Every year we are excited to announce our Top 10 Best Boats in the January/February issue, and after months of testing, walkthroughs, reviews, and deliberations, we’re proud to share with you the class of 2025. The boats we have selected represent fresh new design ideas, advances in technology, and industry trends that will live on for years to come.
Though our favorite boats of the year are a diverse range of models, they each have something in common: an aspirational spirit all the way down to their design brief. Whether it’s a fresh crop of small yet surprisingly spacious cruisers to bring more accessible price points to the market, or purpose-built adventure yachts made for chasing down the horizon, these boats are all about making dreams a reality.
We can also see this pioneering spirit in the advent of clean power, which is fully upon us; nearly every model we reviewed was offered with at least a hybrid if not a fully electric propulsion package. Though builders are reporting that the demand hasn’t caught up with the ambition for that one—buyers are still cautious of the young technology and its cost—making it available is the first step to testing and improving it. We also saw a trend towards more multihulls launched in 2025. It wasn’t so long ago that two hulls an anomaly made, but between the space, seakindliness, and popularity in charter, we’re seeing a massive enthusiasm for multihulls, which is reflected in our results.
SAIL’s review team (Editor-in-Chief Wendy Mitman Clarke, Managing Editor Lydia Mullan, Charter Editor Zuzana Prochazka, and Technical Editor Adam Cove) considers every model that debuts at an American boat show during that calendar year. Rather than comparing boats to each other, we consider how well each model fulfills its own design brief, with an acknowledgement to its impact on the overall market. This makes testing fairer and more nuanced than trying to compare apples to oranges in such a diverse design landscape. Instead, we can focus on the best innovations, smartest details, and most impressive execution of ideas.
So, without further ado, we’re proud to announce the SAIL Top 10 Best Boats Class of 2025. (Scroll the the bottom to meet the boat review team.)
Allures 51.9
Of the boats we judged the Top 10 Best this year, the French-built Allures 51.9 may seem like the greatest outlier. Aluminum isn’t a prevalent boatbuilding material in the U.S., and no-nonsense expedition yachts aren’t typical production boat review fare. But this 2021 launch made its U.S. debut at the 2024 Annapolis Sailboat Show in a commanding fashion; her owners sailed from Europe via the Viking Route, stopping off in Scotland, Iceland, and Greenland before arriving in Maine and then heading to the Chesapeake. As a testament to her capability, build quality, ease of sailing shorthanded, and fulfillment of purpose, the Berret-Racoupeau design didn’t need to say a lot more. While the hull is aluminum, a composite deck improves weight distribution. Belowdecks, luxury blends masterfully with seaworthy design; the galley is a work of art, and technical space and engine access is excellent. “You could tell this boat was ready for heavy air, and could really lay down some miles with it, but could still handle the light stuff,” says Adam. “The centerboard means she can draw just 4 feet, 4 inches—very impressive for a boat her size and a worthwhile tradeoff for exploring shallow bays and inlets.”
Hanse 360
The newest from Hanse Yachts is the smallest in its range, and the Berret-Racoupeau design team has done a skillful job of incorporating the attributes of this boat’s big sisters into 36 feet. The cockpit is big-boat size with thoughtful ergonomics for sailhandling and helming, yet with all the amenities including a wet bar, grill, a fridge incorporated into the centerline table, liferaft storage, and swim platform. Similarly, the space and storage belowdecks was impressive; our review boat was the two-cabin layout with a generous storage garage aft in lieu of a second aft cabin, and a V-berth with an island bed and surprising space (remember, this is a 36-foot boat). We had a fun, blustery day for the test sail, perfect for seeing how the youngster in the Hanse fleet handled. “I like a small boat, and I thought this one sailed really well, with good sightlines and very manageable for two people,” Lydia says. “I had complete confidence weaving it through a mooring field in a bit of a gusty breeze.” Read the full review in the January/February 2025 issue.
