You want a boat with the room to actually live aboard, and one that two people can still handle after the marina crew has gone home. That is the buyer Lagoon builds for: cruising catamarans from 38 to 82 feet, under sail and under power. Here is our expert assessment of the brand.
— Tony Smith
Founder, Minted Yachts
Lagoon sells volume and stability, and unlike a lot of the market it does not ask you to hire a crew to enjoy either.
What I keep coming back to with this brand is how deliberately ordinary the hard parts are. The engines are Yanmar and John Deere and Volvo — units any competent yard in the Caribbean or the Med can service without flying a specialist in. Systems are laid out to be reached. The boats are built in series, which means the fifth owner of a Lagoon 46 is not discovering an unsolved problem for the first time. That is not glamorous, and it is exactly what makes a long cruise finish the way you planned it.
The trade-off is honest and worth saying out loud: these are cruising catamarans, not performance multihulls. If your weekend is measured in how fast you got there, look at a lighter boat. If it is measured in whether everyone aboard still wanted to be there on day nine, this is the range to shop.
Deep-dive specs and expert opinions on current Lagoon models. Don't see the Lagoon you're looking for? Reach out for new and pre-owned brokerage options.
Photo credit Lagoon.
Two people can sail her without help: the self-tacking jib works from the helm, and a 3'10" draft opens anchorages deeper boats have to skip.
A limited four-cabin edition of the Lagoon 42 — the same hull more than 1,000 owners have taken offshore, with the layout question already settled.
A second entryway in each hull, and 166 gallons of fresh water aboard — roughly double what the smaller Lagoons carry, so you can stay out longer.
Restyled inside and out: a forward sun-pad lounge, a bow swim ladder, and a furling boom whose mechanism stays visible. Twin 57 HP Yanmar diesels.
Lagoon's newest mid-size cruiser, on a VPLP-drawn hull, with a 12 m² forward cockpit that opens straight into the saloon through its own door.
Twin 80 HP Yanmar diesels, a 549 sq ft genoa, and a flybridge reached by two separate accesses — so the crowd upstairs never blocks the helm.
The six-cabin edition of the Lagoon 55: six cabins of equal size, each with its own head, and an extra-large central galley built to feed twelve aboard.
Naval architecture by VPLP Design, with a vast forward cockpit flush with the saloon floor and reached through its own saloon door.
The boat that opens Lagoon's Premium line: 272 m² of upwind sail area, a fully equipped flybridge helm, and four-, five- or six-cabin layouts.
Drawn by VPLP Design and setting 335 m² of upwind sail area, with four to six cabins plus separate crew quarters.
Lagoon's sailing flagship: roughly 338 m² of upwind sail area beneath a flybridge of more than 50 m² with twin helms.
A flybridge power catamaran cruising at 12 knots, with a 4'11" draft that opens anchorages most yachts her size simply cannot enter.
A flybridge power catamaran on twin Volvo D11-510s, with a 4'2" draft that puts shallow anchorages within reach of a 78-footer.
Lagoon's power flagship, on twin John Deere N13-580 diesels, with 300 m² of dedicated exterior living space.
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Start with the two numbers your marina and your cruising ground impose — draft and beam — then work up to cabin count. Lagoon's sailing catamarans run from 43'1" (13.12 m) to 81'9" (24.97 m) and draw from 3'10" (1.17 m) on the 38 to 6'3" (1.90 m) at the top. The power range spans 66'1" (20.15 m) to 80'1" (24.40 m) and draws as little as 4'2" (1.27 m).
Shoal draft is what buys you Bahamas and Exuma anchorages, and it does not track length: the 47 draws 4'1" (1.25 m) on a 49'1" (14.95 m) hull, less than the shorter 46 Iconic. After draft, decide whether you want a private owner's hull or maximum berths, and whether you are prepared to carry crew.
Our view: most buyers over-buy on length and under-check beam against their home berth. Measure the slip first.
Yes on almost every model. The 38 and 43 are built as 3-4 Cabins / 2-4 Heads, where the three-cabin version hands a full hull to the owner; the 46 Iconic is 3-4 Cabins / 3-4 Heads on the same principle, and the 47 runs 3-5 Cabins.
The exception is the 42 Millenium, a limited edition offered in 4 Cabins only. If a private owner's hull is non-negotiable, that is the one model in the range that cannot give you one. From the 51 Iconic upward the counts climb into four, five and six-cabin arrangements as the boats gain the volume to carry both an owner's suite and full guest accommodation.
In Bordeaux, France. VPLP Design, the naval architect credited across much of the range, puts it plainly on Lagoon's own Eighty 3 page: "The Bordeaux shipyard is the home of the great Lagoon catamarans."
The design credits are split three ways on the models that publish them — VPLP Design as naval architect, Patrick le Quément for the exterior and Nauta Design for the interior. Lagoon names all three on the 38, 43, 47, 60, Eighty 2 and Eighty 3. Elsewhere in the range the credits are partial — most often Nauta Design for the interior alone — so that is all we attribute rather than assuming the same team drew every hull.
Up to a point, and the specification tells you exactly where the line falls. Through the Sixty 5 — a 67'5" (20.55 m) boat — Lagoon lists no crew accommodation at all. These are drawn to be run by their owners: twin engines set wide on the beam so you dock on the throttles, and on several models a self-tacking jib that lets one person tack from the helm.
From the Seventy 7 and Eighty 2 up, and across all three power catamarans, the head count is quoted with "+ Crew" — Lagoon expects a professional aboard. In between, the honest constraint is beam rather than length: 26'1" (7.96 m) across a 47-footer decides where the boat can berth and how hard it is to handle in a crosswind.
For most of the range, yes, and our specification tables carry the exact figures. The gaps matter more than the numbers: Lagoon publishes no maximum or cruise speed for the 42 Millenium or the 47, so those rows stay empty on our pages rather than estimated.
Sailing models are quoted two ways — the 43 and 46 Iconic at 9 knots (under power) and 7-8 knots (under sail/power), the 38 at 8 knots (under power) and 6-7 knots (under sail/power). The power range is quoted plainly: 16 knots maximum and 12 knots cruise on the Sixty 7, 19 knots and 10 knots on the Seventy 8, 18 knots and 12 knots on the Eighty 3.
Fuel burn is published nowhere in the range, and the only autonomy figure Lagoon states is on the Eighty 3 — 3,500 nautical miles. Ask a dealer for observed consumption at your intended cruise speed in writing.
Every buyer's mission is different. Tell us how you plan to use your vessel, and we'll give you the straight story on which models fit your life—and which don't.
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