Neel Trimarans 43

Most trimarans ask you to trade living space for speed. The NEEL 43 refused the trade. Its party trick is single-level living: galley, saloon, chart table and the owner's cabin all on one floor in the central hull, with the sea going past the windows at monohull-embarrassing speeds. Owners describe it as living in a loft that happens to make 200-mile days.

The La Rochelle yard built this range downwards — the 51 first, the 47 next, the 43 last — so the smallest NEEL is the idea compressed rather than the idea started, and what compresses is where people sleep. The bigger boats sink guest cabins down into the floats; the 43 keeps its cabins up on the living level, with the view. The Boat of the Year judges who sailed it in 2023 called it the least multihull-like multihull of their year and said it went upwind like a monohull, which is either the compliment the boat was designed for or an admission about the rest of the field.

The flaws, as owners and reviewers report them. Yachting Monthly's test found almost nowhere to put anything — nothing under the cockpit seats, nothing under the saloon seats — which is a real complaint on a boat sold as somewhere to live; the same review wanted headsail tracks in place of fixed thimbles, and noted that the helm's view under the genoa goes away on starboard tack. Light-air pace is modest for a trimaran once the apartment is loaded like one. And 24.6 feet of beam bills like a catamaran at every marina in Europe without buying a catamaran's accommodation: what the width pays for here is one open floor, not two hulls of private cabins. If the 43 is the idea, the 47 is the idea with the floats turned into bedrooms, and the 51 is the boat that made the argument in the first place. The rest of the three-hulled fleet is moored at the trimarans for sale.