catamaran lagoon 500

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Ultimate Boat Giveaway

By Jeremy McGeary
Updated: May 3, 2006

Catamarans have been around long enough that their sheer size and the vast expanses of living quarters they provide should no longer surprise us the way they once did. Yet still they do, especially when a builder incorporates a design wrinkle that adds yet more living and working space.

Lagoon Catamarans introduced the concept of the flying bridge to its line of cruising catamarans on the Lagoon 440, and the new Lagoon 500 exploits it to the full–in this case, on a platform that’s designed for luxury ocean cruising in either a private-ownership or a charter context. The flying bridge is a dramatic solution to the old problems of where to put the steering station and whether it’s best protected behind the bridgedeck saloon or exposed on the quarter, on the port side, on the starboard side, or on both sides. Every location has its boosters, but the flybridge trumps much of the debate, although it does add another factor to the appearance equation: Sun protection over the flybridge adds another visual layer and requires the boom, and the entire mainsail, to be elevated farther to clear it. Perhaps that was sufficient reason why the Lagoon 500 we saw during the 2006 Boat of the Year (BOTY) testing had no bimini over the flybridge, just a spray dodger over the steering station. According to Nick Harvey, director of Lagoon America, a bimini with windshield is provided standard.

Being at the helm so high above sea level takes a little getting used to. Still, there can be no doubt the elevation is a great help in negotiating tricky entrances in clear waters. A guaranteed plus is having the helm on centerline. You don’t have the parallax error inherent in steering from an off-center station: You know the boat really is going where you’re pointing it.

With the boat’s control station removed, complete with the sailhandling equipment, the traditional cockpit isn’t the cockpit any more but purely a lounging and dining area, and it’s well sheltered beneath a solid roof. Its communication with the bridge is via three deck hatches; the only vestige of sailboat gear is one end of the mainsheet, led to a winch so it can be dumped from below if a gust comes up. “There’s no possibility for the sheets and halyards to become entangled in the feet of owners or guests relaxing in the cockpit,” says Harvey.

Those so inclined can sit with the skipper aloft, enjoying the scenery and watching for sea life from an advantageous vantage point, something that isn’t easy to do on many cats on which the bridgedeck saloon blocks much of the view from the cockpit. Others looking for a quiet place to chat, read, or simply bask will find it in a sunken seating area forward of the house.

Numbers can be deceiving. The Lagoon 500 may be “only” 51 feet long, but it’s a catamaran: The sails are big, and the gear is beefy and heavily loaded. If the prospective crew doesn’t include a couple of young, athletic types, the electric winches aren’t really an option, a sentiment shared by Harvey, who says, “The Lagoon 500 is equivalent to a 75-foot monohull in every aspect, from sail plan to living space belowdecks.” For that reason, he insists that all his dealers recommend the electric option for the primary winches as well as the mainsheet/traveler winch, all of which were installed on the test boat.

With sheets eased, the Lagoon 500 behaved as though 20 knots of wet wind were nothing, zooming along at 10 knots and over, steady as a ferryboat, and giving a preview of how it would devour the passages that lie between the Caribbean’s Windward Islands. It was also a little disconcerting, because from the elevated bridge, it was impossible to see rapidly approaching hazards behind the jib. A simple remedy is to post a crewmember in one of the bow-pulpit seats to enjoy a fine ride while keeping the necessary lookout. “To the issue of seeing hazardous objects,” points out Harvey, “the genoa is equipped with a clear window to allow the helmsman to see through.”

On the wind, the boat is a little less agile, which is more a function of the type in general than it is of this boat in particular. The 500 has fixed keels and not daggerboards, so it won’t cling terribly close to the wind, and the rapid loss of momentum when you turn two hulls into the wind means tacking lacks the drama it creates on a fin-keeled monohull. We did notice that the big cat handled the chop very well. Lagoon’s designers, Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost, have been studying the interaction between waves and the hulls and bridgedeck of cruising catamarans. The Lagoon 500 embodies the results of their research in the gull-wing configuration that fairs the hulls into a nacelle molded under the centerline of the bridgedeck.

To get an idea of what it’s supposed to do, I peered through the escape hatch in the aft stateroom. Given the underlying wave train, the wind waves, and the bow waves off each hull, there was a lot going on, but whenever it appeared that a wave was big enough to slam into the bridgedeck, the center of the gull wing deflected it with a gentler impact. I don’t know what the motion would be like in a sloppy ocean seaway, but on Chesapeake Bay in a moderate northeast blow, it was very comfortable.

