2018 Fountaine Pajot Hélia 44 Evolution — Annapolis, MD 21401

A 2018 Fountaine Pajot Hélia 44 at Annapolis, asking $399,900 through ACY Yachts. This hull is from the Evolution run — the 2016–2019 refresh of the Berret-Racoupeau design Fountaine Pajot launched in 2012 and sold more than 130 times. The Hélia is the model where the yard's finish visibly stepped up from the Orana 44 it replaced, and the engineering is the designers' signature: resin-infused, balsa-cored hulls with a vinylester skin, tall topsides for real bridgedeck clearance, and mini keels that let her take the ground.

Two honesty notes. There is no sister Hélia on our shelf, so the asking price has no same-model benchmark. And she is listed with three brokerages at once, so expect to meet the same boat on several sites.

What the shelf does place is the band she sails in — the charter-size catamarans, 40–46 ft — where geography does much of the pricing. Her closest rival is the 2018 Lagoon 42 lying in Martinique at $323,892: same year, a foot and a half shorter, $76,008 less, with a delivery passage attached:

Where the budget runs the other way, the 2022 Lagoon 42 at Marina del Rey is the upgrade on age — four years newer, $149,100 more:

And one size down, the 2017 Nautitech 40 at Le Marin opens the same band for $59,700 less:

Between them the Hélia holds the middle honestly: dearer than the Caribbean boats, well under the late-model West Coast Lagoons — and already on the US East Coast. If a four-cabin Fountaine Pajot is the brief, this is the one to survey first: