It comes with great pleasure that Red Beard Sailing is now the official US dealer for the brand new line of Astus Boats!
Design & History
In 2004 Jean Hubert-Pommois created Astus Boats. When they got started Astus was only making 7 of their first design the 20.1 in their first year. Now, 17 years later, there are over 400 Astus boats sailing all over the world!
Starting in 2015 Astus sought out a refresh in the model range. As a result, Astus hired world renowned naval architect firm, VPLP, to completely rethink and redesign the Astus range from the keel up!
VPLP is a premier naval architecture and yacht design firm based in France. The firm is well known for their pioneering sailboat designs that have broken numerous speed records. Successful racing sailboats from VPLP include Hugo Boss, Groupama 3, and America's Cup winner Oracle. Continuous innovations in hull forms and foil shapes have kept VPLP Design at the top of the leaderboard in the most challenging regattas in the world.
Performance
The new age of Astus Boats has ushered in a new definition of speed for these small portable trimarans. These boats offer exceptional handling and performance in a small and manageable package. These boats offer a few key design points that really make these small trimarans exceptional:
Narrow Hulls: Skinny hulls slice through the water and waves with ease and provide better light wind performance as well as more comfort in poor and choppy conditions. Typically, narrower hulls means you have less buoyancy, but when used in conjunction with the inverted bows, these boats actually boast more buoyancy than your average production trimaran.
Inverted Bows: Hull speed is a mathematical calculation (speed in kn = 1.35 x square root of waterline length). Inverted bows maximize waterline length by making sure the longest part of the boat is the below waterline (BWL) length. This means the Astus boats will be faster in light winds and will get on plane in lower wind speeds than other boats with traditional overhanging bows. In conjunction with the narrow hulls, the Astus trimarans are very comfortable in a chop because they do not hobby horse as much as more common tri's.
Infusion Construction: The infusion method for constructing the Astus trimarans ensure that the hulls are as lightweight as possible. Less weight means that these boats are faster and can carry more weight, safely, than other similar sized trimarans.
Practical
Astus is famous for their telescopic carbon beams that allow their boats to be road trailerable. This style of beam offers a number of benefits over competitive folding and swinging style folding systems.
Less Weight: It doesn't take a big imagination to see this obvious advantage. Other folding / portable trimarans have overbuilt fiberglass beams in order to equal the rigidity of a simple carbon tube.
Fewer Moving Parts: The Astus Telescopic Beams are a simple locking pin and slide, no special tools, parts or hardware are required to maintain or operate. Complicated folding systems have many bushings and specific geometry that must be maintained. In addition to all of those extra parts comes lots of hardware that must be checked regularly.
Easier Transport/Storage: Because the telescopic beams slide in a linear way, the bottom of all three hulls remain the bottoms. Unlike the Farrier designed boats, the Astus boats can easily be moored or docked in a monohull slip. This often means finding a slip is easy (shallow water monohull slips are hard to rent for marinas)! In addition to being easier to store in the water, getting a boat back on a trailer touches the bottom of the boat instead of beautiful painted sides gives you a little more wiggle room and less anxiety when launching and retrieving your boat. The beams also allow the boat to require much less height on a trailer which may make all the difference between indoor and outdoor trailer storage in the winter.
Less Intrusive: The Astus beams do not require beam boxes or mounting hardware that intrude on the interior cabin. This is a massive perk on trimarans under 30 feet where space comes at a premium. If you plan to do some weekend cruising with the family, you will very much appreciate the extra storage and sleeping space!
Manufacturing Process
Astus Boats is located in the Morbihan region in northwestern France , just near The Trinité-sur-Mer and the Gulf of Morbihan. It is no wonder they make such amazing sailboats!
Astus boats does everything they can to keep manufacturing and sourcing local, in France. They design and build the molds locally and even source sailmaking and other boat's components from other French manufacturers. In case you aren't aware, France is the sailing-est place on the planet. Keeping the whole boat French means that every Astus is imbued with the spirit and love that the French have for the sport of sailing!
