Lagoon 450 S launches with fanfare

The first Lagoon 450 S Sports Top in Australia was recently handed over to its new owner, multihull buff Tony Considine, with the event even broadcast on the Gold Coast news that evening.

Commissioned by Lagoon importers The Multihull Group, the new 450 S named Oscar follows on from the successful launch of this model worldwide in February this year.

While the Australian debut was staged at the 2016 Sanctuary Cove and Sydney boat shows, the Multihull Group’s State Manager Martin Pettit, who oversaw the handover, saw this new Lagoon 450 S is a real entertainer under sail.

"It’s Tony’s second Lagoon. He’s a tall guy and needs plenty of height inside and the 450 S has exceptional volume and space, plus brilliant sailing ability. You can sail it single-handed and it’s a little bit thrilling! We’ve had it at 14 knots in a good stiff breeze on the Broadwater."

Considine is no stranger to cats, with a competitive career spanning three decades aboard numerous Grainger-designed multihulls, including Trilogy, which claimed no less than six national titles, and his current racing cat, the Grainger 10 Mad Max, which is one of the fastest sailing catamarans on the circuit. Not that Lagoon catamarans are being left behind, either.

Since Lagoon started in France in 1982, the French yard has sold more than 3500 boats worldwide. The previous model, the Lagoon 440 Flybridge, was one of its best-selling, with more than 660 boats cruising the world. Lagoon took onboard client and dealer feedback and developed the 450 Flybridge, which has proven successful ahead of this new 450 S iteration.

"The Sports Top model offers owners the advantage of splitting the helm station between cabin top and cockpit, so the skipper is not isolated, and they’ve lowered the rig so there’s less pitching, and it’s easier to stack the mainsail," Pettit says.

Designed as a very fast sailing luxury cruising catamaran, the 450 S is more than capable of offshore cruising. It was designed by renowned French naval architects Van Peteghem Lauriot-Prévost, designers of some of the world’s most innovative racing boats, including the America’s Cup cat Oracle USA 17.

But this Lagoon 450 S is luxurious, with teak decks in the cockpit, powered sheet winches, composite bimini with sliding sunroof with easy access to cabin top, and joystick inside at the chart table in case of inclement weather.

"Tony has added a barbecue, additional internet TV, solar panels and a few other custom features. Also unique to the Lagoon brand is our own commissioning crew flying up from Sydney for the handover, making sure it’s all ready to go. We are finding many monohull boat owners and power boat people are coming over to Lagoons because of their stability, comfort and space," Pettit says.

The launch of the 450 S occured at the Queensland headquarters of the Multihull Group at The Boat Works, which is part of the Gold Coast Marine Precinct. More at tmglagoon.com.