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Boat Reviews

Boat Review: CW Hood 32

Late last fall, I looked over a partly completed hull sitting in a small workshop at a boatyard in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Even minus keel, paint, trim and other essentials, it was apparent that this would be a fast and attractive boat. Less than four weeks later, with snow carpeting the small islands off Marblehead, the boat was being sea-trialed; and yes, it was indeed fast and

Boat Review: Dufour 405

French builder Dufour Yachts added this sparkling new 40-footer to its range of Umberto-Felci-designed performance cruisers late last year.

Landing School 30

Most production boats are conceived with a design brief from a builder who has a targeted market in mind. Not so the Landing School 30 (LS-30). It’s built by students at a non-profit boatbuilding and design college. The Landing School and its resident designer, Steve Dalzell, design and build boats as part of the curriculum: selling them is an afterthought. As a result, only two or three LS30s

Boat Review: Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41

Fountaine Pajot has been building catamarans for more than 30 years. Over that time, the company’s boats have changed in evolutionary steps rather than quantum leaps, with hundreds of them being field-tested every day in charter fleets around the world. The new Lipari 41 is a further refinement of the simple, strong, spacious craft this builder has always produced.

J/97

As we strolled across the grounds at the New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court facility in Newport, Rhode Island, Al Johnstone described the design brief for his new J/97 racer/cruiser. “I thought we needed an entry-level sprit boat that’s a little more user-friendly, non-intimidating and family-cruiseable than the J/105,” he said.CONSTRUCTIONStructurally, the boat is

Boat Review: Island Packet Estero

Using a bow thruster to get a 36-foot boat off the dock was new to me, but fair to say, the folks at Island Packet know what they’re doing. Without the thruster we would have required a heap of pulpit shoving and gear shifting to escape that narrow corner of the marina, so our easy exit to San Francisco Bay provided the perfect introduction to the Estero, the latest offering from a company where

Sensei 9M

“You said this is not a raceboat,” I grinned, as the new Sensei 9M sliced across the mouth of the Bosphorus with Istanbul’s Blue Mosque dead ahead. The wind was only 8 to 10 knots and the silver hull was knifing through the light chop at nearly 6. I had trouble believing I was able to take a boat right from the factory, only minutes after it was first rigged and launched, and

Boat Review: Outbound 52

Since he formed Outbound Yachts just over 10 years ago, Phil Lambert—a former merchant mariner, racing sailor, and wanna-be yacht designer—has demonstrated a deft appreciation of what it takes to successfully blend performance and comfort in an offshore cruising boat. His Outbound 44 and 46 performance cruisers, both designed by the late Carl Shumacher, are much admired among

Swan 90 FD

When Nautor Swan built its first boat — the venerable Swan 36, Tarantella — in 1968, the Finnish builder used a revolutionary new hull material called fiberglass. Forty-some years later Swan is again pushing the envelope, this time with DSK, an all-carbon, flush-deck, 90-foot German Frers-designed rocketship.Compare the two boats and you quickly

Summit 35

This handsome racer-cruiser from the board of Mark Mills is designed to the IRC rule. It promises sizzling performance with family-friendly accommodations. A retracting pole for an A-sail is optional, or you can fly symmetrical spinnakers from the tall double-spread aluminum mast. Down below, there are three double berths, standing headroom, and a functional galley. LOA 35ft

Simrad-NSS4

GEAR: Simrad NSS 4

Simrad has upgraded their line of chartplotters with the NSS 4, a new model designed with going off soundings in mind.

A Coneys launch heads out to the mooring field at the marina on Huntington Harbor. Photo courtesy of Coneys Marine

All in the Family

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Coneys Marine on Long Island has always counted on the power of family.

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Transpac Update

As the second fleet of starters get under way, a quick look at the tracker and the prep that goes into a race of over 2,000 open ocean miles.

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