Aquila Power Catamarans - The Story of the Winged Powercats

In 2012, Lex Raas started Aquila with Bill McGill, CEO of MarineMax, and the Xiong family to focus 100% on power cats. This partnership was first established when Sino Eagle Group began building the Aquila 38 specifically for MarineMax’s new charter business - MarineMax Vacations. Sino Eagle Group, J&J Design Group, Seaway and MarineMax collaborated to expand the Aquila range by developing a new, purebred power cat. The result was the first true Aquila Power Catamaran, the Aquila 48. The range has since been progressively extended, with models now available from 28 to 70 feet.
From that first vessel, the Aquila 48, the company has grown in the past 11 years to be a global leader in power catamaran production (of all sizes and powertrains).

A clean – and green - factory!

Based in Hangzhou City, China, Sino Eagle Group, recognized as a leader in high-tech composite manufacturing, established a dedicated new Aquila factory in 2012, which provided the Aquila brand with full in-house manufacturing capabilities.
This has since been expanded with the 27-acre (110,000 m²) site comprising four massive construction buildings, an indoor test pool, riverside launching facilities and an ultra-modern administration block.
State-of-the-art is an often-misused description of a modern, technologically advanced production facility, but in the Aquila factory’s case, it is absolutely warranted.
While the factory has not gone to full robotics, they prefer to use a dedicated staff of 510 artisan tradesman and admin staff.
It is also a “green” factory with every effort made to reduce emissions. Sino Eagle Group have invested heavily in environmental protection to look after the environment and their employees. There are expansive solar panels on top of the factory roof, designated cutting rooms with strong evacuation fans to prevent dust collection inside the factory and a filtration system for grey water. Sales Manager Tommy Qian adds, “We believe that the cleaner the environment in the factory, the better the quality of the parts and ultimately the better the finish of the multihulls”.
Production levels have risen from 13 boats annually 10 years ago to 148 in 2022, and the company has a target of closer to 200 for 2023. These figures should be compared with Leopard’s 70-80 motor yachts and the 40 to 50 MYs from Fountaine Pajot. It should be noted that the three manufacturers are fairly close if only inboard-powered models are counted, and that newcomers (who are far from small players) such as Prestige Yachts and Four Winns could well exacerbate competition in this powercat market, which most yachting specialists consider to be very promising. According to Tommy, the figure of 200 could be affected by supply chain issues, which is still a problem, especially with larger components such as engines, generators and air-con systems. Composite materials and timbers are easier to control due to being available locally. While the USA is by far their largest market, ...