Lagoon World Escapade

Our video

Lagoon Owners’ get-togethers have been taking place for years and are usually organized by dealers with the manufacturer’s support. The dates are set according to local requirements (boat shows, climate, staff availability) and are spread out over the year... but then, to mark the brand’s 40th anniversary, an idea was born: “In short,” explains Thomas Gailly, brand manager, “We wanted to set up 40 Lagoon Escapades all over the world at the same time.” On paper, the project sounded devilishly attractive; in practice, it was a whole different ballgame... But Thomas managed to convince his teams. The name of the event was soon decided: Lagoon World Escapade for each country. In the end, May 17, 18 and 19 were chosen. Only Japan was forced to bring its Escapade forward by a week. In the end, the target of 40 joint events could not be reached, but there were still some 30, spread around the world, with ultimately 2,400 crew aboard 400 Lagoon catamarans gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the brand that has sold the most cruising catamarans in the world - 7,000 of them, no less! At the shipyard’s headquarters in Bordeaux, everything had been planned: Lagoon dances and cocktail parties, participative WhatsApp groups, photos and videos in real time...

Welcome to Göcek!

Of course, the Multihulls World team wanted to get out in the field, or rather out on the water. So I joined - with a short stopover in Croatia, but that’s another story - the staff of Tezmarin in Istanbul. This yacht broker is one of the main Lagoon dealers, so the team led by Osmancan Erşahin was particularly involved in organizing its own World Escapade. Together with Thomas and the Tezmarin staff, we took a late afternoon flight to Dalaman, 500 km (310 mi) south of Istanbul. There, after a short mini-bus ride, we stepped aboard. The air was warm and the wind absent. The setting looked sublime – it was already almost dark. The large bay, itself set in the Gulf of Fethiye, is perfectly protected from the open sea by a string of islands. Here you’ll discover a multitude of particularly pristine bays and coves - protected by strict regulations. It was early in the season, and I could already see a lot of boats moored “Mediterranean style”, i.e. anchor out forward and lines led ashore aft, this setup being used due to the deep depths and the management of swinging room. Osmancan tells me that it’s forbidden to tie up to the trees, and that during the summer, there are many boats who sometimes stay for a week or more in the same spot, so pleasant is the setting... We reached the small bay off the Adaia Göcek restaurant, base camp of our Lagoon Escapade. The site was, in fact, only accessible by sea. A large U-shaped pontoon could accommodate around twenty boats - there were already a good dozen. Thomas and I were welcomed aboard a Lagoon 55, which was obviously going to be much better than a hotel!

Day 1

As soon as the sun was up, participants began ...