Fountaine Pajot 59 first look: This new cruising cat is a social animal

The French yard’s luxurious new Fountaine Pajot 59 cruising catamaran is designed to replace the five-year-old Ipanema 58

The Fountaine Pajot 59 integrates many of the new design features of the 2019-launched Elba 45, which boasted a longer, wider hull that nevertheless showed 10% less drag. Chief among the new attractions is an enlarged cockpit and flybridge, for more socialising space.

With a table to seat eight, the cockpit covers 27.5m2 and the flybridge is three times bigger than on the 45, reaching some 30m2. Up here there’s lots of lounging room, a fridge and grill, and the main helm station, centrally positioned behind the mast and with a hardtop for shelter.

There’s a dedicated forward cockpit, which has direct access from the saloon, and the option of a hydraulic bathing platform aft, which doubles up as tender stowage. With up to six cabins in the charter version, the aft two have handy access to the aft deck via a dedicated companionway and sliding hatch.

As on other models, you can select from a galley in the saloon, or down in the port hull. Either way, the saloon is the social hub – very open with sofas on one side, plus some loose furniture. Displacing 25 tonnes (light), the new Fountaine Pajot 59 is more efficiently built than some competitor catamarans, but the emphasis here is clearly on providing a home away from home.