Trimarans used to sit at two extremes: stripped-out ocean racers or bare-bones cruisers. A new wave of designs is trying to claim the middle ground that catamarans have owned for years — fast, comfortable, and genuinely livable. Yachting World's Toby Hodges has profiled three that are worth knowing about.
First up is the VMG 53, from a new American company co-founded by Mike Schwartz and Karl Reed after three years of development. The credibility is real: VPLP, the studio behind countless race-winning ocean multihulls, is on design duty, interiors come from Christophe Chedal Anglay (a Gunboat veteran), and build happens at Evolution Marine in Cape Town. Standout ideas include twin engines — a trimaran first, apparently — which free up the central hull for a proper tender garage instead of awkward aft davits. The on-deck owner's suite uses smart glass that frosts over at the touch of a button for privacy, and doubles as a projection screen for navigation or movies. A Regatta edition with a 26m carbon mast and 255m2 of gennaker up its sleeve should be seriously quick. Production capacity is planned at up to five boats a year, with a first test sail due in Cape Town.
The Ipsum 45 is the wild card. This French startup, led by designer Loïc Goepfert, borrows structural thinking from the Maxi Edmund de Rothschild, one of the fastest multihulls afloat: rig loads are routed through the roof rather than internal bulkheads, leaving a completely open interior volume to configure however you like. It's modular by design — hulls and floats ship in a container and get finished to order, from a race-light 4-tonne bare build to a 7.5-tonne adventure cruiser with campervan-style pop-top cabins in the side floats, each with its own entrance and heads. Price-wise, a minimal carbon build starts under €400,000; a fully fitted version with a wing sail can clear €1m. Build times range from 5,000 hours for a pro crew to double that for a solo owner.
The third name is Kairos, the flagship trimaran range from Czech builder Independent Catamarans, better known until now for the sporty IC36. Models span 52, 58 and 66 feet with long, low lines from Emilio D'Onofrio/Zero13, outboard helm stations for visibility, and an aft owner's cabin topped by a large sunpad, with twin stairways leading down to a terrace. The 52 sleeps six to eight; the 66 adds a cabin and a metre of beam. Prices start at €2.4m.
Why should a traveller care? These boats signal where charter and owner-led cruising could head next — faster passages, smarter use of space, and a shift away from the pure catamaran monoculture at boat shows and charter fleets. Even if you're not buying, they're the designs likely to shape what's on the water in a few seasons. Full details and sea trials are covered by Yachting World.
