Jeanneau's distinctive new flagship, the Sun Odyssey 54 DS, was launched in France in the spring of 2006 with much fanfare and a bit of trepidation.
''The company was looking to develop an elegant performance cruiser,'' said Erik Stromberg, customer-support manager for Jeanneau America. ''We wanted a boat with the hull volume to accommodate today's system demands and cruising payloads, but it also had to sail well.''