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The SAIL Top 10 Best Boats

2011 Best Boats: Topaz TAZ

Although it can be easily singlehanded, the 9ft 8in TAZ, from Topper International, can handle an adult and child, making it ideal for training or parent/offspring daysails. Better still, this is a boat with a Bermudian rig that both prepares beginners for the rigs they will be handling as adolescents and adapts to their needs as they develop as sailors. Specifically, the basic rig flies a

2011 Best Boats Daysailer: C.W. Hood 32

This year, we decided to create a special category for the elegant daysailer. These boats don’t fit in the cruising or performance boats categories, and it’s a shame to leave such beautiful crafts unacknowledged. There was a strong field this year, but our judges were unanimous in electing the C.W. Hood 32 as the one that stood out above the rest. With its long, lean hull, sweeping overhangs,

2011 Best Boats Flagship Multihull: Gunboat 66

Opulent luxury meets speed-freak performance in the Morrelli & Melvin-designed Gunboat 66. Constructed in South Africa out of carbon fiber, the Gunboat has a saloon that offers close to 360 degrees of visibility and appears to be crafted of acres of perfectly matched solid hardwood. In reality all the luscious furniture is carbon and honeycomb with a hardwood veneer. The result is a featherweight

2011 Best Boats Flagship Monohull: Southerly 57RS

One day you might be power-reaching across an ocean, logging double-digit speeds under a massive A-sail set on a retracting bowsprit. On another day you may be tacking effortlessly up a narrow channel, putting the helm over and watching the self-tacking jib slam across its track, enjoying the windward bite and responsive steering of a deep-drafted performance cruiser. Or you may have nosed up to

2011 Best Boats Cruising Monohull Under 50ft: Presto 30

One thing we particularly like about this boat is that it reminds us there are many different ways to go cruising. A shoal-draft sharpie based loosely on a boat designed in 1885, the Presto 30 is a very modern reinterpretation of a very traditional archetype. A simple, trailerable, beachable boat that is fast, fun and easy to sail, it also has an enclosed head, a dedicated galley and enough berth

Getting Moody

During the glory days of British boatbuilding, the Moody brand was always front and center. The yard, near the head of the iconic River Hamble on England’s south coast, began building workboats in the 1820s, branched into yachtbuilding in the 1930s, and remained in the Moody family’s hands until 2007, when the brand was bought by Hanse Yachts proprietor Michael Schmidt and the

SAIL’s 2011 Best Boats Nominees

The lineup of new boats making their debut at the fall boat shows is impressive indeed, considering the economic conditions still plaguing the boating industry. Whether you’re going to the Newport International Boat Show this month or the U.S. Sailboat Show at Annapolis next month, you’ll be treated to exciting developments in design and boatbuilding. From small daysailers to big

Best Boats Nominees 2010

Never mind the economy — it’s business as usual in the boating game. Well, not quite. Everyone in the marine trade is feeling the financial pinch these days, so it’s even more impressive that so many new boats have been developed and readied in time for the fall boat show season. What this year’s line-up of new models—everything from dinghies to multi-million-dollar world cruisers—tells me is

Loaded 45s

Cast your mind back to a time when a 45-footer was about the biggest boat you could expect from a mass-production builder. It wasn’t all that long ago—the mid-1990s. Then Beneteau raised the bar with a 50-footer back in 1997, and boats that size and bigger are now commonplace.Still, size isn’t everything. Many sailors still find their dream boats in the 45-foot range. A 45-footer is big

Bargain Performance Page 2

Bill Schock, the founder of California-based W.D. Schock Corp., got a lot of things right in his time, not the least of which when he turned to his son Tom back in 1976 and said, “It’s a great little boat. Let’s build it.” In this way the Santana 20 was born with, as Tom recalls it, “no demographic studies, no market research, nothing. We didn’t know who we’d sell it to.”Thirty-five years

Heritage Photo

Fifty Years of Innovation

Two industry giants are celebrating five decades this year. Here’s a look back at half a century on the water with Gori and Gill.

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The Annapolis Sailboat Show

America’s largest all-sailing boat show starts today. The SAIL team is looking forward to a busy weekend full of new boats and old friends. 

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