Allegro

Allegro obviously makes you think of a fast, joyous, lively and jaunty tempo...it’s also a reference to its designer, Andr  Allegre, who died recently. This colossus, a real multihull pioneer, was the designer of Pen Duick VI, renamed Manureva. A real ‘monsieur’! Granted, it disappeared with its skipper Alain Colas during the first Route du Rhum in 1978... But previously, it had completed a round-the-world trip singlehanded via Cape Horn and won the Transat in 1972. The Allegro, launched in 1976, is also very innovative: whilst below the waterline the hulls are U-shaped, very slim on the waterline, the central hull adopts an incredible longitudinal step, enlarged again at the deck by the streamlining which covers the crossbeams. Under the water, the slimness of a multihull; inside and on deck, the volume and area of a monohull. Of course modern trimarans also adopt this recipe, but still not as radically as Andr  Allegre imagined 35 years ago! Another good idea; the boat can be dismantled. The floats, crossbeams and streamlining can be taken off the central hull. An operation which is not simple, but can be carried out by three or four strong lads. The Allegro is therefore trans...