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 350
Last year, Jeanneau wowed the judges with its fresh-thinking Jeanneau Yachts 55. This year, the venerable French builder did the same with its new 34-footer. The big game changer on this new 350, which replaces the Sun Odyssey 349, is the walkaround deck. “This just makes the whole cockpit feel bigger and work better,” says Wendy. “It makes trimming so much easier because you can actually stand over the winches instead of twisting or yoga-ing from a settee. Not to mention how seamless—and therefore safe—it is to move from the cockpit forward. This single feature really made this boat a lot of fun to sail.” Belowdecks, a clever lounge seat with a lifting arm locks you in on port tack while hanging out below. The roomy head has a big separate shower—and access here to an all-important storage garage that’s also reachable from the cockpit. Under sail, the boat handled easily and responsively, even in light air, with just enough tweakability to make it fun. Significantly, as well, the base price for this boat is $205,000. Read the full review in the November/December 2024 issue.
J/40
The only real racer/cruiser in the mix this year, the new J/40 fills a worthwhile niche in this size range for the sailor who feels the need for speed—and maybe a Bermuda Race or Chicago-Mac—and who also wants to take the family or friends cruising in comfort and safety. In short, this boat makes fast sailing fun, and that means you’re going to want to sail it a lot. “This boat was a total blast during our test sail,” says Wendy. “I’ve never spun a boat in two continuous circles without touching a sail. We did the maneuver just for the fun of it, and the agility was pretty jaw-dropping.” With a carbon spar as standard, emphasis in the build on weight control, and a deck layout and sailplan clearly geared toward efficient, quick sailing, this boat also maintains a level of comfort and practicality that’s appealing for cruising. “The J/40 is wonderfully balanced and has the agility of a much smaller boat,” Adam says. “She is a true racer/cruiser that delivers on her performance promises, even in light air.” Read the full review in the January/February 2025 issue.
Leopard 46
For years, Leopard Catamarans has stuck to its knitting, which in the business world isn’t a bad strategy. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Since 50% of their hulls are destined for charter, the boats had to be easily handled with good sailing manners, and they did this well. But when it came time for change, Leopard embraced it fully. “The new Leopard 46 has rejiggered its onboard spaces so effectively, it feels larger than its 50-foot sibling, and the layout works well for charter and private ownership,” Zuzana says. “Leopard has also been the first company to acknowledge that the smelly skipper cabins tucked into the bows are reviled by crew and usually end up as fender storage, so they found a way to have an owner’s suite version with an over/under midship crew cabin that captains won’t be horrified to sleep in.” The 46 will make good 7.2 knots of boatspeed in 13.5 knots of true wind on a beam reach, meaning she’ll average about 50% of the windspeed. When the wind pipes up, she’ll point to 40 degrees, which isn’t shabby for a multihull. For private ownership, Leopard offers the option of a hybrid electric drive with twin diesels and a range-extending genset. Electric propulsion will generate speeds up to 8 knots, and regeneration via solar, wind, and hydro is expected to produce 1.8 kW per hour per hull.
Nautitech 48 Open
In the catamaran world, performance cats and cruising cats seem pretty clearly divided. But the new Nautitech 48 Open does a heckuva job bridging the gap, with its emphasis on keeping things as straightforward and easy as possible while delivering inspiring performance. She’s relatively light for her size with just over 13 tons of displacement, and her long, slim keels—no daggerboards—keep her tracking well. “Every so often, a model comes along where it all comes together, and this, the last design from Marc Lombard, is exactly that,” Zuzana says. This new flagship, “has dialed in all that matters on a cruising cat: a stable and intuitive platform, comfortable accommodations, and slippery sailing.” The owner’s suite spreads across the entire port hull, while on starboard, the layout gets “modular.” You can spec two cabins and two heads, one cabin and one head with an office, or a cabin and head with the “SmartRoom” that serves as workshop, stowage space, or laundry room. It’s a feature that distance cruisers will love. Read the full review in the June/July 2024 issue.
Outremer 52
“Best day 254 nautical miles. Top speed 21.3 knots.” So said the notes, written in green marker over the door to the salon, of the Outremer 52 that debuted in Miami last February. And this note, too: “Joy of sailing.” Known for its devoted group of owners who like to sail the world fast and in style, Outremer’s VPLP-designed update to its popular 51 takes cues from its award-winning big sister the Outremer 55 and has refined the layout and ergonomics throughout. “A conscious effort is put into keeping the boat light, as is evident through the centralized and careful use of space and thoughtful selection of materials,” Adam says. “Designed to perform even in the lightest breezes, the 52 is bound to maximize sailing time.” If you want to get your dinghy sailor on, you can even have this boat with tiller steering on one side. During a test sail with lumpy seas and shifty winds, in 10 knots true the boat made good 6.1 knots of boatspeed, leaping forward in the puffs. The helm was light with excellent feedback, and you could feel the rudder humming as we managed a boatspeed of two-thirds of the windspeed in all directions and pointed up to 40 degrees. Joy of sailing, indeed. Read the full review in the June/July 2024 issue.
