France builds more cruising catamarans than the rest of the world combined, and the modern multihull as most people understand it is essentially a French invention. Yards on the Atlantic coast and around Bordeaux produce the majority of the boats filling charter fleets and cruising anchorages worldwide. The Yacht Collection lists French sailing catamarans.
The industry solved the important problems early. Bridgedeck clearance set to limit slamming, the mast moved aft to allow a large self tacking jib, flybridge helms for visibility, and four cabin layouts standardised for charter all emerged from French yards. Hulls are largely drawn by specialist multihull architects, and the engineering is production grade and thoroughly proven.
Scale brings the same benefits it does in monohulls. Tooling investment produces fair, consistent hulls with heavily engineered forebeams and bonded structural bulkheads, parts and service exist in every charter destination, and comparable sale evidence is plentiful. Inspection is multihull specific, covering the bridgedeck underside for slamming damage, bulkhead to hull bonding through the cross structure, the forebeam area, both rudder bearings, and both engines and saildrives assessed separately. Beam attracts premium berthing everywhere and doubled machinery doubles the servicing, so both belong in the annual budget. Browse the French sailing catamarans available and speak to our brokers.
