A closer look at S/V HELIA2, the light-displacement French catamaran engineered for serious ocean miles and genuine helming pleasure.
Some catamarans are built to sit at anchor; the Outremer 51 is built to cross oceans. In this walkthrough, Outremer’s commercial director Matthieu Rougevin-Baville tours the model that earned Multihull of the Year honors and remains the yard’s benchmark long-distance cruiser. S/V HELIA2, a 2022 example listed by Will Miller, is a well-optioned version of that boat — and it shows exactly why Outremer occupies its own corner of the bluewater market.
Light, Fast, and Genuinely Marine
The core Outremer argument begins with weight. The 51 tips the scales at just 10.5 tonnes — roughly half what many comparable cruising catamarans displace. That lightness translates into speed, seakindliness, and a boat that responds to the wind rather than being pushed through it. Daggerboards, a hallmark of the range, drop the draft to 1 meter raised and 2.5 meters deployed, delivering exceptional upwind pointing and more speed off the wind.
The helm station reflects the same philosophy. Visibility is excellent to all four corners, and every essential control — sheets, main halyard, reefing lines, engine throttles — falls to hand. As on all Outremers, tiller steering is available as an option, offering a tactile connection to the boat that’s simply absent from wheel-only cats.
A Deck Laid Out for Passagemaking
Wide side decks and a substantial grabrail make foredeck trips secure at sea. The standard sail plan pairs a self-tacking solent with the option of a Code 0 or Code D flown from the bowsprit. Enormous sail lockers in each bow swallow spare sails, fenders, paddleboards, kites, and even bicycles — a real cruiser’s storage plan. Diesel tanks sit low at the mast base to keep weight centered, and the mast itself is easy to reach with a relatively low boom for main handling.
The cockpit is fully covered by a rigid bimini that can be closed in with panels against sun or rain, and it doubles as a rainwater catchment plumbed directly to the tanks. The table seats around a dozen and converts down into a shaded daybed. From cockpit or saloon, seated or standing, the 360-degree visibility is a defining feature — there are effectively no blind spots on the horizon.
Interior: Purposeful, Bright, and Custom
The 51’s interior was fully redesigned for this generation. Standard finish is light oak, but the owners of HELIA2 opted for bamboo, paired with darker soles and gray upholstery — a warm, contemporary combination. All furniture is built as foam-cored sandwich panels, a running theme aboard: strength and finish without penalty in weight.
The galley has been widened and reorganized, with the sink relocated to the center to open a full worktop that flows directly into the cockpit. A large oven, offset cooktop, and generous stowage support long passages. The forward-facing nav station has been enlarged and topped in Corian, with room for a large chartplotter screen and full instrumentation. The saloon table drops to form a watch berth, and the standard 95-liter refrigerator can be supplemented with a second fridge or freezer.
The port hull is configured as an owner’s suite, with a 1.6 x 2.0 m berth, opening ports, a large hull window, sliding door to a full-length wardrobe passage, and a bright, well-ventilated head with a shower. The starboard hull houses two guest cabins, a separate shower, and a large head — a layout well suited to a cruising family or a couple with regular visitors.
Structure You Can Feel
What separates an Outremer structurally is that rig loads are carried into a true internal skeleton, not the coachroof. Bulkheads and furniture components are laminated to the hull, so the joinery is part of the structure. The daggerboard trunks are tied top-to-bottom into laminated bulkheads for a monolithic assembly. Where safety demands it — the hull bottoms — Outremer continues to use monolithic polyester rather than cored laminate. Interior furniture is then mounted on flexible connections to eliminate the creaks and groans typical of production cats at sea.
Where the Market Sits
The Outremer 51 holds value well and moves at a measured pace when it does trade. Recent site data offers useful context:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Solds (last 24 mo.) | 2 |
| Median sold price | $980,000 |
| Median days to sell | ~146 |
| Active listings | 2 |
| Asking range | $895,000–$1,249,000 |
| Median Sold | $980,000 | |||
| Low Ask | $895,000 | |||
| Median Ask | $1,072,000 | |||
| High Ask | $1,249,000 |
For buyers who want a catamaran that truly sails — one that rewards a hand on the tiller and shortens ocean passages — HELIA2 is a compelling example of a boat that already comes thoughtfully specified.