380: Lagoon 380 Pros and Cons ?

[Steffen26]

Is someone the owner of a Lagoon 380? We re looking for one like this!catamarans for sale Could you provide us with more information and experiences?
Thank you very much
Timo

[svend]

Greetings:

The lagoon has so many positives and few negatives...
I think there have been more Lagoon 380's sold than any other catamaran. That says a lot. It has the advantage of being just big enough, without having the headaches of a larger cat. (docking, getting under bridges, fee's associated with length, etc...)

I have a great 380 for sale... you can see it at:
http://www.usedboats.com/boat-ad/dis...d_id/106013771

and Svend's Lagoon 380 - Easy Living

Good luck in your search

[henryv]

There is a recent thread on Leopard 38 vs Lagoon 380 that has a lot of good commentary on the Lagoon.

[tortola7]

I used to be a skipper on one in BVI.

The boat sailed well. But was not built for liveaboard. Limited galley and storage, pots and pan have to go under settees and no place to store food. The S2 version has the extra fridge which helps.

I don't like the fact that you cannot get out of the helm 2 directions. Some boats have a custom bimini so you can actually sit at the helm without cooking in the sun.

[Te Moana]

We're very happy owners of Lagoon380 hull #153, purchased new in 2002. Of course there are always many aspects of a boat which are personal and depend on the kind of use you have in mind.

You'll always have the "galley up or down" debate and about the balance between comfort and performance. For us, the 380 perfectly hits our sweet spot. We do a fair bit of coastal cruising and have lived on the boat for up to 2 months, but in between, we use it for weekend sailing.

I've kept a blog about our boat, Te Moana and you're welcome to ask me any specific questions mh at coomans dot com

Marius Coomans

[SailFastTri]

We chartered a 380s in Belize. We loved it but had only a few criticisms.

I too, don't like the fact that you cannot get out of the helm 2 directions. The helm seat back is rolled and after a few days is not comfortable -- I would replace that with a flat back. The hollow keels have open tops -- I would cover those with fiberglass (with sealed inspection ports) so if a keel was damaged it wouldn't flood the hull. I would also add a crash bulkhead in each bow. The (inner) engine covers are a wood puzzle, making it inconvenient to check oil etc. Also, the boat is not very fast nor does it point well (lots of leeway) but that's the case with most cruising cats with low-aspect shoal-draft fixed keels.

Also the galley water used a foot pump for sea water but pressure fresh water. That doesn't make sense, as the fresh water is more important to conserve. Of course, you want pressure water for the showers, so I would add pressure pump for sea water.

Overall we loved the boat and (other than sailing attributes) all those "negatives" were easily fixed.

[3Eagles]

We live aboard our Lagoon 380 Catamaran and have put over 15,000 nautical miles on her (sailing from Virginia to Australia). We looked extensively at all the cat options and felt that the Lagoon was the best boat for us - and still believe we purchased the perfect boat for our needs.

There are many pros and cons for all boat designs, so it really depends on what you want. For us, we wanted a well built, trustworthy (safe) and comfortable catamaran (beamy hulls for queen sized beds). But this made her slower due to her construction weight and hull design (thick hull, no dagger boards, etc). We also liked the Galley Up design so that we always felt we were "outside," not stuck down in a hull. Lastly, we really love the cabin top design, which may not look as sleek, but allows for more height inside (more spacious looking interior) and the window design keeps the sun out (during the hottest parts of the day we don't need curtains since the windows are vertical, allowing for unobstructed 380 degree visibility). It's a smart design that makes a load of sense.

Our boat is for sale, so click here to view our Blog and For Sale Website, which goes into greater detail in the Lagoon 380 design. Good luck!

Picture Website Live! | The Hynes Honeymoon!
Why This Boat?

[mudbug]

Hi y'all,

I have owned my Lagoon 380 "Indigo Moon" for six and a half years.

My wife and I have lived aboard full time for over five years and have covered over 17,000 miles, much of it offshore in blue water with just the two of us on long passages.

