MACIF: World’s coolest yachts

Yachting World has been asking top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times, and offshore icon Dee Caffari nominated the Maxi Trimaran MACIF. Here’s the report:

The round the world record breaking sailboat MACIF was launched in 2016 for French solo sailor and Vendée Globe winner François Gabart. He set a solo round the world record of 42d 16h in it in 2017.

The 31m Ultime was then re-fitted with more advanced and powerful foils to keep the boat competitive with the rest of the Ultime fleet. It has since been sold with François Gabart launching a new, super-high tech Ultime in 2021.

“This is a boat only a handful of people have ever been aboard but it’s a boat all the cool kids would really love to sail,” says Dee Caffari. “It’s the coolest yacht in the world because it’s very, very fast and because François Gabart set the 24-hour record of 851 miles all on his own. And he is very cool himself!

“My first step in these boats was when I was working as a nipper for Mike Golding. I had a chance to go sailing on Club Med [Grant Dalton’s 110ft cataraman, winner of The Race round the world in 2000/1] in the Solent. It was all a bit beyond me. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I thought that was the coolest boat ever.”

For Yachting World’s list of cool boats, click here.