Our floating home Giramonda is the second boat in the 515 series to have been constructed almost fourteen years ago here in Les Sables D’Olonne! Upon arrival we could see a handful of the newer 510 Signature seriesfloating alongside the pontoon outside Privilege HQ.
The office and factory are the original buildings where Giramonda was imagined, designed and built more than 13 years ago! The Port of D’Olonne has been a wonderful welcoming base for us for a few days and with the spot we have on the end of B pontoon we watch so many transatlantic yachts including the massive hydro-foiling Vendee Globe boats come in and out. We can see why the culture of excellence is infused into the Privilege team, and why the shiney new boats on the factory pontoon look just amazing. We are biased, we know we are, but to be honest, when we first bought Giramonda we were oblivious to just how well built the privilege boats are compared to other catamaran brands.
Some history: Going back over two years ago when we first visited Dusseldorf and began exploring catamarans instead of monohulls our attention was drawn by the interior design, the space, the layout, and the exterior plan. While this is one important aspect of a boat it distracted us from more important questions: is she safe at sea, how does she handle in different winds and sea states, can we handle her with just two crew?
Even though we thought we had done plenty of background research on the various brands and models, for example comparing engine and sail power to weight, beam to centre of effort for stability, and height of bridge deck clearance, these figures gave us some idea of different performance figures. Giramonda is a heavy boat, but that’s ok, in fact we like the comfort in knowing she wants to lay flat in the water. Watching the HH adverts with one of their cruising catamarans with a hull out of the water is terrifying, the last thing any cruiser ever wants! So heavy is good, a steady movement through the waves, with the engine and sail power to propel in any condition. But we didn't know that yet.
After the Dusseldorf boat show we began looking closer at the range of Fountain Pajot boats, the show put us off XCS and lagoon, but we came away liking the Nautitech And Fountain brands. We’d already concluded fly bridge was not a good idea for a short-handed team, and we had some reservations about the rear quarter exposed helm on Nautitech (and others including Outremer). Who wants to be stood on the most exposed corner of the boat in the sun, rain and wind.
We were offered the opportunity to take a Nautitech out into the Solent for a test sail, and quickly concluded that the exposed helm position had bigger issues, we just could not sea any lobster pots in front of the boat, trying to peer through and around the saloon even with good visibility was difficult, it became a two-person task, one on lookout, one on the helm. Now with lobster pots being an absolute menace, scattered literally anywhere including between channel markers, or near cardinals, and the consequence of a line around the prop being a very bad day we decided that this rear quarter helm position was not for us at all. It also makes us wonder if other designers have taken this into account, Nick rejoices about the protected helm position on their Seawind but it’s through the saloon, hope you have good prop axes and scuba gear.
That left us with the mid-helm offered by Fountaine Pajot... (At the time a new or second hand Privilege was way over our budget). We made contact with Let’s Dance and Coco and settled on the idea of a 44 Helia as the best combination of size, budget, and age. We tried to take one for a test sail but to be honest the UK FP dealer was unhelpful, lots of talk, but could not arrange a test sail, so we took matters into our own hands and chartered a Lucia for a week in Mykonos, Greece. Ok, not the same boat, 40 foot instead of 44, and a newer boat.
The week in Greece created us with building winds and sea state, not ideal for a holiday, but it certainly opened our eyes to performance and stability to the extent that we retired three days early. The stability of the Lucia in the swell was unsettling, the size of the rudders and engine power inadequate to push against the weather, and we noticed what we think were some stress fractures on the lower corner of the saloon door, maybe not a bulk head, but not encouraging for a new boat. With this and head height issues (I’m tall), we agreed that 40 or 42 foot was too small, 44 or larger was our target with decent sized engines. Bigger meant older, I scanned the used-market again for options: Leopard, Catana, Privilege, Prout? Leopard: not really, mostly Sunsail ex-charter boats, Catana: exposed helm, Privilege: maybe we could pick up a 465, or a Prout: maybe?
Starting to get a little dismayed at our dwindling choices and our planned departure window, still 18 months out but rapidly approaching, our next opportunity to learn more was the multihull show at the Grande Motte. I hobbled around on crutches and we jostled with the crowds to learn more. Quizzing the Lagoon and FP guys about their boats left us no more confident, top that with the reported bulkhead issues on Nahoa and Parley Revival. We had a chat with the Italian cat brand, and then a couple of agents who encouraged us to reconsider the Catana, most of the time the boat would be on auto-pilot, so is the exposed helm a real issue... hmmm?
We did not manage to talk to CathYachts at the show, she was very busy, but we grabbed one of her leaflets, returned home and noticed Giramondo a privilege 515 for sale in Denmark. Who wants a catamaran this far north, and why in the Baltic? She was bigger, more expensive, and available earlier than we wanted, but perhaps an opportunity, relatively close by. We contacted Catherine and she had two couples already planning a trip out to take a look at Giramondo on the hard, with me still hobbled on crutches I could not climb a ladder and we didn’t want to add buying pressure, so we waited, both couples pulled out, we shared renewed interest and booked flights.
First impressions were: she’s big, she’s been unloved for some time, she’ll take a year or more to renovate, she’s not sea-worthy, and she’s in Denmark. We had time, she was relatively close to UK (compared to a US buyer), she was more than our budget. We had previously worked-out that depreciation would be the biggest cost of our planned three-year voyage on a newish boat, 10% a year is say 90,000 over three years. An older boat that nobody wants could be an investment. The survey concluded she was structurally sound, we made an offer, and after four months of haggling back and forth she became ours.
