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NEEL 47: Three hulls for blue-water family cruising

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In less than ten years, a boatbuilder based in La Rochelle, on France’s Atlantic coast, has set international standards for cruising trimarans. It’s an exceptional story within the industry. The launch of the 47 and her presentation at the recent Multihull Show at La Grande Motte is of course the ideal opportunity to tell the Neel story.

An ever-developing shipyard

The Neel range was born in 2009 with a 50-foot prototype. Eric Bruneel (hence the name of the range, but also with a nod to a certain Corneel 26 from the 1980s) is a specialist in the sale of multihulls. For a long time he was the export sales manager at Fountaine-Pajot and raced on Multi 50s. It was he who revisited the concept of the cruising trimaran with the help of the Joubert-Nivelt team of naval architects. Inspired by English and American pioneers (Paul Weychan, Arthur Piver, Jim Brown, among others) who dared to take advantage of the fantastic deck area of trimarans to make them more habitable, the team in La Rochelle is forging a new path and is entering this niche market which has been neglected by the other major players. A bold and successful challenge: dozens of Neel 45s are sold. The manufacturing has been partly subcontracted to the Marc Pinta yard (now fully integrated into the Neel production). The need for a factory dedicated to the new 51 quickly becomes apparent. This yard, built from scratch, allowed the simultaneous construction of three units and the 51 found her customers. But the launch of the new Neel 47 requires a differen...

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