Seawind 1370
“This boat sailed well even when it wasn’t trying,” Zuzana says. With no main and a gennaker only three-quarters deployed, the boat “nevertheless slipped along at 7.2 knots in 9.2 true wind on a beam reach, which is 78% of the speed of the wind. When the main did make an appearance, we nosed up to 40 degrees AWA and still held on to 6.4 knots of speed, busting the myth that catamarans won’t sail to weather.” At 24,000 pounds displacement and with wave-piercing, reverse bows, the boat remains light and nimble without resorting to more expensive materials, such as carbon, and appendages like daggerboards, to achieve the same goal of quick sailing. Having 45 feet to work with, Seawind borrowed the galley-up layout of their 1600 flagship and seamlessly integrated it with other signature features of their smaller models to create a platform that has both traditional appeal and new thinking. “A well-designed layout that maximizes sailing enjoyment and life on board,” says Adam. “This is a cruising catamaran for those who enjoy sailing. Visibility from the helms is great and is complemented with the flexible indoor/outdoor space.” Read the full review in the March 2025 issue.
Windelo 54
Of all of this year’s entries, Windelo led the way in consistently keeping environmental sustainability at the top of the priority list. As with last year’s 50, the new 54 uses basalt fiber (fabricated from volcanic rock) in the build, rather than traditional fiberglass and recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used to make plastic bottles) for a core material. The 54’s power comes from two 20kW shaft-driven Bellmarine electric motors and an 18kW diesel genset, with a massive solar farm to help support them. “Windelo is committed to pushing the envelope with advanced electric propulsion systems,” says Adam. “The 54 is a culmination of their developments, delivering a practical solution for a boat that also performs well under sail.” The new flagship looks a bit sleeker with a low profile, sharp entries on the bows, and decent bridge deck clearance. These narrow hulls sliced through the water at 62% wind speed as we sailed 9.15 knots in 16.3 knots of true wind on a beam reach. Even when we hardened up to 40 degrees, we still maintained 5.1 knots in 10.3 knots true, showing that the Windelo is a capable, all-direction sailor. Still highlighted is the enclosed forward cockpit and the innovative drop-down transom that doubles as a davit system for the dinghy.
Xquisite Solar Sail 60
The latest from Xquisite Yachts made a dramatic debut at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, sailing 8,000 nautical miles from South Africa to Maryland across a storm-infested Atlantic, arriving to a hero’s welcome two days into the show and looking remarkably little the worse for the wear. It was hard not to root for her just for that, but the new flagship—even if still in more or less a prototype model—had enough innovation and wow factor to impress the whole review team. “Last year, Xquisite debuted a 30-foot carbon rocket for pure fun while learning to sail a multihull. This year, they arrived with a 60-footer that’s no holds barred in terms of luxury but also incredibly well thought out from the practical side of living aboard and cruising, too,” Wendy says. “I love the bold thinking inherent in that juxtaposition.” Highlights include a newly designed carbon boom that incorporates extendable shade awnings like wings, and dedicated storage in the cockpit for a dive compressor, seamlessly connected to a separate compartment for tank storage—making it easy to fill your tanks. “Xquisite inspires an impressive company culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The Solar 60 is a remarkable result of those efforts,” Adam says. “Details, even down to including a tool kit that can handle any job on board, along with a full collection of spare parts, are present and fully in the DNA of their builds.”
Special Mention Dream Boat
Boréal 70
“Wanted to tip you off that this recently launched Boréal 70 (!) will be at Annapolis,” SAIL cruising editor and boat review team member emeritus Charles J. Doane emailed the team in late September. “Should be a stupendous boat.”
He was right about that. Granted, he’s biased—he sails a Boréal 47 and most recently finished yet another successful and fast passage, this time from Bermuda to Puerto Rico, with little fuss. But from the moment the team walked past the wall of aluminum hull that loomed over the outboard-most set of docks at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, it was clear this wasn’t an ordinary boat. A true exploration yacht and the best-constructed boat in our collection of contenders for the Top 10, the Boréal 70, designed by Jean-François Delvoye, can be taken to the ends of the earth in comfort and safety. Every detail, from substantial machinery space to the redundant systems to the wood joinery, is executed seamlessly. Her primary features—such as the doghouse interior helm station with a huge chart table and a centerboard for powerful upwind sailing (drawing 13 feet when down and a mere 4.5 feet up)—mimic those of her smaller sisters while taking them to a new level.
