Sail Magazine

by Charles J. Doane

Charles Doane is SAIL’s Executive Editor. He has raced, cruised and lived aboard a variety of boats in harbors around the world.

Appellation Controlee

by Charles J. Doane, Posted July 25, 2011

A rose is a rose, it is said, and smells just as sweet by any other name. Would that it were true of boats. In fact, it seems many boats these days have perfectly horrible names. Glancing around at transoms in marinas and mooring fields, I must blush and/or wince at half the names I see. I realize this is a subjective topic and that one mariner’s bon mot is another’s bad word.

The Hunter 18

by Charles J. Doane, Posted July 13, 2011

the new Hunter 18 replaces the Hunter 170, which for several years was a mainstay in Hunter’s line of small daysailers. Like the 170, the 18 can serve as both an easy-to-manage family daysailer and as a lively performance boat for those with more experience. At a glance the two boats look quite similar, sporting open transoms, centerboards and small sprayhoods forward. On closer inspection,

The Joy Stick Club

by Charles J. Doane, Posted June 1, 2011

By now everyone who wasn’t hiding out in a cave during the last boat-show season has heard of Beneteau’s new Dock & Go drive system. Introduced on a new sailboat, the Sense 50, that was specifically designed to accommodate the system, Dock & Go wowed crowds at shows from Annapolis to Miami with its uncanny ability to spin a monohull like a top on a spindle and drive it sideways to a dock. With

Hunter 22

by Charles J. Doane, Posted May 17, 2011

The new Hunter 22 is directly derived from its predecessor, the Hunter 216, which was built out of thermoformed Luran-S plastic. The 22 retains the 216’s hull, which features a large cockpit and open transom.

Alessandro the Great

by Charles J. Doane, Posted March 10, 2011

Sailing around the world in a modified 21-foot Mini Transat 6.5 to set a world record for the smallest boat to circumnavigate non-stop is one thing. Doing the part around Cape Horn with a jury-rigged mast is quite another. In recognition of these impressive feats, the Cruising Club of America is awarding its Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy to Franco-Italian solo sailor Alessandro di Benedetto in a

Piracy Crisis

by Charles J. Doane, Posted March 9, 2011

As if the recent murder of four American cruisers wasn't enough to shine a huge spotlight on the Indian Ocean's Somali piracy problem, the big crisis now is that the Somalis have grabbed a Danish family of five, including three kids (ages 12 to 16), who were en route to the Red Sea aboard their 43-foot boat ING. Jan Quist Johansen, his wife Birgit Marie, their two boys Rune and Hjalte,

Murray Winches

by Charles J. Doane, Posted February 21, 2011

If putting new winches on your boat is one of the items on this year’s punch list, I urge you to check out these bottom-action Murray winches from New Zealand. I put a pair on my old Golden Hind 31 several years ago and absolutely fell in love with them.They look great on traditional boats, of course, but are also extremely functional. With the handle on the bottom of the winch, you never

Blasting Your Hull

by Charles J. Doane, Posted February 17, 2011

Soon after I bought my aluminum cutter Lunacy it became apparent I needed to remove the heavy 20-year accumulation of hard antifouling paint from her hull. After I brought the boat from Florida to Maine all the old paint started flaking off in alarmingly huge chunks, presumably due to the dramatic change in water temperature.My initial plan was to soda-blast the boat down to its

2011 Pittman Innovation Awards

by Charles J. Doane, Posted January 25, 2011

Each winter SAIL honors the memory of the late Freeman K. Pittman, who served as the magazine’s technical editor for 14 years, by recognizing the most innovative new products of the last 12 months in his name. For 2011, SAIL executive editor Charles J. Doane (Cruising Gear), editor-at-large David Schmidt (Racing Gear), senior editor Adam Cort (Safety Gear), electronics editor Ralph Naranjo

Catalina 355

by Charles J. Doane, Posted December 30, 2010

Catalina’s 445, introduced in 2009, won multiple awards and attracted much interest from buyers. According to Catalina VP and design maven Gerry Douglas, the only complaint some potential buyers had was that the boat was a bit bigger than what they needed or could afford. Hence the straightforward design brief for Douglas’s new boat, the 355, introduced at the 2010 Annapolis boat show: scale down