Affordability
Astus has long prided itself in offering quality, performance sailboats at a price that will allow would-be adventure seekers all over the world, from all walks of life, to enjoy the passion and performance that you get with an Astus trimaran.
The Range
Without further ado, below are specs and base prices for each Astus model:
Astus 14.5
An ultra-portable personal Tacking Proa or Trimaran. You can choose to sail with two hulls or three with this exciting and affordable trimaran! Easy to car-top, this boat can go from car to water in just 5-10 minutes!
| Length | 14' 3" |
| Beam Proa Verison | 5' 3" |
| Beam Trimaran | 7' 10" |
| Max Capacity | 290 lbs |
| Draft | Board up - 6" Board down - 1' 3" |
| Mast Height | 16' 1" |
| Main Sail Area | 54 sq ft |
| Jib Sail Area | 43 sq ft |
| Starting Price | $7,700.00 (No Shipping if picked up in Baltimore, MD) |
Shop the Astus 14.5
Astus 16.5
A high octane beach trimaran that is easily portable but offers plenty of space and capacity to take the family out for a relaxing (or sometimes sporty ) daysail! This is a great boat for the family to enjoy and for Dad (or Mom) to race in local regattas.
| Length | 16' 2" |
| Beam Folded | 8' 3" |
| Beam Unfolded | 12' 6" |
| Displacement | 496 lbs |
| Draft | Board up - 8" Board down - 3' 7" |
| Mast Height | 23' 2" |
| Sail Area - Leisure | Main - 108 sq ft Jib - 54 sq ft Gennaker - 162 sq ft |
| Sail Area - Sport | Main - 124 sq ft Jib - 59 sq ft Gennaker - 215 sq ft |
| CE Rating/Capacity | Class C - 3 people Class D - 5 people |
| Starting Price | $27,500.00 (No Shipping if picked up in Baltimore, MD) |
Shop the Astus 16.5
Astus 20.5
The ultimate nomadic weekender. The 20.5 is a bit bigger still than the 16.5 and has a cabin! The addition of the cabin in the 6.0m category means that you get way more boat for your buck than other production trimarans on the market. You also benefit from the other features listed above that makes this the perfect family starter boat as well as being a great day / weekend charter boat!
| Length | 19' 6" |
| Beam Folded | 8' 1" |
| Beam Unfolded | 14' 9" |
| Displacement | Standard - 1190 lbs Infusion - 1102 lbs |
| Draft | Board up - 10" Board down - 4' 1" |
| Mast Height | 26' 3" |
| Headroom | 4' 9" |
| Sail Area - Leisure | Main - 162 sq ft Jib - 65 sq ft Gennaker - 215 sq ft |
| Sail Area - Sport | Main - 183 sq ft Jib - 75 sq ft Gennaker - 258 sq ft |
| CE Rating/Capacity | Class C - 5 people Class D - 7 people |
| Starting Price | $45,000.00 (No Shipping if picked up in Baltimore, MD) |
Shop the Astus 20.5
Astus 22.5
The largest boat in the current Astus lineup. This boat features a much larger cabin than the 20.5 and a bit more speed. Down the line, this boat will be offered with optional foils in the floats to allow for higher speeds in rougher conditions. This wouldn't make this boat a completely foiling boat, just foil assist in the leeward hull. Red Beard Sailing currently has one of these boats in production for our demo fleet. It is slated to arrive in Baltimore in May 2023, so keep an eye out for our un-crating and first sail videos!
| Length | 22' 7" |
| Beam Folded | 8' 3" |
| Beam Unfolded | 15' 5" |
| Displacement | 1587 lbs |
| Draft | Board up - 1' 1" Board down - 4' 7" |
| Mast Height | 29' 6" |
| Headroom | 5' 3" |
| Sail Area - Leisure | Main - 226 sq ft Jib - 97 sq ft Gennaker - 345 sq ft |
| CE Rating/Capacity | Class C - 5 people Class D - 7 people |
| Starting Price | $76,500.00 (No Shipping if picked up in Baltimore, MD) |
Shop the Astus 22.5
To learn more or to discuss the next steps to purchase your new Astus boat, please email us at redbeard@redbeardsailing.com.