Outremer 45 Mk2

One-owner, second-generation Outremer 45 performance bluewater catamaran with great cruising specs and just one leisurely Atlantic circuit under her belt.

FURTHER BROKER’S COMMENTS:

GENIA is hull n. 51 of over 100 second-generation Outremer 45’s built from 2014 until the present day. Designed by Barreau-Neuman, with styling by Patrick Le Quément and with interior by Darnet Design, this light displacement, high-performance bluewater multihull has become the default choice in the +/-45ft size bracket for anyone looking to cross oceans at speed and with comfort and safety.

Still in her original ownership, GENIA has now completed a leisurely Atlantic circuit, taking her as far South as Buenos Aires as far West as Guatemala and Belize before heading back to Mediterranean via the Azores.

Her specification highlights include:
• 3-cabin, 2-heads interior layout with owner’s starboard hull
• Vinylester GRP construction with Divinycell core and solid laminate beneath waterline
• Carbon reinforcements in high load areas
• Crash boxes and watertight bulkheads
• Composite daggerboards with 1.25m – 2.05m draft variance
• Composite balanced rudder with Jefa composite helm wheel and twin composite direct-connection tillers
• Aluminium rig
• Lewmar winch package with electric main halyard winch
• Incidences Sails Hydranet square-top mainsail and furling self-tacking Solent jib
• Furling Code 0 and Code D sail (service / replacement due)
• Code 0 and Code D running rigging and manoeuvres fully operational
• Twin Volvo D1-30 engines with Saildrive gearboxes and 3-bladed folding propellers
• C-Zone Multiplex DC switching system
• Li-Ion EVE 8 cell 460Ah service battery with integral BMS
• Mastervolt combination 3,000w / 100Amp inverter/charger plus second charger and second inverter
• 740W solar panel arrange mounted above tender davits
• Dessalator Freedom/Cruise 12vDC reverse-osmosis watermaker producing approx. 100 l/h
• B&G instrument package with Zeus GPS/plotter
• Garmin Vesper Cortex VHF with DSC and AIS transceiver
• Iridium GO satellite communications
• NetGear M1 4G WiFi router
• Twin Webasto fridge/freezers
• SFA Sanimarin 12vDC electric flush heads
• SOBA Babynova 1000 220vAC 3kgs washing machine
• Webasto diesel fired hot air cabin heating system
• 12vDC ventilation fans
• Tender davits with AB 2.40 aluminium-bottomed tender and Mercury 5hp outboard
• Bimini with enclosures
• Full safety package with newly-replaced liferaft

GENIA is French-registered and can be purchased with an ongoing French lease subject to eligibility – please contact us for further details.

OWNERS COMMENTS:

We spent a lot of time sailing on chartered monohulls during our holidays when we were working. A voyage at sea has always been a dream of ours. We were convinced that no catamaran would be able to sail close enough to the wind for us to experience the same sensations as on a monohull. Our sailing friends convinced us that it would be the best choice for living on board for several years. We looked for ‘the’ most beautiful catamaran with daggerboards on the market, capable of sailing in all conditions with just the two of us. It turned out to be an Outremer 45 – our first boat. We’re very proud of her.

We sailed in the Mediterranean, France, Italy, Spain and in the Atlantic Ocean, Madeira and the Canary Islands. We then cruised to West Africa (Senegal, The Gambia, Bijagos Islands) and Cape Verde. We crossed the Atlantic to reach the eastern tip of Brazil and sailed south to Uruguay and then Buenos Aires. We sailed back up the Brazilian coast (with the wind against us and the boat). We also dropped anchor in French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, and the islands off Venezuela. We spent a long time in Colombia, then in the islands of Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. We sailed on to Jamaica and then the Azores before returning to Europe.

We loved our yacht – its lines, its comfort, its speed and its ability to sail close to the wind. Not quite as close as a high-performance monohull but so much more comfortable to live onboard. It earned us a lot of attention, either for our adventures or for the yacht itself, or both.

Unfortunately, poor health means that night watches at sea have become difficult so our voyage is coming to an end and we are heartbroken to have to sell GENIA.

MANUFACTURER’S COMMENTS:

Since its launch in 2014, the Outremer 45 has evolved for ever more performance, more comfort and has an improved quality of finish. Up until 2017, the extended hulls were an option and then designed as standard, bringing the boat's length to 48 feet. In 2018, the structure lost nearly 500 kg however with the same core materials as its Gunboat cousins, and the storage became more ergonomic. In 2019, the davits, bimini, gennaker fittings were added to the standard boat. In 2020, control of the electrical systems progressed with the integration of a C-Zone multiplexer.

With more than 100 boats delivered over the last 10 years, the Outremer 45 has confirmed its status as a legendary model within the Outremer shipyard. Sailing today in the four corners of the globe: Polynesia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and even Patagonia; these catamarans have become faithful travelling companions for families on round-the-world trips, adventurers in search of wide open spaces and passionate sailors.

