Broker’s Best
Specs & Info LOA 40’ Beam 22’ Draft 6’
Contact Chuck Hovey Yachts, Inc. (949) 675-8092 chuckhoveyyachts.com
2007 MARSTROM COMPOSITE EXTREME 40 Unlike most Broker’s Best items, which tend to focus on the cruising lifestyle and comfortable interiors, we are focusing this month on pure speed – namely the Marstrom Composite Extreme 40 racing catamaran. Designed by famed French sailor Yves Loday, gold medalist in the Tornado Class yachting race at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, this futuristic racer was built in 2007 and overhauled with a new 62-foot, two-piece carbon mast and fitted with Dyneema rigging in 2017. Named Shadow X, this 40-foot composite-hulled catamaran hails from Sausalito, California, and has reached speeds of up to 35 knots on flat water in around 20 to 25 knots of wind. It can also fly a hull in as little as 8 knots, so it’s an exciting spectacle to behold. Weighing in at 1,350 kilograms (about 2,976 pounds), the mid-sized sport cat has a carbon-fiber superstructure and deck material and is handled by a typical crew of four. 36
The Extreme 40, with a displacement of 1,250 kilograms (about 2,755 pounds), is the largest model built entirely in an autoclave from prepreg carbon fiber and a Nomex core. Although it is strong enough to handle the toughest coastal and inshore conditions, the boat is not designed to cross oceans, so it can be disassembled and transported in a 40-foot shipping container on its own road trailer and put back together again in about six hours. The precise shape of the hulls was produced at one of the most prestigious aeronautical and race car facilities in France. The molds were produced by Heol Composites in Treffléan, France, one of the leading producers of high-tech boat construction. Sweden-based Marstrom Composites AB then shaped the finished hulls. Shadow X is equipped with a Holmatro hydraulic system and Harken winches. It has a mainsail measuring 75 square meters, a gennaker of 78 square meters, and a 25-square-meter jib. The boat was also given new bottom paint and halyards in 2019.
