The Fleet: A Living Timeline

The one that started it all. Tom Lubbe founded VOYAGE YACHTS with a single, clear-eyed brief: design a 40-foot sailing catamaran that would feel equally at home on a blue-water passage and in a Caribbean charter anchorage. Working with renowned designer Simonis, the VOYAGE 400 delivered exactly that—performance and stability without sacrificing the spacious, comfortable interior that charter guests and bluewater cruisers both demanded.The VOYAGE 400 didn't just launch a company; it established a philosophy. Catamarans, VOYAGE argued, could be fast, safe, and genuinely luxurious. The Caribbean agreed.

Two years in, the demand for more was undeniable. The VOYAGE 500 marked our first major expansion—both of our facility and of our ambitions. New premises, a second production line, and a yacht that pushed the boundaries of what a sailing catamaran could offer.The 500 carried the DNA of the original 400—the commitment to sea-kindly handling, generous volume, and real-world durability—but stretched it into something grander. It attracted the attention of charter companies like Sun Yacht Charters and earned VOYAGE a loyal following among serious cruisers who valued reliability as much as performance.The VOYAGE reputation was no longer a local story. It was going international.

If the 400 made the argument, the 440 won the debate. In 2001, at the prestigious Annapolis International Boat Show, the VOYAGE 440 was awarded Cruising World's Overall Boat of the Year—the first time a catamaran had ever received this honour.

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🏆  Cruising World Overall Boat of the Year, 2001 — First catamaran ever to receive this honour.

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It was a watershed moment—not just for VOYAGE, but for the entire industry's perception of sailing catamarans. The 440 proved, decisively, that a catamaran could be as refined, as capable, and as worthy of recognition as any monohull on the water. Spacious, stable, and safe, it became the benchmark for cruising, live-aboard lifestyles, and charter vacations alike.

The momentum from the 440's landmark award carried directly into the 580—a yacht that pushed VOYAGE into genuinely grand territory. Larger, more innovative, and more ambitious than anything that had come before it, the 580 was recognised immediately for what it was: a step change.

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🏆  Cruising World Best Sailing Catamaran Award, 2002.

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Back-to-back Cruising World recognition cemented VOYAGE as not just a quality builder, but an industry pioneer. By the close of the decade, VOYAGE yachts were sailing across the United States, Europe, Australia, and the Indian Ocean islands. Cape Town was building for the world.

The 2013 acquisition by Robin Downing and Kay Oldenburg wasn't just a change of ownership—it was a convergence of two kinds of mastery. Oldenburg's craft and Downing's Caribbean expertise arrived together at exactly the right moment.

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In 2016, that partnership produced something that turned heads across the industry: the VOYAGE 480 became the first VOYAGE model fitted with a hybrid-electric propulsion system. It was a quiet revolution—no fanfare, just a better way forward. The 480 proved that sustainability and luxury were not competing values. They were, in fact, complementary.

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VOYAGE had always built for how people actually sail. Now, for the first time, we were building for how the next generation of sailors would want to.

The VOYAGE 590 is, in many ways, the fullest expression of everything VOYAGE has learned in thirty-plus years of building. Launched in 2019, she combines the spacious, considered interior that made VOYAGE famous with hybrid-electric propulsion—now offered as a standard eco-conscious alternative to traditional diesel drives.

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🏆  Cruising World Charter Boat of the Year, 2022.

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The 590 doesn't just carry guests through the BVI. She redefines what a charter experience can feel like—quieter, cleaner, and more attuned to the waters she moves through. The 2022 Cruising World Charter Boat of the Year award confirmed what our guests had been telling us from the first season.

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The 590 remains the flagship of the VOYAGE fleet, and the centrepiece of our charter operation in the British Virgin Islands.

Some boats are an evolution. Others are an arrival. The VOYAGE 510 is both.

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Set to debut at the 2025 Annapolis Sailboat Show, the 510 represents the next generation of VOYAGE design—purpose-built in our new Cape Town production facility and shaped by everything the 590 has taught us about what today's blue-water sailors and charter guests truly want.

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We won't say more than that just yet. Some things are worth the wait.