Buying a used Excess: judging a young brand on engineering, not history
Excess has only been building boats since 2019, so a used Excess is bought on the strength of a design decision more than on decades of reputation. Groupe Beneteau -- also the builder of Lagoon -- created the brand to occupy a sportier niche among cruising catamarans, ruling out flybridge decks across the entire range as part of that positioning. That makes fit a real question before condition does: a buyer who actually wants the extra helm feel this line was built around should target Excess specifically, rather than treating it as a Lagoon substitute. Because the range is still short, hull generation and build quality matter more here than model-year prestige.
Which era to target
The real dividing line in a used Excess isn't age -- it's whether the hull was adapted or purpose-built. The 12 and 15 launched first on tooling borrowed from the Lagoon 40 and Lagoon 50, a shortcut that got the brand to market quickly but means those two hulls weren't drawn specifically for Excess. Worth knowing before weighing an early 12 or 15 against a newer hull: a Yachting World reviewer admitted being "underwhelmed" by those first-generation products when they launched in 2019. The 11 was the first model to break from that borrowed tooling entirely, and the 14 followed as VPLP's second from-scratch hull. The newest chapter starts with the 13, the first Excess drawn by Marc Lombard's design team rather than VPLP. For a used buyer, the practical question is less about size and more about which of these design chapters a given hull comes from.
What to inspect across the range
Two issues turn up in more than one independent sea trial. Testers on both the 11 and the 12 found the accordion-style sunroof awkward once the mainsail is dropped: the canvas can't be stepped on, which makes tucking reefing lines or sail-bag lines into place harder than it should be -- worth working through by hand during a viewing. Engine-bay access is the second recurring theme: on the 11, the alternator, impeller, and water strainer sit tucked forward with no way to reach them head-on; on the 12, the engines are mounted far enough forward that reaching belts and impellers is, in one tester's words, "a stretch." Neither issue is a structural dealbreaker, but both are worth budgeting extra survey time for on any hull in the range.
Navigating the lineup
With three distinct design chapters now in the range -- adapted Lagoon hulls, the from-scratch VPLP generation, and the newer Marc Lombard-designed 13 -- sorting by hull generation is a more useful starting filter than sorting by cabin count or length alone. The full model directory on this page breaks the lineup down by size and year from there.
Where they're listed
Excess listings appear across 26 countries. United States has the most listings with 45 (15.0%), followed by France and Greece.
Country view
300 listings · 26 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $485,000 | 45 | 16 | 15.0% |
| France | $548,110 | 38 | 11 | 12.7% |
| Greece | $410,724 | 37 | 2 | 12.3% |
| Croatia | $620,859 | 36 | 3 | 12.0% |
| Spain | $500,738 | 28 | 6 | 9.3% |
| Martinique | $611,621 | 23 | 6 | 7.7% |
| Italy | $442,513 | 21 | 6 | 7.0% |
| Grenada | $599,000 | 15 | 1 | 5.0% |
| French Polynesia | $528,123 | 9 | 0 | 3.0% |
| Portugal | $545,082 | 9 | 2 | 3.0% |
| United Kingdom | $636,119 | 7 | 0 | 2.3% |
| Australia | $626,615 | 4 | 1 | 1.3% |
| 14 other countries | — | 28 | 3 | 9.3% |
All Excess models
5 models grouped by length overall. Open any model to see recent asking prices and active listings.