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2012

Best Boats 2012: Jeanneau 379

This attractive midsize cruiser offers prospective owners a choice between a deep fin keel or a stub keel/centerboard configuration. It shares its bigger sisters’ new-look styling, complete with hull chines, and has a tall fractional rig. jeanneauamerica.comSPECSLOA: 37ft, 2in Beam: 12ft Displacement: 14,740lbs.

Best Boats 2012 Nominee: Mystery 35

Produced by Cornish Crabbers of Cornwall, England, the Mystery 35 is a recent arrival on U.S. shores. It’s a fast cruiser with traditional lines topsides and modern appendages beneath the waterline. cornishcrabbers.co.uk SPECS LOA: 35ft LWL: 25ft Beam: 10ft Draught: 6ft Displacement: 10,000lbs.

Best Boats 2012: Bavaria 36

The Farr-designed Bavaria 36 is a comfortable cruiser with an incredible amount of space belowdecks for its size. In-mast furling is standard, and an A-sail is available for light-air speed downwind. Wide side decks extend all the way to the transom, providing excellent footing when handling dock lines. Like the rest of Bavaria’s Cruiser series, the 36 comes standard with a large flip-down swim

Best Boats 2012: Hunter E33

After bringing a half-dozen new designs to market in 2011, Hunter Marine continues to upgrade its line of cruisers and daysailers with the new e33. The boat is vintage Hunter, with a stainless steel cockpit traveler arch, spacious accommodations belowdecks, a well thought-out cockpit and a B&R rig. The e33 also features the longer saloon windows and hull windows that have become a hallmark of the

Best Boats 2012: Harbor 30

Here is a sweet-looking daydailer-cum-weekender that combines traditional good looks with the fine build quality that W. D. Schock boats are known for. The Harbor 30 has cozy accommodations for four, with an enclosed head/shower and a tidy galley. A fractional rig with self-tacking jib promises easy handling.

Best Boats 2012: J/70

The latest J/Boats design updates the venerable J/22 and offers something new as the company’s first ramp-launchable keelboat. This latest entry into the sport-boat market features a vertically lifting bulb keel, a carbon fiber single-spreader rig that flies a masthead A-sail and a large open-transom cockpit with dedicated stowage for an outboard motor.

Best Boats 2012: Marblehead 22

Built in wood/epoxy by Samoset Boatworks in Maine, this little beauty is designed by Doug Zurn. Its big square-topped mainsail is set on a freestanding carbon spar and wishbone boom, which really sets it apart from the crowd. samosetboatworks.comSPECSLOA: 22ft, 9in LWL: 18ft, 8in Beam: 6ft, 10in Draft: 3ft,

Best Boats 2012: RS Venture

The latest from the UK-based dinghy and performance-skiff manufacturer RS Sailing, the new 16-foot Venture dinghy serves equally well as a daysailer, trainer or club racer. The boat’s huge cockpit can fit a half-dozen people and includes storage space in a rear locker for an outboard engine. An internal ballast option provides additional stability, making the boat nearly self-righting should it

Best Boats 2012: Topaz 14 CX

Small beach cats are always good for some fun sailing, and this new 14-footer promises to combine thrills with user-friendliness. Designed by top European multihull sailors Rob White and Yves Loday, the Topaz 14 CX comes with a choice of rigs that take it from perky singlehander to red-hot twin-trapeze racer.

Boat under shrinkwrap

Selecting a Marine Pro

Note: This story is excerpted from SAIL Contributing Editor Christopher Birch’s upcoming book The Four Seasons of Boat Maintenance—a compendium of lessons learned during his

Squalls at night are no joke, but good preparation will get you through safely. Photo courtesy of Andy Schell

Storms & Sea Stories

The wind built faster than it was forecasted to. We ate dinner with full sail, close-reaching on a building SSW’ly breeze. Before dark we had

Photo: Lisa Smith Molinari

A Charter Passage Rewritten

Sailing on a schedule is famously a recipe for disaster, but on charter you don’t have much of a choice. The adventure is what you make of it. 

Photo: Zuzana Prochazka

Tahiti Revisited

After a long absence, one sailor finds herself sailing the waters of her youth and contemplating years of change in all its forms.

C1_SAIL_0526_Final-01-may-2026

May Issue Preview

Spring is in the air and warmer weather is right around the corner. Get ready for the season with SAIL’s adventure issue! Through the Eyes

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