To cover a fair amount of misinformation in this thread, let me add my 2˘. I have been on Excess 14 hull #1 a number of times, including on a three hour test sail where I was at the
helm for 1.5 hours. (As full disclosure, based on seeing the boat and sailing it, my wife and I placed an order.)
The boat
sails incredibly well. Where it really outperforms some other cats in its size is in light
wind. In 6 knots of
wind, it happily went 4 knots upwind. In 8 knots of wind it went 7 knots at 90° wind angle. We never had winds over 12 or 13 knots, but at 12 knots it sailed 8.5 knots at 120° wind angle. And it is a joy to sail.
It was specifically designed to be fun to sail, and it really is. With two aft helms, right over the rudders, and
dyneema mechanical steeering, it is extremely responsive, and the helmsperson is very close to the
water with excellent visibilty all around. This plus a generous sail area/weight ratio makes for very good performance. The boat I was on was fully equipped for cruising, and even had a
generator and AC.
As far as the asymmetric hull shape goes, its biggest advantage is reducing
interference drag. A great amount of testing was done. For those interested, read the article in No Frills Sailing:
https://no-frills-sailing.com/vplp-a...lls-excess-14/ . The Excess team is very happy with the hull shape. I have attached tow phones of how it was displayed a few days ago at the
Miami Boat Show, with bow facing forwards.
The Excess 14 has been very positively reviewed in a number of sailing mags: Sailing today Dec. 2022; Yachting World Feb. 2023; Multihulls World April/May 2023. I have attached the specs printed in Multihulls World, as well as an info table on what they think the competition is.
As far as the Excess/Lagoon discussion goes, the first two Excess models, the 12 and the 15, were built on Lagoon hulls. These two models will be discontinued. The two newer models, the 11 and the 14, are original desings by Excess, and use no Lagoon elements at all.
Apart from Performance, my wife and I found the Excess 14 to be extremely comfortable to be a
live-aboard. It is roomy with wonderful light in the
saloon. We chose the three
cabin owner's version, but it is really a 3 1/2
cabin boat--the forward section of the owner's hull is a storage/work area that has two coonvertible
single berths.
If anyone has any questions about the boat, just let me know.