A multihull is a boat or ship with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull. The most common multihulls are catamarans, and trimarans. There are other types, with four or more hulls, but such examples are very rare and tend to be specialised for particular functions.
Yachting is recreational boating activities using medium/large-sized boats or small ships collectively called yachts. Yachting is distinguished from other forms of boating mainly by the priority focus on comfort and luxury, the dependence on marinas for docking, and being typically only for exclusive social leisures such as cruising, fishing trip or racing.
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a yacht, as opposed to a boat, such a pleasure vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and may have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities.
The Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France.
The Jules Verne Trophy is a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew provided the vessel has registered with the organization and paid an entry fee. A vessel holding the Jules Verne trophy will not necessarily hold the absolute round the world record. The trophy was first awarded to the first yacht which sailed around the world in less than 80 days. The name of the award is a reference to the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days in which Phileas Fogg traverses the planet in 80 days. The current holder is IDEC Sport skippered by Francis Joyon in 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes 30 seconds.
Bruno Tristan Peyron is a French yachtsman who, along with his crew on the catamaran Orange II, broke the outright round-the-world sailing record in March 2005. He was the first winner of the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994, for completing a round-the-world trip in less than 80 days. Peyron was born in Angers, France and grew up in the French Atlantic coast city of La Baule. He has been one of the main organisers behind the round-the-world-race, The Race.
Oryx Quest was the name of the first round-the-world yacht race to start and finish in the Middle East and was held in February 2005 in Qatar.
A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from 40 metres (130 ft) to more than 180 metres (590 ft) in length, and sometimes include yachts as small as 24 metres (79 ft).
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, originally named Prada Challenge, then Luna Rossa Challenge, is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate first created to compete for the 2000 America's Cup. It won the Louis Vuitton Cup on its first attempt in 2000, but then lost the America's Cup match against the defending champion team, Team New Zealand.
Royal Huisman is a Dutch shipbuilding company that specializes in the newbuild construction and refit, rebuild and renewal of sailing and motor yachts.
Groupama 3 is a high performance racing sailing trimaran designed for transoceanic record-setting IDEC SPORTBanque Populaire VII, Lending Club 2, IDEC 3). She is one of the world's fastest ocean-going sailing vessels and the current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy for circumnavigation of the world. She was originally skippered by French yachtsman Franck Cammas, with a crew of ten and sponsored by the French insurance company Groupama. She is currently skippered by Françis Joyon.
Banque Populaire V, is an offshore-racing trimaran which was originally run by Team Banque Populaire. It was Team Banque Populaire's fifth boat designed to set oceanic records. She was launched on 4 October 2008 in Nantes, France. She holds multiple records for sailing over set courses, as well as the record for distance sailed in 24 hours by any class of sailing boat, 908.2 nm.
The boat was initial launched "Code Zero" as it searched for sponsorship and soon renamed Innovation Explorer and is an ocean-racing catamaran. She was built for The Race, a no-limits nonstop crewed circumnavigation in which she took second place.
VPLP design is a French-based naval architectural firm founded by Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, responsible for designing some of the world's most innovative racing boats. Their designs presently hold many of the World Speed Sailing records.
Bernard Gallay is a French yachtsman and businessman. He has competed in the Vendée Globe twice and finished his career as a professional sailor whilst participating in the Transat 6.50 in 2005. In 1994, he moved to Montpellier in the South of France and founded Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage. He still competes in amateur races such as Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez and the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
Alfa Romeo II is a maxi yacht designed in 2005 by Reichel/Pugh for yachtsman Neville Crichton. First-to-finish in the 2009 Transpacific Yacht Race, she also set a new elapsed-time Transpac race record for monohulls.
Douce France is a 138 feet luxury sailing catamaran design by VPLP design and built by Alumarine in Brittany (France). At its launch in 1998, she was the largest sailing cat ever built and won most innovative Sailing Yacht 1999 - Showboats Design Awards. It was built at Alu Marine also underwent a refit in 2009 and 2015. The exterior and interior design was done overall by Peteghem & Lauriot Prevost. The vessel is known for a panoramic window interior lounge, one of the areas along with the teak wood aft deck, upper level cockpit, and the interior cabins in the twin hulls.
Nick Moloney is an Australian professional yachtsman, born on 5 May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia. Having completed 3 circumnavigation and set 15 speed records and competed in pinnacle yachting events.
Yann Eliès is a French professional sailor. He competed in the 2008-2009 Vendee Globe where he was evacuated from his yacht South of Australia after being incompacitated due to a fractured femur. He returned for the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe finishing 5th.
