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The Lagoon 55 at ABC’s Middle Island clubhouse

The Asia premiere of the Lagoon 55 was held in Hong Kong, with dealer Simpson Marine hosting the regional debut, which joins a series of recent yachting events in the region after a quiet couple of years.

The Lagoon 55 event was held at Aberdeen Boat Club’s Middle Island clubhouse, a reclusive setting accessible only by ferry or boat.

The model’s Asia premiere proved popular

The clubhouse served as an ideal venue as guests could interact without restrictions, plus take a tour of the newly arrived sailing catamaran, which provided nice views of the scenic landscape surrounding the island.

Lagoon, the world’s leading pleasure catamaran builder, unveiled the first 55 at its facility in Bordeaux in March 2021 and the model was profiled in YACHT STYLE Issue 59 (click for Review).

The foredeck includes an integrated sunshade

The Lagoon 55 was initially targeted at owners of 45ft-plus models not yet ready to make the leap to the brand’s Sixty 5 or Seventy 7 sailing catamarans but wanting to enjoy all the upgrades in space and finishing that the 55 has to offer.

Asia’s first Lagoon 55 was sold by Simpson Marine last year to a client in China and the hull will remain in Hong Kong until November, when the boat is scheduled to be delivered to Guangdong province.

The flybridge with helm, wet bar and dining and sunbathing areas

“The Lagoon 55 has a lot of outdoor and indoor social areas suitable for big groups of people and in China, like in much of Asia, people like to be on their boat with family and friends,” said Ewa Stachurska, Group Marketing Director at Simpson Marine, Asia’s biggest yacht dealer.

“In addition, each of the main outdoor areas have a wet station to prepare food, which is important as dining and entertaining is important for our clients. People love to enjoy meals together.”

The Lagoon 55 offers an “an open terrace on the sea”,

The 55 also holds special significance for the brand as it’s the same name as the first-ever Lagoon catamaran, launched in 1987. The model succeeded the Lagoon 52, but is a completely new model in size, design, features and finish.

At 54ft 4in in length, the 55 is over 2ft longer than the 52, while its 29ft 6in beam makes it almost 6ft or 25 per cent wider.

The cockpit offers alfresco dining

Furthermore, the 55 has a fully developed flybridge, which when combined with a significantly bigger rig and the overall increase in volume, means it’s over 23 per cent heavier than the 52, so it’s a sizeable offering.

The 55’s most distinguishing feature is arguably its redesign of the aft cockpit into what Lagoon calls “an open terrace on the sea”, inspired by motor yachts, while other upgrades include a foredeck with C-shaped sofa/sunpad, integrated table and foldable sunshade.

The interior is by Italy’s Nauta Design

“Lagoon is always pushing the limits of comfort by adding sun pads wherever they can, on the foredeck, the flybridge and the cockpit,” Stachurska said. “All the clients love to spend relaxing time onboard, so the design of the aft cockpit facing the sea is another big selling point.”

As shown by the model’s sale and its popular regional premiere in Hong Kong, Simpson Marine believes Greater China and Southeast Asia are ideal markets for the 55.

 The luxurious, spacious owner’s suite

“In China, the Lagoon brand is very famous. The brand has a very strong reputation and a lot of trust. Lagoon catamarans are popular in China, where there’s a lot of space in the marinas and a lot of facilities,” said Stachurska, who has worked for Simpson Marine since 2015.

“We also have another Lagoon 55 coming to Singapore and further interest, while even today, we can see that we’ve had a lot of clients coming to visit the 55.”

Middle Island provided a scenic setting

In a further refresh of its mid-sized models, the Lagoon 51 was launched earlier this year, with Simpson Marine already securing two sales, to Taiwan and Thailand.
www.cata-lagoon.com
www.simpsonmarine.com