SAIL.SailMagazine

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.

If the recent Annapolis Boat Show were to have a theme song it would have to be Dylan’s “Times they are a Changing”—and not just because of the weather, which went from semi-tropical to polar in the space of only a few hours Saturday afternoon.

You’re about to read a sneak preview of a sharp-looking new performance cruiser from Island Packet. Yes, you read it right—that Island Packet, the one renowned for tough, long-keeled, bluewater cruising yachts.

According to Bavaria, the new Vision 46 is: “designed, from the start, to embody the cruising sailor’s wish list.” I have to admit, though, that I wasn’t paying too much attention to this wish list as we cast off lines prior to a recent delivery from Mystic, Connecticut.

You’ve got to hand it to the folks at Moody Yachts: it takes 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.