At 51 feet the arithmetic of the boat changes. There is room for an owner’s hull that is genuinely private, the sail plan is big enough to move 20 tonnes properly, and six-cabin versions make charter a serious proposition rather than a compromise. This is the size at which most owners stop thinking of it as a big boat and start thinking of it as home.

The 51 replaced the Lagoon 50 in 2022, drawn by VPLP with exterior work by Patrick le Quément and interiors by Nauta Design. Its significant departure was moving the mast forward to the front of the coachroof, which simplified the structure below but ruled out a self-tacking jib; she carries a large-roach mainsail, an optional square top and an overlapping headsail. The Iconic version, launched alongside the 46 Iconic, is a styling and detail programme developed with Garage Yacht Design — revised graphics, stronger contrasts, a reworked forward lounging area and a swim ladder in the bow.

She sails the way her proportions suggest. Published test figures put her at around 55 degrees to the true wind at five and a half knots in seven or eight knots of breeze, lifting to about seven knots reaching under Code 0. At close to twenty tonnes light and 8.1m in the beam, she rewards setting the sails properly and then leaving them alone. The single flybridge wheel gives a clear view forward for manoeuvring; sightlines astern when berthing stern-to are less good, which is worth practising. Four cabins with three or four heads at one end, six cabins with four heads at the other — private ownership and charter, cleanly separated.