SAIL.SailMagazine

French builder Outremer is well known in Europe for its fast yet comfortable performance cruising catamarans. Its latest offering, the sleek Outremer 49, designed by Christophe Barreau, made quite a splash when first introduced across the Pond.

The Mystery 35 from UK-based Cornish Crabber Boats is a traditional, hand-built fast cruiser that hails from an era when seaworthiness, handling and ride comfort were more important than interior volume and cockpit space. The design brief given to renowned designer Stephen Jones was to create a boat that had the looks of a classic, the performance of a racer and adequate accommodations to enable her to be cruised extensively.

Today’s performance-cruisers are faster than ever. But are they going to take care of you in heavy weather in the same way as those pre-IOR boats many of us grew up admiring? Fortunately, there are still builders and designers out there who are willing and able to combine the best of both old and the new in boats like the raised-saloon Tartan 4700.

Catalina Yachts is in many ways an anomaly—a mass-production boatbuilder that eschews design fads in a manner more typically associated with companies that produce far fewer boats at much higher prices. The result is a product line that is robust, reliable and easy on sailors.

$27 million is by no means pocket change. But that’s how much Lee Tawney is asking for to fund the construction of the National Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis. As director of the Hall of Fame, Tawney is traveling around the country in pursuit of potential donors to help fund the project