46
BRAND NEW LAGOON 2019
Next exhibition: La Grande Motte (France)
Awarded “Multihull of the year”!
Next exhibition: La Grande Motte (France)
Lagoon is a brand dedicated to life and freedom, born of a dream combining travel and the comfort of large volumes.
In our factories in Bordeaux, Vendée and all over the world, we are hundreds, all passionate about the sea and what we accomplish.
WE CREATE FREEDOM
Jenna Miller and James Utzschneider, an American couple from Seattle, were bored with their daily routine, so they decided to live aboard a Lagoon 500 with their two children and set off to sail the seven seas.
Jenna Miller and James Utzschneider, an American couple from Seattle, were bored with their daily routine, so they decided to live aboard a Lagoon 500 with their two children and set off to sail the seven seas.
My partner and I have always been passionate about sailing. We spent many years sailing up and down the coast
of America aboard our Hallberg-Rassy 46 monohull. After our son was born, we visited lots of yacht shows, with one thought on our minds - to sail a family catamaran, one that would be safe for bluewater cruising. One time I was on a business trip in Singapore, and I fell head-over-heels in love with a Lagoon 500. After talking with Jenna, we made our decision, we had found our ideal boat!
The 500 is built to a similar standard as our old monohull and was exactly what we were looking for. The boat was delivered to Seattle in February 2008, the same week that our little girl was born. We had been thinking of calling our daughter Sophie, but it is a really
common name in Washington State, so that is why we named the boat instead. As for our daughter, we named her Hazel. Four years later we moved on board Sophie.
To make this way of life possible, and long-term, we try to organise things as normally as possible, just like ‘‘at
home’’, including schooling every day.
Our children live, play and learn aboard our catamaran. We all do our fair share of work on the boat. My wife now has over twenty years’ experience sailing, and she can perform more or less all the different manoeuvres. And since we share all that needs to be done, we do not need a skipper. As long as the four of us are all in good health, I do not see any reason why this family voyage should come to an end. Going back to ‘‘normal life’’ would be really, really hard for us now.
In the last five years, we have been to over thirty different destinations. We started by visiting French Polynesia and New Zealand, in the South Pacific, and then sailed around a good deal of Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and next we sailed to the Indian Ocean among other places.
Then we went to visit nearly all the Mediterranean countries. We have never been anywhere that we did not love! One of my most lasting memories of the trip was when we crossed the Red Sea to get from Thailand to Egypt. We really wanted the children to see Europe. Given how unsafe things are in the Gulf of Aden, our initial plan was to take a different route, but then we read that twenty boats had made the passage via the Red Sea without any problems. We decided to take this route and hired three armed guards to sail with us between the Maldives and Egypt. Not something that happens every day! The three guards turned out to be great people, and the passage went extremely well and we did not see any pirates. As we sailed through the entrance to the Red Sea, the wind was blowing at sixty knots, just as we were passing between Yemen and Djibouti, at the narrowest point between the two countries (about 13 km). That is a sight that you only get to see once in a lifetime!
You need to be connected on Club Lagoon to see these contents.
Log in or create an account in a few clicks and take advantage of features and contents reserved for members.
