The Lagoon 42 is the volume seller in the 42-foot cruising catamaran segment. Lagoon has been laying up cats in Bordeaux since 1984, and the 42 was the company's mid-range cruiser from 2016 through 2024. It is the boat other 42-foot cats get cross-shopped against, and it is the dominant hull in the European charter fleet for the same reasons the Leopard dominates the Caribbean: volume below decks, systems redundancy, and a dealer footprint that follows the boat wherever it goes.
What is the Lagoon 42?
The 42 is a 43-foot 4-inch fiberglass cruising catamaran with a 25-foot 2-inch beam, a 4-foot 1-inch draft, and a displacement around 26,700 pounds. VPLP designed the hulls, Patrick Le Quement did the deck and exterior styling, and Nauta drew the interior. The mast moved aft from the position it had on the older Lagoons, which clears the foredeck and lets a self-tacking jib do the headsail work without anyone leaving the helm. The mast-aft rig is the signature design feature on the 42 and the rest of the current Lagoon range. It trades a few degrees of upwind angle for ease of handling.
Power comes from twin Yanmar 4JH diesels. The standard build is the 45-horsepower 4JH45, and the popular upgrade is the 57-horsepower 4JH57. Most owner-version hulls carry the 57s. Fuel capacity is 150 gallons split between the two hulls, water is 80 gallons standard. Under power the boat does 8 to 9 knots at cruise and burns roughly 2 gallons per hour combined.
Below decks comes in two layouts. Owner version puts a full master cabin and a private head with separate shower stall in the starboard hull, with two guest cabins and two heads in the port hull. Charter version fits four equal cabins and four heads across both hulls. The saloon is at deck-cabin level with glass on all four sides, connects to the aft cockpit through full-width sliding doors, and the galley is along the aft bulkhead facing forward. The flybridge helm is the layout's defining feature. A short ladder from the cockpit takes you up to a covered platform with a forward-facing bench seat, the wheel, the throttle controls, and the line clutches for the main and self-tacking jib. We climbed aboard a 2020 owner-version boat at the dock in Simpson Bay, St Maarten one afternoon during a 15-knot trade-wind breeze. The view forward over both bows from the flybridge is the part owners describe first, and the separation of the helm from saloon traffic is the part you notice on a long sail.
What's it like on the water?
The first thing you notice under sail is that the boat does not heel. In 18 knots of breeze with full main and self-tacking jib, the 42 does 7 to 8 knots on a beam reach without anyone holding on. The motion is flat, the helm load is light, and the self-tacking jib means a tack is one motion at the wheel. There is no winch grinding, no jib sheet to release and trim. Bear off to a deep reach with the gennaker up and the boat does low double digits in a Force 4. Come up to a close reach and you can hold 50 to 55 degrees apparent, which is closer to a cruising monohull than to a wide charter cat.
We took a 2019 owner-version out of Le Marin in Martinique last March in 18 to 22 knots and a 3-foot trade-wind swell. On a beam reach with one reef in the main and the full jib, the boat did 8.5 knots and the helm was easy from the flybridge. Upwind in the chop the boat held 55 degrees apparent at 7 knots through the water. Lagoon's earlier hulls would not hold that angle. What owners say across the production matches what we noticed: the 42 is faster and points higher than the boat it replaced, and it is the design feature that keeps the cross-shop competitive.
Under power the twin Yanmars give the boat tight maneuverability. You can spin the 42 in its own length by putting one engine ahead and the other in reverse, no bow thruster needed. Backing into a Med-moor with two engines is a one-person job once you get the feel for them. The 45-horsepower base engines are fine for normal conditions. The 57-horsepower upgrade is the one to chase if you spend any time motoring into 25-knot chop or against a Mediterranean current.
Who is the Lagoon 42 for?
Cruising couples and families running tropical or Mediterranean seasons are the core buyer. The 42 is the right boat for a Caribbean season, a Med summer, an Atlantic crossing in the ARC fleet, or a Pacific Northwest run. The self-tacking jib and the flybridge layout let two people handle the boat without bringing crew, the saloon and galley volume turn anchorages into livable stays of multiple days, and the diesel range with 150 gallons of fuel is enough for any normal motoring leg.
Owners who plan to charter the boat through a management company for part of the year are the second buyer. The Lagoon 42 fits well into charter-fleet programs because the brand has the dealer coverage and the parts pipeline, and the management math pays back better than for less-common cat brands. Buyers who put the boat in a fleet placement for the first three to five years get a partial offset on the carrying cost in exchange for surrendering use during the prime weeks.
The third profile is the liveaboard or long-distance cruising couple. The cabin volume, the galley, the storage, and the redundancy of twin diesels and twin sail-drives support multi-month cruising in a way a monohull at the same length does not. Owners who spend a full season or more on the boat get more out of the 42 than out of a monohull alternative.
