History and Lineage
The Outremer 40 began the story in 1985, with the 43 following as an evolved but still austere sister. The earliest Outremer 40s had a very small coachroof, a defining detail of their minimalist deck design.
Multihulls World notes that the 43 remained in production until 2000, when it gave up its place to the already more civilized 42. That change marked a clear shift away from Danson’s uncompromising original philosophy.
The later Outremer 45 also belonged to a different category. At 6.1 tonnes, it was considerably larger and more liveable than the 3.8-tonne 43. This contrast reinforces the 43’s position as the last of a deliberately lean breed.
Design and Construction
Restraint defines the 43. At 3.8 tonnes, she is strikingly light. Her ultra-slim hulls and deep daggerboards give her the character of a racing-derived cruiser rather than a floating apartment.
In the reviewer’s words, the original concept was a spartan catamaran that was simple, light, and safe. The 43 carried that identity without compromise: radical and unapologetic at a time when the market was moving toward greater comfort.
Useful load capacity was 1,700 kg, a figure that underscores how little was sacrificed to ballast and furnishing in the name of sailing performance.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
What the 43 gives up in domestic volume, she returns under sail. The reviewer called her an ocean-cruising boat that “sails like a dream,” a verdict rooted in the slim hulls and deep daggerboards rather than added machinery.
Her light weight and daggerboard configuration help her track and point in ways that the heavier later models traded for greater liveability. This is a multihull for sailors who value passage speed and sea-kindly behavior over enclosed space.
Accommodations
There isn’t much to describe, and that’s the point. The 43 is spartan by design, with a simple interior shaped by the priorities of light weight and safety rather than comfort or elaborate appointments.
Where the 45 developed into a more liveable platform, the 43 retained a minimal interior consistent with her 3.8-tonne displacement and 1,700 kg payload. Buyers were choosing a thoroughbred cruiser, not a coastal condominium.
Verdict
The Outremer 40/43 is the purist’s Outremer: the last of the original line, light, radical, and built to sail oceans well. She won’t suit sailors looking for a larger, more civilized deck saloon or a heavy payload margin. For someone seeking the Danson ideal in its final form, however, she remains a benchmark.
Pros
- Final representative of Outremer’s original spartan, light, and safe philosophy
- Exceptionally light at 3.8 tonnes, with slim hulls and deep daggerboards
- Reviewed as an ocean cruiser that “sails like a dream”
Cons
- Spartan accommodations and a useful load capacity of only 1,700 kg
- Superseded in 2000 by the more civilized 42
- Less liveable than the later Outremer 45