It seems like only yesterday that Bavaria introduced a completely revamped range of cruising boats, but in fact, the first boats in the Farr-designed Cruiser line, spanning 32 to 55 feet, made their debut nearly three years ago. This year we’re seeing a makeover of some of those boats, and the introduction of the second offering in the Vision line.
After 25 years of operation, cruising icon Herb Hilgenberg has decided to end his weather forecast and routing service, South Bound II Coastal, call sign VAX498. Since he started, Herb has become something of a structure in the East Coast and Caribbean cruising communities.
Richard Schwartz, Chairman and Founder of Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS,) has announced his retirement. Schwartz ran BoatUS for 47 years and will leave the association in the hands of BoatUS president Margaret Bonds Podlich.
The Hanse 415 is superficially like a lot of new production cruising boats in the 40-foot range. It has a plumb bow, generous beam carried well aft, a comfortable cockpit, dual helms and a walk-through transom leading to a drop-down swim step. Like many new cruising boats today, it’s also designed to be fast and easy to handle. But as I found out during a test sail on Narragansett Bay last fall, not all 40-foot “performance cruisers” are created equal.
The sound of water rushing past the foils and propellers took on a note of urgency as Gemini’s Robin Hodges cranked in the genoa and pointed the Gemini Legacy 35 higher into the 10-knot breeze.
It’s good to be a multihull sailor these days. Advances in materials and design have not only revolutionized the market, but it seems the innovations just keep coming. Case in point: the Leopard 48, a boat that employs the latest in catamaran thinking to deliver a platform that is as fun as it is comfortable.
Who among us isn’t a sucker for pretty overhangs, a sweet sheerline and a flush deck? There isn’t a boat in Morris Yachts’s M-series line of Sparkman &Stephens-designed modern classics that’s not a head-turner, and the new M46 is no exception. There’s more to this beauty, though, than meets the eye: good performance was near the top of the design brief.
Something has happened to the Strictly Sail component of the Miami International Boat Show over the last five years. Each February, I’ve seen a drop in the number of monohulls and an increase in the number and variety of multihulls. This year, I twice attempted to count the number of catamarans; each time I was distracted and lost track somewhere around the mid-20s. Granted, there were a few brokerage boats in there, but it was an impressive turnout nevertheless, with plenty of new models amongst the evergreens.
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.
European builders are showing renewed interest in the American marketplace. Three boats from Croatian builder Salona Yachts made their U.S. debut at February’s Strictly Sail show in Miami, and now Elan Yachts, from neighboring Slovenia, has announced a push into North America.
As one of this year’s Magenta Project Mentees, I’ve had the opportunity to try out a new bit of kit in the form of Mustang
The August/September of SAIL is here, and we are talking a lot—but not entirely—about small boats in this issue. Here’s a quick look at the
In the early spring of 1893, a seemingly unassuming young man, a clerk who then worked in the British House of Commons, made a fateful
Join us for a unique conversation during the Annapolis Sailboat Show with special guests Cole Brauer and Lin Pardey who encompass 50 years of sailing,
For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail Yes, Washington D.C. may not be the first destination that comes
Lifeline failure usually arrives as a shocking surprise, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Metal fatigue and crevice corrosion are hidden from sight in traditional lifeline construction,
The latest in this performance cat line is sure to provide more sailing, less motoring.
Let’s be honest: Transducers aren’t as sexy as the cool graphics and touchscreen capabilities of today’s navigation and electronics packages. But the information that those
One cruising couple’s celestial view is cut short when they drag anchor in a serious breeze.
Shortly after I first met Mary Therese Kubek last October, aboard her 1968 Alberg 30, I handed her a copy of Bernard Moitessier’s first book,
