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• By Herb McCormick
• Updated: January 5, 2007

The first, most critical thing to know about boatbuilder Peter Johnstone-who’s now twice entrusted his vision of the ideal offshore cruising catamaran to the highly capable design team of Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin-is that he absolutely loves to sail. We’re not talking mere infatuation. What we have with Mr. Johnstone is an all-consuming passion for the art and science of propelling waterborne craft by the cleanest fuel of all, a fresh breeze.

When he decided to take his young family cruising a few years ago, Johnstone worked backward from a very simple question: What’s going to be the most fun to sail? Safety, reliability, and seaworthiness would all need to be inherent parts of the solution, of course, but that central tenet was non-negotiable. Why go cruising under sail, he reasoned, if sailing wasn’t going to be a focal point of the exercise?

Johnstone had a pretty good idea of what he was looking for: a big, powerful, no-holds-barred catamaran built of the latest, lightest materials, with ample accommodations, and manageable by a shorthanded crew. Ultimately, he formed his own company to produce such a vessel. When the seagoing Johnstones finally set sail for the Caribbean, they did so on the M&M-designed, South African-built Gunboat 62 Tribe. After returning from his 15-month cruise, Johnstone rolled up his sleeves and got back to boatbuilding in earnest. The Gunboat 48 is the company’s second model in production, and the next will be-yikes-an 80-footer, currently under construction.

Conceptually, the 48 hasn’t wandered far from the precedents established on its larger sibling. The deck layout is centered around a forward cockpit accessed through a door that separates it from the central bridgedeck saloon/wheelhouse/galley. The forward cockpit, as Johnstone acknowledges, wasn’t an original Gunboat idea; noted multihull designer Chris White successfully employed it on his Atlantic series of cruising cats. But it works well on the Gunboat, with almost all the relevant running rigging and sailhandling devices-including a suite of Harken blocks and winches and an array of Spinlock clutches and jammers-stationed at chest level near the base of the towering carbon-fiber spar.

The steering wheel, engine controls, chart plotter, and instruments are a couple of short steps away, tucked just inside the aforementioned front door. So, too, is a handsome folding dining table with veneers of Brazilian mahogany fronting a forward-facing settee that’s plenty inviting when the boat is coursing along under the Raymarine autopilot. When you’re peering out the front and side windows, it’s almost like watching a sailing movie on a big screen, and it’s a very enjoyable view.

In fact, the entire free flowing deck layout maximizes the use of space and is very well thought out. Moving aft, the bridgedeck leads to a roomy “back porch” for dining or drinks, and it’s functional, too, with easy access to the dinghy davits and the molded, transom-mounted steps providing access to the swim ladder and to the twin Westerbeke 35-horsepower Universal diesels.

Below, there’s a pair of staterooms complete with queen-size berths, and a third is equipped with a single. There are also two heads with showers, both stationed forward in the respective hulls.

As befitting a sailboat with a seven-figure price tag, the overall build quality of the vacuum-bagged, oven-cured monocoque hull and deck-a foam sandwich utilizing epoxy, biaxial and unidirectional glass, Kevlar, and carbon fiber-is quite phenomenal. The daggerboards and lifting rudders are also carbon fiber, as are the stringers, ring frames, and crossbeams.

There’s nothing else out there quite like a Gunboat. Peter Johnstone set out to build what designer Bill Lee has called a “hot-rod cruiser,” and he certainly succeeded.

Gunboat 48 Specs

LOA: 48′ 4″ (14.74 m.) LWL: 45′ 11″ (14.00 m.) Beam: 24′ 3″ (7.39 m.) Draft (boards up/down): 1′ 1″/7′ 5″ (0.33/2.26 m.) Sail Area: 1,106 sq. ft. (102.7 sq. m.) Displacement: 20,100 lb. (9,117 kg.) Water: 120 gal. (454 l.) Fuel: 120 gal. (454 l.) Engines: Twin Westerbeke 35-hp. diesels Designer: Morrelli & Melvin Sailaway Price: $1,680,000 Gunboat, (401) 619-1055, www.gunboat.info

Herb McCormick is the former editor of Cruising World

• More: 2001 - 2010 , 41 - 50 ft , catamaran , Coastal Cruising , gunboat , multihull , Sailboat Reviews , Sailboats
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Gunboat 55 boat test: is this the coolest boat in the Caribbean

• Toby Hodges
• July 1, 2015

In the space of 15 years the luxurious Gunboat cats have gained something of a cult following. Toby Hodges can see why when he creams round the Caribbean in the captivating Gunboat 55

All photos: Ocean Images

Product Overview

Manufacturer:.

