Lagoon 46 Preview

Creating a replacement for the legendary 450

We take an in-depth look at the development of the new Lagoon 46 with one of the world’s leading multihull designers, Vincent Lauriot-Prévost.

Vincent Lauriot-Prévost founded the naval architecture agency VPLP in 1983 with Marc Van Peteghem. Lagoon have worked with VPLP since the very first Lagoon model and this consistency within the design team has been a key part of the Lagoon success.

It is very interesting to get some insight from the top of the industry as to how you create a vessel for the world’s leading manufacturer to top the world-beating Lagoon 450.

Vincent Lauriot-Prévost talks to Nicolas Venance

Filmed onboard, after sailing the brand new Lagoon 46 for the very first time in La Rochelle France, Vincent Lauriot-Prévost talks to Nicolas Venance from Yachting Art Magazine about what Lagoon and the design team at VPLP have achieved in their design of the breathtaking new Lagoon 46.

“It was roughly 3 years from the very first discussions to the first official sail today to design a replacement for the legendary Lagoon 450.

During this 3-year period, there were about 18 months of discussions, dialogues and modifications of the technical specifications in order to find ways to provide the great product we have today.

It was a real challenge to create a better boat than the 450 and so we needed to improve the comfort, space, performance and also the seaworthiness.

This is what we have achieved with the help of all our collaborators and the Lagoon staff.”

A performance sailboat with fore cabins as comfortable as aft cabins

“Making the fore cabins as comfortable as aft cabins is one of the main improvements in the 46.

We wanted the fore cabins to be as nice, spacious and attractive as the aft ones and therefore we had to find a way to make more space and have more light coming in.

The above water chine widens the area, maintains performance and delivers more volume inside, so we are able to have almost 1.6m wide beds, quite close to the standards found in comfortable aft cabins.

By adapting the naval design, we have been able to deliver a performance sailboat and also create passengers’ fore cabins as comfortable as the aft cabins.”

A new sail structure that performs better and is easier to operate

“The mast is located further back, which is a change that was already implemented for the Lagoon 39 and 52.

This is quite a structural challenge because the mast doesn’t rest on a partition wall and so it has to be supported by a different structure.

We came up with solutions that allowed us to change the mast location without sacrificing the volumes. We are very confident that this new sail structure performs better than the traditional rigging arrangement we used to have in the past.

The headsail adds more power, especially when combined with a self-tacking jib. When we designed boats with masts resting on a partition wall, self-tacking jibs were actually too small and very difficult to operate.

By moving the mast further back and increasing the headsail’s LP, we get more a powerful headsail.

A mainsail with smaller boom and batten is also easier to operate. This sail has a better aspect ratio which makes it perform better regardless of its area.

The aspect ratio is slightly better than that of Lagoon 450 but the performance gain is much higher.”

Improved performance with added comfort

“Because we added space and comfort elements to the 46, our first challenge was to limit the weight of the boat, because a more comfortable boat also means a heavier boat.

We used different injection techniques inside the roof and structural methods using different counter-moulds for the nacelle floor.

The vessel is therefore only slightly heavier than the Lagoon 45, yet it has a bigger sail area and better performance.

With catamaran performance, it is common to compare sail area to boat weight, however VPLP is also using another interesting indicator.

In order to compare different boats, it is possible to divide the boat total length by the nacelle length. This is a good indicator of space utilisation.

For VPLP it is important to have quite a small ratio between these two parameters in order to have a not too heavy boat.

You might find some fast cruiser boats on the market with a 1:2 ratio, that is the ratio between the hull length and the nacelle length.

Here I believe we should be around 1.54 or 1.60 while other multi-hull cruise catamarans can be found around 1.7 or 1.8.”

The Lagoon 46 is a success on every level

“Improved performance was the key goal we set up for this boat and I believe we have succeeded.

Today’s wind speed was somewhere around 8-9 knots, which is already critical for this kind of boat and its performance was surprising. It was amazing to tack in winds for the first time on board the 46.

Even if we had low wind conditions, it was not a problem. We were able to hoist the sails, take the helm and get a feeling for the boat’s behaviour.

VPLP is proud to present the latest Lagoon 46 and to keep working on new innovations.

This is the world premiere visit of the brand new Lagoon 46….Enjoy!”

Be the first to view the new Lagoon 46 at boot Düsseldorf 2019

The stunning new Lagoon 46 makes its international debut in May 2019 at boot Düsseldorf.

TMG Yachts invites you to join them at boot Düsseldorf 2019 to be one of the very first in the world to inspect the highly anticipated Lagoon 46, followed by a VIP Factory Tour at Les Sables d’Olonne, France.