Cat trawler with French polish

The swish Summerland 40 is available in a variety of configurations to suit buyers' needs and budgets. Photo / Supplied

My first experience of a Fountaine Pajot catamaran was not a great one.

We (a couple of other marine journalists and a brace of travel agents) were in Tahiti as guests of a local company that specialised in organising global sailing holidays.

It was a very fine company and they had organised most things to perfection: the travel and transfers went off smoothly, the boat was excellent and the scenery was pretty hard to beat (just mention Bora Bora to anyone who has sailed there and you'll quickly see what I mean).

Unfortunately there were a couple of things our hosts couldn't organise: a French captain and cook who had a vague idea of what "polite" meant and a way of cooking chicken in the dark so the guests didn't get poisoned were two of the glaring ones.

As a result, two of our crew were horrendously sick and the trip was understandably less than ideal.

It is probably pretty unreasonable to blame any of that on the makers of the yacht, which was, to be fair, a pretty good sort of ship.

It sailed well between the French Polynesian islands, there was plenty of room for partying (even if, for obvious reasons, there wasn't a lot of that) and, like all catamarans, there was good separation between the cabins (the proof of that latter was that I had no idea that two of my fellow crew had spent the night experiencing violent food poisoning).

Fountaine Pajot not being a name we hear a lot of in New Zealand, that experience was, until recently, my only connection with the brand. It is good to report, therefore, that the French multihull manufacturer is again back on my radar and for far better reasons.

Through their Australasian agents, Multihull Solutions, Fountaine Pajot recently showcased one of their latest offerings at last year's Sydney International Boat Show.

Unlike the vessel on which we sailed , this version was noticeably lacking in anything resembling a mast, rigging or a set of sails. The model on show was from the company's "trawler" range, a power-driven range designed for serious coastal and even offshore cruising.

Evocatively named the Fountaine Pajot Summerland 40, it is a 12m "Trawler Catamaran", designed by Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt and built at the company's modern new 130,000sq m facility in Aigrefeuille, France.

The Summerland 40 has been designed to be used as either a private vessel or as one in charter. Also in keeping with the Fountaine Pajot philosophy, it is built light: just 12 tonnes in light-ship mode.

That's a pretty small displacement for a vessel that boasts a beam of 5.45m, a brace of 220hp diesels and pretty well everything one would expect on a modern craft of this size.

Whether this makes for good offshore cruising is, of course, debatable. Those who favour heavier vessels for battling big seas will no doubt argue that it does not. However, the plus side is a ship that is easily driven and can therefore get to port a lot faster.

With its new generation 220hp Volvo Penta D3-220i engines (common rail, fuel-injected, 5-cylinder, 2400-litre all-aluminium diesel inboards) running through an almost 2:1 hydraulic V-drive gearbox and spinning 4-blade propellers, the Summerland 40 boasts a top speed of 24 knots and is designed to comfortably cruise at 16. These might not sound impressive numbers compared to our typical flybridge launches (or those from across the Tasman). However, compared to normal trawler-style vessels, the Summerland 40 is a virtual race boat.

At an "eco cruise" speed of 7.5 knots, consumption is just 1.4 litres per nautical mile. Combine that with a 1400 litre fuel capacity and the range is an impressive 990 nautical miles. Push up to 15 knots and one burns 40 litres per hour (2.7 litres per nautical mile) and has a range of 525 nautical miles. Even at 24 knots, the range is still well over 350 nautical miles.

Like most catamarans, especially those designed for charter use, the living area is on the bridge deck with the accommodation and heads down in the hulls on either side. In this case, the Summerland 40's first owners have decided to basically grab the entire starboard hull for themselves and put two guest cabins over in the port hull (like many modern manufacturers, Fountaine Pajot are very accommodating when it comes to re-arranging the various areas).

The result is a very generous "owners' stateroom" with a queen-size island berth and an almost en suite bathroom separated by the stairs up to the deck. Guests get a choice of a double cabin aft and a for'ard cabin that can be either a generous double or two singles. The "house head" between the two is, like its counterpart on starboard, of generous proportions.

For their trawler line, Fountaine Pajot have taken rather more of the vessel's overall length for the saloon, leaving a small but perfectly serviceable foredeck.

This has allowed them to site the companionways down to the cabins quite a way forward and where they act as a natural separation between the helm station and saloon and galley further aft.

Both the station and the galley are fitted with all the modern appliances and instruments one would expect. There is also a nice touch with a wee bosun's chair arrangement allowing someone to keep the skipper company on those long passages.

Of course, given fine weather and the proper level of protection, outside is where most of us prefer to be when afloat and Fountaine Pajot has created three very separate areas for this - a smallish foredeck, a deceptively roomy cockpit and substantial top deck.

The basic Summerland 40 is quoted at A$720,000 ($942,000) and, as described here, A$768,000 ($1.004 million).


Summerland 40

LOA: 11.98m

LWL: 11.45m

Beam: 5.45m

Draft: 1.07m

Displacement: 12 tonnes (lightship)

Construction: GRP sandwich, & PVC core

Engines: 2 x Volvo Penta @ 220 hp

Max Speed: 24 knots

Cruise Speed: 16 knots

Base price: $942,000

Price as described: $1 million

Want to know more?
Check out review in the January/February issue of Pacific Motoryacht magazine.