MG5 - In praise of delightful simplicity on two hulls

M for Marc, G for Guillemot, 5 for 50 feet: the story of the MG5 sounds quite simple. But when a French ocean racing legend builds his own catamaran, with the next single-handed Route du Rhum on the agenda, the simple story of the start becomes pretty interesting. In short, our curiosity finally reached its height... The result, discovered during an afternoon of sailing off Quiberon in south Brittany, was genuinely explosive.

• Test location: La Trinité-sur-Mer, Brittany (France)
• Conditions: 4 to 14 knots southwesterly wind, flat sea

When you’ve got the chance to sail regularly on the latest multihulls launched, it’s always interesting to look at whom and for what program the said catamaran or trimaran will be most suited. Here, in this hot August that we’re seeing across large parts of the northern hemisphere, the exercise is reversed and that makes it particularly exciting. What catamaran is Marc Guillemot going to be showing us? In La Trinité-sur-Mer, everyone calls him “Marco”, so closely is he linked to this little port in southern Brittany, that has become iconic for all ocean racing enthusiasts. As the epicenter of France’s multihull history through the 1980s and 90s, La Trinité-sur-Mer has today ceded the title to Lorient, a little further up the coast. But the Ultim trimarans Idec Sport, Francis Joyon’s ride, Actual of Yves Le Blevec, and the Ocean Fifty Les P’tits Doudous of Amel Tripon, are all three moored at the famous Loïc Caradec dock, testifying that things are still in full swing here. Anchored just ahead of these three flying machines, the 52-foot catamaran designed by Christoph...