And that’s saying something for a catamaran, which can look bulky and awkward to anyone bar diehard multihull converts. But the Gunboat 55 takes cool to a whole new level. Try as I might I can’t think of another boat that comes close to her as a pin-up: a curvaceous yet fiery, muscular yet elegant design, drawn by the godfather of lightweight multihulls, Nigel Irens.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Gunboat sold 15 of the 55 before the first hulls were even built. That’s the sort of numbers the French and German behemoths of production yacht building would smack their lips at, but this is a semi-custom, US$2m luxury all-carbon machine. And, remarkably, these sales are all to customers new to multihulls.

Over the past 15 years Gunboat has amassed a cult following. It produces a modern multihull take on a cruiser-racer that has mesmerised a younger, active, speed-thirsty generation of sailors. During its first 11 years of building in South Africa, Gunboat produced just 15 boats to three designs. After setting up its own boatbuilding enterprise locally in North Carolina, it is manufacturing the same number of 55s in just two years.

Bringing production in-house and introducing a novel concept that pushes the parameters of fast cruising cat design by re-examining how we sail and live aboard is key to the 55’s popularity. Moreover, behind the head-turning looks, the 55 benefits from the full suite of Gunboat attributes: the fast cruiser, the racing cat and the social platform.

It is a recipe the brand has honed, and during and following the Heineken Regatta in St Maarten, we explored all these ingredients in detail.

The Gunboat rush

Rooster tails began to rise off the transoms. A fine spray fired off the leeward bow as a gust hit. We carried it downwind as the apparent wind shot forward, feeling the surge and watching the speedo rise from mid-teens to 20 knots. Exhilarating? It was sensational!

This was no stripped-out raceboat with an army of crew trimming an overpowered kite. On the 55 we were carrying just a reefed main and jib, one person helming and one on the sheet. And we were absolutely smoking.

You can feel the wind through the open windows and roof, giving a sense of speed, but it remained quiet and calm aboard, broken only occasionally by the harsh scream of a loaded sheet being eased.

We had a couple of days and nights cruising aboard the 55 in challenging weather. The wind didn’t dip below 20 knots and we saw frequent rain squalls with 30-knot gusts – a full blown gale in apparent wind speed terms. Yet the 55 consistently felt steady and controlled.

Heading upwind, for example, she felt stable and stiff, with no movement inside. We averaged 10-11 knots (at just under 40°A), up to 13 by cracking off 10°. Even though I had raced aboard Toccata in similar conditions, it was feeling the sensation from the helm going upwind that proved a highlight, a revelation in fact. It was a rush at the very angle where you wouldn’t expect it.

Upwind we predominantly had one reef in the main and the self-tacking Solent hoisted. The 55 coped well with the big gusts (up to 45 knots apparent) and rode over the Caribbean swells with very little slamming. She is a powerful beast to manage in a breeze, though. Trim buttons on the pedestal make it ultra-simple to ease the mainsheet quickly via a hydraulic ram – the first action required in a gust, as it twists off the vast, square-top sail.

Having two experienced multihull sailors beside me aided my confidence to push, however owner-operators will obviously need to treat this turbo-charged cruiser with caution. Sound weather routeing and early reefing are key.

View from the interior helming station

Dip the bow a little and you feel the subtle change as she lifts a hull, the airborne rudder whistling as you hit full-pelt mode. Spin the carbon wheel through a tack and you can feel her come off the plane, like a hovercraft sinking into displacement mode. But within seconds she accelerates back to double figures.

With the boards down to 80º (90º is max) she feels balanced, with a trace of feedback to the helm. Offwind she is a different animal – a firm grip is required to muscle the loaded helm.

Off piste thrills

“The trouble with this boat is that you don’t get enough sailing time because you get there too quickly,” said photographer Richard Langdon. It was a concise appraisal of the 55, but also a genuine problem when trying to get sailing shots. It was too windy for a planned helicopter shoot and too bumpy even to try to hold a camera at speed from the water.

