Exocet Junior

We sailed aboard one of the very first production catamarans!

In our Who’s Who feature on Bernard Nivelt (see MW178), the famous naval architect mentioned the construction by his father of a prototype sport catamaran, the Exocet, in the family living room... Michel Nivelt was indeed one of the two partners of the La Prairie shipyard - the boatbuilder that launched this catamaran in sprayed polyester and plywood, one of the very first of its kind.

Exocet Junior

Published 23/07/2022

By Emmanuel van Deth

Issue: SP18

Published: sept. / oct. 2022

Discover this issue

While the standard model was equipped with a folding deck enabling it to be transported, its little sibling, the Junior, was content with a much more rigid one-piece plywood deck. This is where Olivier Queneaux, one of our readers, comes in: he got in touch with us; he contacted us because he had unearthed this little catamaran, carefully restored (in his garage...). But what was he proposing? To let us discover for ourselves this surviving piece of history, at the sailing club - the Club de Voile de Castelnaudary, here in France. With its original sails, this Exocet Junior of course thrilled us – check out our video before a full article appears in Multihulls World n°186.

Technical specifications:

Builder: Chantier La Prairie
Architect: Lucien Gourmez
Year of launch: 1962
Production: about 120 examples
Length: 14’9” (4.5 m)
Weight: 220 lbs (100 kg)
Material: Sprayed polyester and plywood

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