Hull Design and Architecture
The Joubert-Nivelt team made several deliberate structural choices that set the Athena apart from its contemporaries. The hulls themselves are soft-shaped multifoam core fiberglass resin molds, a construction that blends impact resistance with aesthetic confidence. Most notable is the way the hull and deck intersection was handled: rather than accepting the slab-sided topsides that plague high-freeboard cats, the Athena tucks in the sheerline with a large soft radius, then steps up again to true deck level. The result is a hull that photographs as lean and graceful despite drawings that exaggerate its proportions. At the stern, sculpted swim steps complete a design that Bob Perry described simply as a sexy boat.
The bridgedeck clearance of 28 inches is noted in the design record, and the displacement-to-length ratio of 116 reflects a genuinely light vessel for its type. Forward sections were designed with collision absorption in mind, and the keels carry nonstructural sacrificial components in case of accidental grounding — a practical acknowledgment of shoal-draft cruising realities. With foam placed in the stern, transom, and forward areas, the Athena was built to be unsinkable.
Rig, Deck, and Sail Handling
The Athena's rig is a study in considered simplicity. The large, roached, full-batten mainsail slides on recirculating ball-bearing cars and measures 538 square feet — substantial for a single crew member to manage. Fountaine Pajot's solution was elegant: the main halyard can be led at a fair angle to the electric windlass so one can opt to hoist under electric power. The boom cover integrates with the sail system so that when the main is up, the cover stows tightly rolled around its internal battens, and when the sail comes down, a set of integral bungees and a zipper close everything neatly.
The SA/D of 27.41 gives the Athena enough horsepower to keep moving in light conditions, and in practice the boat rewards that promise. On a beam reach across the Hauraki Gulf, the speedo jumped to 10 knots without drama. Close-hauled, she tracked firmly, tacking at close to 40 degrees. The low-aspect, 3-foot-deep keels keep the draft manageable without compromising upwind authority unduly. The 11.5-foot double-ended traveler is rigged for large loads, and sheets lead through stoppers to self-tailing winches within the helmsperson's reach.
The anchor system deserves particular mention. The CQR is sucked with chain through a hawsepipe opening just below deck level, business end stowed tangent to the opening outside the hull. A bridle rove to each bow keeps the anchor centered and the whole setup requires only releasing the windlass brake to deploy.
Cockpit, Helm, and Visibility
The Athena's cockpit is the social center of the boat: 10 feet wide with bench seating accommodating up to 12 people and a triangular table at the port corner capable of seating six for dinner. The helm station sits to starboard with a 20-inch wheel, engine controls, and a flybridge-type molded plastic chair that places the helmsperson at an unusually high position. This takes some adjustment, but after 20 minutes at the helm the elevated position engages the senses by placing the helmsperson closer to the foretriangle with excellent visibility.
The tradeoff is honest: the aft bulkheads of the cabintop structure intrude on some sight lines forward, and Perry noted that visibility is a little like looking over a bus. Neither reviewer found this debilitating — it is simply the physics of a design that delivers enormous deck space, saloon volume, and standing headroom within the same beam.
Accommodations and Interior
The Athena's saloon is reached by sliding through, not down — an experience that underscores the catamaran's fundamental character. The space runs approximately 13 feet wide with an average 6-foot-plus headroom, anchored by a keyhole settee around a 4-foot pedestal table seating six to eight. The U-shaped galley to starboard features double 1-foot-diameter round sinks accessible from three sides and a unique wedge-shaped top-opening icebox designed for maximum capacity and three-sided access. Interior materials run to vinyl, fabric, and dark fine-grained wood joinerwork.
Each hull accommodates two staterooms: a master aft with a 4-foot-9-inch by 6-foot-6-inch double and 6-foot-4-inch headroom, a dressing area, and hanging storage, plus a forward cabin accessible via an 11-foot, brightly lit passageway. The head compartment amidships in each hull incorporates a telephone-booth shower within a single fiberglass mold. A large Lewmar hatch above the shower doubles as an emergency escape. The four opening hatches and two side ports per hull prevent the below-decks sensation from feeling oppressive, and owners who have logged extended miles aboard confirm that the eyebrow shade, expanding to over a foot of overhang, keeps the greenhouse effect to a minimum.
Known Characteristics and Tradeoffs
The Athena 38's interior reflects its French charter-cat DNA, and prospective owners accustomed to traditional monohull conventions may need recalibration. The galley counters carry no fiddles — there is instead a large radius at the counter edge, which Perry wryly noted almost looks designed to help things slide off. In a boat that barely heels, this is philosophical rather than dangerous, but it signals an interior vocabulary that asks you to relax and buy the entire picture.
The navigation area is described as basic to a fault, though the fixed nature of a cat means that full-chart navigation for long hauls can be done on the dining table because heeling isn't a factor. Fuel capacity of 40 gallons is modest for a twin-engine cat, and the electrical system's 70 amp-hour total was conservative at the time of construction — the port engine must be running while the windlass is in use to prevent battery drain. In dying breezes, the Athena did not perform as well as in moderate air, an expected characteristic of a displacement cruising cat carrying substantial accommodation volume.
The Verdict
The Fountaine Pajot Athena 38 represents French multihull thinking at a mature and confident moment. It delivers real passage-making performance alongside four-cabin privacy, a vast cockpit, and the kind of light-flooded saloon that makes a week at anchor feel like a different category of cruising. It asks nothing unusual of its crew except a willingness to engage with an interior logic that is neither traditional nor apologetic. An owner couple who has put more than 2,000 miles on their Athena found the boat wholly capable; charter operators in New Zealand and the Pacific built fleets around it for the same reasons.
Pros
- Graceful sculpted hull form with soft sheerline radius; avoids the slab-sided look common in the genre
- Capable passage-making speed — 10 knots on a beam reach in moderate air
- Four genuinely private staterooms, each with dedicated head
- Ingenious electric-assist main halyard via the anchor windlass
- Clean, fully integrated anchor and bridle system
- Unsinkable foam construction with sacrificial keel components
- 10-foot-wide cockpit with dinghy davits between the hulls
Cons
- Forward visibility from the helm is limited by the cabintop structure
- Galley counters lack fiddles — a philosophical mismatch for passage-making in rough conditions
- Modest fuel capacity (40 gallons) and conservative battery bank (70 Ah) for a twin-engine liveaboard
- Light-air performance falls off noticeably relative to moderate-wind ability
- Navigation station is minimal; chart work defaults to the dining table
