Sailboat Cruising

In the 1990s yacht design really began to shrug off the straitjacket of rating rules, and sportboats, open-class racers, and light, nimble cruising boats all became commonplace.Looking back over 50 years of monohull design and composite boat construction (including not just fiberglass, but other fibers like carbon and Kevlar, as well as numerous core materials), the trend has been toward

After four years of college sailing, I thought I knew a thing or two about sailboat racing: hit hard, hike hard, trim well and yell loudly enough to intimidate the competition. Then I stepped aboard my first big keelboat, where I found winches, heavy lines, an electrical panel and a loud, frightening engine. Though I understood the principles of sailing, this was a very different animal from a

After four years of college sailing, I thought I knew a thing or two about sailboat racing: hit hard, hike hard, trim well and yell loudly enough to intimidate the competition. Then I stepped aboard my first big keelboat, where I found winches, heavy lines, an electrical panel and a loud, frightening engine. Though I understood the principles of sailing, this was a very different animal from a

Just about the time most people are preparing their boats for winter storage—stowing sails, putting on tarps, filling their systems with antifreeze—my wife, Ann Marie, and I are getting ready to go see the Cape May Jazz Festival, one of the best-kept sailing secrets on the Jersey Shore. What could be better than cruising 40 miles from our homeport of Atlantic City for a weekend of jazz, good

Modern communications and digital data technology make it easier than ever for bluewater sailors to tap into sophisticated weather products while voyaging offshore. With an HF radio, e-mail or sat-phone connection, amateur navigators can now import computer-generated weather data into sophisticated computer programs that project a vessel’s progress across electronic charts overlaid with

As the IOR rule faded into oblivion in the early 1980s, boats began to take on a different look. A new generation of faster, safer cruiser-racers appeared, the charter industry began to influence boat design, and better and cheaper equipment began to change people’s sailing habits.History soon separates the significant from the inconsequential. A long look back at the 1980s reveals three

“I am at the entrance to Dease Strait, and last night I tied up to a large piece of ice using rope and an ice axe. I managed to get a good five hours of sleep.” Graeme Kendall, September 1, 2010Challenges like this were par for the course during Graeme Kendall’s recent transit of the Northwest Passage. On September 9, 2010, the Kiwi sailor became the first

This second installment of SAIL’s series on the evolution of modern sailboat design focuses on the 1970’s—the IOR decade and beyond. It was also the decade of racer/cruisers, cruiser/racers, dedicated cruisers, the rise of trailersailers, and the first of the fun, fast day racers—the J/24 and the Santa Cruz 27.The adoption in the late 1960s of the International Offshore Rule (IOR) spelled