Outremer 52Review & Buyer’s Guide: The Performance Catamaran With a Waiting List
What you’d actually do with her
The Outremer 52 is a 16-metre French catamaran built around a single proposition: a family or a couple sails around the world and almost never starts the engines. In ten knots of breeze she makes six to nine knots of boatspeed; in the trades, 200–250-mile days with surfs into the twenties. Two hulls, a saloon with all-round visibility between them, a helm on a swinging pedestal — and a carbon tiller, like a race boat, because Outremer owners actually steer by hand rather than delegating everything to the autopilot.
The practical meaning: you live in a spacious home that behaves like sports equipment on passage. The price of that is weight discipline (the boat punishes overloading), a galley designed worse than on boats half the money, and a sticker at which competitors offer full carbon. This is not a compromise charter cat and not a pocket Gunboat. It is the best-selling performance cruiser of its generation — with a queue for a new hull that runs to 2027–2028.
Verdict
The boat that sells faster than it can be built
Disambiguation first, because four different boats have worn an “Outremer 5x” badge. The Outremer 50 Standard/Light and 55 Standard/Light belong to the 1990s and another era of the yard. The Outremer 51 (Christophe Barreau) is the 2013–2022 bestseller: 101 hulls and, by the yard’s count, over 2.3 million miles of owner logs. The Outremer 52 is not a restyled 51 but an entirely new VPLP Design project, conceived in the autumn of 2020 and launched in February 2023 — hull #1, Franny, for the Tallqvist family. The styling is by Patrick Le Quément, the man who spent two decades drawing Renaults; the interior by Franck Darnet; the carbon structures were engineered with input from Gunboat — all inside the Grand Large Yachting group.
Against the 51: 15 cm more length, 40 cm more beam, the mast moved from the foredeck onto the coachroof, and carbon bulkheads laminated to the hulls beneath it. The waterline hull sections stayed the same; the tonne saved in the structure went into volume and equipment. The result is a paradox the whole debate feeds on: the 52 is heavier per foot than the 51 — and carries more sail to compensate.
“The Outremer 52… carries the heavy task of replacing the fabled 51 – the 101 of them Outremer built have clocked over 2.3 million miles. That’s a lot of owner feedback.”
The market answered instantly. By the Yachting World test, 69 boats had been sold; by the German YACHT test, 72 — with lead times running to the end of 2027, by some accounts 2028. The yard builds around twelve boats a year, is opening a second facility for the 52, and moved Outremer 45 production to the newly acquired Marsaudon Composites in Lorient to free capacity. European Yacht of the Year 2024 (Multihull), Multihull of the Year, SAIL Top 10 Best Boats 2025.
Living with her: owners’ numbers, not the brochure’s
The design target, stated by CEO Xavier Desmarest: “250 miles a day is enough for comfort and performance.” Owner logs in loaded cruising trim confirm the order of magnitude, if more modestly than the marketing.
“Top speed recorded: 22.4kn… We regularly hit an average of 9.5kn.”
The owner of Awen (hull #4), on their Atlantic crossing: 16 days, a 7.7-knot average, 21.2 knots top. And on the boat’s character: “On an Outremer, if there is a little breeze you just put the sails up and you start moving almost at wind speed.”
Salto, sailed by Norway’s Vestnes family with three children aboard, took line honours in ARC+ 2024: roughly 2,450 miles from Mindelo to Grenada in 11 days 17 hours — about 8.7 knots average. One honest caveat: on corrected time Salto placed only sixth, and the handicap wins in both ARC fleets that year went to the Catana Ocean Class. Line honours is not a handicap victory.
In light air the boat is honestly quick but not magical: on SAIL’s test off Miami, hull #8 made 6.1 knots in 10 knots true — around 60% of wind speed.
The helm arrangement is a signature theme. A Jefa wheel on a swinging pedestal locks in three positions — inboard in the cockpit, vertical, or outboard by the helm bench — plus an optional carbon tiller to port, which most buyers order. The linkage runs mechanically straight to the rudders; the feedback is real.
“Tiller sailing proved a work out… needed both hands firmly on the carbon rod and is perhaps better suited to light wind sailing.”
The ergonomics are not flawless, and several testers logged it independently: no handholds coming up the steps from the cockpit to the helm (Zuzana Prochazka, SAIL), and restricted sightlines to the port bow from the helm — the yard has acknowledged it and, per Boatmart, “said they are working on this.” The galley is the consensus weakness:
“This is the weak point of the Outremer 52… Placing the stove at the one least practical place is just crazy.”
