like a drink?" asks Fiona, one of the crew of Outremer 52 Inez V. Even if you've only just stepped aboard, as I have, you know you could probably ask for a cappuccino or a mojito jangling with ice, and it would be no problem. The enormous freezer and shiny coffee machine are right there in the saloon.

The galley opens to the cockpit, there are seating areas inside and outside, a cooling breeze comes through the forward saloon windows. Inez V is as spacious and comfortable as a small apartment, but one with a permanent view of the harbour, the sea or a tropical anchorage. The question I've come to ask - why a multihull? simply answers itself.

Richard Border and his partner Alex Mathisen from Vancouver took delivery of their new Outremer 52 in 2023. They are long-time sailors and have a Mark Mills-designed C&C 30 racer they keep at home. Border's plan to exit his business in actuarial consulting included buying a boat they could cruise and live aboard afterwards, and for that they chose a catamaran.

Four years ago, to test the concept, they chartered a Lagoon 45 in Greece and helped deliver a Lagoon 42 from Les Sables d'Olonne to Gibraltar. "We had 20-30 knots off the Portuguese coast and we were able to sit down to a meal of roast lamb and red wine in our T-shirts, where in a monohull we'd have had foul weather gear on," says Border. That convinced them.

After a year in the Med getting familiar with Inez V, I met them at the start of the 2024 ARC transatlantic rally. Next they plan to join the Grand Large World Rally, spending three-and-a-half years circumnavigating, "and then we will sell the boat," Border says.