Afinado Catamaran Debuts Flexible Wing Sail for Wind Propulsion

The most interesting boat at La Grande-Motte was not another layout tweak or charter-friendly hull. Afinado showed up as a 10-metre all-carbon catamaran carrying a 17-metre mast and a 60-square-metre ACCWing flexible wing, and the numbers were hard to ignore: the boat reportedly made more than 9 knots in only 11 knots of wind.

That is the real story here. The 2026 International Multihull Show ran from 22 to 26 April in La Grande-Motte with more than 80 multihulls on display and multiple world debuts, but Afinado stood apart because it was not selling a floor plan. It was selling a different answer to wind propulsion, one that could matter if it can move beyond the experimental lane.

Handling is the first test, and it is the strongest part of the pitch. ACCWing’s idea, developed by Hugues de Turckheim, uses a fixed, free-standing carbon mast with a soft wingsail that rotates around it. Seahorse described the concept as a system that can deliver roughly 10 degrees better close-winded performance than a conventional rig with quality sails, while Yachting World called it a twin-skinned sail with internal “muscles” operated by compressed air. The claim that matters for cruising owners is simpler than the engineering: the wing is meant to adjust itself, so the driver is not constantly trimming a fussy rig. That is a much more interesting promise than raw speed alone.

Durability is the next question, and the build choices at least suggest the project is being treated seriously. Afinado’s platform was all-carbon and weighed barely a ton, which is a light structure by any multihull standard, but the broader backstory matters too. Philippe Marcovich is tied to Sicomin, the French epoxy and composites company, where he has led the business for 42 years and remains president after Ken Marcovich became CEO in 2025. That kind of composites pedigree does not guarantee longevity at sea, but it does mean this is not being put together by people guessing at materials.

Retrofit practicality is where the idea still has to prove itself. Afinado was not presented as a simple mast swap for an existing cruising cat. It was an integrated test boat, and ACCWing’s own development platforms also include a 10-metre catamaran with a 56-square-metre wing and a 34-square-metre composite-wing trimaran for work-vessel testing. Multicoques Mag also noted that a TenderCat TCS25 was expected as the official tender for Afinado, which reinforced the sense that this was a full system presentation, not just a sail demo.

That is what makes Afinado worth watching. Multihulls World first covered an earlier ACCWing prototype in July 2023, and the concept has been building toward this moment for a while. If it can deliver easier handling, credible durability and a package that yard owners can actually live with, wingsails may finally have a place on ordinary catamarans instead of staying in the prototype corner.