Beneteau Excess 11 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

The design comes from VPLP, the naval architects behind top racing catamarans and foiling IMOCA boats. Groupe Beneteau, the parent company of Lagoon, which builds the line, launched Excess as a distinct marque. The 11 is the first boat in the family designed from scratch rather than developed from reworked Lagoon sections.

Design and Construction

The Excess 11 has an all-new hull with twin chines leading aft. These open up interior volume and give the boat a different exterior character from her larger sisters. A pronounced flare above the waterline widens the living space without adding drag, while the chines help keep spray down.

Construction is in three vacuum-infused sections, with balsa coring in the deck and in the hull above the waterline. The shallow, long-chord keels are moulded as part of the hull, foam-filled, laminate-capped, and vacuum-infused with resin. Extra GRP-reinforced shoes bear vertical loads, allowing the boat to rest comfortably on the keels. They’re also engineered to fail under a severe side impact without breaching the hull’s watertight integrity, and there are no keel bolts to concern the owner.

Patrick Le Quement shaped the exterior flair, while Nauta Design handled the interior. Excess Catamarans builds the boat in Bordeaux, France. To save weight, the edge of the hard Bimini is left unrounded. Much of the foredeck is trampoline, keeping mass and slamming loads well aft.

Rig and Handling

Every model in the Excess line has twin helm stations aft and no flybridge. On the 11, the wheels sit at main-deck level, aft and outboard of the superstructure. A high bulwark outboard improves the sense of security.

The steering uses Dyneema cables rather than hydraulics. Their short run minimizes play and maximizes feel. The helm proved light and responsive, with enough sensitivity to read the fore-and-aft balance of the sailplan even though the boat stays on an even keel upwind.

The test boat carried a 57ft Z-Spar rig with laminate Incidence sails. A self-tacking jib simplifies handling, and most owners choose it. The mainsail is large and powerful, while the low boom makes it easy to stow the sail from the coach roof. A two-to-one halyard leads to a powered winch ahead of the starboard helm.

A foldable bowsprit hinges away to reduce the boat’s length in harbour. During testing, a 54m² Code Zero produced a measured top speed of 10.1 knots when the wind gusted to the upper end of its range.

Twin 29hp Yanmar diesels with saildrives are widely spaced and set well aft. They drove the boat at 6.8 knots wide open and 5.9 knots at a 2,500 rpm cruising speed. She can even walk sideways when needed.

Accommodations

The Excess 11 comes with either three or four cabins, and both arrangements have two heads. Most owners prefer the three-cabin version. Its owner’s suite occupies nearly the full length of the starboard hull, with a huge aft double, a forward bathroom with a separate shower, and a sliding door that closes the suite off from the rest of the boat. The port hull contains double cabins fore and aft, with a heads and its own shower between them.

Cutaway corners on the master berth make it easier to fit sheets and let occupants move around without gymnastics.

The saloon and galley are compact but well equipped, with ample refrigeration, counter space, and seating. The layout includes an L-shaped settee forward, a navigation station to starboard, and an L-shaped galley with a fixed oven, two-burner hob, and front-opening fridge. The interior deliberately uses few drawer pulls and other pieces of hardware.

Six seats span the stern, and seats fold down behind both helms. Clear rather than tinted saloon windows allow the helmsman to see through the interior to the opposite corner.

Options and Ownership

The optional PulseLine package adds 3ft of mast and 59ft² of sail for more drive. Many owners also choose the walkable hard-top cockpit canopy as a place to mount solar panels, or select a folding canvas targa top for more light.

A second 300-litre water tank can be fitted in the nacelle locker. The bow lockers can be converted into berths, giving the boat a stated capacity of twelve. Forward pulpit seats and engine controls at both helm pods are further options that broaden short-handed command.

The engine bays hinge aft, providing deck access without requiring anyone to perch on the bathing platform.

Known Issues

Testers noted that the optional manually operated accordion sunroof can complicate dropping the mainsail. Because it can’t be stepped on, reaching the sail bag to tuck in reefing lines becomes more difficult.

The hardtop’s non-skid needs to extend farther toward the edges, which become slippery when wet. Two small handrails are fitted along the cabintrunk, but single long rails would be safer.

The anchor’s weight sits well forward toward the bows, which isn’t ideal. However, launching it from a bow roller on the crossbeam keeps the chain off the hulls at anchor.

The engines are installed saildrive-aft, leaving the alternator, impeller, and water strainer tucked forward and difficult to reach head-on. The Dyneema steering cables also run immediately above the engines. Those cables have a maximum operating temperature of 70ºC, while some engines run hotter. An engine fire could therefore sever one cable, although the opposite wheel would retain steerage through the tie bar.

The Verdict

The Excess 11 brings genuine performance-DNA catamaran design to a sub-40ft footprint that can fit into marinas and anchorages inaccessible to larger cruising cats. Its strengths include a purpose-designed hull, thoughtful keel engineering, responsive steering, and a bright, compact interior that makes good use of the boat’s length.

The main trade-offs are tight access to forward-facing engine service points and steering cables routed close to hot machinery.

Pros