I'm Toby Hodges from Yachting World. We are on board the Excess 15 for one of the
first sea trials of this new Groupe Beneteau brand. They've launched
the 12 and the 15 this year and we're in Barcelona for Yacht of the Year trials,
and you'll notice I'm standing at the aft and the aft helms are one of the big
features about these sporty new cats. I'll take you through the rest of the boat
now. Groupe Beneteau have come out with a 12
and a 15, they're gonna have a brand new 13 and 14 as well coming out and an 11, so
this 15 and the 12 share some of hull moulds of the Lagoons, so this one
is closest to the Lagoon 50, but obviously there are a few differences, these aft helms being
the main one, normally on these big cruising cats you stand up by the coachroof
each side, and I think a lot of people were wondering what it would look like
sailing from here, and you might get a pretty good impression there, you can see
pretty clearly through these glass windows, you get a blind spot on
the black part there, which is structure, but yeah from twin helms you can walk to
the side and you can see easily enough through them. I have found so far the
other thing of immediate note is the boat does step along, so this is a tonne
lighter than the Lagoon 50. We've been sailing this morning in typically
about 5 to 7 knots of true wind and making about 5 to 6 and a half knots, so
not far off sailing through wind speeds, it's pretty good. Caveat that is yeah we
are under a nice code 0 and the taller rig, so this is the Pulse line,
which means you get a 2 meter taller mast and fancier sails, and yeah
a Code 0 too.
We have eight knots of wind and we're doing a steady 6.5 knots on the Excess 15,
not that that means much in terms of size, but that's the J/99,
we're just maintaining a pretty steady speed with code 0 slipping along in
winds that, I guess on a 50-foot cruising cat, you probably normally should be
struggling to sail in, so a proof-of-concept I guess that the
Excess is a lighter slipperier boat then it's Lagoon counterpart. So these helms
have these fold-up helm seats on each side, and they lock into place pretty quickly
across there, so you can sit on there, I mean I've just been standing under these
biminis this morning, been absolutely fine, really
and enjoyable, I think, to sail the boat from here. Why would you do it? Because
you get a much more direct feeling to the steering, so I can
feel some weather helm, I can feel the pressure increase in the sails because
it's a direct spectra connection from the wheel and straight down to the
rudder bar, which connects to the rudder each side.
Loic from Excess, he actually thinks you get better visibility back here,
because you don't get as many blind spots on the corners as you would from a
single helm station, I guess they also have the cameras, which
I'll show you as well.
Two cameras, which can show the angle on the bow, as well as the sail
package and taller rig, this comes with a host of options extra to the standard boat,
you can have a hard polyester roof fixed roof here, but I really like this sliding option,
pull that open and for those sun worshippers and also those that want to see their
main easily, very nice sunny cockpit option to have. Conventional davits off the
aft, good long traveler making quite a loud noise at the moment, but on an Antal
flat winder driver here, easy to control, equally the sail control has so far proven
pretty easy, all into big tail bags here, a couple of winches, powered each side, you
see the running rigging running through or under the coach roof there. Like the
Lagoons, the mast is pretty far aft, especially the end of the boom there, so
you get a very high aspect fathead main, self-tacking jib as a standard, nice wide
side decks all right, good grab rail on the coach roof as well, flush hatches but they
have vents on, ventilation probably more important than stubbing your toe, large
foredeck area on this 15, with the bowsprit flying that code sail,
just getting ready to put the spinnaker,
and now with a big asymmetric hoisted with snuffer
we're up to 7 knots in 7.5 to 8 knots wind, so in very gentle conditions out
here we are able to enjoy sailing properly at speeds that are not worth
thinking about putting the engine on. Nice to be able to feel a boat of this size,
yes I would say it's worth having the extra sail package, and taller rig to be
able to harness these breezes, but nice to be able to do so for those sailing in
a Med light wind waters. So Excess is designed to appeal to a younger sportier
generation, bright colours, funky stickers, newer fresher design, lighter everywhere,
and this sort of thing, see your instruments wirelessly, having wireless
speakers, even wireless switches, so that's the bin in there, but no wiring behind it,
all the switches on Wi-Fi, no real nav station because you can do everything on
your phone and iPad these days apparently, but funky interior, loads of
space up here in the saloon, a very nice place to sit, and look at these clear
glass windows,
large open-plan aft-facing galley area, plenty of room for your appliances,
loads of light throughout this interior, plenty of stowage, bottle and tin stowage
below and below the floorboards as well, big isotherm drawer fridges, cold stowage
wine fridge, extras like that, the table drops down and these fold over as well
to increase the space, underneath these countertops there's a TV to one side and then a
chart table drawer there as well,
three hatches in the glass windows for ventilation, and then moving on, this
has a three-cabin layout, you can have three, four, five, or six I believe.
A newer, fresher looking version of this Lagoon 50-type massive space in
this owner's hull, huge beam in these hulls, light, bright, very, very spacious,
again loads of stowage in here, particularly, come past this desk area,
this sliding door closes, yeah all this deep stowage in there, so
I believe you can have a bunk cabin in there as well should you
wish, if you're packing cabins in, but if you were spending long periods on here
having this owner's house all to yourself, separate heads in there, big shower and
heads area, wash basins each side, very, very nice, and then moving into the
port hull, fairly sort of standard two-cabin layout really, island berth up
forward with its own heads, separate shower, and again loads of stowage, big
wardrobes like this, the same again on this side, full standing height wardrobes like this,
the same again on this side, all of these, wardrobes, extra fridge below,
and another double aft again, loads of light, your own ensuite heads
and shower. Hope you've enjoyed the tour, just a quick one,
whilst I had the chance to get out on this boat,
but this Excess 15 starts at €600,000, the boat
we're on costs about €900,000 (ex. tax) with all the options,
so it's not cheap, but it's a lot of boat,
a little bit more expensive the Lagoons etc. But you can
feel that extra performance, I do enjoy sailing it
from back at the aft helm positions.
Hope you enjoyed it, give us a thumbs up if you did and we'll keep trying to bring
you more when we can.