Pushed by a pair of 75-horsepower Yanmars with saildrives, the Lagoon was among the quieter third of the boats we tested in CW’s 2006 BOTY contest. At 2,800 rpm, she made 8.3 knots and generated 75 decibels of noise in the main saloon; at 3,400 rpm, she made 9.1 knots and 78 decibels. The boat also comes powered by a pair of 55-horsepower Volvos.

If the word “lagoon” conjures an image of cool tranquility, it’s manifested inside the bridgedeck saloon. The absence of angular “speed” shapes might have something to do with it. Lagoon has stuck to its rectangular, vertical windows, now firmly established as a brand identifier, because when compared with windows on a slope, they allow less direct sunlight, and therefore heat, to enter the boat. They also allow full headroom around the perimeter of the saloon, and the style permits mounting grabrails on the exterior at a height someone walking on the side decks can easily reach.

From the interior, the windows give the saloon a sedate feeling; they’re not trying to make it look as though the boat’s going 35 knots. Coupled with the simply styled yet nicely made furniture, which includes a handsome expandable table, they create a relaxing atmosphere. On a boat yet to receive its owner’s impress, it was a little clinical perhaps, but the basic decor of dark mahogany bulkheads and trim set off by white gelcoat surfaces lends itself to many interpretations. Someone who knows how to work with fabrics and seaworthy decorations could make it cozy, charming, or showy at will.

The galley is “up” but set down a step to bring the cook’s head near to the same level as seated company, which also provides him or her with a view outside without stooping. It’s not a large space, but it’s backed up by an adjacent pantry area in the port hull that provides extra work surfaces and storage.

To starboard of the galley is the nav station and a duplicate set of engine controls so the boat can be driven from inside, something it might be very nice to do on a dreary, wet, windless day when steering from the flybridge would be better for the complexion than for the spirits. These controls need protection–it’s too easy for curious fingers, whether of BOTY personnel or children, to render the helmsman above impotent. But, Harvey points out, “The engine controls are quite high, out of reach of a child. The Raymarine joystick won’t engage until you depress the button at the top. Before that, moving the joystick from side to side won’t have any impact on the steering.”

Lagoon offers three interior layouts in the 500. In all three, the port hull houses a forward stateroom and an aft stateroom, each with a private head, and the pantry. The starboard hull gets rearranged. In the “charter version,” it mirrors the port hull except that a small crew cabin occupies the space opposite the pantry. The “owner’s version with skipper”–the version I sailed–keeps the forward cabin and devotes the rest of the hull to a larger stateroom, and the “owner’s version” gives the owner the entire hull.

Lagoon has long experience both in eliminating the railroad-coach effect that’s common to the interiors of all catamarans and at using the available width efficiently. An ergonomic bonus resulting from the gull-wing hull form is a gentle pitch to the stairways leading down to the hulls. Also, because the extra width along the upper inboard sides of the hulls is at eye level, it adds to the sense of spaciousness. Further, it creates more stowage space in the cabins and permits easier access to the athwartships berths in the forward cabins.

In the sheer volume of the interior, the Lagoon 500 echoes Harvey’s comments about the boat’s size in relation to monohulls. “This boat is right on the edge,” he says, referring to the demarcation between a boat that might be handled by an experienced owner and family and one that’s more likely to be put in the charge of a professional crew of a skipper and cook/mate. I have to agree with him. As a young, ambitious skipper, I’d have enjoyed the challenge of maintaining such a vessel, with all its high-end equipment and its auxiliary systems, just for the chance to sail it to the islands. Now that I’m silver around the temples, I’d prefer to hire that skipper and his mate to take care of the boat, so I could simply call from the office and say, “Pick me up in Fort de France a week from Sunday.”

Harvey says the Lagoon 500’s twin hulls were designed to carry a significant payload, so that loading the boat up with cruising toys, gear, fuel, and water (254 gallons of each) shouldn’t have much effect on performance beyond softening the motion somewhat.

To operate all the boat’s appliances when under way or at anchor, a generator, too, is essential. It’s housed in a large machinery space in the bridgedeck forward of the mast, accessed through the sunning cockpit, along with the propane storage locker and other auxiliary equipment. The Lagoon satisfies European standards for an oceangoing yacht, but here’s a case in which it runs afoul of U.S. standards. According to the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC), propane should be in its own self-draining, self-ventilating locker constructed so that nothing else can be stored in it. ABYC’s reasoning: In the event of a leak, escaping gas, which is heavier than air, ought to disperse without entering any enclosed area, especially one containing such an ignition source as a generator.

Says Harvey: “The propane bottles are stored in a ventilated, sealed, and waterproof locker. A ventilation drain runs directly from this propane locker out to under the bridgedeck. This locker happens to be in another larger compartment, but the bottles themselves aren’t loose in that compartment. In the event of a leak, the gas wouldn’t be able to escape the actual propane locker and would be drained outside the boat.”

