From Thursday, 14th to Sunday 18th April, La Grande Motte will be the place where all actors of the Multihull branch will be. Most shipyards took over their boats to La Grande Motte, where the visitors may discover them afloat and sea trail them, and some shipyards have an information stand in the exhibitors village.
The visitor has the possibility to find any exhibitor specialized in Multihulls able to answer any question about: the boats (sailing or power boats), the equipment, financing, insurance, marina berths, new technologies or personal cruising projects…
The biggest shipyards building sailing catamarans will bring their boats to the event to the French Mediterranean Sea:
– Lagoon, world leader with an annual production of 250 / 300 boats
– Fountaine–Pajot, the shipyard which has the longest tradition in building serial catamarans with over 2100 boats delivered.
– Catana builts performance catamarans with dagger boards and a luxury interior. Based in Canet en Roussillon (France), the 36th Catana 50’ is sold.
– Alliaura has a big experience in custom built boats. The shipyard already built more than 60 catamarans of more than 60’ and they are working on a 100’ cat now.
– Nautitech, the French shipyard developed its range with the designers Mortain & Mavrikios from 39’ to 47’. Now they have new projects for a 54’ with Marc Lombard.
– Outremer : the shipyard is based in La Grande Motte and may arrange visits of their shipyard in the evening.
– The shipyards Phisa, XL Catamarans and TY Calou (exhibiting the Absolu 50’) are all three building catamarans designed by Christophe Barreau.
– Edel Catamarans will show the Edel 33 a light and fast cat.
– Multiraid presents a “day-boat”, the Bicok 21’. This boat could be disassembled and transported on a trailer.
– Fusion, is building their catamarans in Australia. They could be sold as an assembly kit.
– Swiss Catamarans Concept coming from Switzerland is specialized in luxury cats and will show their Swiss 55.
From South Africa the shipyards Royal Cape Catamarans, Dean Catamaran and Robertson & Caine, (building for the charter companies Moorings and Sunsail) will also participate.
Several Power catamarans will be afloat : the Spanish shipyard Catamaranes present its Flash Cat 435, the Polish shipyard Sunreef shows its 70’, from Italy a Mattia VG 62’ will be on the water and the French shipyard Fountaine–Pajot is exhibiting two Power cats: the Summerland 40 and the Queensland 55.
Six sailing Trimarans will be on the water: three from the shipyard Tricat, two from Corsair Marine and a Dragonfly from the Danish shipyard Quorning Boats.
A power trimaran, the Solar Odyssey will be shown on a trailer in front of the entrance of the Multihull boat show. This boat is only powered by solar energy and batteries. On its deck, the Trimaran will receive a surface of 110 m² of solar panels. During a first test this experimental boat reached a speed of 8 knots without sails, noise and any pollution. The Solar Odyssey is built with recycled parts: the floats have been built for the first version of the “Hydroptère”, a record-breaking hydrofoil and the central hull comes from an experiment on Alain Gautier’s 60-foot (18.28m) trimaran Foncia with which he finished 2nd in the Route du Rhum 1998.
More than 60 boats afloat on the show could be discovered, but there are some other multihull shipyards in the exhibitor village: Catalibi (shipyard from Thailand), Neel Trimarans, JY Plast and Smartboot.
After selecting a multihull from a shipyard, broker or designer, time to see the equipment (electronic, sails, anchors, ribs, sailing clothes…).
It could be a problem to find berths … the new marina Bizerte in Tunisia, 40 minutes to drive to the Tunis airport offers 800 berths from 6 to 110 m, with a traveller up to 400 tons. They may give more information on the Multihull boat show.
The association “Golden Oldies” will be at the show with three “oldtimers”: the Trimaran Nova, the F’40 Pleioné and the MOXIE 50’, winner of OSTAR race 1980 with Philip Weld.
The city of La Grande Motte will be attached to the show by a floating pontoon and in the town some photo exhibitions about former catamarans and catamaran racing will bring the boating atmosphere into down town.