Sailing a catamaran from France to Tahiti

Hinatea, from the island of Raiatea in Polynesia, and Tristan, from Rennes, are two young engineers in their thirties who have decided to change course and head for the Pacific! Specialised in high-tech transport and sustainable development, they wanted to give a new meaning to their professional lives by working for the development of Polynesia. And to put their convictions into practice, they’re not getting on a plane to travel to Tahiti, but are going to sail halfway around the world on their Excess 11 catamaran!

Once in French Polynesia, Sail Tahiti will take care of the maintenance and rental management of their Excess catamaran. This solution is becoming more and more popular with sailors who want to enjoy having their own boat in our paradise waters without the constraints and costs of maintenance, and no fewer than 4 Excess catamarans will be joining our fleet in 2023/2024!

From the choice of boat to its equipment, not forgetting advice on weather routing, stopovers and provisioning, Tristan and Hinatea have been able to draw on the experience of Sail Tahiti and the Excess sailing community. In particular, they took part in the 1st Excess Campus a few weeks before their departure.

Watch the video to find out why they chose their boat and how it is managed.

Excess Campus 2023: 3 days of training and sharing between Excess catamaran owners, the shipyard’s design team, skippers and boat maintenance professionals.

Excess is the youngest and most innovative brand in the world of blue water catamarans and continues to differentiate itself by the level of exchange it establishes with its owners and future owners.

Excess has created the Excess Lab, which allows everyone to put forward ideas and exchange ideas with the design team and other sailors, helping to influence the design of tomorrow’s catamarans. Now Excess is going one step further with the Excess Campus: 3 days of friendly exchanges between owners, professional sailors, shipyard engineers and technical partners.

The 1st edition took place at the end of September 2023 in Canet en Roussillon. It was an intense 3 days, during which I had the opportunity to talk to around twenty owners and share with them our experience of ocean crossings and sailing in the South Pacific.

We were warmly welcomed by Eric and Arnaud from Alliance Nautique at the Yacht Club they created. The programme for these 3 intense days included

• Harbour manoeuvres training
• Sail trimming and performance during an Excess 11 regatta
• Analysis and maintenance of standing and running rigging
• Weather routing
• Planning a sailing trip to Tahiti
• Communication systems (Iridium, Starlink…)
• Rescue at sea and emergency situations with the SNSM
• Engine maintenance with Yanmar
• On-board electricity and marine electronics with RM Nautisme
• The Excess evening party!

Sail Tahiti’s DNA is to support our customers in their blue water cruising projects, and to be associated with a brand as dynamic and innovative as Excess, with a veritable eco-system of technical partners, fits perfectly into this framework.

I hope to see most of the participants in this first edition in the South Pacific soon. Some of them have just left France in their Excess catamarans, and we’re looking forward to seeing them in Tahiti! Among our customers present at this first edition: Hinatea and Tristan, Béatrice and Jean-Pierre, Antonella and Silvano!

David Allouch – CEO Sail Tahiti