Lagoon 40 Catamaran Reviewed in 2025

Rating 4.2/5

Size and amenities: 5/5

Ease of use and sail handling: 5/5

Interior layout: 5/5

Construction and brand reputation: 3/5

Price and quality: 3/5

Lagoon 40 Key Features

A Liveaboard For Families and YouTubers

The best feature about the Lagoon 40 is its size and all you get in it. As the Lagoon website says, it’s “a big little catamaran.” With a length overall of just 38-1/2 feet (despite its 40-foot moniker), the boat packs a ton of living space and comfort features into a small package.

The 40-ish-foot catamaran is the Goldilocks boat for many cruising couples. It’s big enough to get the look, feel, and comfort of living on a catamaran but small enough to be manageable in tight marinas and easily explore coastal waters. For new boaters, it’s a good size to learn on, comfortable in various conditions, and forgiving enough to allow for a learning curve.

The owner’s version will surely please any cruising couple with its spacious master suite in the port hull. In addition, it is the smallest Lagoon catamaran to feature a partial island berth, allowing for entry from both one side and the end.

Step out into the cockpit, and you’ll see some bigger differences from boats of the past. Lagoon has paid a lot of attention to traffic flow, making it easy to get around. The large, rectangular cockpit table and L-shaped seating are now oriented fore-to-aft instead of athwartships, and there are easy walking paths around the perimeter that leads to the sugar scoops and side decks. Extra seating is outboard, meaning you can move around even with many guests aboard.

The deck of the boat is similar to other Lagoons. It lacks the forward seating areas found on Leopards and Balis. Instead, Lagoon sticks with the traditional large trampolines and clutter-free decks. If you want a little more space to spread out, optional lounge pads mount over the deck hatches forward of the salon windows.

Ease of Use and Sail Handling

Lagoon’s new sail layout sets it apart from the competition. The trend started with the now-retired L39 and was fundamental to the new L42 and L46. When compared to previous models, the mast is located much farther aft. VPLP applied this design from their racing boats to their cruising catamarans.

What’s the benefit? To make it even easier to sail. New Lagoons have smaller mainsails than their predecessors. In fact, it’s much smaller than most other cats on the water. Compare the Lagoon’s standard 484 square-foot main to the Leopard 40’s 678 square-footer.

That makes it easier to handle–easy to hoist, easier to trim when the wind pipes up, and easier to reef if you get yourself into a pickle. Another nice thing is that the mast is right next to the helm. That means fewer lines running across the deck and less friction in those lines.

But the benefits are not limited to mainsail handling. Moving the stick aft means there’s space for a self-tacking jib, now standard. And Lagoon has acknowledged just how important big headsails are on modern catamarans, providing space for a furling downwind sail, like a Code 0 or gennaker.

Making the boat easy to use isn’t limited to just sailing, however. The two engines, mounted aft of the cabin space, are accessed through large hatches that provide great access. The decks are clutter-free, and the large solid cockpit roof is ready for you to add as much solar power as you like.

Interior Layouts

As the available layouts reflect, Lagoon’s bread and butter will always be selling charter boats. There are four cabin/two bath and four cabins/four bath options. Having four tiny heads on a 40-foot boat is insane–unless you run a charter business that needs to advertise “private bath cabins.” The four/two layout makes far more sense, even for charter boats.

But the best layout for private owners will always be the owner’s version with three staterooms and two baths. This dedicates the entire port hull to an owner’s suite, complete with a privacy door that seals it from the salon. It features an enormous shower stall forward, a spacious head, and a sitting, reading, or office nook amidships.

To the aft is a queen-sized berth that can be accessed from the foot or one side, making it easier for couples to get in and out. It’s not quite an island queen, but it’s the next best thing to it.

Upstairs, the Lagoon salon is as pretty and as functional as ever. It’s spacious and includes an L-shaped galley with all the expected amenities on the rear port side. The L40 cleverly adds additional top-loading refrigeration on the starboard side. An L-shaped setee with a lowering table and a functional nav station is forward.

