McConaghy MC75 hits 29 knots, proven luxury catamaran returns to La Grande-Motte

Twenty-nine knots in a 75-foot catamaran is the kind of number that resets expectations, and McConaghy’s MC75 arrived in La Grande-Motte with that speed already attached to its name. On display at the International Multihull Show at stand S11, the yacht looked less like a concept and more like a statement about where premium multihulls are heading: faster, lighter and still determined to feel luxurious.

That matters because the MC75 is not fresh off a drawing board. Hull number one was launched in 2023, and it had already completed two Mediterranean seasons and one Caribbean season by the time it returned to the spotlight in France. A brokerage listing identified the yacht on display as JACK, built in 2023, while Ancasta said the second MC75 was already cruising the South Pacific. For a model priced and positioned at the top end, that kind of real-world mileage gives the speed claim real weight.

The architecture is where the MC75 starts to separate itself from ordinary fast cruisers. Ker Yacht Design described it as a 75-foot luxury performance catamaran built to balance lifestyle, performance and comfort, and the numbers back that up: 23.3 metres long, 9.8 metres in beam, 298 square metres of sail area and twin 150 HP engines. The draft is about 4.5 metres with the centerboards down and about 1.2 metres with them raised, a setup that points clearly toward serious offshore sailing rather than marina theatrics.

One of the most striking design choices is the absence of a forward crossbeam. Instead, the MC75 uses a central carbon longeron, a detail inspired by America’s Cup foiling cats and one that places the boat firmly in the high-tech performance camp. The daggerboards are built to retract if they strike something, then drop back down to deliver the kind of grip and lift that makes a 29-knot run feel less like a stunt and more like a capability.

Still, this is not a stripped-out racer wearing a luxury badge. McConaghy described the MC75 as lightweight, eco-friendly and fully customisable, while Ker said the sailing cockpit sits entirely on the flybridge, keeping the saloon views open and the living space intact. Huge sliding side windows and bifold aft doors let the interior flow outdoors, and a brokerage listing put interior headroom at roughly 2.0 to 2.4 metres. At about $7 million ex tax, the MC75 is not a mass-market shift, but it may be a clear marker of the new ceiling for fast-cruising luxury catamarans.