We were across the Anguilla channel, a six nautical mile run, in minutes. But what an epic few minutes! Reaching in a breeze on the Gunboat 55 needs sea-room and preparation. It is equivalent to hiking up a mountain to access a fresh powder run – you know it will be a long slog getting up, but think of the buzz going back down.

In Force 6 and 7 winds and 2-3m swells Toccata absolutely flew. It’s an incredible sensation on the helm: a certifiable adrenalin ride. Palms sweat, the heart rate rockets and your cheeks soon ache from grinning – and all aboard a luxurious pad.

Working on the trampoline

Glance aft to check for gusts or waves and you’ll notice nothing has changed: drinks can be left on counter tops, crew can be reading a book in panoramic comfort… it’s truly a head spin.

Of course, concentration is certainly demanded when helming in a breeze, doubly so when you are unable to sense the conditions easily. But the 55 provides easy rewards. Yes, we hit speeds over 20 knots, but it’s not the top speed that impressed so much as the consistency.

Past Gunboat models such as the 62 and 66 have a defined transition zone. Like a powerboat struggling to get on the plane, once they hit 13 knots they fly into the early 20s. The 55, however, consistently made 15-20 knots reaching, comfortably, stably, easily, whether in waves and big winds under jib or asymmetric, or on flat water with the furling R1/screecher sail up.

The 55 is a passagemaking mile-gobbler, and one that had me hooked.

Command centre

The cockpit is the heart of the 55. Its clever design allows this shared living and sailing area to work harmoniously. It achieves an elusive goal by not making you feel as if you’re ‘inside’, unless you want to.

That said, it still is sailing from inside, an instant put-off for some. It requires crew to be extra-vigilant to the surrounding conditions that they might otherwise have a natural sense for when sailing outside.

The helm pedestal includes a remote windlass control, plus controls for the daggerboards

Gunboat founder Peter Johnstone admits they were struggling with the exterior forward cockpit concept employed on Gunboats until now. “We didn’t want to have to put foulweather gear on again – sailing fast cats from outside sucks. So by moving the windshield forward and putting a TP52-style pit area in, we’ve altered the cockpit and made the handling of the boat even easier,” he says.

Beating into the high apparent winds we met proved this concept. The windows forward of the cockpit, plus an extra-large hatch or ‘moonroof’ above, all slide open, meaning you can feel the wind and see the sails. Sheets and halyards are all close to hand, so there was no shouting, no raised voices even – and no wet weather gear in sight.

The winch pit area is intricately designed so that two people can operate all sheets and halyards while racing, or manage the boat cruising. High-load clutches allow the traveller to be eased instantly without needing to monopolise a winch. And there are emergency stop buttons to cut power to winches or to dump the mainsheet.

With just two Harken 60 winches, keeping things tidy is paramount. In race mode, the two trimmers/pit crew have a comfortable standing position, with full view of the headsails.

Meticulously organised pit for two trimmers

The deck gear is comparable to that of a maxi – loops and lashings, 2:1 leads, top-down furlers, halyard locks, etc. Inevitably the loads are frighteningly high so owners will need to get used to big boat systems. An example is the halyard locks inside the Hall mast. This is a clever solution for reducing halyard stretch and mast compression, as long as the halyards are clearly marked to show when to ease onto the lock.

• 1. The Gunboat rush
• 2. A platform at anchor

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The Gunboat 68 was the first model to launch from Grand Large Yachting- the new owners of the famous performance multihull brand.

This model has been replaced by the 70. They also build the 72 (fly), the 80 and the 82 (fly).

Video Short

1 Min Summary

– Designed as a green machine – Order from a menu of custom packs – The 2 main options: Cruising and Racing Pack. – Gunboat 68-01 has clocked speeds over 30 knots. Surfing, but still, these are fast yachts. – A tidy design with most sail handling done from the forward cockpit. – Christophe Chedal Anglay’s interior design is luxurious. – The SA/D ratio on the Regatta set up is 38. Rotating mast is optional. – Price is over €8 million. You could pay more for a regatta version with all of the toys.

Interview with William Jelbert on Dash (68-02)

Here´s a chat we had with William Jelbert (the Gunboat COO) at the Cannes Yachting Festival on Dash where he takes us through some of the features of the boat. Dash is set up as a cruising boat.

Customer Feedback Loop The COO, William Jelbert, and the new team spent a good deal of time talking to existing Gunboat owners and skippers to find out how to develop the range, and then teamed up with multihull and racing boat maestros VPLP for the new design.