We have found the boat to be absolutely as close to perfect as any offshore production catamaran can be . . . it has so many perfect tradeoffs in design that fall conclusively on the "smart side."

Our boat has been a super-performer offshore, a very comfortable home on the hook, and has MORE storage than many 41 and 42 foot cats.

Also, we have never found the galley insufficient in the least.

We planned on cruising only two years but found the Lagoon 380 Owner's Version so livable and a joy that we stayed out for over five years in one shot.

We have completed all we set out to do and more, and we just put the boat up For Sale by Owner (in Feb 2010), and if you want to read an overview of what we LOVE about the Lagoon 380 Owner's Version, and what it has been like for us, you can peruse a ton of information at www.indigomoon.us including a complete collection of trip reports on out adventures.

As most other 380 owners say, I agree that "If I was going to start over and buy another catamaran, I would buy another 380 Owner's Version."

That is just about the highest compliment any vessel can earn . . . that intimately knowing its strong and weak points after years of ownership, you would plunk down a huge chunk of change for another one just like it!

Anyway, I have been aboard virtually every other production catamaran made in the 380's class and there is a good reason that the Lagoon 380 is by far the most successful blue-water-rated production catamaran in the world, with not even a close second.

It is simply a fabulous boat for the price and what you get and there is no other boat in its class that does a better job for what we needed in a full time home at sea.

So, that's my 2 cents!

Happy sailing,

Buddy

[3Eagles]

By the way, we have sold our boat since my posting above and I felt it might be helpful if I post a VERY thorough review of the Lagoon 380 on this forum. Having spent over 15,500 nautical miles crossing the Pacific Ocean on our Lagoon 380 I thought my unbiased experiences would help prospective buyers. Click here to read that review in its entirety.

All the best,
Seth

[ejlindahl]

Would you care to share any reasons why you chose the 380 over the 410, other than you may not have needed the space & galley size of he 410. Are there any appreciable differences in performance, windward ability, quality of construction or features. Did engine placement figure strongly in your choice?

Thank you.

[mudbug]

Hi!

Sure, I looked very hard at 410 Lagoons and 42 Mantas too.

As for the 410 Lagoon, it is an "old school Lagoon design."

The 570, 470, 410 and 37 all have relatively narrow hulls that get even narrower aft.

The 380 ushered in a complete departure from those old designs, and all the new Lagoons, to this day, are spun off from the 380's new turning point in Lagoon's layout.

The new design incorporates much wider hulls and with a much wider transom on each hull. The trick was to come up with a hull shape that was still fast enough.

Conventional catamaran wisdom had always required narrow hulls for speed.

The 380 took a big step in going for wide hulls and still managing to keep speed in an acceptable range.

This did several great things.

For one, the extra width aft allows for comparatively huge aft cabins. The 380's aft cabins are significantly larger than those on a 410 or Manta 42.

The wider hulls and transoms also allowed for much greater load carrying capacity aft, and the relocation of engines outside the living quarters and into SUPER accessible aft engine compartments.

With no engines under the bunks, and wider hulls, the 380 has much more storage space than a 410 and a better ability to carry that additional stored gear.

In all fairness, the 410 is a better sailing boat, has a bigger galley, and more heads and accomodations for a larger crew if you need that, but it was not the boat for our needs.

We were not going racing or weekend sailing, we were going cruising.

And even so, I was never "left behind" and routinely performed in the same speeds as the 410 and Manta 42. Once all these boats get super loaded for cruising, they are a little faster than comparable monohulls and nobody is setting speed records. We averaged a little over seven knots over 17,600 miles to date.

We found the 380 to be better for cruising as a couple because it has much more storage space, better load-carrying ability, and is so easy to service the engines.

As an example, I can change the entire seawater cooling pump on one of my yanmars in less than five minutes, literally.

On a Lagoon 410's port yanmar, you have to unbolt the engine from the mounts and jack the whole engine up to get the seawater pump out, because the engine is sandwiched into such a tight space. And you do all this work under a bunk in poor ambient light.