Noise is the second. On Yachting World’s test boat, a water pump in the aft cabin sounded, in Hodges’ words, “like a chainsaw,” and the big hull window panel creaked in a seaway — “disconcerting.” The port forward cabin is the modular “My Free Space” with five configurations: standard double, office with a folding berth, walk-in dressing room, skipper’s cabin (carbon version), or kids’ cabin.
The great debate: a polyester semi-production boat at carbon money?
The central conflict around the 52 is not about speed and not about seaworthiness. It is about what you get for €1.5–2 million.
The charge is articulated on Sailing Anarchy’s multihull forum and recurs across threads:
“The Outremer, although very good, is a cheaper semi-production boat, and other alternatives (Balance, HH, Kinetic, etc) are more expensive… you get what you pay for.”
And, of a photo of a new hull with the headliner down: “That’s definitely where you see that this is a production boat built to a price… it just looks awful.”
The same forum carries documented scepticism about the claimed weight: how does an E-glass boat weigh the same as an all-carbon Balance 526? (“Weights between the new Outremer 52 and the Balance 526 are almost the same both light and loaded but the HH52 will supposedly be around 1 ton less…”) No independent weighing of a 52 has ever been published.
The defence sits in the test reports and the silverware. YACHT: “good, solid build quality… craftsmanship is impeccable”; the European Yacht of the Year jury found the boat “hits the difficult compromise spot on.” And the strongest counter-argument is operational, from the brand’s own owners: the most aggressive sail plan in the class means you almost never motor — and that is precisely what is being bought.
The French second front of the debate is price against perception. From Hisse-et-Oh, verbatim:
“Very handsome outside, the cockpit and helms are seductive… The interior is decently finished, but for the price… it could be a clearly higher level of delivery. And the living spaces aren’t that big for the size. And the price, the price…”
“The Outremer 52 seems to do everything just right — and the price goes with it.”
This dossier does not resolve the argument. The argument is the portrait of the boat: at the same money you can buy more carbon and finish — or more miles under sail with a living yard behind you. Both sides are right within their own coordinates.
Buying a used Outremer 52: problems and what to check
From here on, this dossier switches to survey mode. The model is three years old; the defect record is young, but no longer empty.
First hulls and the warranty record
One fact changes how every “warranty” story should be read: by contract, every hull returns to the yard for a scheduled warranty visit. The owners of Appa (#12): “We sailed along the French coast to Corsica and then back to the factory for initial scheduled warranty work as required per contract.” First-year “warranty work” is therefore, to a significant degree, standard commissioning — the French call it neuvage — not a crisis.
That said, specific early-hull history exists and remains undisclosed:
- Awen (#4). The owners publicly referenced “ENGINE PROBLEMS” (an early Volvo-powered hull) and released a podcast episode titled “Warranty Work Already?” (2 October 2023) — the content exists only in audio, with no transcript. A “steering issue” was discussed by third parties on Sailing Anarchy (“hopefully Awen will comment about the steering issue… No info about the steering gear though”) — no primary source, no stated outcome; we log it as unconfirmed. And the widely repeated “structural damage” on Awen was not a build defect: a Bali 40 t-boned her at anchor in Martinique; the yard had a team on the way the same day, and the repair took about three weeks.
- ESCAL’ (hull #1 or #2 — sources disagree). The first 52 to circumnavigate with a family aboard: 21 months around the world, then “a complete refit managed by the Outremer shipyard teams,” marketed as made “fully reliable.” What was replaced has never been itemised. For a buyer of this specific boat, the written refit scope is a condition of the deal, not a nicety.
Engines: Volvo or Nanni — verify per hull
The yard started with Volvo Penta on saildrives, then moved to 50 hp Nannis (quieter, less vibration; #8 was the first Nanni boat). The transition was not linear: Appa (#12, 2024) runs Volvo D2-50s, and 2024 listings show both makes. The engine brand of the specific hull is question number one to the seller, together with the service history — the 600-hour service is the milestone.
