Outremer

Outremer has built fast cruising catamarans in La Grande-Motte, on the French Mediterranean coast, since 1984, around one unbroken thesis: on a multihull, speed is a safety feature. A fast boat outruns the weather a slow one has to endure. The early boats came from designer Gérard Danson, light and narrow and hand-laminated; the modern range, relaunched in 2014 with the Barreau-Neuman 45, is built by infusion with carbon where it counts, and the yard now sits inside the Grand Large Yachting group alongside Garcia and Allures. Helm ergonomics are consulted on by Loïck Peyron.

The 45 is the smallest boat in the range and its best argument: over a hundred hulls, a European Yacht of the Year award for the 4X version, a durable community of circumnavigators trained at the yard's own owners' weeks, and six years as the floating set of Sailing La Vagabonde, the biggest sailing channel on YouTube. Outremers hold their value stubbornly on the used market; whether a given one is worth its asking price is exactly what the dossier is for.