Hemisphere spotted in Spain, a giant sailing catamaran still exploring

Hemisphere’s sighting in Vilanova, Spain, was the kind of multihull moment that cuts through a monohull-heavy glamour fleet. At 44.2 metres long with a 16.6-metre beam, the sailing catamaran still looks like a piece of naval architecture built to dominate a quay, not blend into it.

The Spanish coast appearance sat inside a wider run of notable yacht sightings, with Nausicaä in Fort Lauderdale, Deep Blue in Poole and Valor in Portsmouth. That spread matters because the big-yacht calendar is not just about static marina flash; the fleet keeps moving, and the 19.9 million nautical miles logged last year show just how much water these boats are actually covering.

Hemisphere has always been more than a prestige object. The project began at Derecktor in late 2005, then shifted to Pendennis after delays and Derecktor’s financial difficulties in 2008. Pendennis launched her in 2011, with VPLP Design behind the platform and Michael Leach Design Ltd. responsible for the interior, and she quickly became a reference build for anyone following large sailing catamarans.

She is now the world’s second-largest sailing catamaran, but she launched as the largest, and that history still shapes how people talk about her. Pendennis describes Hemisphere as the world’s largest privately owned sailing catamaran, and the scale is easy to understand once she is tied up in a place like Vilanova, where the 16.6-metre beam reads as much as the length.

What keeps Hemisphere relevant is how hard she still works. She has travelled to 57 countries and completed two global circumnavigations, and her 3.1-metre draught gives her access to coral reefs and atoll anchorages that would shut out a lot of bigger, deeper yachts. The 16.4-metre custom sports fishing tender is another clue that this is an expedition platform first, marina sculpture second, built for shore excursions, diving and fishing rather than dockside posing.

Captain Gavin Bladen has been with Hemisphere since the beginning, which helps explain why the yacht feels like a living program instead of a trophy that never leaves the berth. That is the point of spotting her in Spain now: in a fleet full of polished monohulls, Hemisphere still reads as a multihull with range, purpose and a profile you cannot mistake for anything else.