Venezia 42 - The revolutionary… sun visor

The Venezia 42 was one of Fountaine Pajot’s emblematic models, being the first to validate the famous coachroof sun visor – a feature that’s still as relevant as ever, more than 30 years later. In the manufacturer’s range, this model also replaced two others in one go - the Fidji 39 and the Casamance 44. A daring gamble that paid off, with 200 examples of this catamaran sold - an excellent commercial achievement for its time.

Yes, in the world of multihulls, the year 2000 was already a long, long time ago: cruising catamarans and trimarans were just beginning to make their mark as a sailing platform - and of course for liveaboard cruising. So taking a look back at a catamaran launched in 1992 could be like evoking prehistory... but in fact, the Venezia 42 is quite modern. Its silhouette retains the sloping bows so dear to the Joubert/Nivelt naval architecture firm, but the deck sheer is less pronounced. As for the coachroof, it is larger than that of its predecessors thanks to more vertical sides and front - the evolution of this design being linked to the appearance of the visor, which protects the windows from the hottest of the sun’s rays. This innovation is regularly attributed to the Venezia, though in reality, it appeared a year earlier with the Marquises 56. Overall, this new model appeared very modern back in the early 1990s, though we will see that many details still betray a dated design - you can’t have everything for a third of the price of a new boat...

An old-school deck plan

The moment you step aboard, you notice that the deck layout is somewhat dated. As for the two trampolines sepa...