At 34 feet and 10,000 pounds displacement, the Seaward Eagle is one of the larger variable-draft coastal cruising monohulls you can haul and launch from a trailer with relative ease—and you can sail it with the keel at a variety of depths. It achieves shoal-draft status thanks to its 2,500-pound retractable bulb keel. An electric winch raises and lowers the keel within a keel trunk.
The Feeling 44 is another offshore cruiser with gunkholing capability; its optional lifting keel reduces draft from 8 feet, 6 inches to 2 feet. Considerable fixed ballast is built into the bottom of the hull to enhance stability and provide a solid grounding plate. This cruiser is thin-water friendly—its shallow rudder provides positive control with the keel fully retracted. It’s also
It may not be the first boat that comes to mind when you’re considering a shoal-draft cruiser, but the Southerly 135 should grab your attention simply because of its size and what it can do below the waterline. It’s a 45-foot offshore cruiser that displaces close to 30,000 pounds and boasts a well-appointed interior. What’s remarkable about it is that it’s equipped with a 3,610-pound cast-iron
The Grand Soleil 40, built by Cantiere del Pardo, is one of a gaggle of new 40-foot performance cruisers that purportedly strike a balance between elegant accommodations and grin-inducing performance. Many boats make this claim, so I tested one off Annapolis, Maryland, to find out for myself.On deckThe deck and cockpit are set up primarily for racing, but the layout is also
The new X-40 is a chip off the old block. Flush with the success of the X-43 and X-46, X-Yachts designer Niels Jeppesen has drawn this new 40-footer to be as sexy, sturdy, comfortable, and responsive as its larger siblings. And it seems to have all the necessary ingredients. The cored hull is light and stiff, the sailplan has power to burn, and the hand-polished teak joinery is sure to turn some
After sailing two or three hundred boats, I thought there would be no utterly novel features for me to discover aboard the next one. I was mistaken. Boat designers are a creative lot, and when they’re engineers as well, the result can be a vessel loaded with innovative features. The Belgian-built Etap 37 is just such a package of pleasant surprises. Or maybe I shouldn’t be surprised; after all, a
Sparkman & Stephens has a reputation that other design firms would kill for. The list of classic S&S boats reads like a who’s who of notable designs of the twentieth century. With the new Stellar 53, S&S carries the tradition into the twenty-first century. Built in New Zealand, the hull features a fine entry, moderate overhangs, and a raised-saloon layout that should serve for speedy and
Nauticats have always been solid, stable, and comfortable, and the newest and biggest Nauticat is no different. There’s nothing radical about the Nauticat 515. Its long overhangs are something of a rarity among new cruising designs, and its displacement of nearly 53,000 pounds will make it a stately offshore passagemaker. The hull is made of meticulously hand-laid fiberglass, and the fit and
If Americans think of Slovenia at all, it probably isn’t as a boat-building center. Elan Marine is trying to change that. The swift, pretty Elan 40 is a mid-priced racer/cruiser designed by Rob Humphreys that is being pitched as a strong player in the highly competitive 40-foot market. I jumped aboard for a test sail on the Chesapeake last fall to see if the reality matches the
Hard on the heels of the 2002 introduction of its new 35-footer, the J/109, J Boats followed up this past fall by sprouting yet another high-performance sprit-boat. Bracketed between the 40-foot J/120 and the 48-foot J/145, the new 43-foot J/133 stakes a claim in the highly competitive mid-40s size range. An extrapolation of the 109, it seeks to combine the fun and performance of an
The Canary Islands has been home to generations of sailors who have competed through the most demanding circuits.
44 and 41-footers are on the horizon for Fountaine Pajot.
As a midocean pit stop, Bermuda’s beauty, history, congeniality, and delectable fish sandwiches make it
a hard place for sailors to leave.
This convertible speedster performs across the wind spectrum.
Between the slow Marion-Bermuda, a wind hole in the middle of the Transpac course, and glacial Annapolis-Newport, this summer has served up some real drifters
The final installment of this year’s web series is out now.
For many years I hated drilling stainless steel. It’s hard, it requires expensive cobalt or carbide bits and it takes a long time to drill.
It’s hard to believe we’re already talking about the end of the summer issue!
Case It Up Fed up with your pilotage plans blowing away or being dissolved by rain and spray? There’s nothing like an old CD case.
The Racing Rules of Sailing begin with safety. What is the very first rule listed as 1.1 in the handbook?A) Fair sailing (no unsportsmanlike conduct