They know a thing or two about fast boats having designed the Outremer 5X and Comanche.

The result has gained plaudits from existing owners and new customers alike. The lines are sleek yet aggressive, with reverse bows and some neat ideas like a modular saloon interior that is fully demountable on race days. This boat is all about attention to detail.

Let’s see how things have moved on from the Gunboat 48 and their other iconic cats shall we?

Pros & Cons

Feature Rich Supercat The fixed bimini will house enough solar panels to make the Gunboat 68 a true green machine without the need for a generator.

There are options for tillers and bucket seats for pure adrenaline sailing (a nod to sister ships Outremer perhaps?) as well as Gunboat’s signature inside helm and forward cockpit. 6801, now renamed Highland Fling, went into a refurb in 2021 and was fitted with twin aft racing helms.

For sailing feel, I can only think of the Marsaudon Composites TS5, the Ocean Explorer OE62, the HH62 or the Dazcats for boats that get anywhere close.

Build Your Own Boat You can customise the performance set up on these boats: choose between asymmetric or symmetric dagger-boards (there are 3 options here: short symmetrical boards for cruising, long asymmetrical boards, for racing or long symmetrical), long or short boom, rotating wing-mast or fixed rig and so on. In fact, there are more than 80 combinations available for the interior during the production process.

Cruising or Racing? The two main options are the performance cruising set up and the racing set up which has 4m added to the mast for lighter wind speed and a longer boom and longeron (the midships beam and bowsprit).

When the wind picks up, you won’t notice much difference between the two set ups as they both use the same template. She’s been designed to add on the extras if you want.

Gunboat are back to their very best with this head-turner. She’s an all-carbon build and those reversed wave-piercing bows and the low-profile coachroof, give her an ultra sporty look.

This boat looks like she means business.

Faster than the Wind VPLP design are industry veterans of some of the world’s biggest, fastest multihulls of course. They’ve increased the beam and stepped the mast aft for stability and ease of handling. With or without the longer rig, she’ll go like the wind or even faster in some cases.

500 nautical miles per day was the designer’s stretch target in the right conditions: speeds in the high teens are not a drama on a 68. This 17.8-ton catamaran has been developed with advanced hydro and aero studies, an area of expertise at VPLP which they have used to develop raceboats such as Macif.

North Sails were also closely involved. A tacking angle of 90° should be achievable in most conditions – pretty unusual for a large cruising multihull.

You can expect to be shunting along at around 25 knots in a blow, and up to 16 knots in a decent breeze. The first boat clocked a 30kt surf.

The interior helm station is pure Gunboat, and she comes with a sunroof (or Moonroof rather) for keeping an eye on the sails and ventilation. The finish matches the quality you’d see on a private jet: she’s lavish with clever details on storage, ventilation and light.

Fwd Cockpit

Step through two watertight doors in the front of the saloon and you are into the forward cockpit and the foredeck where all the sailing business happens.

This is an exceptionally tidy area for a boat this size, especially if we are talking the performance cruiser option (such as Dash Gunboat 6802) as you will have opted for the fixed rather than the rotating rig.

Lines run outboard from the forward cockpit, like the daggerboard raise and lower lines and two sets of spinnaker sheets. A lot of planning went in to make sure that lines run as straight as possible to reduce friction trip hazards.

There’s a sealed tunnel through the cabin top from the cockpit to the daggerboard casings for example.

There is also an option of adding a tiller and bucket seats on the aft beam to give you that maximum sailing feel while you are out on the water.

Living Space

Stepping inside the luxurious saloon from the forward cockpit, the galley to port has an island if you wish, and the rear windows can be thrown open to connect the inside and outside into one.

Down below, there is space for four, five, or even six full-sized double beds with fantastic views through the long topside windows.

Design Masterpiece The mastermind behind the interior design is Christophe Chedal Anglay who worked with Patrick le Quément on the exterior of the Gunboat 68. He was hired after his work on a full interior redesign for Gunboat 60 Moonwave.

The key to his design philosophy is beauty through simplicity. The attention to detail can be seen in the master cabin, where the super comfortable bed has a U- shaped headboard designed to absorb sound. Much of the lighting is set into recesses to create a chilled mood and the air conditioning surrounds the bed in slow-moving, cool air.

The sight-lines have been well thought through. In all of the cabins, you can sit up in bed and see the horizon. The devil is in the detail, as they say.

