Fountaine Pajot Power 67

This is the largest-ever power multihull from the France-based builder.

By Jeff Moser

March 25, 2023

When you see her from the dock, the first thing that strikes you about the Fountaine Pajot Power 67 is her sheer width. I saw her tied up stern-to among her brethren at the Miami International Boat Show, and she was like a mystical winged leviathan, poised to take to flight.

Credit goes to the feline’s 32-foot-plus beam and the tall pontoons that protrude high above the sea. The view from the dock also told me the France-based builder nailed her proportions.

Two stairwells lead to the cockpit, flanking a hydraulic swim platform and continuing as wide, teak-clad side decks to the bow. I was taken by the pair of staterooms aft, to port and starboard. This space is often reserved for crew quarters, but the designers saw an opportunity to create double-berth, en suite staterooms, and to give guests access through sliding, deeply tinted glass doors in the cockpit. Fountaine Pajot also gave these staterooms lots of light via fixed and opening hatches overhead.

The star of the cockpit, which is completely shaded by a flybridge overhang, is the sheer living space. With three distinct seating areas, including one with a dining table, there’s room for more than a baker’s dozen people. For sun worshipers, the flybridge has a quartet of sunpads aft, and the option to soak in the rays by opening the hardtop’s electrically retractable roof. In addition, her foredeck—wide enough for a frisbee toss—has sunken seating for five, a hot tub for two and space for loose furniture.

Before I entered the salon via folding steel-and-glass doors, I asked Hélène de Fontainieu, Fountaine Pajot’s director of communications, what drove the company to build a 67-foot powercat that’s about 20 feet longer than the next-largest model in its power fleet.

“Monohull owners are looking for more room, and longtime sailors that are moving onto powerboats are [driving] the business, looking at powercats for excellent seakeeping, safety and stability,” she said.

The salon continued the floating villa theme, with a galley, refrigeration and stowage capable of keeping a crew well-fed for weeks. A beefy, watertight door forward and on centerline grants access to the foredeck. Hull No. 4, which had her stateside premiere at the Miami show, had two more staterooms forward, one in each pontoon. A five-stateroom version is available as well.

Yves de Kerangat, director of flagship products, said the builder had a “vision of a long-range, efficient boat when designing the 67, [and] with her semidisplacement pontoons, she behaves well on plane from 7 to 20 knots.” The boat came across the Atlantic on her own bottom to the Miami show, burning about a half gallon of fuel per nautical mile while cruising at 10 to 12 knots (standard power is a pair of 300-hp D6s from Volvo Penta, with Hull No. 4 getting the larger 480-hp iron from the Swedish giant). Overall, the boat has an approximate 1,700-nm range at displacement speeds, a distance that should serve her owners well as they island-hop in the Bahamas, drawing just 3 feet, 9 inches.

One thing I noticed that I haven’t seen on other vessels: Her lower helm was without a wheel, just throttles and an autopilot. De Kerangat said that on long passages, captains can adjust headings on the autopilot, with close-quarters maneuvers reserved for the flybridge helm station. Rear-facing cameras help in both locations, but I’d add the optional aft wing station with throttles and a joystick. That station folds out from the after bulkhead in the cockpit.

By the end of this year, powercats are expected to outsell sailboats among Fountaine Pajot’s offerings. There are three models between 36 and 46 feet in addition to the Power 67, and an 80-footer is in the works.