Come the Cannes Boat Show this September, you’ll get your first look at this dayboat/tender, the Hornet, built by Couach.
Measuring 44’8” (13.65 meters) and with a beam of 12’5” (3.8 meters), the Hornet is pretty big for an average tender. But, yachts on the larger end of the scale, plus owners who like to tow fast toys, should be equally attracted to the offering. How fast? Try a reported 52-knot top end, powered by twin 800-hp MANs matched with Rolla props and Arneson drive shafts. That means you can carve up plenty of coastlines, and even get close to shore, given the 2’9” (0.9-meter) draft.
Couach is confident of the performance because its in-house team, along with frequent collaborator Franck Reynaud, based the Hornet on a military patrol boat that Couach has been building for some time. Specifically, it’s a Plascoa 1300 FIC (Fast Interceptor Craft), part of a series that Couach introduced more than 35 years ago. In fact, in that time, Couach has delivered more than 200 Plascoa patrol craft to both French and international agencies. The Hornet bears the same hull design and construction materials, the latter being Kevlar, carbon fiber, and fiberglass, along with balsa coring. Couach even has the Hornet pay homage to her roots by keeping welds visible on the stainless steel hardtop (no fussy smoothing, this is a tough lady). Then there’s the colorful camouflage paint job on hull number one that even extends to the swim platform/sunning deck. Future Couach Hornets can have more straightforward paint jobs, of course.
You and five or six guests (depending on whether you have someone else take the wheel for you) can brace yourselves against bolster seats, while a few more people can stretch out on the sunpads. All told, 12 passengers can zip around the harbor. There’s a handy head, sink, and berth inside the cabin, plus a coffee maker. Cold beverages are right at hand on deck thanks to a refrigerator at the helm and a cooler beneath the forward sunpad.
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