It all looks very comfortable and liveable, but experienced sailors will quickly note the many sharp corners on the cabinets and tables, foreshadowing the many painful bruises (or worse) to come from each passage.

Finally, a huge improvement has been made in traffic flow and walkways. On a Lagoon 40, you can walk from the aft deck forward or from the aft deck into the salon without facing any obstacles. 

The cockpit space on the newer Lagoons lacks the steps that the older models had. Long gone are the days of climbing over cushions to go one way or having guests move to go the other. Instead, the focus now is on getting around the boat safely and easily. The helm, situated on the starboard aft end of the salon, can be accessed easily from either inside the cockpit or the outer deck.

Construction and Brand Reputation

A review of a new Lagoon would only be complete with discussing what you do and don’t get when you purchase a Lagoon. First off, these are beautiful and well-thought-out boats. You cannot deny that Lagoon has led the way when it comes to catamaran interior layouts over the last two decades. Every other catamaran manufacturer took note, and most modern designs have a few elements that harken back to the design.

Lagoon and its competitors make production charter boats. They mass-produce vessels for the global market. Keep this in mind because putting in a special request or asking for any customization with your new boat is usually not an option. You get what they sell, and they’re not custom boats.

One constant gripe with new production catamarans continues to be the interior materials used, their design, and construction. The joinery looks good in advertisements but disappoints in person. All wood surfaces are plywood with a thin veneer. This arrangement keeps the boat lightweight and saves money, but it doesn’t stand the test of time. It damages easily with water or abuse, both of which are readily available on a catamaran at sea.

Lagoon also doensn’t have the best reputation for after-sales support. The company’s website doesn’t even mention what sort of warranty you get on the hull or its Lagoon-built components. Your broker and local distributors will undoubtedly be of more assistance with the details. Problems can and do pop up over time with these boats. Case in point: owners of older Lagoon 450s have recently been dealing with bulkhead deformation issues.

Price/Quality

Lagoon does its thing, and that is making many big boats quickly. This keeps the cost of the boats lower, but it also means that the boats will never compete with higher-priced brands in terms of quality. The base price for a Lagoon 40 as of 2023 is between $300-$400k.

Hence, Lagoon–along with all of its direct competitors–has a well-founded reputation as a “production boat” manufacturer.

What does this mean? Basically, if you want a catamaran like this, you should expect some quality issues, equipment troubles, and fiberglass flaws. Some diligent maintenance can usually mitigate the worst of troubles–and no maritime experience will ever be free of a lot of work.

While there are gripes, there’s plenty to like about the Lagoon. The Yanmar engines and other brand-name appliances are mostly bullet-proof and industry standard. The hulls are built well, with solid glass below the waterline and vacuum bagging techniques on the balsa-cored decks. All are very sturdy, especially when compared to some other light catamarans.

The possible headaches shouldn’t be enough to push you away from one manufacturer or choose one model over another.  If you look at the major catamaran players–Lagoon, Bali, Leopard, and Fountaine Pajot–they have more in common than differences.

Knowing what to expect is important. When buying a new Lagoon, you are not buying a luxury brand–despite the price tag and brand aesthetic. In other words, you are not buying a Bentley; you’re getting something like a Kia. But just like Kia, Lagoon makes boats that normal people can afford that offer a pretty nice lifestyle and experience.

Do We Recommend Them?

The Lagoon 40 is in a very competitive market. The Leopard 40 (now discontinued), Bali Catspace, Nautitech 40 Open, and Fountaine Pajot Isla 40 are all direct competitors. As a result, prices, quality, features, and sailing ability are closely tied. So the choice of the right one comes down to living space, aesthetics, and which one your crew likes the most.

Lagoon makes beautiful products that connect with owners and future owners. They’re beautiful vessels, inside and out. Are there better boats sailing the seas? Of course. But in many cases, you would need to spend double or triple the money to get one of them. And you still might not get the beauty of a new Lagoon.

If you’re shopping for a 40-foot catamaran, you have plenty of choices. The only way to truly compare is to head to your nearest boat show and spend as much time onboard each make and model as possible. Ultimately, the choice comes down to personal preference–which one feels like home.