Standards conflicts aside, the systems are carefully installed and generally easy to service. The main electrical panel is a good example: It’s on the aft bulkhead in the saloon, and the back of the aft-facing seat in the cockpit hinges up, supported on gas springs, to provide generous access to its inner workings.

The engine compartments are separate from the accommodations and entered via hatches in the deck at the top of the transom steps, an arrangement that in still waters offers excellent access.

The Lagoon 500 is truly a crossroads vessel. Someone moving up in size is going to have to think about crew, which is why Lagoon provides for that eventuality in all its layouts. A sailor tempted to go to power might choose it as a transition boat, gaining space, comfort, and the flybridge view without yet having to give up the sails. And then there’s the lure of the charter business, which the builder has also anticipated. In sum, the Lagoon 500 offers a sea of possibilities.

Jeremy McGeary is a Cruising World contributing editor. For his take on the growing cruising-catamaran scene, see the upcoming July issue.

LOA 51′ 0″ (15.54 m.) LWL 49′ 0″ (14.93 m.) Beam 28′ 0″ (8.53 m.) Draft 4′ 7″ (1.40 m.) Sail Area (100%) 1,193 sq. ft. (110.82 sq. m.) Displacement (light) 38,808 lb. (17,603 kg.) D/L 147 SA/D 16.62 Water 254 gal. (960 l.) Fuel 254 gal. (960 l.) Mast Height 78′ 0″ (23.77 m.) Engines 2 x Volvo 55-hp. diesel saildrive Designer Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost Price (base) $700,000

Lagoon America (410) 280-2368 www.cata-lagoon.com

More: 2001 - 2010 , 50+ ft , Bluewater Cruising , catamaran , Coastal Cruising , Lagoon Catamarans , multihull , Sailboat Reviews , Sailboats
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Lagoon 500 Catamaran Review – Is it a Smart Choice?

The Lagoon 500 Catamaran is an updated and improved version of the earlier Lagoon 440 model. The 500 was designed with a special emphasis on luxury without compromising efficiency, ease, or aesthetics.

The following Lagoon 500 Catamaran Review will touch on the most important aspects of the vessel that will help you determine if the Lagoon 500 is the right boat for your charter experience.

Table of Contents

Accommodations

The Lagoon 500 is only 51 feet in length, which may seem small to the novice catamaran sailor, but, in reality, is the ideal size for its purposes. The boat may be deceptively small, but Lagoon does not skimp on the luxuriousness of the living spaces.

Decks are wide, below-deck cabins have plenty of room to move, the galley is convenient, and the wood and accents used for decoration are tasteful. Storage space is ample, another significant improvement over the 440 models. The stateroom spares no expense in layout and design.

From its furnishings to the indulgent shower stall, the stateroom is reminiscent of a pricey hotel suite instead of a living space aboard a ship.

Under sail, the Lagoon 500 handles with ease and transitions smoothly at different speeds and conditions. The catamaran handles wind well but can lose some speed in stiff wind. This loss of speed does not detract from the thrill of the sailing experience.

In fact, the 500’s design allows for ease of control even in poor weather circumstances and choppy water. These undemanding controls make the 500 a vessel perfect for even a novice sailor to operate without anxiety or difficulty.

Lagoon 500 Compare to Other Catamaran Models

Lagoon manufactures a variety of catamaran models for cruising. Here’s how the 500 measures up to some of the other models available.

Lagoon 500 vs. 52

The main difference between the 500 and the 52 is the setup of the aft mast. This sail has been raised on the Lagoon 52 to make the vessel faster and easier to steer, but it is common for sailors who have driven both vessels to comment that there is no real significant difference in the sailing.

Lagoon 500 vs. 420

The Lagoon 420 is an older vessel with an outdated design and a motor that has long since been changed in designs that are more modern. Compared to the 500, the 420 is old-fashioned and has the feeling of being too heavy or bogged down.

Lagoon 500 vs. 440

The 500 tends to handle bad weather a bit better than the Lagoon 440 , but the 440 offers a spectacular view due to its layout. Both are very similar at first glance, but small details may appeal to or repel prospective sailors depending on personal preference.

Why Sail the Lagoon 560

The flying bridge design raises the helm, making the vessel easier to navigate and steer
Comfortable, spacious living areas
Lots of room on the deck to spread out
Quiet engine
Window designs provide more shade, and less direct sunlight, keeping the interior cooler.

In Conclusion

The Lagoon 500 is a conscientiously designed vessel that employs the sailing techniques of larger Lagoon models into a more compact vessel. The 500 is ideal for cruising but is not built for excessive speeds.

