2022 LEOPARD CATAMARANS 53 PC - New Boat Library

All new Leopard 53 Powercat
This dream catcher takes cutting edge design and performance to dizzy new heights.
Cape Town, South Africa
From the smallest of sailing skiffs to giant supertankers, boat launchings are always a celebration of both achievement during construction and more especially what's in prospect once the vessel fulfills its true purpose. In the case of the new Leopard Powercat 53, that purpose is to provide great enjoyment, comfort, style and performance so that those lucky enough to step aboard can fulfil their dreams on the water.
It's an exhaustive process to take a new Leopard model from concept, through the R&D phase to mock-up, countless refinements and ultimately a completed vessel able to undertake sea trials before final sign-off and eventual release to the market.
Leopard Australia's David Flynn and Wayne Richards visited Cape Town soon after the launch ceremony to join Robertson and Caine's US based Peter Robertson, along with Leopard's Global Vice President Yacht Ownership and Product Development Franck Bauguil, designer Alex Simonis and others for the week-long program of sea trials off the Cape Town coastline. David says that to describe weather conditions for these sea trials as boisterous would be an understatement.
Torrential rain, gusty winds and an elevated sea state along the rugged coastline made for exactly the right conditions to push the Powercat 53 to its limits. "Evolving from the decades-long design and build heritage of the impressive Robertson and Caine and Simonis Voogd partnership, there's no question that this boat is about to re-write the rule book on performance and comfort when it comes to lifestyle on the water, " said David.
"Tooling and finishes are superb. Robustness and sophistication of the engineering is seriously impressive, its fresh new look and Euro styling and of course, reliability that comes about from built-in quality and smart thinking guarantees it will shake up the market and go hard against any of the fast mono hulls, " David adds.
Pushing the boat to its limits of around 24 knots in 20 knots of breeze, all on board agreed how smoothly the trial boat pushed through the challenging sea and weather conditions. "There was no slamming and the motion was purposeful. It felt like a much larger vessel ironing out the waves, regardless of their direction in relation to the boat, " said David. It's where you see the payoff from such a highly evolved hull design, " he added.
These trials were the culmination of all the design and build work that had gone into bringing this model to life. They were also a great validation of the quality of that work and a portent of what's to come as the Powercat 53 makes its mark in all the world's great cruising hubs.
Oh, and it should come as no surprise that the Leopard 53 Powercat has taken out the 2020 'Multihull of The Year' award for best Powercat in the over 50ft category.
Pleasing news out of the Leopard factory in Cape Town is that production remains uninterrupted by the COVID 19 crisis as they ramp up to satisfy a growing order book.
For a virtual tour of the Leopard Powercat 53 click on the link below.