Daggerboards and cases
Straight, deep daggerboards are the brand’s DNA; the cases are heavily reinforced and the board itself is a designed fuse — in a hard grounding it breaks, not the hull. For the surveyor: case interiors, play in the guides, lifting tackle. Separately, the sacrificial skegs that protected the saildrives: the yard has abandoned them. An Outremer owner, verbatim: “Outremer has stopped putting these on new boats. They were having too many problems with them coming off under lateral pressure with no impact.” Some hulls (Appa among them) still carry skegs — check presence and attachment on the specific boat.
Steering
Jefa mechanicals, direct linkages, quadrant access through aft hatches. Given the unexplained Awen story, this is a priority inspection zone: play, linkages, quadrant mounts, and the wheel/tiller changeover — they are mutually exclusive: “To activate the tiller you have to disconnect the steering wheel or vice versa” (Yachting World).
Weight
Declared 12.5 t light / 15.7 t maximum — the builder’s figures; no independent weighing exists, and the forum scepticism is on record. Practically: request the weight ledger and read the actual load off the boot stripe. An overloaded 52 loses exactly what was paid for.
Glazing
Large bonded-and-fastened hull and saloon panels. No field reports of crazing or leaks on the 52 yet — the fleet is too young; put the bond edges and any weep stains on the checklist anyway.
Carbon options
Every fast named hull — Salto, Appa, ESCAL’, Inez V — carries the carbon package: bulkheads, fixed carbon mast, composite longitudinal beam. The rotating carbon wing mast is a rare option at roughly €150,000. Bring a surveyor with composites experience for the carbon zones, particularly on any boat with a collision or grounding in its history.
Outremer 52 price and market: the queue works for the seller
The new-boat price history explains the scatter in the press. At launch (2022) Yachting World quoted a base of €1.2M ex-VAT (Yachting Monthly: €1.23M ex-VAT, €1.55M sailaway); by YACHT’s 2024 test the base had risen to about €1.6M ex-VAT, with €1,463,700 including German VAT for the test configuration. Both figures are correct for their dates — two years of price escalation, not a source error. Turn-key with the carbon package: €1.5–2.0M; in the US, a “$2 million price tag” is the shorthand.
The used market is thin and paradoxical: boats exist, but the economics of the waiting list hold prices near new. Recorded offers (snapshot: August 2026): ESCAL’ (2023, circumnavigation plus yard refit) at €1,699,000 through Outremer’s own brokerage, with a transferable €800–900k lease structure for VAT purposes; Appa (2024, #12) at $1,450,000 in the US, import duty paid; Inez V (2023, the yard’s ex-demo, 2nd multihull on corrected time in ARC 2024) near Annapolis; OHANA (2026, ~50 engine hours, “used only once — by Outremer… during the Outremer Week,” EU VAT paid, warranty to February 2028). Aggregators span €1.27–2.05M; asks of €975–999k ex-VAT for 2024 hulls appear at the bottom of the range and demand verification of spec and status. No platform publishes sold prices or days on market — only asks are visible.
The practical read: a nearly-new hull with warranty (the OHANA type) competes head-on with circumnavigated boats, and a circumnavigated hull with an undocumented refit should trade at a discount to a boat-show-only one. For sold comparables, ask the GLS and Multihull Company brokers directly.
Ownership costs: insurance for a performance cat at this value runs 1–1.5% of hull value per year as a guide (up to 1.7% in the hurricane belt) — €15–30k annually; the 7.89 m beam means a multihull surcharge in most marinas, typically 1.5× a monohull of the same length.
Market snapshot: August 2026. This section is updated with each revision.
Outremer 52 vs 51, HH52, Balance 526 and Catana OC50: what buyers actually compare
Outremer 51 (used) is the chief internal rival: the same philosophy, 101 hulls, a mature defect record, and late examples from about €1.19M. Lighter per foot, more minimalist, none of the boat-show theatre. For the brand purist it is the rational answer to the 52’s queue and prices.
HH52 / HH50 is the carbon-epoxy league at comparable money — HH itself states the HH52-OC is roughly the same price as an Outremer 52 — with a claimed tonne less displacement and more luxury. Asian build, a different service geography.
Balance 526 is the space-and-finish argument: “The livability and space in comparison to say Outremer 51 or Seawind 1600 is night and day” (Ruby Rose). South African build, a similar versa-helm concept. The most radical thesis on Sailing Anarchy — “Given what else you can get for the price of the Outremer, I don’t think anyone should buy one” — belongs to this camp.
