Fountaine Pajot Earns Triple Nomination at Cruising World's 2026 Boat of the Year Awards

Three models from Fountaine Pajot's Sailing Catamarans core range landed simultaneous nominations for Cruising World's 2026 Boat of the Year awards, the French builder announced on March 16, 2026. The FP41, FP44, and FP55 each earned a spot on the shortlist, a result Fountaine Pajot framed as recognition of a consistent design direction pairing improved sailing performance with exceptional onboard living.

Cruising World's Boat of the Year awards, organized annually by the American sailing magazine, evaluate both monohulls and multihulls against benchmarks for modern cruising. Fountaine Pajot describes the award as "a benchmark on the North American market," and landing three nominations in a single cycle from one builder's range is a notable result in a field that typically spans dozens of competing yards.

The FP41 arrives carrying the heaviest nomination load of the three. Beyond Cruising World, it was also nominated for Multihull of the Year at SAIL's Best Boats 2026, included in the European Yacht of the Year awards, and named a Top Yacht 2026 candidate by German publication Segeln Magazine. The 12-metre catamaran is available with either a conventional internal combustion drivetrain or Fountaine Pajot's hybrid-electric ODSea+ system, and its mid-height double helmstation is designed to give the skipper uninterrupted sight lines to both sails and sea while staying connected to the cockpit. For the first time on a Fountaine Pajot model, buyers can configure the boat through the company's 3D Configurator Tool, selecting layouts, finishes, and options before purchase. Greg Boller, The Yacht Sales Co.'s Fountaine Pajot General Manager, called the nominations a direct affirmation of the design. "These award nominations affirm the FP41's remarkable design and its ability to set new benchmarks for modern cruising catamarans," he said. "We are thrilled to see the model recognised so strongly on the international stage and are confident it will be enthusiastically embraced by buyers in Asia Pacific." The FP41 made its Asia Pacific debut at the Sydney International Boat Show on Darling Harbour in November 2025, where The Yacht Sales Co. showed it from November 13 to 16.

The FP44 carries its own separate nomination trail. On February 13, 2026, Fountaine Pajot announced the model had been nominated for Multihull of the Year 2026, and the Cruising World nod followed. The company describes the FP44's design around social space: its aft cockpit extends fluidly into the saloon, and Fountaine Pajot positions the entire layout as "a true living environment open to the sea."

The FP55 is the most architecturally distinctive of the three nominees. Fountaine Pajot calls it the first catamaran of its size to feature a flybridge, a claim Caribbean Multihulls, which reported the nominations as early as October 22, 2025, reinforced by describing "a huge flybridge, a forward cockpit, and plenty of space to relax." The company positions the FP55 as the flagship of its Sailing Catamarans range and frames it as a vision of the next generation of cruising cats.

Fountaine Pajot has been building since 1976, and the current new-generation model rollout extends well beyond these three boats. The FP51 was formally introduced in late January 2026, and the company's ODSea Lab platform continues development of autonomous onboard energy production aimed at pushing the range toward carbon-neutral cruising. The triple Cruising World nomination lands at a moment when Fountaine Pajot's new generation is arriving across multiple size classes simultaneously, and the awards cycle will put all three designs in front of North American judges at once.