Excess 11 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

What sets the Excess 11 apart from her siblings is that her hull is all-new, not comprised of repurposed Lagoon sections, and she carries a lower and sleeker profile than the Excess 12 and 15 anchor. The hull features twin chines leading aft, a detail that builds interior volume while keeping spray down, and a marked flare above the waterline that maximizes cabin space without adding drag. Construction is in three vacuum-infused sections with balsa coring in the deck and hull above the waterline, and the builder finished the boat in Bordeaux, France. The keels are moulded as part of the hull, filled with foam, capped with laminate, and vacuum-infused; they wear reinforced GRP "shoes" for vertical load bearing so the boat can sit on them, and they are engineered to fail under large side impact without breaching hull watertight integrity. There are no keel bolts to worry about. The builder finished with a hard Bimini edge that was not rounded to save weight, and much of the foredeck is trampoline to keep weight and slamming loads aft.

Rig and Handling

All models in the Excess line use twin aft helm stations and omit a flybridge, and on the 11 those helms sit on the main deck level, outboard of the superstructure. Steering runs on Dyneema cables rather than hydraulics, with a short cable run that minimizes play and gives a light, responsive helm sensitive enough to feel fore-and-aft sail balance. Twin 29hp Yanmar diesels are set wide apart and drive saildrives; electronic throttles let the skipper command from either wheel, and the rudders sit ahead of the propellers to push the engines aft for cabin space. The boat will even walk directly sideways when needed. Under sail, a self-tacking jib is standard and most owners keep it; a 57-foot Z-Spar rig with laminate Incidence sails powered the test boat, and the optional PulseLine package adds three feet of mast and 59 square feet of sail. A two-to-one halyard runs to a powered winch ahead of the starboard helm. In 15 knots at a 70-degree apparent angle the boat made 8 knots and carried speed through tacks; unfurling the Code 0 added another knot, and in stronger gusts under that sail she reached 10.1 knots.

Accommodations

The Excess 11 is offered with three or four cabins, both versions carrying two heads. The three-cabin layout most owners choose places a pair of double berths in the port hull's fore and aft ends with a heads and separate shower between, while the starboard hull becomes an owner's suite running nearly the full length, shut off by a sliding door at the stairs, with a huge aft berth and a big forward bathroom. The master bed has cutaway corners so sheets fit and occupants exit without acrobatics. The saloon holds an L-shaped settee against the forward bulkhead, a nav station to starboard, and an L-shaped galley with fixed oven, two-burner hob, and front-opening fridge; reviewers found the compact saloon and galley wanting for nothing in refrigeration, counter, and seating. Each cabin gets a large hull window with opening port and a deckhead hatch. The interior is light on drawer pulls and cabinetry hardware, and because the saloon glazing is clear rather than tinted, the person at the wheel can look straight through to the far corner anchor.

Known Issues

Period testing flagged a few topside and mechanical details worth knowing. The optional soft accordion sunroof, which opens and closes manually, can make it hard to tuck reefing lines into the bag after dropping the main because you cannot step on it. Testers noted the non-skid on the hardtop should be extended toward the edges, since those edges get slippery when wet, and that single long handrails either side of the cabintrunk would beat the two small rails fitted. The anchor launches from the front crossbeam, which keeps the chain off the hulls at anchor but puts weight well forward toward the bows, not ideal. Mechanically, the engines are mounted saildrive-aft, so the alternator, impeller, and water strainer tuck forward and are hard to reach head-on, and the Dyneema steering cables run immediately above the engine; those cables have a maximum operating temperature of 70°C while some engines run hotter, and in an engine fire you could lose one cable though the opposite wheel retains steerage via tie bar or emergency tiller.

The Verdict

The Excess 11 is a rare sub-40-foot cruising cat that trades the usual compromised mold-sharing for a clean-sheet hull with real performance DNA from VPLP. She sails sharply, steers with rare feel for a multihull, and packs a genuine owner's suite into 37 feet, yet the weight-forward anchor, slick hardtop edges, and tight engine access remind you she was built light and sporty first.

Pros