Lagoon 50
She’s already sailed halfway round the world, but for this catamaran the journey’s just beginning.
While the majority of pleasure boats being launched in New Zealand nowadays are imported, most arrive here courtesy of other, larger boats – shipped here from factories overseas. But for this large cruising cat which has now found a permanent home here, getting to New Zealand was a bit more roundabout.
Lagoon 50 Mango – the first of this model in New Zealand – was launched in late 2018 and sailed here from Europe by her owners. They sailed around 17,000nm – across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean and into the South Pacific, before enjoying summer cruising the north of New Zealand.
Their plan was to return to the islands and enjoy more tropical cruising – until Covid-19 came along. Instead, they decided to leave the boat here, to be sold, and return to their base in Sweden, departing just days before our borders closed.
Their loss was New Zealand’s gain, and their need to get home and leave their pride and joy behind had positive consequences for a new owner. Mango was rapidly snapped up by a Kiwi.
Orakei Marine’s Jason Snashall says catamarans this size are expensive to ship down under, because of the large amount of space they take up – Mango has a 14.75m LOA and a beam of just over 8m – so to have the boat ‘hand-delivered’ was a huge bonus.
It was also good timing, getting the boat here before international borders closed down indefinitely. Snashall says in the past many Kiwi owners have picked their boats up from the European factory and cruised them home – still an option despite the Covid-19 risk. As suggested, the Lagoon 50 is big. As well as her impressive length and breadth, she’s also tall with high topsides enclosing a generous interior space (more on that later) and a hard-top flybridge helm station. Top this with an aluminium rig – it’s 26.5m to the masthead. What that height means when you’re on board, though, is great visibility, excellent headroom throughout and plenty of wingdeck clearance.
OCEAN CRUISER
We’re only out for a day sail – on a surprisingly bright blue morning following a downpour – but this boat is set up for longdistance cruising. While going up to the islands remains a dream for now, it’s something the new owner definitely has in mind. And while the temperature was a bit wintry on our sail, I can only imagine how nice it would be sitting up on the elevated flybridge on a warm day, looking out over sparkling tropical waters…
This flybridge helm station is a major point of difference for the Lagoon 50, and one which Snashall is keen to show to Kiwi cruisers. All helming and sail control is done from up here, leaving the saloon level free for entertaining. While in warmer, more benign climes the standard model of this boat has this helm area open to the elements, on Mango it has a permanent hard-top with removable clear screens around it, making this a practical space in all weather.
Having the helm up so high means great visibility, and there is plenty of room for the whole family to hang out on the large bench seat. The flybridge can be accessed from either hull, up curved staircases, and with its removable squabs the aft bench seat is for lounging and relaxing. At the back of Mango’s flybridge beyond the end of the boom is a custom array of additional solar panels, positioned to soak up the sunlight.
All sail controls, both halyards and sheets, run to this upper area, where there are three large Harken electric winches, one to port and two to starboard. The jib’s on a self-tacking track forward of the mast, and the main has a German mainsheet system, leading the sheet from the traveller at the rear of the flybridge forward along the boom.
Because this boat has been set up for ocean miles, the original owners had tweaked the sail package, opting for a flattop main and adding a number of custom foresails, including a roller-furling code zero, a symmetrical parasail and several asymmetric downwind sails flown off the small prod.
A window directly above the wheel means the skipper can keep an eye on the main above, but there’s also a handy instrument showing apparent wind direction to make helming easier. There’s a large, 16-inch B&G touchscreen here for navigation, and the twin throttles for controlling the pair of 80hp Yanmar diesels with their folding props.
On longer passages you don’t have to sit up here to steer in old-school fashion. Another piece of technology making the passage-making process easier is the autohelm, which can be set and controlled from up top and also from a remote unit. There’s a second, smaller screen at the nav station in the saloon, which means on longer journeys the helmsman can enjoy a few more comforts of the lounging space or even making a snack while ‘driving’.
A spacious and versatile dining area built around the base of the mast.
Visibility from the flybridge is forever.
All the info you need at the internal helm station.
Snashall says having a flybridge-model boat adds to the range of options available; Kiwis are most familiar with the sport-top option on smaller models such as the Lagoon 42, which has an elevated helm station on the port hull under a little ‘pop top’.
“People here haven’t really got used to the idea of a flybridge on a cruising cat, so having this boat here has been awesome for us,” he says. Another reason he was keen to have Mango down under is because she has so many optional extras. “She has virtually everything from the list of options – the original owners ticked a lot of boxes.”
The main is easily hoisted from and lowered back into a tidy stack with a lazy-jack system, and furling foresails means there’s little need to leave the comfort of the flybridge to get things set up. We start off with the main and standard self-tacking jib, then with a bit of figuring out we get a big code zero unfurled and flying. Out at sea this sail would be great but in the confines of the harbour we need to keep a good lookout – there are a lot more things to hit!
It takes a while to get used to the feel of the steering – the helm station is a long way from the rudders – but once we get into the groove we’re reaching away nicely. It also takes a while to get used to sailing by wind instruments rather than being able to see the entire mainsail, but I remind myself we’re not in a race and shift into cruise mode. Visibility all around from the flybridge is great, sail systems are close at hand and the Lagoon is a flat and stable platform even when we’re in a bit of breeze.