Launched in 2014 and designed by the Barreau-Neuman duo, it has been developed for those who dream of round-the-world adventures without compromising on performance or comfort. The Outremer 45 has won over many international sailors thanks to its combo: light, fast and seaworthy. It is the perfect expression of the Outremer spirit: catamarans designed to cross the oceans in complete safety, while remaining easy to maneuver with a small crew or single-handed!

The adventure of Sailing ‘La Vagabonde’ crew aboard an Outremer 45 largely contributed to promote this model; Discover an exclusive tour of their boat right here. To celebrate the 100ᵉ hull, the team has selected some photos of the best moments in the life of the model: launches, sailings and on-board atmospheres.

PRESS REVIEW:

A product of the celebrated Outremer yard in La Grande Motte in the South of France, the Outremer 45’s commitment to performance and safety begins with a design that is not just well executed, but downright smart, having been born of almost a quarter century of boatbuilding.

The hulls and deck, for example, are built in vinylester with a divinycell core. However, the hull layup beneath the waterline is solid glass in the interest of security should you ever experience a grounding. Similarly, in spite of the boat’s emphasis on performance, Outremer is not afraid to use a little more material, including carbon, in high-load areas to ensure rigidity and durability over time. Along these same lines, the hull/deck joint is not just glued on an inward-turning flange, but securely glassed in all around, and the bows include multiple “crash boxes” to prevent water ingress in the event of a collision. The daggerboard trunks are also not only rock-solid, but the boards themselves designed to break away first, acting as “fuses,” as it were.

“The intent is to build a boat that will last 50 years,” said Outremer director of sales Matthieu Rougevin-Baville, who was with me for my sail trial, adding that in the course of a half a century, “something will happen” that will require this extra measure of build quality. He also noted how on one occasion an Outremer 45 grounded for four days on a reef off Tahiti and came away with little more than some scratches below the waterline…

…the hulls are narrow, with a plumb stem and transom to maximize sailing length. The low-profile cabin trunk is also gracefully sculpted to help reduce windage.

Interestingly, Matthieu noted that the boat’s streamlined design is not just about speed, but also safety and seakindliness. “Narrow hulls produce far less pitching,” he said. “That is what comfort at sea is really about, not the size of the beds or massive bedrooms.” He added that by being more easily driven, you can also reef the boat beforehand in unstable conditions and still keep moving, a nice option when shorthanded. Again, the Outremer 45 isn’t just well made, but smart in its overall conception.

One of the great things about not maximizing your cabin trunk in the interest of having an absolutely enormous saloon is that it opens up all kinds of space topsides for things like nice wide-open sidedecks and easy transitions to and from the cockpit. The Outremer 45 also includes plenty of nice touches to ensure you are able to move about in safety: like handrails along either side of the cabin trunk; toerails outboard; and a great little anti-skid equipped step just aft of the track for the self-tacking headsail for climbing up onto the cabin trunk to tend the main. Alas, I’ve sailed aboard a number of multihulls where going forward in any kind of a seaway is a true leap of faith. However, the Outremer 45 is not one of them.

Aft, a single helm station with a wheel to port comes standard, but there is the option of adding a pair of outboard tillers complete with a composite bucket seat, a la, say, a MOD70 trimaran. They’re incredibly cool, and according to Matthieu, pretty much everyone gets them.

The main traveller spans the width of the cockpit along the aft edge of the seatback of an L-shaped bench enclosing two sides of a fair-sized dining table. On our test boat, the dinghy davits also served as mounts for a pair of solar panels. Control lines for the daggerboards run aft to either side of the cockpit. Lewmar winches, tracks and blocks were used throughout in concert with Spinlock clutches, a Facnor furler for the jib and a Profurl continuous-line furler at the end of the sprit for the boat’s A-sail. The short length of the cabin trunk means the Lewmar windlass can be installed (and the chain stored) a bit farther aft than you usually see, helping keep weight toward the middle of the boat with an eye toward further reducing pitching.

Another funny thing about boats that work well is that I inevitably find myself running out of room when writing about them. Not only that, it’s the accommodations that seem to get short shrift. I guess that shows where my priorities are.

Suffice it to say that while the Outremer 45 may not have the massive amounts of accommodation space found on those cats more typically found in the charter trade, it remains a comfortable boat, with tastefully appointed accommodations. Two different arrangements are available, including a three-cabin layout in which the entire starboard hull is given over to the owner, and a four-cabin layout in which an additional cabin is located in the starboard bow.

The saloon features an L-shaped galley to starboard with the inboard counter nicely positioned so that it can be easily accessed from the cockpit when the boat’s large sliding door is opened—a excellent way of transferring snacks and drinks. Directly forward of the galley is the nav station, across from which is a dinette. It never ceases to amaze me how inefficiently the massive saloon spaces are configured aboard some larger cats. Aboard the Outremer 45, though, the layout is efficiently and effectively conceived, providing plenty of room for all.

…There are basically two kinds of sail trials: those where you do your job and evaluate the boat’s merits; and those during which you find yourself wishing (dreaming?) that the boat in question was yours. My sail aboard the Outremer 45 definitely fell under the latter category: the kind of boat that is not only expressly intended to sail over the horizon in search of adventure, but also a heck of a lot of fun to just sail.

Extracts from Sail Magazine review