
Best Boats 2016: Italia 13.98
Cruising Monohull 41-50ft Italia13.98 According to Italia Yachts, the goal with the 13.98 was to create a “luxury cruiser” in which performance is a part

Cruising Monohull 41-50ft Italia13.98 According to Italia Yachts, the goal with the 13.98 was to create a “luxury cruiser” in which performance is a part

By Nigel Calder, Christopher White, Adam Cort, Charles J. Doane, Zuzana Prochazka & Tom Dove Every year’s Best Boats competition brings at least a few
it would be hard to imagine a greater diversity of modern design styles than those comprising the SAIL Magazine Best Boats class of 2015. From a cutting-edge carbon cat to an aluminum sloop expressly designed to nudge aside icebergs, the winners of this year’s Best Boats contest have it all.
A few months ago, SAIL ran a story in which we considered exactly what it is that makes for a great small boat. And as fate would have it, the Topaz Argo from the UK’s Topper International meets an awful lot of the standards we came up with.
The Mini Class has long served as a feeder into the wild world of singlehanded offshore racing, offering huge adventure in a 21-foot package that emphasizes performance over all else. However, while this works well for the hard-core, 20- and 30-something crowd, Minis are cramped, highly strung raceboats that oftentimes stretch the definition of the term “enjoyable sailing.”
We don’t often have ties in our Best Boats competition, but with two very different and equally exciting boats in the 30ft-and-under performance category, we just couldn’t go with a single winner.
Quorning Boats of Denmark has been absent from American boat shows for several years, and it’s good to have them back, especially with something as special as the new Dragonfly 32.


Step aboard the Xp 44 and the first thing you might find yourself wondering is: what’s not to love? This mid-40-foot racer-cruiser is designed to deliver decades of racing and cruising pleasure while offering a wealth of the kind of design features sailors have long since come to expect from this high-end Danish builder.
Gunboat catamarans are known for their sleek lines and speed. Owners take pride in sailing their boats, and the engines are used primarily for maneuvering and intermittent auxiliary propulsion-; they are rarely used for extended motoring.

Souvenirs are evidence of a life well lived and uniquely documented.

Our 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, Avocet, was anchored in Morro Bay during the worst storm system the state of California had seen in two decades.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

A spin around the steaming cauldron of the Aeolian Islands makes a bewitching visit to the heart of the Mediterranean.

After a long absence, one sailor finds herself sailing the waters of her youth and contemplating years of change in all its forms.