During a test sail in the Chesapeake Bay in a brisk northwesterly, we spent a leisurely morning barely putting her through the paces, because the only way to truly feel out this boat’s paces would be in the open ocean, and that’s clearly where she wants to be.
“Steering the Boréal, I was suddenly channeling that N.C.Wyeth painting, “The Giant,’ ’’ Wendy says. “With the easiest hand on the wheel, I felt as though we were giant-striding across the Bay, and it had less to do with waterline length than the sense that miles were nothing to this boat.”
“It is safe to say, this is the dream boat for anyone looking to sail to Svalbard, explore the Northwest Passage, or study the endless passages of Patagonia,” Adam says. “She is beautiful, powerful, and can log impressive ocean miles.”
Meet the Team
SAIL’s boat review team represents decades of experience in the marine industry, not just as journalists but also as professionals who use, fix, and improve boats and systems. This—plus a healthy mix of chartering, cruising, and racing experience—gives us a genuine understanding of how owners will use these boats and what design innovations will serve sailors well. Along with sailing and handling characteristics, we also look at systems innovation and installation, design, construction quality, deck and interior layouts, and ergonomics.
SAIL’s boat review team also represents a diversity in knowledge, sailing experience, age, and gender to bring as many perspectives as possible to the process. They are:
Wendy Mitman Clarke, SAIL Editor-in-Chief, logged some 30,000 bluewater miles during four and a half years of fulltime cruising on an Adams 45 with her husband and two kids. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, she has raced and cruised all manner of sailboats over a lifetime of sailing, from Snipes and E-Scows to performance keelboats and bluewater passagemakers. Complementing her cruising experience, she’s competed in the Newport-Bermuda Race, Key West Race Week, Block Island Race Week, and hundreds of round-the-buoys races out of Annapolis. She and her husband regularly sail a Peterson 34 that they have continued to upgrade as a fast cruising boat. And, they just became the happy new owners of a Herreshoff 12 1/2.
SAIL Managing Editor Lydia Mullan has been a reviewer with SAIL’s Best Boats competition for seven years. In recent years, offshore racing has become her main focus, and she has competed in most of the major East Coast regattas. She was Cole Brauer’s media manager during her historic circumnavigation and is an alumna of The Magenta Project mentoring program, which aims to improve diversity at the highest levels of the sport by pairing aspiring athletes with industry leaders who can help them reach their potential.
SAIL Charter Editor Zuzana Prochazka is a USCG 100-ton master who logs countless miles on all kinds of boats around the world and never misses an opportunity to raise a sail or crawl into the engine room of a new design. She started sailing in California during grad school when she capsized her Lido 14 on the first day—an inauspicious start to a lifelong love of sailing and her career in the industry. She serves as an international presenter on charter, safety, and technical topics, and is the executive director for the board of Boating Writers International.
SAIL Technical Editor Adam Cove is a naval architect and marine engineer (University of Michigan) and trained under David Pedrick. He previously gathered experience as a boatbuilder, rigger, and sailmaker, before adding an MBA and becoming CEO of Edson Marine. He currently operates as director of Cove Marine Consulting. Adam grew up sailing on the south coast of Cape Cod, captained his high school and college racing teams, and can regularly be found racing around the buoys in New England or heading offshore. He has singlehanded his Luders 33 back and forth to the Caribbean, via the offshore route, and recently completed the 750-nautical-mile Race to Alaska singlehanded in a Marshall 18, setting two course records.
Emeritus Team Members
We call on them to test the occasional boat, delve into a design or builder’s history, and answer questions when we are stumped.
SAIL Cruising Editor Charles J. Doane has been testing boats for the magazine for over 20 years. He is an avid coastal and bluewater cruiser, has crossed the Atlantic seven times, and has crewed in several distance races.
Tom Dove became hooked on sailing by a Penguin class dinghy in 1954. He has been reviewing boats of all sizes for SAIL magazine since 1988.
January/February 2025
