The Blue Jacket 40
February 1, 2013
One of the true stars at the recent Strictly Sail boat show in Chicago was the Blue Jacket 40, which made its world debut there.
One of the true stars at the recent Strictly Sail boat show in Chicago was the Blue Jacket 40, which made its world debut there.
It was déjà vu all over again. Motoring back to the dock at the end of the boat test, I couldn’t help noticing the distinctive lines of well-worn Tartan Ten sitting on the hard.
Two different boats, two different sail programs, and yet a surprising number of similarities: among them, the fact that even in this era of gee-whiz computer modeling, the human element still plays a major role in a sail’s ultimate success.
I have always admired Passport Yachts for their beauty, performance and detailing, but stepping aboard the new Passport Vista 545 CC, SAIL’s 2012 Best Boat in the Flagship Monohull category, I felt an especially strong sense of déja vu.
It is not very often that Hull #2 of a design beats Hull #1 onto the water by a couple of decades—which is why Jay E. Paris, longtime technical editor of SAIL and designer of the 32-foot cruiser Petrel, laughs ruefully as he looks back at the lengthy build timeline of his boat.
The room went silent when the photo of Tom and Cuyler Morris flashed up on the boatshed wall. The classic wooden building in Northeast Harbor, Maine, was ground zero for a weekend of parties and raft-ups hosted by Morris Yachts to celebrate its 40th year of building boats.
The Aussie-bred McConaghy 38 takes skiff sailing adrenalin and repackages it in a low-slung sport boat that redefines the genre. It came as no surprise that our Best Boats team found little not to like about this 7,000lb, all carbon, elegantly Spartan sloop.
Since the moment of its inception in 1967, Nautor’s Swan has been the epitome of a Scandinavian boatbuilder—highly regarded for its traditional boatbuilding skills, its exquisite woodwork and cabinetry, and its exceptional attention to detail.
Tartan and C&C Yachts have been making “World Class, Heirloom Quality Yachts” for 50 years, and this month they are gaining recognition with appearances on two television shows.
hese days, it’s becoming rare for a production boat—no matter how good it is—to survive more than a few seasons before falling victim to the perceived demands of the market for newer, fresher, ever more modern styling.
Sixteen years ago, I installed solar panels on my boat. At the time, the peak efficiency at converting sunlight to electricity was around 16%. Today’s
Fun fact: The island of Newfoundland is home to zero snakes, zero ticks, and zero skunks. Like a dog, I do best when kept clear
It’s a well-accepted truth of offshore sailing that things get more dangerous the closer you get to land. An extension of that axiom in chartering
My visit to the Bermuda stopover of SailGP’s Season 4 circuit came with a few revelations. I’m based in Boston, and the first surprise came
Donald Street Jr., the indefatigable sailor and writer whose charts and guides to the Caribbean quite literally opened the islands to charterers and cruisers, has
American sailor Taylor Canfield, 35, grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands and has been competing as a professional match racer and fleet racer since
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When we decided to add windvane steering coupled with a hydrogenerator to our sailboat, our focus was on the practical aspects: conserving battery power, adding
When I was growing up with SAIL magazine, Patience Wales was the editor. I was maybe 18 when I pitched my first story to her.
