Sapphire Seas

When the guest list runs to three households who would rather share one boat than split across two, Sapphire Seas is where we start. She is a 2024 Lagoon 51, the longest catamaran we list, with six double cabins, twelve berths and four heads, and her papers register her for twelve passengers. The extra length shows up where a big group feels it: more seats around the cockpit table, a second deck to escape to, and enough cabins that the grandparents and the teenagers can sleep at opposite ends of the boat.

Up top, the flybridge carries the helm and a lounge, so whoever is at the wheel is never driving alone and everyone else has somewhere to sit with a view. Below it, the saloon runs the full width of the boat with the galley on the same level, which means breakfast for twelve happens in one room rather than in shifts. Forward of the saloon there is a second cockpit, the place to sit once the anchor is down and the wind is coming over the bow.

Twelve people use a lot of water and power, and she is set up for it: a watermaker, a generator, air conditioning and a 219-gallon water tank. For time in the water there is snorkel gear for everyone and stand-up paddleboards, and for the evenings a cockpit grill and a freshwater shower on deck to rinse off the salt. Navigation is a chartplotter, autopilot and VHF, the mainsail is fully battened, and two 80 hp Yanmars take over when the wind goes light.

From Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbour, the first afternoon can be as short as the hop to Man-O-War or Hope Town, each about an hour away. Big groups do well at Great Guana Cay, where the ocean beach runs for miles and there is room for everyone ashore, and at Tahiti Beach off the southern tip of Elbow Cay, where a sandbar appears at low tide. Getting twelve people ashore usually takes more than one dinghy run, so we suggest anchorages where a single stop can fill the whole afternoon.

She is not the right boat for every group, and it is worth being clear about why. At 51 feet with a 26.6-foot beam, she needs more swinging room than the smaller cats, and a few of the snug harbours they slip into will be a squeeze. She draws 4.5 feet, a couple of inches more than the Lagoon 46s, so some entrances, Little Harbour's among them, should be taken close to high tide. And with four heads between six cabins, a little planning goes into who bunks where.

She also sits at the top of the catamaran price list. In the 2026/27 booking year her weekly rate runs from $10,725 in early August to $24,750 over Christmas and New Year, plus the mandatory Comfort Pack: $1,100 for the first week and $660 for each week after. The 10% Bahamian VAT is already in those figures; the 4% cruising tax is charged in addition. Split twelve ways, even the holiday rate comes to just over $2,000 a head before those extras. The refundable security deposit is $2,000. Sail her bareboat with a qualified skipper in your party, or ask us to arrange a local skipper through Abaco Sail.