A novice sailor would find this boat easy to operate and a joy to sail. The vastness of space on board will accommodate a family or group of friends without everyone feeling they are squeezed together. The Lagoon 500 is a smart choice for a long or short family charter trip.

Specifications

Manufacturer: Lagoon
Length Overall: 15.54 m
Beam: 8.53 m
Draft Min: 1.40 m
Water Capacity: 960 L
Fuel Capacity: 960 L
Number of engines: 2
Power: 55 – 75 Hp
Cabins: 2 to 5
Berths: 4 to 10

Did you sail the Lagoon 500? If so, feel free to share your experience in the comment below

Daniella has been passionate about travel, the sea, and nature for many years. As a child, she frequently traveled throughout the Mediterranean and continued with her journeys throughout her adult life.

Her experiences have created the desire within her to share her love for traveling with other passionate and adventurers who want to discover beautiful horizons and new cultures.

4 thoughts on “Lagoon 500 Catamaran Review – Is it a Smart Choice?”

Wow….This is my first time ever reading through a review on Yacht. I have always dreamed about charting one when I was in Greece, but never give it a serious thought.

However, I would like to say this is a very good post that gives great overview and it is very information!

Thanks for sharing this post! Alex

I am glad you liked my review, I hope you’ll make your dream come true soon! Have a great day

Wow! 4 toilets in a yacht! Am I reading this correctly? It’s like an apartment or a chalet on water. Perfect for if I want to spend some quiet time with my friends and family, and definitely a romantic date. Or maybe even a cozy celebration. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, you said it, it’s an apartment that float on the water! It is the perfect holiday to have unforgettable time with families and friends. Have a nice day

Lagoon 500 Review with John of S/V Wicked

Post author By Diane Selkirk
Post date February 18, 2021
No Comments on Lagoon 500 Review with John of S/V Wicked

John and his family are aboard a 2009 Lagoon 500 called S/V Wicked. He and his four kids and assorted pets and spouse have lived aboard boats for quite a few years from monohulls to a power catamarans. We’re going to learn a little bit about the Lagoon 500.

Key Takeaways of Lagoon 500

Enormous salon with multiple places to sit. Galley that four people can stand in. A pantry. Many small cabin spaces for many people.
Was the flagship of the Lagoon fleet in her day, so they invested all their resources as a company to show off what they could do.
Built 150 hulls of the Lagoon 500 so there is good availability on the used market and many have crossed oceans or circumnavigated. Likely find one anywhere in the world.
She will do seven and a half knots sipping fuel at 1800 rpm all day long. She carries a thousand liters of diesel, so she has a thousand nautical mile range under power alone.
The flybridge helm is great – dry, has excellent visibility and has seating for 6 people.
Cockpit is large and nicely enclosed with only one exit, so that is great for smaller children and having the cockpit be more secure.
The 500 came in a three cabin model which has a dedicated owner hull, a four cabin version which has a large owner cabin, and a five cabin which had a small master and bunk beds.

Challenges of the Lagoon 500

Requires help to dock. Came with backup cameras as you cannot see the stern ends of the boat when backing up from flybridge helm.
Eats lines because the sail drives are mounted aft of the rudders. They are exposed to lines when going backwards, and there are often lines in the water at docks that get wrapped around the propellers.
The boom is very high and it is difficult to get to in order to for example zip up the sail bag. They put a hardtop bimini and fly the kids up on a halyard to help address this. They also less often zip up the mailsail bag.
Sails at 5 knots in 10 knots of breeze 45 to 60 degrees off the wind. John usually motor sails.
Hard to tack in light winds.
Transoms are old style than newer designs and lack the beach type platform which would be nice to have.

Tell us a bit about yourself

We’ve been around boats for almost 20 years. The first time my kids went sailing (my oldest is 20) was when she was four months old.

We’ve had a boat ever since then. We started with monohulls and then we migrated to catamarans. We went to catamarans because with four kids we needed room.

Back in 2012 I sold my business, and we decided to take a year sabbatical. We found a 43-foot Lagoon power catamaran, and we went cruising the Caribbean. Three years later we outgrew that boat and really understood what we wanted and specifically looked for a Lagoon 500.

Back in 2017 we purchased our Lagoon 500 and migrated from one boat to the other. We’ve been on her since.

Can you tell me what it was about the Lagoon 500?

The more we spent time on boats and different boats and before we had purchased any catamaran we had chartered six different models over the previous six or seven years. While we owned the monohull when we go on charter on vacations somewhere, we usually looked to charter a catamaran.

We used it as a way to learn about what we wanted, so we’ve tried the Leopards, the Fountain Pajots, the Lagoons, Catanas and an Endeavour catamaran. We tried an Endeavour for a while for one of our cruises.

