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Sailboat News

Just Launched: At the Dusseldorf Boat Show

If you were looking for the ideal boat show venue, your first choice probably wouldn’t be a German city 110 miles from the sea. Yet the nautical extravaganza in Dusseldorf, on the banks of the mighty Rhine, has grown to be the world’s biggest boat and watersport show.

Moody 45AC

You’ve got to hand it to the folks at Moody Yachts: it takes some guts to build two 45-foot cruising boats that occupy opposite ends of the design spectrum. Yet it’s easy to see the logic behind such a strategy

Lagoon 560

As his two boys cavorted around its decks, I asked David, a potential buyer, why he was considering the 560 for a world cruise. “It’s the biggest boat my family and I can sail without a professional crew,” he said.

Stephens Waring 75: Isobel

It will be interesting to see how long Richard Schotte stays faithful to his latest boat, Isobel, a custom Stephens Waring performance deck-saloon cruiser that was launched at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine last July. Schotte, it would seem, is the sort of client designers, builders and brokers dream of.

Just Launched: A True Babe

Back in 1935, the young Olin Stephens designed a 30-foot sloop called Babe. It was design #97 from his prolific pen, crafted to the rules of the Miami-Nassau race. Stephens drew a hull with a fairly plumb bow and squared-off stern, not at all in keeping with the ‘30s fashion of long overhangs on a short waterline.

BoatUS: LightSquared Still Threatens GPS

Two weeks after declaring victory in its battle to defend GPS, BoatUS is cautioning sailors and other GPS users that they’re not “out of the woods just yet,” following a Federal Communications Commission decision to extend the public comment period on the issue to March 16.

Outremer 5X

This stunning cat is the latest debutante from a French company known for its fast, sweet-sailing offshore boats. Designed by Van Peteghem Lauriot Prevost (also responsible for the AC45 catamarans), the boat displaces just 15 tons in cruising trim.

The Matrix 450

After Matrix Yachts’ president, Peter Wehrley, retired from his job as a structural engineer to operate charter boats in the Caribbean with his wife, Fiona, they soon saw the potential for a large catamaran in the charter trade. Peter’s son, Mark, also captains boats in the charter trade and has now joined the family firm. The Wehrleys’ extensive sailing experience is readily apparent in the Vision 450’s systems, layout and style.

Gunboat Opens Boatyard in North Carolina

Gunboat, manufacturer of high-end racing and cruising catamarans, announced the opening of its new boatyard in Wanchese, North Carolina. The company will employ 71 people at the new 30,000 square foot facility, from which it will be able to haul, launch, sea trial and service boats year round.

The 2012 Dusseldorf Boat Show

Each January, boatbuilders, equipment manufacturers and just about everyone else involved with the European leisure marine industry descends on the German city of Dusseldorf, on the Rhine, for the ten-Day Boot show. So do a quarter of a million boating enthusiasts from all over the world, eager to see the latest developments in boats, gear, clothing and anything else to do with waterborne recreation. Peter Nielsen was there.

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An Inside Look at Harken U

Neil Evans has been talking about the merits of Harken’s T2 Soft-Attach blocks—most significantly the soft Dyneema shackle as its attachment point, rather than a

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Missing Sailors Update

The family of two cruising sailors who have gone missing and are feared dead have asked the cruising community to “stand down” to let local

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Eight Bells: Patience Wales

Patience B. Wales, former Editor of SAIL magazine and two-time circumnavigator, died on February 16, 2024, of colon cancer. She was 89. A native of

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