2023 Excess 14 to join luxury sailing catamaran line-up

The Excess 14 is the first of two new models, alongside the Excess 13, that will join the three existing boats already rolled out since the new line was launched in 2019. No official images have yet been released to show the new catamaran.

The new model will measure anywhere between 13.97 metres to 15.99 metres LOA depending on which of two bowsprits for the genoa the new owner chooses, and the length of the swim platform hanging off the transom.

Waterline length is 13.34 metres, while the Excess 14's draft is 1.48 metres – but more about that later.

While the Excess 11 – of which several boats are already on their way to Australia – the Excess 12 and Excess 15 follow the brand’s design-driven ethos, the Excess 14 “throws away the rule book”, according to Excess brand director Thibaut de Montvalon.

“We were not replacing an existing boat,” de Montvalon said. “Usually in the cruising world, you know, when when we create a new board, it's replacing an existing one and using trying to improve an existing recipe. 

“We have no recipe. We were really starting from the bare ingredients. And with the blank page, we had to try and design something new.”

According to de Montvalon, no ideas were off the table. 

To that end, when it launches in early 2023 the Excess 14 will be nothing like the existing line-up. Excess has worked to develop the Excess 14 as a hybrid between a traditional luxury catamaran and a performance cruiser.

The Excess 14 will feature asymmetric hulls, a big change in the way the catamarans are built that the brand says will help improve cruising speeds above 5.0-6.0 knots by getting the bows out of the water at lower speeds.

The asymmetric design changes to a single outboard chine, which makes the water flowing through the tunnel much smoother.

“We talked about having some foolish ideas in the Excess 14,” Excess product manager Herve Pivetau said.

“At one stage one of us said: ‘Why does it have to be a monohull split in halves?’,” Pivetau said. “If we do that, we have two symmetrical hulls. Okay, what about investigating asymmetrical hulls?

“And it ended up that it was very beneficial in terms of in terms of track, in terms of interference drag between the hulls and towards the central platform, so we put this on the Excess 14.”

The change in hull shape has also brought with it a change in the way the catamaran is built, with foam core sandwich construction and bulkheads reinforced using carbonfibre composites introducing new challenges to the factory.

However, while the overall design of the hulls and bridgedeck – incorporating low, swept lines emphasised by the low coachhouse-style saloon and fine-tuned by specialist multihull naval architects VPLP Design – shout Excess, there are other elements that make this catamaran stand out from the others.

One of the radical ideas brought to the table during the design process was to try and bring a monohull level of steering feel to the Excess 14.

The challenge here was to try and maximise the sail to drag ratio of the catamaran, with investigations going as far as to see what happened if the rudders were offset from the saildrives rather than in line with them – turns out it created too much drag.

Instead, the design sticks with keel fins rather than daggerboards in the interests of creating as much volume inside the hulls as possible, and much deeper rudders that increase the sensitivity at the helm.

“One of the foolish ideas we have is that a cruising catamaran can be a sailboat, it can give some steering sensations,” Pivetau said.

“We're not trying to give you extra half knot of speed. Our objective was to make sure that the skipper, by steering his boat, will get the same sensations as he could have in a monohull, and we wanted to make sure that when steering the boat, the skipper would not press the autopilot button directly that he would keep the sails on rather than start the engine. 

“So it was all about sailing sensations.”

The emphasis on luxury won’t be lost with the Excess 14. It will feature two distinct interior layouts, with a three-head layout including a full master suite in the starboard hull complete with a full ensuite and a walk-in wardrobe, or a four-head layout for charter operators.

Of note, the four-head layout includes four separate showers, a new benchmark for a catamaran of this size.

The hardtop above the saloon deck will come with an optional flybridge, but only for when the boat is at anchor or moored. This is because the boom sits low to increase the available sail area.

The emphasis on the sail plan means Excess has chosen to equip the Excess 14 with a genoa rather than a self-tacking jib.

 “As we set up this boat, you know, our point of view is it’s not really just a cruising catamaran,” Pivetau said. “It's more of an attractive cruising sailboat with two hulls.”

Excess will have an early build of the Excess 14 on the water in a few months’ time to assess how well the computer-based design handles real-world conditions. It is expected to have its official debut in Canada in September.

However, the boat is not expected to kick off its production run until early next year, with deliveries initially diverted to Excess’s European customers before the build slots open up for Asia Pacific buyers.