Franck Bauguil wears many hats. But the Senior VP of Yacht Ownership and Product Development for Leopard Catamarans, The Moorings and Sunsail/Travelopia Group took time from his busy schedule to jump on his Ducati motorcycle and meet Southern Boating & Yachting at Harbour Towne Marina for a chat about his multifaceted role—and boating.
How Leopard Catamarans Balances Performance, Comfort, and Design
I imagine the product development part of your role is one of the most exciting things you do.
It is a pleasure to work with the Robertson and Caine design team, the R&C senior management team, and Alex Simonis and Martin Voogt, the longtime naval architects for Leopard Catamarans. From model to model, we conserve the Leopard DNA—the best combination of comfort and performance and ease of maintenance— and improve the design as well as introduce new technological advances. The design is a combination of logical improvements from the previous model based on feedback, experiencing the boats, and a vision of how the next generation will look—nothing AI can do!
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Inside the Global Yacht Charter Market
How is the charter side of the business going?
This is a vast subject, since we operate over 700-plus yachts ourselves all over the world with many source markets, but in general, we see bookings that continue to progress nicely and very strong yacht sales into the Yacht Ownership programs. At the same time, inflation continues to affect our operations, and we are still having difficulty sourcing technical staff. Tariffs are also disrupting and complicating our supply chain for our operations.
Key Trends in Modern Catamaran Design
What are some of the trends you’re seeing right now?
Catamarans are more and more “open.” They feature larger windows in the main salon and cabins, wider door assemblies, and multiple points of access in and out of the boat. Regarding equipment and OEM, batteries in general are changing the way boats are being used, either for the service batteries and minimizing or eradicating the use of a genset, or for propulsion of the boat itself. Leopard is fully involved in these new technologies, offering electric drives as an option and various lithium packages, along with advanced inverting and converting electrical systems. Solar energy technologies are also progressing fast, at a lower cost. We are also working on more efficient and economical systems, particularly the more energy-hungry ones, like air conditioning.
