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:
Do away with mean reef points I’m always pleased to be on a boat with reef points for the mainsail. Without a stack pack, tying
Jazz Turner has been named Yachtsman of the Year by the Yachting Journalist Association (YJA) in a ceremony at the Royal Yachting Association Dinghy and
March is the Offshore Issue, and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to for months. After all, it was an offshore race that really inspired
This weekend a significant portion of the boating industry descended upon Miami for the annual Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show. It’s a warm and
Laura Grondin and Paul Cayard have been named Rolex Yachtswomen and Yachtsman of the Year for their accomplishments in competitive sailing during the 2025 season.
For a third year in a row, SAIL Magazine has been recognized as the top magazine at the Boating Writers International annual awards. SAIL led
I wrote recently about my ongoing project to redesign the mast and sailplan on our family boat, a 1971 OE 36 called Spica. I’ve agonized
New England’s season kick off for racers returns this March.
I’m not patient, laid-back, or compliant so when I hear the expression “age gracefully” all my hairs stand up. It’s unlikely for me to go
Editor-in-Chief Lydia Mullan reflects on her work anniversary with SAIL.
