HOW IT ALL BEGAN

When French professional sailor Francois Gabart set a new 24-hour single-handed record of 534 nautical miles in the 2012/2013 Vendée Globe, many wondered how he experienced this extreme day. For everyone, it came as a shock that he described this day as relatively relaxed and with more sleep than usual.

How can that be, and what kind of boats are these, that can sail at average speeds of 20 knots and more for many hours and days at a stretch? And would it be possible to build a similar boat as a family yacht with suitable comfort?

This question was also asked by a passionate sailor from southern Germany, who at that time owned a boat that sailed comfortably and safely, but did not meet his expectations in terms of performance and easy handling. His idea was to buy an approx. 50-55 foot, family-friendly, IMOCA-like boat that fulfilled the aforementioned features!

However, after all efforts to find such a boat on the production boat market failed miserably, the decision was made to have this yacht built as a one-off. Finot-Conq was able to deliver the most convincing concept in an architectural competition and in 2015, the FC 53 was born!

Six years later, another fan of fast ocean-going yachts had the opportunity to sail aboard a modern IMOCA and experience the sheer power and fascination of these boats. Inevitably, the desire arose to exchange his 45-foot performance cruiser for such a boat in a family-friendly version! Of course, there was no way around the FC 53, which, however, did not quite meet the customer's requirements in terms of layout. Furthermore, development in yacht design had not stood still, so it was time for an evolution of the legendary FC 53 - the result is the exciting FC 56!