GENE HACKMAN
January 30, 1930 - February 2025
We all discovered that one of the world’s great actors passed away last month and since the announcement tributes have constantly been pouring in along with many people recounting stories of their experiences with the great actor. We at The Catamaran Company have our own story about dealing with Gene as he was one of our first clients to recognize the growth of catamarans back in the 1990’s and was one of many celebrities, sport stars and famous people we have had the ‘privilege’ (I apologize in advance for the pun!) to deal with over our 37 years in this business.
In the early 1990s our company was known as ‘Catamaran Charters and Sales’. I think we will all agree that that was quite a mouthful even though it didn’t ever leave you wondering what our business focused on! It was only in the late 1990’s that we simplified it to become The Catamaran Company. In 1996 we were the exclusive US Distributor for Jeantot Marine, the manufacturer of ‘Privilege’ catamarans. Privilege had been founded by Philippe Jeantot, a former deep sea diver who had set many records for long distance, single handed-sailing and racing. With this experience he went on to establish the Vendee Globe, a non-stop, single handed, round the world yacht race. During his races on a monohull, he had used the time alone to design what he considered the perfect boat to go cruising around the world with his family so after he retired he set about building the Privilege 48 cruising catamaran and hence Privilege catamarans were born. He sailed his own personal Privilege 48 across the Atlantic with his family and cruised the Caribbean before bringing it to Florida for us to sell on his behalf.
One of the first clients who contacted us about the boat was Gene Hackman and we were pretty surprised about how knowledgeable Gene was on the subject of catamarans, despite the fact that catamarans in general were still in their infancy and we were all learning but generally just making it up as we went along. We tried to answer his many, detailed questions about the boat and due to the intricacy of his requests we were in almost constant touch with Philippe to get the answers as Gene wanted to know why Philippe had designed something in a particular way and whether or not it was based on something that had happened during his racing career. After satisfying all of his requests and giving him everything he needed, Gene signed a contract to purchase it and set up a date to fly in and visit the boat. When we advised Philippe Jeantot about the visit he asked if he could speak directly Gene and we facilitated that. They then arranged to meet and Philippe even flew in for the visit. They both hit it off famously, each one giving the other a gift as a token for their mutual respect for what each other had done in their different careers.
The inspection and the sea trial all went ahead as normal, we fixed the issues that arose during the inspection and then fate stepped in. Right before the transaction was about to close, Gene got the supporting actor role in the film “Enemy of the State” alongside Will Smith and this meant he was not going to be able to go on that long cruise that he had spent years planning.
Rest in Peace Gene Hackman.
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