A Big, Powerful Rig The 2 options for the rig plan are the Cruising Option with a 142 m2 main or the Regatta Mast (4m taller) with 175 m2 main. The regatta option also has bigger headsails (J1 Jib, J2 Solent and J3 Staysail), and the light wind sails are beefed up.

See the full details in our tech specs section below. We calculate the SA/D and D/L ratios using the light displacement and the mainsail + J2 solent. This just allows us to compare the 68 against other boats on the site.

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio The SA/D for the regatta version comes in at an eye-ball popping 38. As a comparison, a Lagoon 380 has a SA/D of around 21. There´s a lot of power in a Gunboat 68 rig!

The Regatta package comes with a rotating mast, whereas the Performance Cruising option is non-rotating.

All standing rigging is ECsix carbon. The Regatta Rig, if combined with the longer daggerboards should give a 12% boost to speeds upwind and up to 20% downwind in lighter wind conditions.

When the wind picks up and you start to reduce sail, both set-ups offer similar performance.

The traveler line driver winch is inside the aft beam so you can handle the mainsheet traveler lines at source, rather than have them led all the way under the boat to the forward cockpit. So you can ease the traveler from the forward cockpit, helm, or the back of the boat.

The Gunboat 68 sits at the very head of the Top Table of Multihulls – this boat sets new standards in design and construction. The primary target market is for sailors who want the ultimate performance cruising catamaran and are prepared to pay for the privilege.

Many owners will race their boats once or twice a year, but most will be blasting off to skinny water destinations like the Bahamas.

She’s well worthy of the marque: Grand Large Yachting relaunched the brand with a starting gun bang with this rocket ship.

If you are looking to gauge her against the competition (and there’s plenty in this market segment), then I recommend you check out our Ocean Explorer OE60 review which is produced in Finland, the KC62 from Kinetic, the Black Pepper Code C69 or take a look at some of the HH Catamarans (like the HH66).

Gunboat 68s

68.01 – Highland Fling (ex Condor) – Jan 17 2019, refurbed May 2021 with dual aft helms 68.02 – Dash – Jul 3 2019 68.03 – Sea Tilt – Jul 2020 68.04 – Tosca – Jan 2021 68.05 – Break Free – Apr 2022 68.06 – Convexity2 68.07 – Little Wing

Well, you’ll only be able to get a second hand model now, as this model has been replaced by the Gunboat 70. Have around €6 million tucked into your back pocket to even start the conversation. This could easily head up to €7.5 to €8m depending on the options on the boat. If any yacht holds its value, it’s a Gunboat. There aren’t many of them, and demand outstrips supply if you want one quickly. If you have the capital and only want to hold onto a 68 for a couple of years, you might like the depreciation/appreciation numbers. Gunboat has offices in Newport RI, (USA )and La Grande Motte, France.

There is a cruising version with a 25m mast and symmetric boards. The other option is the regatta version with a 29m mast, longer boom and longeron  and asymmetric boards. There are a whole range of options between these end cases.

The Gunboat 68 has more salon seating and volume than the Gunboat 60 and 62, but less than the 66. The aft cockpit is bigger than the 60, 62 and 66’s. All 4 VIP cabins are bigger than the cabins on all the other Gunboat models apart from the the Gunboat 78 (Nigel Irens) and 90 (Morrelli & Melvin). The 68´s hulls are narrower than her older siblings and the bridgedeck is shorter than a 66. The bows are longer and the sterns are longer, too. The mast is further aft.

Gunboat offer a rotating mast on the regatta rig version for extra power from the main. The standard rig is lighter (non- rotating). So for most owners, the complexity and cost of a rotating rig, plus the extra weight is not worthwhile. If you are racing Tribe (6201) in the BVI, however, it could come in handy.

Gunboats are produced in a yard across the road from Outremer and the engineering department are all together at the Gunboat site. Gunboat has dedicated engineers for Interior, Structure, Deck/Rig and dedicated process/production engineers. They do share engineering resource with Outremer for systems. The production team is completely dedicated to Gunboat.

68-01 has clocked 30 knots. OK, there was some surfing involved, but you wouldn’t call her a slow boat.

Gunboat 68.07 Little Wing Sea Trials

We calculated SA/D and D/L based on light displacement and the mainsail + solent (J2). This is to enable a meaningful comparison across katamarans.com

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