And there were attributes of each boat that we liked. Having lived on board a boat, it was very different than the four weeks we had spent chartering which was the maximum amount of time.

We learned that we wanted a boat with lots of individual rooms or places to be. So with four kids on board I still kind of run a business out of our home in this case the boat and homeschooling and everything else we knew we wanted bigger.

Our 43 was too small. We wanted a saloon where people could actually sit in multiple places. We wanted a kitchen where three or four people could stand in it. We wanted a pantry which is kind of weird right, but we realized that we wanted a place where you could store stuff. We didn’t want to keep going into the bilges to pull stuff in and out on daily use.

The more we looked around in different boats the 500 series of the Lagoons which we first saw 10 years ago was always out of our price range, and they had just gotten to the point now or three years ago where they became somewhat affordable for us.

We loved how big she felt, and then there’s a lot of other attributes of the 500 but specifically when we were looking for a boat we were thinking 45 to 60 footer. We wanted to find the biggest smallest boat if that makes sense that we could get to, and the 500 was excellent at almost 29 feet of beam and 50 feet long.

She has a gorgeously large salon area. That was our core attraction to her.

Tell me about sailing her. How about getting in and out of marinas? Do you need every kid on deck to give you a hand?

That’s a great question. Whatever boat we purchased, we knew that we wanted to be able to be short-handed, so what’s nice about the 500 was she’s full electric meaning all the winches are electric. She was Lagoon’s flagship where Lagoon had designed and spent most of their effort, “this is what we can do with a boat.” That was back then.

When that boat came out she was right at the top of their range, and she was the first of the large next generation boats that they had.

You asked about maneuvering. I can sail the boat on my own. The only caveat I would say is docking and line handling right. Unless the weather is perfect I need someone to toss a line and grab a line.

But maneuvering in and out is really easy. She’s got her sail drives aft of the rudders to protect the sail drives when you’re underway, but that also means that she steers backwards quite nicely.

Now the downside to that is that she also likes to eat lines from the rear. You’re going to chew a line backing up if you don’t pay attention. It took me about three or four entrances before I kind of went all right you know we have to make sure there’s nothing in the water and never our lines to be fair was never our lines but someone’s lines were always there.

The 500 is very easy. It’s a flybridge boat which we love the idea of. She handles very well under power. Because we spent the last two summers in the med and the med has very fluctuating winds. She will do seven and a half knots at sipping fuel at 1800 rpm all day long. She carries a thousand liters of diesel, so she’s got a thousand nautical mile range under power alone.

Tell me about her under sail. Have you been in rough weather?

We have not crossed any oceans with S/V Wicked. When we purchased Wicked, she was in Turkey. We’ve been as far as Gibraltar, so we’ve done the entire Med, and then we’re heading back towards Turkey.

We will stay in the Med for a little bit longer. We wanted an ocean crossing boat, and the reason that the 500 was always on our list is there are 150 of them made and there are dozens that have crossed. So our boat was originally purchased by an Australian. They sailed it to Australia from France. From Australia it sailed back to the Med. Was owned by a Spaniard. The he sold it to an Egyptian, and then we’re the fourth owner if you will. So our boat’s been around the world already.

Many 500s have been, so that was the kind of important thing. I didn’t want to buy something that nobody’s ever crossed on. I wanted the ability to do it.

What kind of weather systems have you been in with her? How does she handle strong winds because I know you do get those in the Med?

We’ve been in some significant blows. The biggest difference that you would find in coastal or near coastal which is what we’ve been doing is that you don’t get the giant rollers. You’ll get steep seas which is probably harder on you and the boat than the big ocean or swells

We don’t have a lot of experience with ocean swells which is not that big of an issue, but we do have a lot of experience in 35 to 40 knots of wind when a Meltemi blows through or a strong gust comes off the mountains in Europe. She handles perfectly. She loves 15 knots to 20 knots of wind speed. We reef the first point at 20 knots. Honestly if we know that it’s going to pick up we’ll reef at about 18 knots, and then she’ll comfortably sail all day long.

She doesn’t slap, and everything we’ve seen we like. She’s got a fly bridge, so it’s rare to get any spray up there even when we’re pounding into the waves, and it gives really good visibility.

Are you up there when you come in to dock?

Absolutely. In our previous boat, a Lagoon 43 power cat. The power cat has a flybridge steering, and an inside steering. What we quickly realized is we love this fly bridge routine. It’s beautiful visibility on the 500.

It’s got a big seating area, so all six of us can seat up on the fly bridge. We did an upgrade and put a full bimini on it because our experience in the Caribbean was that we like being outside, but we don’t want to be sun drenched the whole time. Our solid bimini covers the whole area up top.