The differences in serviceablity are nothing short of astounding and, except for the trademark Lagoon vertical salon windows, there is little in common between the 410 and 380.

And also, there were other issues too, such as the 410's halyard winch being located on on the mast base, requiring you to go forward offshore to handle sails. Mantas even have a hank-on head sail to deal with offshore . . . we wanted modern, all in the cockpit running rigging and furling and the 380 has that.

In short, the 380's "new and improved" Lagoon design change attributes made it a no-brainer for us.

That does not mean folks have not been extremely happy on Lagoon 410's and Mantas too. They are fine boats.

410's are a great boat in many ways and the old school layout of the 410 might suit your fancy better than a 380 for whatever reason. They are venerable blue water cruisers that do a fine job overall.

So, just pick one you really like personally and you can't go wrong!

Hope this helps and best of luck,

Buddy

[ejlindahl]

Thanks Mudbug

Great points. Do you have to jack the engine to just replace the impeller or inspect/clean the pump? In my experience it is the impeller that requires frequent replacement. On my boat I've never replaced the pump.

thanks again

Eric

[mudbug]

Eric,

On the Lagoon 410's port yanmar I saw being worked on, the pump impeller can be replaced with no trouble, sure.

But what happened is that one of the screws for the impeller plate weeped a little over time and it went on undetected long enough to cause the screw to corrode and become frozen in the pump housing.

It sheared off in the pump housing when the owner tried to remove the screw/plate and fix the weeping.

There was not enough clearance at all to deal with that type of sheared-off screw task, so the pump had to be pulled.

It is a gear-driven pump on that engine, and so you need enough clearance to unbolt it from the engine block and slide it far enough forward for the oil side and gear drive to escape the block.

There is not nearly enough forward clearance to do that and the engine had to be unbolted and lifted a little and moved sideways.

And while the seawater pump itself is not a part that needs to be serviced/replaced often, it is clearly a wear item nonetheless.

The seawater pump's rear seal that prevents seawater from entering the engine oil is a wear item, as is the cam in the seawater section of the pump (that the impeller rides on).

In areas with extremely silty water, the impeller-wear surfaces in the pump can wear even more so and eventually reduce the pump's volume, etc.

The issue is not really the seawater pump anyway.

The issue is that be it the starter, alternator, seawater pump, injectors, high pressure pump, freshwater pump, hoses, oil and temp sensors, heat exchanger, manifolds or whatever . . . the issue is that if it is bolted to an engine block, it may and probably will need some servicing, or removal, or replacement during the entire life of the engine.

You would surely like to think that NONE of those bolt-on-component exchanges/servicings would require moving the engine!

Right?

But . . . welcome to the wonderful world of boating!

These types of complications are the norm, not the exception on boats . . . monohulls with engines shoehorned into very tight compartments with blind spots, catamarans with engines stuffed under the bunks, powerboats that often have engines with very difficult access too . . . it is an accepted design in most boats, really.

I have been in a LOT of very challenging engine compartments in my decades of boating life. It's nothing new.

Try setting the points and timing on a Chris Craft aft cabin cruiser with 454 gas engines . . . with only about eight inches of clearance over the entire engine area . . . YIKES!

That said, the point is that it was phenominal in the catamaran boating industry when the Lagoon 380 broke new ground and came up with engine access that is pretty much exactly like a 55 Chevy with a 289.

You can climb in there with the engine and literally sleep with it there is so much room.

Everything is simple, in plain sight, and each and every nut and bolt can be "got at" and inspected in bright sunlight and/or serviced in bright sunlight instantly and with not one obstruction in your way while you get the job done instead of wrestle access.

Will all of my gearhead experience over my lifetime, I KNEW what I was looking at when I saw the 380's new style design. It brought tears of joy to my eyes!

It's like the "priceless" commercials.

Very nice used Lagoon 380: $299,000;

Fuel and full provisions to head out: $300;

Owning a boat that allows you to work on the engines with no trouble whatsoever:

priceless.

All the best,

Buddy