Gunboat is the forerunner of the ongoing current trend for fast composite carbon catamarans. The Gunboat 48 is a very popular model, despite only a handful being made – though huge numbers of any Gunboat model do not really exist.

It is the boat that surfing megastar, John John Florence selected for a beautifully shot travelogue-style video series, which he named after his Gunboat 48 Vela.

When Peter Johnstone conceived the first Gunboat 62 Tribe over 20 years ago, spawned from the discomfort his family felt sailing a large monohull, little did he know he would start a cult for cool cruising cats that can outpace maxis on a race course and have the legs to avoid a storm.

Veteran multihull designers Morrelli & Melvin followed up with this smaller model, more manageable for an owner-driver yet still capable of up to 300-400 mile days.

A rare breed, just six 48s were built between 2004 and 2009. Oh, to have a spare €1.3m right now… one of them is actually on the market.

Gunboat 48 price

Around €1.3m second hand

See our full list of best bluewater mutlihulls

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