Your visibility is perfect. I can’t see the rear corners when we back in. So that’s actually one of the limitations on this boat and on many others. You can’t see the rears, so it came with cameras.

I removed them because we never use them, and usually it’s all about line handling. If i’m backing into a marina by myself, that’s not going to happen because I can’t do the line handling, so there’s always someone on board or if there isn’t and i’m not going to do that maneuver.

I will side tie somewhere and wait for someone to help us.

What’s nice about being up on the fly bridge, you can jump to either side. I can literally take one stride to the left look down one side and see the end of the boat one stride to the right look down the other side to see the boat. So it’s not as limiting as you would think, but when you’re sitting there steering you can’t see the aft corner.

So the Lagoon 500 is very easy to sail by yourself?

Her beam makes her very stable. She has decent enough clearance underneath. We don’t slap even in the short waves. We pound like anybody pushing into two meter chop. It is horrible. Usually it’s like turn around we’re going the other direction for a while.

The only negative is how high the boom is. If you’re standing, the boom is above. The 500 is weird because when you’re standing on the deck the boom is about chest height. Then you’re stepping into the fly steering area and that puts the boom overhead. So you can’t get to the sail bag.

I wish I had spoken to more 500 owners before we got on board and that would have made our discovery much easier. In our previous boat after absolutely every day of sailing, we would zip up the the bag and then the next day zip it open. Now with the 500 our approach is if we’re sailing for the week and we’re moving every day at night, we don’t zip the bag.

Also our solid bimini has walking areas, so we immobilize the boom with two straps on the back, so the boom’s held in place. You climb up the bimini. You can walk along it and at that point you’re sitting over top of it.

So you find ways around it, but we upgraded our bimini to alleviate the problem. You still have to climb on top of the roof to get to it, but at that point I have full access and now because I have so many kids usually they all want to do something, so we usually end up putting one in a bosun’s chair and setting them up. They have a good time, and they unzip the bag and you know if we’re stationary for a couple of days. We’ll pull the halyard off, tie it to the side, so we don’t hear the banging and then zip the bag up right.

Everything drops into the sail bag anyways, so the real challenge ends up being to zip open and close the sail bag.

Tell me about her in light wind because big heavy boat. What do you need to move her?

My first boat was a Swan, so she was a nice deep keeled very responsive boat.

Our next boat was a charter 43 monohull which didn’t point very well, but still moved and it felt like a sailboat. It was great.

Our next boat was a power cat, and I’m like this looks awesome. All i do is set the throttles and don’t have to worry anything about it?

We went to the 500 because we wanted ocean crossing range, and we wanted a bigger boat and 500 motors great and sails significantly well.

I’ll put my caveat there which means usually I didn’t go sailing if the wind was under 10 to 12 knots because I didn’t want to do three or four knots.

What we found and then we met some cruising friends who happened to be a sail maker and he was on a on a Fountaine Pajot 46, and he’s like, “John, you should sail that thing. It should have great sailing ability.” I’m like yeah if it’s 50 knots we’ll go seven and a half. He’s like, “no you should do it in ten.” I’m like I’m not sailing in ten, we’re gonna do four. He goes,”well you can get five.”

We sailed from the coast of Spain to Mallorca. He and I did, and in somewhere between 8 to 10 knots of wind, we were pointing 60 degrees to 45 degrees. She was handling well. She was easily doing five knots, so i think if you want to go sailing she sails remarkably well in the lighter stuff.

She’s hard to tack like most catamarans are especially in the light winds, but we were comfortably doing 50 percent half the speed of the wind.

Tell me about the inside.

I believe the 500 was the last of the liveaboard designs that Lagoon put together. I’ll make that claim. I don’t know if that’s true or not. There are features on the 500 that make her not great for charter, and those features that don’t make her great for charter make her excellent for living aboard.

In the 440s which is kind of the 500s kind of little sister it’s like 70% of a 500 is very similar right.

What we like in the 500 as far as the features is the salon is much bigger than you would expect for a 50-foot boat. We’ve been on Privileges 585 which is the other boat we considered or a Privilege 615 and our salon is bigger than theirs.

It has a step down kitchen. The kitchen is actually offset only by about six inches. One step lower. You can be sitting in the kitchen and be kind of eye level looking out the boat nicely. You can be talking to the people who are sitting in the salon.

Our salon table seats ate comfortably. We’ve had 14 people for dinner inside the boat. Four people cooking at the same time.