Rennovation: it was only later when we began to realise how this beautiful boat stands out from the crowd was after we moved her to Gosport for renovation to begin. We slammed through the Baltic Sea and glided down the North Sea. We knew about bulkhead issues with other similar sized cats, and after the slamming had some concerns as to what we might find, but after lifting her out, Giramondo happily sat on her hull and keels. Maybe not a big thing, but with time to delve deeper into every corner of the boat we learnt much more about her inherent strength and build quality. This detail had not hit home until we saw some other cats being rejected by the yard staff because their internal structure could not support their own weight, they needed specially built bespoke external cradles to sit on (see below).
Each day as I climbed in and out of different nooks and crannies during the renovation I was more and more reassured that even after at least two ocean crossings to the Caribbean and back to Europe that while big G was grubby and tired she was incredible strong. Not a single twisted, warped or detached bulkhead. The foam, and hexagon form core (I don’t know the correct term) used throughout the manufacturing process negated any risk of a puncture in the outer skin allowing an infection of bacteria that turns wooden cores into mulch, a common problem with balsa core, or wooden bulkheads. Giramondo was built with structural integrity, soft rounded engineered stress free joints, with bulk-heads and ribs tabbed and double-triple tabbed in place. And after weeks of investigation and exploration we only found some vertical cracks in the front inner lockers we suspect from bridge-deck slamming, a few extra layers of fibre and an easy fix. Rudders were cracked and had water ingress, fixed, rudder bearings changed at the same time, but beyond these two issues we found nothing else. She was solid.
What surprised me during the renovation, was just how many puncture holes we had, for example each solar panel had a screw on each corner, with the array of panels screwed to the coach roof that was already more than 30 holes, and just one of these could leak and create a problem. Toe rails, blocks, pulleys, and a large number of other fittings and through holes create that risk of a soggy structure. But despite all of these we had no structural issues, and no water ingress.
Most of our renovation was cosmetic or from ageing systems, our teak deck had frost damage, many of our electrical connections had corrosion (perhaps unavoidable), and our white anodised mast and A frame had a bad case of electrolysis. We had to change the perfectly good standing rigging for insurance purposes so took the opportunity while the mast was unstepped to give it a blast of fresh paint. We added new solar, new batteries, additional inverter, new galley top and appliances, tidied up the cluttered nav station, built a new helm seat and cockpit table and cushions. We added to and reconfigured the navigation gear, fixed generator, water maker, dive compressor, but failed to get the hydraulic gang plank fixed or sails replaced. Jobs for another day.
After renovation we decided to rename Giramondo to Giramonda, a minor metamorphose from grubby boy into a pretty sailing girl. A UK tradition is for boats to be referred as she or mother, as she looked after the men aboard her. In France bateau is a masculine word. And in Italian Giramondo doesn’t have a feminine version, but were ok with that.
Back to today: During the fascinating technical factory tour (thank you Charles!) I was amazed that the original mould that Giramonda was formed in is still being used (albeit with some newer modifications). In the image below the nose of the boat can be seen by the top of the stairs. The process of forming the mould was described but lost on me, hundreds of taps that must be opened in the correct sequence to allow the liquid resin in after all the air is vacuum pumped out. A true work of art to create the solid structure, looking down into the mould I could see a web of bulk-heads and ribs being meticulously bonded into place.
During my visit the yard was ablaze with activity, boats moving, canopies being lowered, electrical systems being installed, a hive of skilled workers focused on different tasks, all super proud of their contribution. Some of the team I met even remember working on Giramonda and their eyes lit up when they knew she was back in Les Sables.
The factory tour was the missing piece in the jigsaw for me. Despite climbing around the boat for months in detail I was missing certain images of how the weight of the mast is transferred to the hulls, how the lightening conductors transfer onto the mast and rigging, how the engine was installed, all of these incredibly important engineering details hidden behind beautifully finished headboards and trimming.
It was great to see the build process but also to see how the team take care of older boats for refit. I was told this one below had circumnavigated the world three times and was in for a make over. Like ours most work in this renovation seems to be cosmetic. I’m not sure exactly what was needed here, but the workers treated her like new. It was nice but weird to see so many clones of Giramonda in various forms of build and assembly with subtle differences.
I note the move away from sail drives on the newer models. In my opinion this is a good idea, while props need maintenance the saildrives are a pain, each seven years the rubber gaskets need replacing, which is a haul-out and engine disconnect job! Nightmare! It’s been done once three years ago, so it will probably need to be done before we sell, but this isn’t an easy job at all. I think the prop drives is a better option, perhaps with a four bladed props the 75hp engines are more than powerful enough to push over the large rudders. The slightly longer sugar scoop is clever and practical, moving the electrical charge point up away from the rear starboard step is a good idea, although it should be on port, we always moor to port if we can, so we always have a cable running across the cabin floor. A job for another day.
We moved outside onto the completed hulls which appeared calm but hid the busy activity inside on electrics and carpentry. We took this photo the day before and we love it. It’s a stunning blue version of the new 510 signature (we have now learnt she is joining the ARC too) with a backdrop of the Vendee Globe sailors and the roof for the brand new bigger 8xx series. This photo encapsulates the origin of the brand started by Philippe Jeantot the founder of the vendee globe in 1989 and shortly after Alliaura Marine which launched the Privilege model with help from the designer Marc Lombard. Thank you Marc, a fantastic job, we love your foresight and imagination!!
Thank you also to Gilles and his team here in Les Sables for a warm welcome and ongoing support with Giramonda as we travel south to join Emmanuelle and the ARC+ knowing we are in one of the best catamarans on the planet!