I am very grateful that we have freedom of speech; it is one of the corner stones of our democratic society.  However, lately freedom of speech and the right to information has been confused with creative writing and this has led to the popular ‘new’ term FAKE NEWS.  It appears that the term’ FAKE NEWS’ is going to be the winning new term of 2017 taking over from ’Brexit’ in 2016.

Undoubtedly, everybody has the right to an opinion and in the words of the great comedian Tim Minchin, opinions are a bit like assholes.  Everybody has one, but unlike assholes, opinions should be constantly and rigorously examined and contrasted with factual evidence, I would add.

By the way, this guy is hilariously funny but also gives some good life lessons, have a look at his movie here: Thanks Robert Port for introducing us to this golden nugget of wisdom.

So as we are heading towards the end of 2017, what is the most tedious and most repetitive piece of ‘FAKE NEWS’ that you have encountered?

Well for us, it must be LAGOON CATAMARANS CANNOT SAIL AROUND THE WORLD.

Quote: ’Our opinion on the Lagoons is that they are brilliant catamarans for the purposes of sailing in one small cruising ground.  For example the Virgin Islands…is the perfect place for a Lagoon.’ Unquote

Let’s examine this piece of FAKE NEWS recently published on a popular sailing channel on YouTube.  It is a good example of the confusion between fact and opinion.

Fact in the ARC 2015, 14 out of 21 multihull boats were Lagoons.

Fact in the ARC 2014, 8 out of 11 multihull boats in the B Division were Lagoons, the winner was a Lagoon.

Hearsay from Lagoon dealers: in 2007 75% of the Lagoon market was charter companies, these days only 25% goes to the charter market, the rest to private owners.

We have not accumulated data of the number of people who have contacted us to let us know that after seeing Impi cross 3 times the Atlantic and then heading into the Pacific that the Lagoon catamarans are perfectly able to sail at a decent speed, sail upwind and have the stamina for long ocean crossings.

Our Lagoon 440 left Les Sables d’Olonne in France in July 2009 and hit its first storm in the Bay of Biscay.  Upon arrival in Santander, we were told that 3 boats sank in that storm, all mono-hulls, one sadly with a total loss of life.

Impi went on to sail to Cape Town via Brazil, a very long journey and arrived in pristine condition for the Cape Town boat show exactly 15 minutes before it opened…  Ok, there was a bit of a fish smell from all the tuna caught, but that was about it that was wrong with it.

We sailed up and down the South African coast, round the Cape of Good Hope on numerous occasions, once in gale force winds when all other boats had to keep on heading out to sea, we were able to round the point and come into the protection of False Bay, being the only boat arriving in one piece in Simon’s Town.  You say we were lucky…undoubtedly, which is why we remain humble because the sea can become your enemy…

Just now and again, we want to express how well our boat has sailed.

Other bit of FAKE NEWS, Lagoons are slow.  Well guys, it depends on your sails and on how you sail. Our fastest has been on our Atlantic crossing where with our asymmetric sail we did 21 knots, followed by our crossing from Galapagos to Marquesas where again with the asymmetric sail we did consistently over 200 miles a day.

And finally the biggest FAKE NEWS, Lagoons cannot go to wind.  Well we always laugh out loud when we take the mono-hulls on the inside.  I think it is Brent’s favourite trick! Watch our movies and make up your own mind!

Tenia