After 40 years of sailing his beloved Herreshoff 12 1/2 Petunia, designer Chuck Paine figured he knew what he had to do to improve what many aficionados call “the perfect boat.” His new Paine 14, now being built by French & Webb in Belfast, Maine, is 10 percent smaller than the old 12 1/2 and 40 percent lighter, with modern appendages and much of its underbody cut away.
Ever since Russian naval architect Vlad Murnikov burst onto the scene with his Whitbread racer Fazisi back in 1989—a time when Russia was still the Soviet Union—his designs have defied the norm.
We sail the Blue Jacket 40, a fin-keeled, twin-wheeled performance cruiser from Island Packet Yachts If you were asked to sum up any boat you sailed in just two words, it’s a fair bet that some of them wouldn’t be “family-friendly.” Thankfully, the phrase that stuck in my mind after our test sail of the new Blue Jacket 40 was this: sailor-friendly. Given the boat’s unusual but impeccable design pedigree, it could hardly have been anything else.
Best Performance Boat over 30ft The third in J/Boats’s “E” series, in which the “E” stands for elegance and evolution, you’d think the J/112e would
A strong lineup of new boats from domestic and foreign builders will be on display at the Newport International Boat show in September and the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis in October. SAIL’s judging team will be inspecting them closely for the 2013 Best Boats awards.
There’s nothing more disappointing than test sailing a high-octane sport boat in a drifter. But that wasn’t a problem with the new 22ft, 9in J/70. For our sail trial we had a steady 20-knot southerly, gusting over 25 knots and kicking up a sharp chop off Bristol, Rhode Island.
Britain’s boatbuilding industry is a shadow of what it was back in the 1970s and 80s, but a handful of boutique yards still thrives around its shores. One such is Northshore Yachts, whose Southerly range has survived four decades of the boom-and-bust cycles that saw once-mighty production brands tumble.
It’s fall, and boat show season is upon us. It kicked off on the East Coast with the Newport International Boat Show, in France with the Grand Pavois de La Rochelle, and in England with the Southampton Boat Show. A jetlagged Peter Nielsen visited all three in one week. Here’s what he saw…
This past summer, SAIL magazine had the opportunity to test sail and video the better part of the new Bavaria Cruiser line—including the Bavaria 32, 36 40—at the Bavaria Yachts USA headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland. Earlier this year, executive editor Charles J. Doane also took the Bavaria 45 out for a heavy-air trial off
The Aquila 45 integrates IRC (International Racing Class) design features in a comfortably sized inshore/offshore racer-cruiser. Despite its high performance the boat is specifically configured to accommodate short-handed sailing. aquilasailingyachts.com SPECS LOA: 43ft, 8in Beam: 13ft 9in Displacement:
the Jules Verne Trophy has a new owner. Sodebo Ultim 3 has set a new record.
The risk of going overboard—and how you brief it—depends entirely on context. Mia and I were at a wedding recently in England. The bride and
There’s no straight path to boat ownership. Charter in the meantime.
This week marks the one year count down to the start of the next Ocean Race.
The Sea Tow Foundation’s 2026 life jacket loaner program is getting underway.
A cruising family revels in two seasons
of exploration in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Edson will be starting 2026 with a fresh look at the future.
If you’re not going out after dark, you’re missing out on magic.
The Clipper Round the World race has announced an exciting update for the 2027 season: they will be replacing their fleet with the Clipper RX,
Routing isn’t a perfect science. Here’s what you can do to help.
