FIRST LOOK: EXCESS 15

THIS IS THE FIRST MODEL FROM A NEW GROUPE BENETEAU BRAND LAUNCHED AT CANNES BOAT SHOW. TOBY HODGES GIVES HIS FIRST IMPRESSIONS FOLLOWING A TRIAL IN BARCELONA LOA 4.76m 48ft 5in • BEAM 8.03m 26ft 4in • DISPLACEMENT light 18,400kg 40,572lb • UPWIND SAIL ARE

Launching an entirely new sailing brand in this day and age of economic uncertainty is a rare, brave move. XCS or Excess is a new catamaran business, an arm of the Groupe Beneteau empire, forged from a desire to cater to a younger, more active generation.

Its launch was accompanied by some heavyweight marketing hype, with subtle details of parts of the designs released as teasers over the last year.

Build something up too much, though, and you risk an anticlimax.

The group has stuck to the same designers used for its established Lagoon brand, VPLP and Nauta, and in its haste to get an unprecedented five new Excess models out in just 18 months, it elected to adapt existing Lagoon moulds for its first two models, the 12 (Lagoon 39 hulls) and 15 (Lagoon 50 hulls).

Of course, it makes financial sense to share design and manufacturing knowledge with its sister company where possible but, for me, these first Excess models appear too similar to that well-established brand of popular catamarans.

The principal differences are that the helm stations have been moved to the aft quarters to give more direct sailing feedback, retractable biminis are an option to open up the cockpits to the sun, and the interiors are much brighter.

Weight has also been saved when compared with the Lagoon models, but as Lagoons are considered to be the heaviest production cats in the market anyway, the Excess is arguably no more performance-orientated than competitor cruising cat brands.

The yard tried to save weight everywhere, product manager Bruno Belmont explains, shaving one tonne over target weight for the 15 (compared to the Lagoon 50). “The big difference is how quickly you kill the engine,” he insisted when we first viewed the new Excess models at Cannes Boat Show. Belmont says that happens in as little as 5 knots breeze, or 1-2 knots sooner than a comparable Lagoon.

Our subsequent sailing trials proved his point. On a day where we would ordinarily have had to resort to motoring a cruising cat of this size, we were able nearly to match true wind speeds under Code 0 and asymmetric spinnaker (6 in 7 knots and 7 in 8 knots). Impressive stuff.

We were sailing the Excess 15 Pulse Line during