Lagoon 400

[noelex 77]

A Lagoon 400 just entered the anchorage. It is quite a departure from the style of older Lagoons and the first one I have seen this new style.

To my eyes it looked great from some angles, but a bit awkward from others,but overall looks very practical.

[rtoner]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

A Lagoon 400 just entered the anchorage. It is quite a departure from the style of older Lagoons and the first one I have seen this new style. To my eyes it looked great from some angles, but a bit awkward from others,but overall looks very practical.

In one now. Loving it!

[simonmd]

A classic case of 'function over form' in my opinion. They offer great interior volume for their size but that results in a very awkward and tall looking exterior. I've spoken to an owner who said the main problem is windage, making it very hard to manoeuvre in a crosswind in a tight marina. To me, the proportions just don't look right, it looks like it was designed to be 50ft+ but has been chopped!

[ausaviator]

A bit square but quite modern looking yes.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by rtoner

In one now. Loving it!

Welcome to forum rtoner.
Let us know your impressions if you get chance.

[Cotemar]

The lines are quite Lugly. Looks like the design inspiration for the Lagoon 400 was a shoe box.

The new Lagoon 39 and 52 look more modern.

[barnakiel]

You see it different? Hmmmm. Looks same old to me.

I found them ugly when they came. Now I got used to the looks, and I say their vertical windows are so much more practical than the slanted windows on any other cat.

b.

[Garold]

Cats all polarise opinions.

Lagoon 400 seems to this more than others.

But we like ours. And we use it a lot. And it does ok.

Cheers

Garold

[peterp]

Hello Garold, good to see a L400 man again, and ausavaiator that is my L400 taken at the Melbourne Boat Show, yes quite agree I always thought it was half a ugly looking thing, but I now think it's the most sexy streamlined stunner on the water. I enjoyed four days at the Sydney Boat Show last week great weather and a very enjoyable show. I checked out the new Lagoon 39, and 45, and the upgraded L400 S2. I have to admire Lagoon they are quite a innovative company, the 45 and up with the upper level steering station, the new 39 with the mast in the centre, it must be a brave CEO to go so far off the norm and risk financial reward or disaster, good on them. I have to say this coming September will be the third year of my ownership. it has proved a great craft and has given us enormous pleasure. Now of late, I have been flirting with the idea of going bigger so whilst at the show I had a serious look at the L45, Catana 42, and the Leapard 44. Briefly, the Catana 42 living area's are way too tight, and exposure to the weather whilst at the helm would not suite us, but it is a more performance craft. The L45 well it's a craft we could handle, but I don't like the upper steering station. The surprise was the Leopard 44, I have never seen one before I thought it had a high level of finish, and looked to be very well made I even lifted up the floor panels, yes nice level of finish there as well, the foreward sitting area outside the main saloon area via a door like the Gunboat, I think is a real point of difference and we really liked it, would a big wave over the front be a issue, don't know, the water trap does have a large drain, the 48 adds a clever slide back section in the overhead section that lets one step up and through to the tramp, the 48 was not on show. The new FP 44 was not at the show but I am looking long and hard at that. However the reality is the Lagoon 400 on balance considering cost, it will fit in a 12M berth, sails very well, you will see between 7 and 9 knots every day, safe, load it up with whatever, modern pleasant design, heaps of living area, is as big as most folk would need, and for us in cold Melbourne it has perfect weather protection at the steering station and excellent clears all around the outside seating area, even on a freezing windy cold night trip home in the pouring rain, I have been at the helm snug as bug in a rug, whilst the Admiral is quite comfortable with the heater on (reverse cycle air con running off a 7KVA gen set). So to the L400 S2 upgrade, only change I can see is the interior, quite a big change in fact, the clever thing they have done is move the electrics from the port corner position, to the starboard front corner without impacting the living area within the salon, this has enabled a extra top loader fridge freezer to be fitted where the electrics was which in turn allows a full set of draws and a second fridge under the sink, other improvements include more overhead storage, a new timber finish, three sinks one being a drainer, which allow the old drainer to be used for storage, downstairs the improvements are good, however one negative was the long hanging space provided in three wardrobes in our starboard cabin has been replaced with cupboard's same volume but not as usefull, bottom line a improved refinement of a excellent practical design. I may as well just buy the L400 S2 the L400 has served us extremely well. Regards Peter

[D&D]

Hello Peter!

Great to hear from you...and especially to hear you're really enjoying your L400.

We assume (from your thoughts of buying another Lagoon) that you ended up happy with your after-sales service...and we are very pleased to hear that as well. As you know, we very nearly bought a new L400 about the same time you bought yours, but we were frustrated at the last moment by some -- how can we say this tactfully? -- awkward correspondence. We still ended up on a Lagoon, albeit with virtually Nil after-sales support because ours was a dreaded 'gray' import, but we are past all that now and really enjoying Lagoon's many clever and well designed features.

