One of the most intriguing smaller boats to debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival was the Vandal Explorer, a 14-metre all-aluminium tender. Styled by Espen Øino – best known for having designed some of the biggest superyachts on the water – and based on a foil-assisted catamaran platform by Canadian Scott Jutson, the concept originated with Ben Mennem, CEO of MB92 La Ciotat, the refit shipyard in the south of France.“I’d been planning to build a boat like this for myself for five or six years,” says Mennem. “I wanted it to be of aluminium because it wasn’t worth tooling the moulds for a one-off; I wanted outboards so they can come out of water when not in use; and I wanted it to be as simple as possible.Photo: Justin Ratcliffe / SuperYacht TimesMennem already owned an 8.5-metre RIB with foils and went to his old friend Scott Jutson to create the catamaran configuration based on the same principle. A discussion with Espen Øino at the Monaco Yacht Club led to the Norwegian designer agreeing to take on the styling of the topsides. “In a way, it’s the antithesis of what we normally deal with,” says Øino, “but I loved the simplicity of it, the idea of really going back to basics and thinking about what you need and don’t need on a boat of this size.”Both Mennem and Øino own Land…