Catana OC50 is the direct French rival of the new wave; in ARC and ARC+ 2024 and 2025 the Catana Ocean Class took the corrected-time wins off the 52s. More series production, more aggressive marketing.
Windelo 50, Seawind 1600/1700, Marsaudon ORC50/TS5 sit on the periphery of real comparisons: the eco-concept, the Australian pragmatist and the spartan ultralight respectively — Marsaudon now living inside the same GLY group.
The formula the community has settled on: maximum miles under sail with a living yard and community behind you — Outremer 52; maximum carbon and finish at the money — HH or Balance; corrected-time silverware in the rallies — Catana OC; the same philosophy for less — a used Outremer 51.
Readers weighing a smaller Outremer should start with our full dossier on the Outremer 45/4X — the boat the 52’s whole family tree grows from.
Outremer 51
HH52
Catana OC50
Open questions
The exact number of hulls built (hulls #1–#12 are known by name; 69–72 on order; ~12 built per year) awaits confirmation from the yard or registries at revision. The scope of ESCAL’s post-circumnavigation yard refit. The content of Awen’s warranty episode (audio only, untranscribed) and the substance and outcome of the “steering issue.” An independent weighing of even one hull against the declared 12.5 t. Actual transaction prices on the used market. Field reports on glazing ageing and lithium-system reliability will only come with fleet age.
Outremer 52 specifications
| Hull length | 15.85 m (52 ft) |
| Beam | 7.89 m |
| Draft (boards up / down) | ~1.2 / ~2.9 m |
| Light displacement | 12,500 kg (declared) |
| Maximum displacement | 15,700 kg |
| Payload | ~3.2 t |
| Construction | vacuum infusion, foam sandwich, carbon bulkheads and beam |
| Mast | carbon (fixed; rotating wing mast optional) |
| Engines | 2×50 hp saildrive (Volvo Penta / Nanni — varies by hull) |
| CE category | A |
| First hull | February 2023 (Franny) |
| Ordered (2023–24) | 69–72 hulls; lead time to 2027–28 |
| Design | VPLP Design; styling P. Le Quément; interior F. Darnet |
FAQ
How much does a used Outremer 52 cost?
Between €1.27M and €2.05M depending on year, spec and VAT status. A circumnavigated hull with a yard refit asks €1.7M; nearly-new 2024–2026 boats run from about $1.45M / €1.7M with VAT. Because new-build lead times stretch to 2027–28, used boats trade close to new prices.
What are the known problems of the Outremer 52?
The fleet is three years old. Confirmed on early hulls: water-pump noise and creaking hull glazing, engine trouble on one of the first Volvo-powered boats, and consensus criticism of the galley and helm ergonomics. Every hull makes a contractual scheduled warranty visit to the yard — that is the norm, not an alarm. Unresolved: the scope of ESCAL’s refit and Awen’s “steering issue.”
Outremer 52 or Outremer 51?
The 52 is roomier, more modern, with the 55-derived helm station and carbon bulkheads — but heavier per foot and far more expensive. The 51 offers the same philosophy across 101 hulls and a mature used market from about €1.2M. The purist picks the 51; the family settling in for a decade picks the 52.
Outremer 52 or HH52 / Balance 526?
At the same money, HH and Balance deliver carbon-epoxy construction and more luxury; the Outremer delivers the most aggressive sail plan in the class (minimal motoring), European service and the largest owners’ community. It is a contest of philosophies, not of quality versus defect.
How fast is it really?
Owners in cruising trim: 7.7–9.5-knot passage averages, 200–250-mile days in the trades, peaks of 21–22.4 knots. In 10 knots of wind, expect 6–9 knots of boatspeed. The 52 took ARC+ 2024 line honours (Salto), but the corrected-time wins that year went to the Catana OC.
Method: this dossier was assembled from the sea trials of Yachting World, SAIL, YACHT (Germany) and Multihulls World, the yard’s and VPLP’s own documentation, brokerage listings from Outremer/GLS, YachtWorld and European aggregators 2023–2026, the Sailing Anarchy and Hisse-et-Oh forums, the owners’ publications of Awen, Appa, ESCAL’ and Salto, and ARC/ARC+ 2024–2025 results. Quotes are given in their original language, with French translated meaning-preserved. Where sources conflict — declared weight, base price by year, line honours versus corrected time — the conflict is left open and flagged. Owner interviews are underway; their testimony will join the next revision.