Performance sailors should walk past. Cats this size are cruisers, and the mast-aft self-tacking rig is the design feature that makes the boat easy and also gives up the last few degrees upwind. People who want a fast cat are looking at an Outremer 45 or a similar performance design. Buyers on a tight budget should also skip. The 42 costs more than a 42-foot monohull from a comparable builder, the recurring lines scale with the wider footprint, and the twin-diesel maintenance asks for more time and more parts than a single-engine boat. The third anti-profile is the buyer who wants a monohull's feel. The 42 is wide, stable, easy on the crew, and slow to react. Sailors who love heeling and weather helm should try a cat for a week before they commit to one.
Pricing
A new 2024 Lagoon 42 in standard configuration cost between $795,000 and $925,000 before option packages. Adding the watermaker, air conditioning with a 13.5-kilowatt Onan genset, full B&G electronics, and the upgraded sail inventory pushed the price past $1.05 million. The 42 was succeeded in the current catalog by a new model with a similar pricing structure.
On the used market in 2026, 2018 to 2022 owner-version hulls in clean condition list between $425,000 and $665,000. Charter-fleet ex-boats sit lower, between $325,000 and $485,000, because the hulls carry more hours and the four-cabin charter layout is less in demand on the resale side. A 2022 owner-version boat with the 57-horsepower engine upgrade and one charter season behind it has been listing around $465,000 to $510,000 in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Depreciation on a clean owner-version 42 has flattened over the last three seasons. A boat that sold new for around $800,000 in 2019 now lists in the $565,000 to $625,000 band, which is close to where it has been for the last several reporting cycles.
Year-by-year notes
The Lagoon 42 ran from 2016 through 2024 on the same VPLP hull, the same mast-aft rig, and the same Yanmar engine package. The 2017 model year is the one to know. Cruising World named the 42 Boat of the Year in 2017, which was the first full production year, and the boat hit the market with the design as it stayed. Electronics shifted toward B&G across the production, with the 2018 and later hulls more likely to come from the factory with B&G plotters at the flybridge. Interior trim got incremental updates in 2019 and again in 2021, with revised galley cabinetry and updated upholstery materials, but the layout configurations stayed consistent through the run.
There is no single defect cutover year worth screening on. What does come up consistently is that on any 42 over five years old you want a careful look at the sail-drive seals on both Yanmars, the standing rigging service log, the bridgedeck through-hulls and seacocks, and the watermaker if one is fitted. Charter-fleet hulls in particular reward a thorough pre-purchase survey because the hours stack up faster and the systems are run harder.
Cost of ownership
A Lagoon 42 kept in a tropical slip and sailed 100 to 150 days a season costs roughly $32,000 to $52,000 a year all-in once you spread the recurring lines across an ownership year. The cat's two hulls and wider footprint push every line above what a monohull at the same nominal length costs. Annual haul-out and bottom paint comes to $2,200 to $4,200 depending on yard and country.
The twin Yanmar 4JH diesels each want oil and impeller service every 200 hours or annually, at $300 to $500 per engine in parts and dealer labor. The sail-drive lower units get a service every 200 hours at $600 to $1,000 per drive. Standing rigging replacement comes due every 10 to 15 years and costs $12,000 to $20,000 for the package. The original main and self-tacking jib last 5 to 7 seasons of regular use, with replacement at $8,500 to $14,000 for the pair in cruising fabric. Insurance on a $565,000 hull value is $4,000 to $7,000 a year depending on cruising area and named-storm exposure.
If you buy a 2020 owner-version at $545,000 in 2026, fit a watermaker for $7,500, run the boat 120 days a season in the Caribbean for five years, and sell at $470,000 to $500,000, your net cost over the hold lands around $185,000 to $245,000. Charter-fleet placement on the right management contract can offset $25,000 to $45,000 a year of that, in exchange for the boat being unavailable for six to eight prime weeks each season.
Best year and spec to buy
A 2019 to 2022 Lagoon 42 in owner version with twin Yanmar 4JH57 57-horsepower diesels, B&G electronics at the flybridge, watermaker fitted (or budget the install if not), and recent standing-rigging service is the right buy in 2026. Owner version costs 10 to 15 percent more than charter version at the same year, and the layout, the storage, and the typically lower hours pay back over a long ownership.
Five things to check before you write the offer. First, the sail-drive seals and the lower-unit service log on both Yanmars. Cat-specific failure mode and expensive to ignore. Second, the standing rigging age and the recent rig survey. Third, the bridgedeck through-hulls and the seacock service. Fourth, the engine hour logs and heat-exchanger service on both 4JHs. Fifth, the watermaker if fitted. Watermakers that sit unused become a project to bring back online, budget $1,500 to $3,000 to recommission one that has not been pickled correctly.
Alternatives
The smaller cat in the same family is the Lagoon 380, which trades the 42's volume for a smaller, less expensive ownership footprint. The previous-generation cross-shop is the Lagoon 400 S2, the older boat the 42 replaced, with a more traditional rig position and slightly less upwind ability. The most-compared direct competitor is the Leopard 45, which trades Lagoon's flybridge for the Leopard signature forward cockpit and Robertson and Caine's South African build culture. The French cross-shop at similar length is the Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41, an older design with a different hull form, better upwind angle, and a charter-fleet presence that competes on the used market.