The boat came with four refrigerators from the factory, a dedicated freezer and two fridges and then a bar fridge outside. This is all standard kind of from the design

There’s i think probably three characteristics that make the 500 unique and i haven’t found another boat that’s very similar to it. We like the asymmetric cockpit outside. Unlike most charter cats where you want to be able to get out and into the water back and forth easily we only have one way in and out, so we are captive. It’s an asymmetric design, so it’s very enclosed which makes our cockpit area very safe.

There’s kind of like a door to get out and then when the screens are down we have a separate room with a nice table with big u-shaped seating that can seat eight people on the outside. We liked that an awful lot. You can have six or seven people sitting for dinner outside and people still coming and going not being interrupted.

Most of the modern catamarans they’re much more kind of walk through the back to get to the outside. I know that wasn’t a popular thing in the charter market for the 440s and the 500s, but for us that is a great.

We immediately get into our cockpit, take our life jackets off because you can’t fall out you can’t fall out back. It feels very safe and secure which i think makes it important for crossing. It makes it important with smaller kids. Ours are a little older now, but she would have been a perfect boat with toddlers because there’s no way out.

So we love the cockpit.

The other thing we really liked is this boat had a pantry. You step down into the hull on the port side hall there is a good 10 foot room. The hallway right between the front and the back. In that 10 foot room is our built-in two refrigerators and our laundry facilities and a big counter that’s six feet long where you can stack all your stuff on top of and there’s cabinets on the inside and there’s cabinets underneath.

We also like the fact that most boats when they say they have a master’s cabin they’re talking about an owner’s hull. They dedicate the entire hull of the boat to the owner. The 500 in the four cabin layout has a very large owner’s cabin, so it’s kind of like a regular cabin plus what would have been the pantry area dedicated to the owner. In our master we actually have a full sitting desk which is great to work on most of them have sofas.

You have an owner’s cabin version with a dedicated large area for the owner without giving up that fourth cabin. Do the kids have the space they need?

The 500 came in a three cabin model which has a dedicated owner hull, a four cabin version which is what we ended up with, and a five cabin which had a smaller master, and they added bunk beds.

We wanted the four cabin because we wanted the big master, so we have a four cabin model. Two of my kids share. One of them is at university. Only two kids are on board now. They have dedicated cabins, and a guest cabin it’ll be the sleepover boat.

Do you have any other critiques of the Lagoon 500?

Maybe her transoms are dated. There are the older style transoms that don’t have a big beach in the back or a big landing area.

What I do particularly like about that boat seems to have decent bones. You see lots of people. It’s an active community especially on the 440 because there’s so many more of those doing modifications and adding to the boats and modifying their transoms and re-putting different stuff inside.

The boat wasn’t built as a kind of throwaway. The second we could see more and more of that, we’re like okay this is perfect. So this boat has a community associated with it. People are investing money to keep it so you talk to many of the 500 or 440 owners rather than buying a new 450 or a new 52.

They would put money into their existing boat to upgrade it competitively or comparably to the new 52s, probably a little bit better.

Are there any projects that you see yourself doing on your Lagoon 500?

We upgraded all of the electrical systems to lithium, so we have a full lithium battery system on board now. We got rid of all the propane so we’re a single fuel boat. We only run diesel. All our cooking is electric. We have solar panels.

Our big upgrade since buying the boat was the lithium battery system and all the electric cooking that went along with it and then our large bimini which really increased our quality of life.

I would like to kind of make some changes to carry a larger dinghy in the back. We’re a very active family, and we like being the boat where everybody gets to so that was the home we grew up with.

All the kids were always at us, so on our boat we carry dive equipment for six people. All my daughters are are certified. We have a dive compressor on board. We carry two sailing dinghy, so we have two 12-foot sailing dinghy with us. When we’re at anchor, we splash the sailing dinghies and the paddle boards and everything else. The 500 just swallows all of that stuff up.

I can sail it as effectively as I could the Catana 47 that I was on for many years. I love that boat, but I would never give up my 500 for it.

If you would swap her for any other boat is there anything else out there that you’d swap her for?

People always keep looking for the next boat, so I keep going through that. I really like the Garcia Explocat 52s. I wonder if they could build a 500 version in aluminum, so you could go to the south pole and check out all the icebergs and stuff.

I don’t know that i would ever sail in those areas i just like the idea of it.

My next upgrade would be more than likely just comfort of living. We want to change out its refrigeration. Put modern fridges in it. We’re still in the original 10 year old fridges that are in there which are fine, and we will probably switch to very high efficient home units that are built today. They’re more efficient than what we have.

We’re fully air conditioned and heated. There’s very little that’s missing on our boat. I don’t have boat envy which is rare.

That’s awesome. That seems like a really great place to wrap up, and I really appreciate hearing about your Lagoon 500.

