[Photo Caption: Rapido 40 Racer at the Royal Langkawi International Regatta. Still image from video courtesy of @langkawiregatta on Instagram.]
There is a point in every boat test when the specification sheet stops mattering and the boat has to speak for itself.
For Multihulls World’s Ludovic Roussille, that point came off La Grande-Motte, where he took the new Rapido 40 Racer, our 12m performance trimaran, sailing after its world premiere at the 2026 International Multihull Show in France.
The conditions were hardly dramatic: around “9 to 11 knots of true wind and a calm sea”. There was no strong breeze to flatter the numbers.
The resulting five-page article, Ocean Racing Within Your Reach, appears in Issue 210 of Multihulls World magazine. Rather than retell their test, we thought it would be more useful to add Rapido’s side of the conversation: what we were trying to achieve with the Racer, and what an independent test team noticed when they sailed it.
Video: The Multihulls World team inspects the Rapido 40 Racer at the dock before taking her out for the test sail off La Grande-Motte.
The idea was never simply “make the Cruiser faster”
The starting point was the Morrelli & Melvin-designed Rapido 40 Cruiser. The Racer keeps the geometry of the Cruiser’s centre hull and floats, but adapts that proven platform for a much more race-focused role.
We wanted a trimaran that could race coastal regattas with four or five crew, but could also go offshore and potentially be raced solo across an ocean. That meant weight had to come down, controls had to become easier for a short-handed sailor, systems had to remain accessible and the boat still needed to support its crew offshore.
The folding floats stayed too, reducing beam from 8.8m to 5.8m for berthing and transport.
The Racer is designed first and foremost for racers.
Removing weight intelligently
At about 4.5 tonnes, the Racer is 700–1,000kg lighter than the Cruiser, depending on specification. The hull and floats use infused foam/carbon sandwich construction, while the highest-load components — including the beams and foils — are autoclave-cured prepreg carbon. Asymmetric C-foils, a T-foil rudder and a 19.5m carbon rig – 2m taller than the Cruiser’s rig – are all part of the Racer specification.
One detail highlighted in the review says a great deal about the thinking behind the boat. The Racer drops the Cruiser’s large coachroof windows which allows the roofline to be lowered, saving both weight and windage. But a lower roof directly affects interior space, unless you also lower the floor. So we did: the Racer keeps 1.96m of headroom in the saloon and 1.9m in the forward cabin.
The objective was not simply to remove things. It was to decide where weight could be taken out while retaining what matters on an offshore race boat.
Multihulls World noticed. After listing the displacement, C-foils, carbon rig and stripped interior, they describe what lies behind it all as “a true liveable multihull.”
Then came the tiller
With around 10 knots of true wind at 50 degrees, Multihulls World recorded the Racer accelerating quickly to around 6.5–7 knots. Useful numbers, but their description of the helm tells us rather more:
“It literally handles with just two fingers on the tiller.”
They describe excellent precision and responsiveness to wind shifts. For us, that matters. A boat intended for offshore and short-handed racing cannot simply be fast. It also has to communicate with the sailor and remain manageable hour after hour. The magazine also noted the revised C-foil control system, which allows the foils to be operated from the cockpit, an important improvement for short-handed and solo sailing.
A race boat, but still liveable
The Racer is more spartan than the Cruiser, and the review says so. Multihulls World lists “(voluntarily) spartan comfort” among its weaker points, along with the very low aft berth (just under 70cm of headroom) and the visibility of the display units when sailing fully crewed.
The spartan interior is deliberate. The Racer was never intended to be a cruising boat with some racing equipment added. Weight matters, and creature comforts have to justify their place aboard. The portable cooler and watermaker can be removed before a race, and systems are kept straightforward and accessible rather than hidden behind cabinetry. Cruising buyers have the Rapido 40 Cruiser. The Racer makes a different set of choices.
Those choices still leave standing headroom, usable berths, a functional galley and ready access to the electrical, plumbing and other technical systems. Multihulls World concluded that the interior remains suitable for short cruising and, more importantly, ocean passages.
Their verdict
By the end of the test, Multihulls World described the Racer as “fast, functional, and reassuring at the helm”, and saw an audience among amateur and professional crews, four- or five-person regatta teams, offshore racers and solo sailors with ocean racing in their sights.
There was, however, one thing the test team could not control – the bane of performance sailors everywhere: not enough wind.
And then the wind disappeared
The frustration was the weather.
The 119m² reacher was the only downwind sail the team flew. The conditions never allowed them to explore the Racer further off the wind under its 173m² asymmetric spinnaker. As the breeze faded, it was time to head back.
But importantly, they were already keen to go sailing again.
“If possible”, they politely asked, “with a few more knots of wind and a starting line right in front of the bows”.
We think that sounds like an excellent idea.
There is much more in the full review
We have deliberately left much of Multihulls World’s test untouched. The full article goes considerably further, with their own photographs, side-by-side observations of the Cruiser and Racer, sail handling, the North Sails sail plan, MOCRA rating, measured speed figures at different wind angles, technical specifications and their complete assessment of where the Racer sits in the performance multihull world.
That is their story to tell, and it deserves to be read in full.
Thank you
Our thanks to Ludovic Roussille and the Multihulls World team for taking the time to properly explore the Rapido 40 Racer.
And Ludovic, next time, let’s find you some wind!
Read the full review(s) from Multihulls World
- Rapido 40 Racer – Ocean Racing Within Your Reach*, Multihulls World magazine
- Rapido 40 Cruiser – Fast, foldable and worry free*, Multihulls World magazine
* Note: A short introduction to each review is available free on the Multihulls World website. The full reviews are available to purchase directly from Multihulls World.
Find out more:
- Rapido 40 Racer specifications
- Rapido 40 Cruiser specifications
