In Excess

Cruising multihulls have been one of the big successes stories of the boatbuilding industry recently. So what next? Excess catamarans believes it has seen the future, as Sam Jefferson discovers

The term ‘focus groups’ is not the most fascinating way to open a review of a new yacht, but it’s too late... I’ve gone and done it. Focus groups are, essentially, gatherings – groups of people thrown together in a meeting room, slowly losing the will to live and finding their thoughts turning to the bigger questions, such as the futility of human existence and whether they left the iron on when they went out to work that morning. Will they return home to the charred wreckage of what was all they had to show for a life of toil? Along the way there are generally more abstruse thoughts, such as whatever happened to Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts and the like.

Of course, the original intention of the focus group is different. It’s all about what to do next – setting out a vision, if you will. Boatbuilders by and large aren’t very good at using focus groups. There remains something vaguely amateurish about this noble breed. Not in the manner they build their boats but more in the forward planning. This generally seems to be a case of building a boat and then building another one, perhaps a bit bigger this time. Hell, maybe stick a deck saloon on it this time around.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how the boatbuilding industry used to roll – but things are changing, and that is particularly true of the Beneteau Group. I’m always intrigued by what this organization comes up with next. It is the biggest manufacturer in the leisure marine sector and not underwritten by some horrible venture capitalist, looking only to strip assets and then flog the company a couple of years down the line for vast profit. In other words, in order to thrive, it needs to have a long-term vision so its focus groups doubtless consist of somewhat more than just a group of bored middle management sitting in a meeting room scratching their heads and wondering what on earth happened to their lives.