Tags Catamaran Interviews , Catamaran Reviews

By Diane Selkirk

I love to travel and have spent the past seven years sailing with my family aboard our 40 Woods Meander catamaran - traveling from B.C.'s north coast, to the west coast of the US, Mexico, the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, across the Indian Ocean to South Africa and on to St Helena, South America, the Caribbean and Central America.

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With the 500, Lagoon unveils a bit more of its range of third-generation multihulls, which started with the 440. These voluminous catamarans offer an incredible amount of space and well above average performance…

The Lagoon 500 gives new life to the ‘cruising catamaran’… A new standard is born!

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As the owner of a lively 28-foot trimaran, which performs well on all points of sailing, my first glimpse of the Lagoon 500 at the end of the pontoon impressed me; its immense 24m mast towers above all the others, including that of its famous big sister, the Lagoon 55. OK, I skippered a 60’ monohull for 5 years, but the Lagoon’s high freeboard is remarkable.

To climb aboard, two steps have been arranged in the side of the hull, which allows access for any able-bodied person. The flared sugar scoops are too far from the pontoon to be used for this purpose. From the first step onto the deck, the tone is set; the Lagoon dominates all the other boats. A coaming a few centimetres high around the nacelle roof makes moving around the deck easy. However, the ‘gangway’ between the sterns is a bit narrow. A small cockpit at the mastfoot welcomes the crew for an aperitif - at anchor, after a good day’s sailing or diving. The compressor, a generator, and the gas bottles are housed in a comfortably-sized locker hidden behind the seating. Two other, smaller lockers swallow up the fenders, ...

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Lagoon 500 – Sunset Oia

LAGOON 500 Luxury, speed and pleasure. This voluminous catamaran, built in 2009, offers an incredible amount of space and well above average performance…

The 500 is truly impressive. From the unique flybridge steering station to the nifty rumble seat cockpit forward to the stunning interior finished in mukali wood, the Lagoon 500 leaves an indelible impression. Designers Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prevost were given a challenging assignment by the Lagoon management team: Design a catamaran for world cruising that includes just about everything you’d want or need at home. That’s right, home; the design premise of the Lagoon 500 was to make the boat as much like a house as possible-albeit a house that can sail at double-digit speeds.

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2007 Lagoon 500

Vessel summary, used sail catamaran for sale key finder 2007 lagoon 500.

"key-finder"

Basic summary.

Boat Length:	50 ft
Asking Price:	$445,000
Boat Name:	"KEY FINDER"
Manufacturer:
Model:
Type of Yacht:
Boat Condition:
Boat Status:
Model Year:
Duties:	NOT FOR SALE IN US WATER TO USA CITIZENS OR RESIDENTS

City:
State / Province / Island:
Country:

DIMENSIONS & SPECIFICATIONS

Manuf. Length:	50' 0" ( 15.24 m)
Maximum Draft:	4' 7" ( 1.40 m)
Beam:	28' ( 8.53 m)
LWL:	82' ( 24.99 m)
No of Cabins:	5
No of Heads:	4
Fuel Capacity:	127 g
Water Capacity:	4X64 g
Holding Tank:	4X20
Electric Circuit:	220 volt

HULL AND DECK CONFIGURATION

Hull Material:	Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic- FRP
Hull Configuration:	Catamaran

ENGINE DETAILS

Engine Manufacturer:	Yanmar
Engine Model:	4JH4-TE
Engine Horsepower:	73
Engine Type:	InBoard
Engine Configuration:	Twin
Engine Fuel Type:	Diesel

Used Sail Catamaran for Sale 2007 Lagoon 500 Layout & Accommodations

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Boat Description

$809,000 | Used | Sail | 46 ft

$585,000 | Used | Sail | 45 ft

$895,000 | Used | Sail | 45 ft

€636,444 | New | Sail | 42 ft

$399,000 | Used | Sail | 42 ft

$950,000 | Used | Sail | 48 ft

The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors to investigate such details as the buyer desired validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice. Photos may not properly reflect the current condition of the actual vessel offered for sale. In some cases stock photographs may have been used.

Mechanical Disclaimer

Engine and generator hours are as of the date of the original listing and are a representation of what the listing broker is told by the owner and/or actual reading of the engine hour meters. The broker cannot guarantee the true hours. It is the responsibility of the purchaser and/or his agent to verify engine hours, warranties implied or otherwise and major overhauls as well as all other representations noted on the listing.

Dinghy Disclaimer

All dinghies are considered separate vessels and should have separate titles and documents. There is no guarantee as to the title of the dinghy on this vessel so Buyer accepts that while he may receive the dinghy included in the transaction, he may not receive the proper title to it.

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