Design and Deck Layout
The lines come from the Berret-Racoupeau studio, the same office responsible for the Marquises 56, the Eleuthera 60, and the flagship Galathéa 65 — a pedigree that speaks to Fountaine Pajot's confidence in this design team for their larger hulls. What Berret-Racoupeau brought to the Salina 48 is an innovative, fluid deck plan built around the catamaran's inherent beam. The saloon is turned through 90 degrees to take full advantage of its great width, creating a transverse social space that feels more like a shore-side living room than a conventional charter boat cabin. Forward-aft flow is purposefully uncompromised: one-level walkabout connects the aft deck, cockpit, and saloon without steps or awkward transitions.
Helm and Cockpit
The helm station sits above cockpit level, giving the helmsperson the same panoramic view as a flying bridge while retaining easy access to both cockpit and side deck. A rigid roof covers the main cockpit area, sheltering the large lounge and table arrangement below — a detail appreciated on passage when crew spend hours in the open. Sun seekers are catered for by a platform spanning the dinghy davits between the hulls aft, keeping dedicated deck space separate from the working cockpit.
Rig and Sailing Performance
Fountaine Pajot was candid that competing builders had elevated liveable volume to the status of a genuine architectural ideology at some cost to sailing character, and the Salina was engineered as a direct counter-argument. The builder's own communications framed the design as something that took two years to perfect, and an on-the-water evaluation confirmed the Salina showed good sailing potential. A sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 27.55 and a displacement of around 23,000 lbs give the boat a meaningful power-to-mass relationship for a cruising platform of this size.
Accommodations
Below decks the Salina 48 is offered in three- or four-cabin configurations, with hull accommodations similarly arranged to those in the Orana 44 but scaled up across the greater length. The decor updates and manufacturing technology advances introduced for the Orana 44 carried forward into the Salina, giving earlier hulls a more refined interior finish than the preceding Bahia generation. The saloon's transverse orientation means the galley, nav station, and settee share the full beam of the boat rather than being compressed into a conventional fore-and-aft corridor — a tangible benefit in port and at anchor.
Context Within the Range
Fountaine Pajot positioned the Salina carefully: the two boats coexisted for a year in the company's catalogue before the older Bahia stepped aside, indicating the builder saw them as complementary rather than as a straight generational replacement. The Bahia was a genuinely seaworthy passage-maker; the Salina inherited that quality while returning Fountaine Pajot to competition for large interior volumes that a new generation of buyers expected.
The Verdict
The Salina 48 is an ocean cruising catamaran that wears its practicality lightly. It resolved a real competitive challenge — interior volume without sacrificing sailing ability — and did so with thoughtful exterior ergonomics: the sheltered helm, the rigid cockpit roof, the seamless one-level flow from stern to saloon. The Berret-Racoupeau lineage gives it design credibility, and the factory's own claim that it took two years to develop the boat suggests this was not a hasty response to market pressure.
Pros
- Berret-Racoupeau lines shared with the builder's larger prestige hulls
- Elevated helm delivers flying-bridge sightlines with direct cockpit access
- Rigid cockpit roof provides structural, all-weather shelter
- Transverse saloon exploits the full beam for an exceptional social space
- Confirmed sailing performance during independent sea trial
- Seamless one-level walkabout from aft deck through cockpit to saloon
Cons
- Four-cabin layout compresses individual cabin volume relative to the three-cabin version
- Dedicated sun platform aft of the davits adds utility but is separated from the main cockpit social space
- Competing directly against builders who had a head start in high-volume interiors means older hulls may need interior updates to feel current
