Published: Jul 25, 2012

McLaren-Designed Sailyacht Stores MP4-12C Onboard

UltraLuxum CXL puts the Sea in the 12C.

McLaren may be best known as a Formula One racing team, but the British outfit has also branched out into making road-going sportscars (like the McLaren F1, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and the latest MP4-12C). It's also helped design bicycles and has made sports racing cars for a variety of motorsport classes. And now it has designed a sailboat. Wait, what? That's right: a McLaren sailboat. And what's more is that it's not the first automaker to dip its toes in the water.

McLaren-Designed Sailyacht Stores MP4-12C Onboard

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Nissan has built a racing catamaran, Mercedes-AMG made a special Cigarette speedboat, Porsche Design has dabbled in naval architecture and so has BMW DesignworksUSA, to name just a few. In this case, McLaren Applied Technologies was contracted by UltraLuxum to help design a massive 157-foot trimaran sailboat called the CXL. With sail power assisted by a hybrid power backup, the design is lightweight and carbon-intensive, and features retractable outer beams that make it more stable on the open water (when open to a 75-foot beam) and more compact (retracted to 36 feet across) when in port.

All that space allows for a lounge, dining room, master suite, four guest cabins and crew's quarters for three. But our favorite part is what McLaren snuck into the design: an on-board garage big enough to fit an MP4-12C for a little fun on shore leave.