There’s a new generation of 40-somethings designed to appeal to other 40-somethings. I refer, of course, to the group of 40-foot cruiser-racers aimed at folks who are not over the hill but have passed the hair-shirt-racer stage of life. The Wauquiez Centurion 40s is a nice example of this type, with attractive, comfortable accommodations ensconced in a fast, handsome hull powered by a big,
Who says daysailers have to be small and wet? One of the newest launches from the Fontaine Design Group is neither small nor wet, but it is a daysailer. The Friendship 40 is a low-freeboard throwback to the days of graceful sheer and elegant lines. She’s big enough to be comfortable in a stiff breeze, yet can be easily handled by one or two people on an afternoon daysail. The accommodations below
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
When a fire destroyed the molds for the Telstar trimarans in 1981, Performance Cruising founder and designer Tony Smith rebuilt his factory and started production of the Gemini catamarans. Gemini’s success pushed the Telstars to the back of, but not completely off, the drawing board. After years spent redesigning, re-engineering, and rigorously testing five full-size prototypes, Smith has
There has been a proliferation of new racer/cruisers in the 40-foot range. Some builders have returned to the genre after focusing on more cruising-oriented designs, but the Danish builder X-Yachts has been consistently turning out strong, stylish, comfortable performance boats for 25 years. Drawing from this deep well of experience, Niels Jeppesen’s new X-43 was reported to
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
When SAIL decided to print something on rogue waves (October, 2003), the first question that came up among the editors was—what IS a rogue wave? Soon it became clear that “rogue wave” means different things to different people. Faced with the job of making sense, or a bit of sense, of the jumble, I eventually decided that a rogue is any wave that is bigger, steeper, moving faster, or coming
Each of these boats deserves to be recognized for a specific feature, design, or construction technique that was particularly innovative and/or well executed.Island Packet 486’s nav stationAny offshore navigator would love to call this nerve-center nav station home. There’s room to mount every imaginable electronic gadget, the varnished teak chart table is big enough to unfold a
This Jim Antrim–designed sportboat has innovative, well-executed features, achieves the difficult task of combining ease of handling and stability with sportboat performance, and is a gas to sail. The cockpit received high marks because the seats are wide, the stanchions angle outboard slightly to make it possible to use the lifelines as a comfortable backrest, the anti-skid is excellent, and
As a former dinghy racer, I can be hard to please when it comes to “bigger boats.” And while the 27ft Saffier SE 27 Leisure
Relive the magic of the 1983 America’s Cup in The Race of the Century, a new episode of Netflix’s Untold Series, available today. The hour-and-a-half
For the record, I will be the first to admit that a professionally executed reverse-tuck Class 1 eye splice on modern braided line adds an
It’s something all sailors dread—seeing the floorboards in the cabin sole afloat—and it’s what I saw on my way back from a sail across Biscayne
On September 5 at 6:30 pm EST, a few big names in sailing advocacy will join forces for a panel discussion titled “Sailing as a
Aluminum cruising boats from French builders like Garcia, Boréal and Alubat have been gaining traction in the United States over the past several years. These
The Active Interest Marine Group has announced the appointment of Wendy Mitman Clarke as editor-in-chief of SAIL magazine. A lifelong sailor and marine-industry veteran, Clarke
As electric cars become mainstream it’s only natural for sailors and boatbuilders to eye solutions that work the same way on the water. To date,
Mia and I sold Arcturus, a 1966 Allied Seabreeze yawl, circa 2015, around the same time we bought our Swan 48, Isbjørn, and got our
One of the more seductive features of sailing, and of bluewater cruising in particular, is its intense sense of community. We are, I’ve always liked
