The Evolution of Boat Preference, Part 2

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Back to the boat show. They were only going to have Lagoon catamarans at the boat show, but they would have the 42, the design I had watched countless times in a few different YouTube videos, and the slightly larger Lagoon 450. We had just one day planned at the show, so after breezing by the sailing products inside, we made a bee line for the Lagoon 42.

This is the front of the Lagoon 450S

Four days on a Leopard 39 catamaran did not prepare us for the Lagoon 42 in person. The Lagoon is several feet wider than the Leopard and it's, well, big. It occurred to me that if we got one of these, I would be tempted to name it Moto Moto. So we toured the 42 and it's bigger brother the 450. It was great fun climbing around on and in the 42 and the 450 that I had viewed on video so much. After the initial rush of being on the actual boats faded, we discovered the 42 was not as comfortable as the Leopard 39, and that if we were pursuing comfort and ease of movement that rivaled shore life, we would need to look at the 450.

The "patio" or aft deck of the Lagoon 450S

The salon of the Lagoon 450S. A sales guy and a couple random people.

Me, proving the shower on the Lagoon 450S easily accomodates my frame.

Since there were only a couple of catamarans to look at, we had plenty of time to look at the monohulls. First we zigzagged between Jeaunneau and Beneteau boats of increasing size, finding a very comfortable Beneteau 48 to relax in for a while.

Helga relaxing at the helm of the Beneteau 48.

Then we toured the Hanse 455 and 505, made in Greifswald, Germany.
Really nice looking, spacious boats with many of the fancy features of the catamarans, and very clean, spacious deck areas. These boats were less expensive than the catamarans, of course, but were also less expensive than the French Beneteau and Jeaunneau boats.