Having just landed back from Lagoon’s Technical Training Academy at the CNB Lagoon shipyard in Bordeaux, Ross talks us through his impressions of the Lagoon facilities and the training he received:

“Outstandingly professional & impressively cutting-edge are the first impressions you get after spending just a short amount of time at the CNB Lagoon yard in Bordeaux. From a technical perspective, the specific expertise of the engineers, shipwrights and assembly team on each stage of the production line is evident in the focus with which they work. At the outset, the hand-preparation of the balsa-cored vacuum-infused hulls is meticulously carried out with care and attention to detail and the whole facility kept impressively clean.

An understanding of the production sequence and seeing the yachts at each stage of their assembly is incredibly valuable from a commissioning, service and quality-control perspective. Knowing the order and the manner in which the tanks, plumbing, electrical wiring looms, auxiliary equipment, engines and technical systems are installed makes future trouble-shooting and the resolution of any issues a far quicker exercise and is one of the key elements of a training academy of this sort.

Lagoon’s quality and strength of build speaks for itself so the real value of any technical training is getting to grips with the auxiliary systems onboard as any boat owner will know it’s the these systems that end up causing the biggest headaches. Lagoon understand this and had brought in the technical experts from each of their major suppliers over five days to brief the technicians on the fundamentals of each of their systems, proper set-up, operation and troubleshooting.

Sessions from the manufacturers of the rig [Sparcraft], Air Conditioning [Dometic], Electronics [Eplex & Schreiber], Water Makers [Sea Recovery], Instrumentation [B&G] and propulsion systems [Volvo] were technically in-depth & refreshingly upfront. I have got to say that being briefed by the technical experts and engineers from each of the products who have extensive first-hand experience of designing, installing, maintaining and trouble-shooting these complex onboard systems gives you a perspective you won’t get from the advertising literature or manuals. It reinforces how critical it is to have a professional service team with a thorough understanding of the boats supporting you.

It’s true that the technical training is only one aspect of the benefits gained from the Lagoon Academy, solid relationships with the Lagoon team themselves as well as the wealth of knowledge in the network of dealers and yacht technicians from all over the world means the resources and expertise accessible to us is outstanding. Friendly, highly talented and incredibly professional sums up the Lagoon production and technical team – there’s a great deal of comfort in knowing that should we encounter anything our own team can’t resolve right away that the guys and girls from Lagoon (not to mention their suppliers) will be ready to jump up and give us what we need to keep our Lagoons sailing and our owners smiling.”