HopYacht 30 - For making short hops, under sailand electric power!

Presented at Boatica Cape Town back in October, the Hop Yacht 30 was designed and built in South Africa. This is a catamaran that has ripped up the rulebook, and come up with a (r)evolutionary concept: For the first time, a combination of comfort and liveability has been brought together in an ultra-easy-to-handle boat under 10 meters in length, with a focus on relaxation and pleasure, all with zero CO2 emissions. We got the chance to discover this unusual multihull off the coast of Athens, Greece.

Discovering the HopYacht 30 at Marina Zeas, close to the port of Piraeus, I discovered a resolutely modern silhouette that might take some boaters a bit of getting used to. It’s a cubic living cell. Using 80% of the length of the two floats, it offers record habitability for its size. The very angular look of the superstructure is reminiscent of a Sunreef Supreme 58 or a Silent Yachts 60. But that’s where the comparison ends, as the length of our HopYacht is barely the beam of one of these two great powercats. Its width, limited to 11’3” (3.44 m), is surprisingly comparable to that of a monohull of the same length. This size allows the HopYacht 30 access to marinas at reasonable prices. On a dock normally reserved for monohulls, we were greeted by Mary-Clare and Paul Tomes, the co-founders of this brand-new South African company. Enthusiastically, they immediately explain the meaning of HopYacht: “To be able to leap aboard and start out just as fast, hopping from bay to bay or island to island.” The mini-yacht that hops, in short. Hops, but no sparks: at no point does performance, sail handling or mane...