Lagoon 55 - The catamaran where it all began…

The launch of the new Lagoon 55 just over two years ago put the “old” 55 back in the spotlight: this big catamaran was the very first model to bear the Lagoon name. On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the world’s leading manufacturer of cruising catamarans, a tribute to the Lagoon 55 is in order!

We tested the original Lagoon 55 in our French version of the magazine, Multicoques Mag, in issue #20, back in December 1988 (nine issues before we began producing the English language version, so that dates it a bit!) Our journalist claimed that the Lagoon 55 was one of the cruising multihulls that marked their era, following in the footsteps of the Solaris and the very first Privilège. At the time, we omitted to mention Fountaine Pajot’s remarkable Louisiane, but we have to admit that this famous 55, when it was launched in 1987, was somewhat of a UFO in the world of boating. Modern and high-performance, the first Lagoon also aimed to be an elegant yacht. A forerunner, in short... VPLP was (already!) at the helm for what was initially a unique order, whose construction was handled by the former Ateliers Techniques Avancées shipyard, Jeanneau’s racing division, that was more accustomed to producing racing multihulls. A second 55 was ordered. The shipyard organized itself with a proper female mold and a deck mold: the series was launched and counted 20 examples - plus 13 Lagoon 57s! When hull #5 was assembled, ATA became Jeanneau Techniques Avancées. It was still a long way from...