Excess: Another Cat Line From Beneteau

Publications in small, salami-tactical snacks, even a raffle in which there is a complete boat to be won, elaborate depictions including a faded in Oscar Wilde quote ("Nothing is as successful as excess") up to an image film, then the big show boot Düsseldorf, with its own stand, was only missing an excess cat itself: Beneteau gave everything to get the new series off to a brilliant start. The presentation suggested the product itself, because that turned out to be a little more conventional than expected, at least on paper.

After all: The Excess series wants to offer the customer a better link between comfort and performance. According to the shipyard, 90 percent of catamarans are trip-oriented today and only ten percent are geared towards performance. With the Excess, they want to offer a modern, aesthetic and efficient boop that also satisfies sportier sailors. You want to achieve this with a little less weight and more sail area. Without a flybridge and with the main sheet on deck instead of on the roof, you save structure in the superstructure, which means several hundred kilograms. It is steered with double wheels in the stern. The goal, according to Beneteau's sailing yacht boss Bruno Belmont, "is not only to have fun in the bay, but also on the go. The engine should not be started at ten knots of wind, but only under six knots."

Photo gallery: Excess 12: the layouts

holmi! Excess 12
holmi! Excess 12
holmi! Excess 12
holmi! Excess 12
holmi! Excess
holmi! Excess

Optional higher rigs, which increase the sails' carrying number by around 10 percent, should ensure even more speed. The hulls with inverse freeboard in the bow area are partly created in the same shapes as the lagoons. The building materials and the manufacturing process are also identical to the sister line. The interior also offers similar variants: Four cabins and two larger or four smaller bathrooms are possible for the Excess 12. The prices are higher than those for a corresponding Lagoon-Kat: The Excess 12 costs from 362,000 euros, the 15 690,200 euros. The shipyard emphasizes that the boats are fully equipped and ready to sail.

The series starts with the types Excess 12 and Excess 15, both of which are to be presented at the Cannes Yachting Festival in autumn. The brand is expanded to include models 11, 13 and 14, which means that the shipyard will then target the core of the market with the entire line. The smallest, the Excess 11, will be on display for the first time at boot Düsseldorf 2020.

The goals are ambitious: Beneteau wants to sell 800 cats with the Lagoon and Excess brands by 2020. The shipyard is taking a special route for sales: Excess is not offered by the established cat sellers of the Lagoon series, but through a new sales network, which can also include dealers of the monohull brands Oceanis and First. So there is internal competition not only between the lines, but also within the dealerships.