Tom Dove

Finding the Right Cruising Multihull for You

March 19, 2015

Within the past decade, there has been a momentous shift among cruising sailors from monohulls to multis, for the simple reason that catamarans and trimarans offer a number of very real advantages: speed, space and shallow draft among them. However, it’s important to remember, as with monohulls, that there is a difference between the best boats for coastal cruising and ocean sailing. Of course, nobody stays at sea indefinitely,

Boat Review: Passport Vista 615

February 4, 2015

Passport Yachts has been building semi-custom voyaging sailboats for three decades. For the last 20 years these boats have been produced in a modern facility

Boat Review: Fountaine Pajot Victoria 67

October 20, 2014

Our choice for Best Multihull Flagship in SAIL’s 2014 Best Boats program, the Fountaine Pajot Victoria 67 is a big catamaran from an established builder that puts some significant technological advances into a time-proven hull and interior.

Boat Review: Lagoon 52

June 9, 2014

Looks can be deceiving aboard this innovative cat

Boat Review: Lagoon 39

January 29, 2014

It looks like a Lagoon. It’s built like a Lagoon. But this 39-footer is a new breed of catamaran.

Flagship: Best Boat 2012 Passport Vista 545 CC

January 6, 2013

I have always admired Passport Yachts for their beauty, performance and detailing, but stepping aboard the new Passport Vista 545 CC, SAIL’s 2012 Best Boat in the Flagship Monohull category, I felt an especially strong sense of déja vu.

Boat Review: Passport Vista 545 CC

June 24, 2012

I have always admired Passport yachts for their beauty, performance and detailing, but stepping aboard the new Passport Vista 545 CC, SAIL’s 2012 Best Boat in the Flagship Monohull category, I felt an especially strong sense of déja vu. The boat not only shares a family resemblance to other Passports, but has the same hull and rig as the Passport 515 I sailed in 2008

Oyster 625

June 12, 2012

Sailing is about excitement, freedom and motion without machinery. What Americans would call “yachting” also includes security, comfort and luxury. Given this definition, the Oyster 625 truly provides the full yachting experience.

Catana 47

June 4, 2012

The Catana yard in the Catalan region of southern France has been building 47-foot cruising catamarans for more than a dozen years. The newly redesigned Catana 47 incorporates more carbon fiber than its predecessors and springs from an entirely new hull and deck mold, but retains the same distinctive profile, tall twin daggerboards, open helm stations and performance-oriented rig.

TomCat 970S

June 2, 2012

The debut of TomCat’s first 32-foot 970 catamaran, about eight years ago at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, was a pleasant surprise. Since then, the builders have continued to refine the boat, a process that has resulted in the new TomCat 970S.

Selecting a Marine Pro

Note: This story is excerpted from SAIL Contributing Editor Christopher Birch’s upcoming book The Four Seasons of Boat Maintenance—a compendium of lessons learned during his

From the Editor: In Praise of Something New

In the May issue, Charles Scott writes about sailing OPBs—other people’s boats—and a host of voyages that he’s been on thanks to generous invites, offers

Sail and Canvas Repairs Underway

A little know how will save you a lot of stress on passage.

Squalls at night are no joke, but good preparation will get you through safely. Photo courtesy of Andy Schell

Storms & Sea Stories

The wind built faster than it was forecasted to. We ate dinner with full sail, close-reaching on a building SSW’ly breeze. Before dark we had

A Charter Passage Rewritten

Sailing on a schedule is famously a recipe for disaster, but on charter you don’t have much of a choice. The adventure is what you make of it.

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Francesca Clapcich Announces Team for Transatlantic

Francesca Clapcich has announced the onboard crew roster for the inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic. First up is Will Harris (Great Britain) who was Clapcich’s co-skipper