The L400S2 seems to add some solid enhancements to an already very sound vessel. The expanded starboard nav station on the L400S2 is now v similar to our L440; that's a setup we use and enjoy a lot...and we can't understand why more vessels don't use it... It's a real credit to Lagoon the way they take maximum advantage of the available space on the L400...and do so, from others' reports, without sacrificing cruising performance. It's no surprise the L400 is such a popular vessel.

Any plans for you to cruise north up our way? It would be fun to catch up on some beautiful, secluded anchorage...two "ugly" high-sided, vertical windowed Lagoon shoe boxes looking beautiful, as always!

[peterp]

Hello D&D, good to hear from you, well we are indeed enjoying our modern shoebox. Simonmd is quite correct, form over function, good design is all about good practical day to day use and that is where the Lagoon shines in my view. Simonmd, re your comment on the effect of windage, I have had the experience in my L400 in winds of around 38 knots mooring in a tight situation, no problems but it is critical that one read's the wind's strength and direction and clearly understand's what directional effect that wind will have on the craft well before attempting to back in to that tight berth, form a picture in your mind of your craft relative to the wind direction and the berthing target, once you get that picture right berthing should be fine, however get the picture wrong and it will be a disaster in any craft. Don, no plans to head up north in the L400 however have been pondering hiring the Moorings 444, the same craft as the Leapard 44 out of Hamilton Island simply to experience a larger craft, and have a holiday.
Regards Peter

[zherma]

Hi Peter,

That was my Leopard 44 at the Sydney boat show. It's currently sitting up in Pittwater having some final post-commissioning completed and then heading down to SA.

If you're thinking of getting into one and you're ever down near Adelaide you're welcome to come out for a sail.

[D&D]

Windage is a problem common to all cats as the wind finds its way along both hulls and works against the underside of the bridgedeck. The relatively high(er) freeboards on the Lagoons means more windage again, but we were recently on a marina next to a Catana 472 and we noted her freeboard was a solid 10cm higher than ours.

More importantly and as peterp very correctly notes, any time one approaches hard bits one needs to be very aware of (and then plan appropriately for) wind direction and effects...on any vessel and certainly on catamarans.

The alternative (trying to reduce windage by reducing freeboard) carries some real negatives, in our view anyway. For example, the often chimed decks necessary to give both headroom inside and less freeboard outside result in both (comparatively) less headroom and awkward deck spaces. On the Lagoons, the decks are superbly flat and easy to move about on...and we see that as well worth the windage.

Each to their own we say.

So Peter, aren't you supposed to be retired with plenty of time for experiences like sailing the L400 north? In any event, if you think you'll be up our way, let us know.

[D&D]

Originally Posted by D&D

In any event, if you think you'll be up our way, let us know.

...and if you can catch us when we're cruising, we'd love to take you out for a sail on the L440 as well.

[Garold]

Peter, I had the feeling when you first took delivery of your L400 that the beam and the windage may put you off the boat.

The L400 certainly felt like a big boat to me when we moved up from the L380.

However, I can see by your comments about upgrading, that the size is not an issue. I'm impressed.

In the southern UK marinas our boat is still as big as we would want to go. However, when we get out into the anchorages, which we do much more of in summer, the size is beneficial. The UK is still not too cat-friendly and in the busy summer months marinas don't want us because they earn more from using the space for monohulls.

Nevertheless, we are happy with our choice of boat. And what's more, we always liked the design inside and out. We are self sufficient so marinas are only useful to us if the weather is really bad or they have a access to a decent pub!

Our recent additions include this week's purchase of a 30kg stainless steel Spade anchor. We still have the 25kg Rocna as a spare. I hope the Spade is as good as the Rocna. Rocna has never let go once, but we fancied the shiny stainless on the bow.

We also just upgraded our tender from an Avon 315 to an aluminium hulled Highfield 340 with a new 20hp Honda outboard. It sits on the davits well but is the max size between the hulls. And goes like stink. Lighter than the Avon too.

We had an extra fridge fitted last year just outside the saloon door where we had a cupboard under the helm. So, we now have an beer/wine fridge and a separate food fridge. Ideal.

I hope to change the heating this winter to get an extra Webasto blower in, so that we have one for each hull and both feeding the saloon when required.

And otherwise, we are still enjoying our boat.

These days we usually finish work Thursday and do 3 day weekends which is ideal and we have done about 40/52 weekends in the last 12 months. However, have only done about 3 or 4 weeks full time because of work schedules and all of them were limited by really poor weather so we have never really been more than 40-50 miles from our home port for the last 12 months.

And I lost my password for this forum and only just bothered to sort it out. Such a simple task, so no excuse.

Cheers

Garold