Lagoon Update, Oct 2023
Lagoon has been designing and building catamarans for almost forty years. They will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2024. We met up with the management team to talk about Lagoon and their plans for the future. Their mission is to remain the world leader, building boats for their customers that are safe, reliable, comfortable and that can travel the world with a respect for the environment.
Lagoon shared some remarkable numbers at the Cannes International Yachting Festival.
First of all, with the 51 and 55, the last two new models, they have reached a milestone in September 2023 of 250 units sold. Both boats are built in Bordeaux, where they are increasing production capacity. And in August they delivered the 500th Lagoon 46 to Australian clients.
What is the Top Seller Ever in the Sailing Catamaran Market?
It used to be the Lagoon 380 which was later overtaken by the 450. Now the best-seller, the world champion is the Lagoon 42. In October 2023 they will deliver the 1000th Lagoon 42 to French owners who joined them for the party on Friday night in Cannes.
And more than forty-two Lagoon SEVENTY are sailing worldwide with orders to come, a much bigger number than Lagoon was expecting in their initial business plan for this luxury market segment.
Every year, Lagoon shows a SIXTY & SEVENTY at the Cannes Yachting Festival and every year the boat is different: these are fully customised yachts. They have a dedicated team for this luxury market segment, working closely with the captains and crew to continuously optimise the boat.
The luxury charter segment has been very successful, with these yachts commanding a one-week charter price of between $70k to $80k in high season.
7000 Lagoons Sailing
In the coming month, Lagoon expects to hit another milestone: seven thousand Lagoons sailing worldwide. Their ambitious goal is to be in touch with all of these owners through the Club Lagoon with a lot of services for all clients. This is a key service they want to develop over the coming years.
With the SIXTY and SEVENTY, each boat has a dedicated after-sales team, a point of contact, direct with the factory and owners can follow the construction of their boat online.
1) Customers have direct contact with Lagoon’s SIXTY 5, SIXTY 7, SEVENTY 7, SEVENTY 8 Specialists: a Premium Service
2) They follow their boat in production
3) Customers have a dedicated after-sales team
Lagoon Furling Boom
One of the latest innovations to be offered on Lagoon catamarans (46′ and 51′) is the mainsail furling boom. This has been developed by the Lagoon team with Incidence Sails and Groupe Wichard.
One of the main advantages of the Lagoon system is its simplicity: the furling spindle is not enclosed in a housing, so it is easy to monitor and control hoisting, reefing and furling manoeuvres. And it’s lighter than a standard set-up.
To use it, the main sheet must be eased, the topping lift employed, you must be headed into the wind (or at least a 30-degree TWA), and you must keep a fair tension on the luff while adjusting the sail. The system has been thoroughly tested over 2 years and has proven to be very reliable. On the 46 and 51 which have the flybridge, this system makes a lot of sense with their higher booms. This will help owners to use their sails more often.
This is an exclusive system, installed by Lagoon and covered by their warranty.
Reducing their Footprint: Lagoon – Awarded ISO 14001
What Is ISO 14001? ISO 14001 is a set of standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
It aims is to define the best practices for organizations that wish to reduce their environmental footprint by adopting an effective environmental management system (EMS). They have also been awarded ISO 50001, a standard intended to help organizations develop and implement an energy management system.
What does this mean in practice? The resin used on Lagoons is becoming more and more bio-sourced, the kitemark looks at the raw materials that Lagoon uses, with a target to use 100% recycled materials on the upholstery and work on using recycled materials for the sails continues.
Hemp fibre is replacing fibreglass in many panels on the boats. They are replacing teak with a new type of wood from sustainable forests. A water purification system will be installed on all Lagoons, helping people to move away from water in plastic bottles as you can drink the water from the tank.
Lagoon delivers with every boat launch a pack of eco-friendly cleaning equipment, to help educate clients on the best eco-friendly products that are available in the market.
Other areas they are working on include black water treatment, solar panel efficiency, wind turbines, hydro-generators, and more efficient A/C.
They continue to test electric power and hybrid power extensively to develop a system that is very reliable and safe.
The Future is Bright
So, the future is bright for this market-leading French catamaran manufacturer and they continue to grow responsibly across many different market segments.
We are looking forward to seeing the new Lagoon 60 on the water in 2024, the year that they celebrate their 40th anniversary. The next target? 8000 yachts on the water, all active members of the Lagoon Club!
