My wife declared, after one bouncy beat to Porquerolles on a monohull, that she would never charter again unless the boat stayed flat. The following summer we took a catamaran out of Cogolin, and she changed her mind by lunchtime on day one. That is the whole pitch for a multihull in a sentence: it stays level, and the people who do not love sailing love it anyway.
Catamarans now make up a large slice of the French charter fleet, and Dream Yacht alone lists over 450 of them across bases in Nice, Cannes, Marseille, Saint-Mandrier and Corsica. Here is how to think about chartering one in French waters, and what it actually costs once you add up everything the headline price leaves out.
Why a cat, and when not
The case for a catamaran is comfort and space. Two hulls give a wide, stable platform that barely heels, so meals stay on the table, nobody slides off the cockpit bench, and crew prone to seasickness cope far better than they do on a monohull. The living space is the other draw: a 42 foot cat has the deck area and saloon volume of a 50 foot monohull, with four double cabins each having its own heads.
The shallow draft is a genuine advantage in France. A cruising cat typically draws around 1.2 to 1.4 metres against 2 metres or more for an equivalent monohull, which lets you tuck into shallow Glenan or Lavezzi anchorages a deep-keeled boat cannot reach. Twin engines also make Med mooring and tight marina turns far less stressful for a first-time skipper.
The case against is cost and berths. A catamaran charters for noticeably more than a monohull of the same length, marinas charge a multihull surcharge that often runs 1.5 times the monohull rate, and in August a 24 foot beam is a hard sell to a packed harbourmaster. If your crew sails for the sailing, a monohull points higher and costs less. If your crew sails for the holiday, the cat wins.
Where to base in France
Three regions take most of the catamaran traffic.
The Cote d'Azur is the obvious one. Bases at Cogolin, near Saint-Tropez, and around Marseille put you within a day of the Iles d'Hyeres and the calanques. It is busy, it is expensive, and in high summer it is also where everyone else is going. My one-week Cote d'Azur charter itinerary maps a realistic loop that keeps you out of the worst of the August crush.
Corsica is, for my money, the better catamaran ground. The water is clearer, the anchorages are less crowded, and the shallow-draft Lavezzi islands off the south coast are exactly the kind of place a cat earns its keep. The trade-off is wind: the Bonifacio strait funnels it, and a multihull's big windage means you respect a forecast you might shrug off on a keelboat.
South Brittany is the Atlantic option, with cats working out of La Trinite-sur-Mer into Quiberon Bay. It is tidal, so a shallow-draft cat that can sit comfortably on a drying mooring suits the area well, but it is a step up in seamanship from the Med. If you are weighing the coasts, chartering in South Brittany lays out the bases and the tidal planning.
What it really costs
The headline charter fee is only the start, and this is where first-timers get caught.
A bareboat cruising cat in the 40 to 42 foot class, a Lagoon 42 being the workhorse of the fleet, runs from roughly 4,000 euros a week at the shoulder to well over 8,000 in peak August on the Riviera. That covers the boat and basic equipment, nothing else.
The security deposit is the number that surprises people. On a catamaran it typically sits between 2,000 and 5,000 euros, held against your credit card for the duration of the charter and released after a clean check-out. You can buy that exposure down: a damage waiver costs in the region of 150 to 300 euros and reduces the deposit, sometimes dramatically. On one Lagoon 42 I priced for 2026, a 250 euro waiver cut the held deposit to 1,000 euros. Whether that is worth it depends on your nerve and your credit limit, but on a cat I take the waiver, because a single dinghy davit or a scratched gelcoat on a hull that size is not a cheap repair.
Then add the running costs: marina fees with the multihull surcharge, fuel on return (twin engines burn more when you motor), an end-of-charter cleaning fee that is often 150 to 300 euros, and the deposit's worth of caution every time you come alongside. I unpacked the deposit and waiver mechanics in full in charter insurance and the security deposit in France, and it is worth reading before you hand over a card number.
Taking the boat
A catamaran handover takes longer than a monohull's, because there is more kit: two engines, twin steering, often a generator, watermaker, and more systems generally. Do not rush it. Run both engines, check the davit and tender, and test the windlass under load.
The licence requirement is the same as for any bareboat in France: an ICC or RYA Day or Coastal Skipper certificate, plus a sailing CV. Bases sometimes want to see specific catamaran experience for the larger boats, because docking a 24 foot beam under twin engines is a different skill from a monohull. If you have only sailed monohulls, say so, and consider a skipper for the first few days.
For the mechanics of the handover and the return inspection that decides whether you get your deposit back, the charter check-in and check-out process walks through it step by step.
The verdict
I have chartered both in France, and the honest answer is that it depends on the crew. Put serious sailors on a monohull and they will thank you for the feel of the boat. Put a family, or a mixed group, or anyone who turns green on the first beat, on a catamaran and the holiday is transformed. In France specifically, the shallow draft is the clincher: the best anchorages, in the Glenan, off Corsica's Lavezzi, in the calanques, are exactly where two metres of keel keeps you out and 1.3 metres lets you in.
Provisioning and life aboard
One underrated point in favour of a cat in France is how it changes the daily rhythm. The wide flat cockpit and the saloon at the same level mean meals become the event of the day rather than a balancing act. On the monohull beat to Porquerolles that converted my wife, lunch was a sandwich eaten one-handed. On the cat, we anchored off the Lavezzi and laid out a proper spread of the market shopping we had done that morning in Bonifacio, because nothing slid anywhere.
The galley on a 42 foot cat is genuinely usable, with a full-size fridge and often a freezer, so you can provision for a week rather than shopping every other day. Budget around 80 to 120 euros a head for a week's food and drink if you cook aboard and eat ashore a couple of times, which most French ports make easy and worthwhile.
The flip side is that a heavier, beamier boat under twin engines burns more fuel when you motor, and in light Mediterranean airs you motor more than you would like. Factor a fuller fuel bill into the budget than you would on a monohull.
Just go in with the full number in your head, deposit and waiver included, and the cat stops being a luxury and starts being the obvious choice.
