KING OF CATS

MARC VAN PETEGHEM OF FRENCH DESIGN LEADERS VPLP TALKS EXTREME FOILING, CRUISING CATS AND SUSTAINABILITY WITH SAM FORTESCUE

- SAM FORTESCUE

With Lagoon catamarans at one end of the spectrum and world-girdling Ultime class trimarans at the other, there’s not much in the multihull world that design studio VPLP has not turned its hand to. It is among the biggest of the French design offices which seem to dominate this sector, and one of the best-regarded.

Founded by the naval architects Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Marc van Peteghem, who met during their studies at Southampton University in the late 1970s, the company has always carried the acronym of their two surnames.

“I called Vincent in February 1983 and said there’s maybe a first boat to design, do you want to partner with me?” recalls van Peteghem, who is now the cruising half of the VPLP duo.

“We shared the same values and the same vision of the world and we’ve been partners ever since. When I was 12 or 13, I said I was going to be a yacht designer. Then it was only a question of patience.”

And though I say ‘cruising’, I use the term somewhat loosely, as van Peteghem has designed everything from dinghies to superyachts. While these days he takes care of clients such as Lagoon, Excess and Outremer, he and co-founder Laurioti Prévost actually began their careers designing a radical 50ft foiling trimaran called Gérard Lambert.

The boat was built for Vincent Levy’s 1984 OSTAR and showed real potential until its loss during the Route du Rhum in 1986 following a collision with a cargo ship.