Best Boats

2011 Best Boats Daysailer: C.W. Hood 32

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 11, 2011

This year, we decided to create a special category for the elegant daysailer. These boats don’t fit in the cruising or performance boats categories, and it’s a shame to leave such beautiful crafts unacknowledged. There was a strong field this year, but our judges were unanimous in electing the C.W. Hood 32 as the one that stood out above the rest. With its long, lean hull, sweeping overhangs,

2011 Best Boats Performance, 30ft+: Beneteau First 30

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 11, 2011

No Volvo 70 designer has been more successful than Juan Kouyoumdjian, so it should come as no surprise that Juan K’s first foray into production monohulls has produced a boat that resembles a miniature VO70—but with a cruising interior.The First 30’s performance pedigree starts with her hull form: hard chines run from either side of her wide transom and carry forward to the boat’s max

2011 Best Boats Cruising Monohull Under 50ft: Presto 30

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 11, 2011

One thing we particularly like about this boat is that it reminds us there are many different ways to go cruising. A shoal-draft sharpie based loosely on a boat designed in 1885, the Presto 30 is a very modern reinterpretation of a very traditional archetype. A simple, trailerable, beachable boat that is fast, fun and easy to sail, it also has an enclosed head, a dedicated galley and enough berth

2011 Best Boats Best Dinghy: Topaz TAZ

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

Although it can be easily singlehanded, the 9ft 8in TAZ, from Topper International, can handle an adult and child, making it ideal for training or parent/offspring daysails.Better still, this is a boat with a Bermudian rig that both prepares beginners for the rigs they will be handling as adolescents and adapts to their needs as they develop as sailors. Specifically, the basic rig flies a

2011 Best Boats Performance, 30ft & Under: X-Treme 25

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

This boat, in a word, is clean. While there’s nothing knockout innovative about the Lutra Studio-designed X-Treme 25, it perfectly fulfills its design brief as a make-no-bones-about-it sportboat that can test sailors of all ability levels.The sexiest thing about this speed machine is its distinctive hull form. A modest chine runs forward from the transom to the chainplates and the forward

2011 Best Boats Most Innovative Rig: Radical Bay 8000

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

No, the idea of putting a parallel, or biplane, rig on a catamaran is not in itself novel. Those with long memories will recall Crossbow, a 60-foot biplane cat that set a sailing speed record (36 knots) back in 1980. Younger sailors will refer to the ill-fated 120-foot Team Phillips that Pete Goss put together for The Race in 2000. A few adventurous souls have also installed such rigs on smaller

2011 Best Boats Cruising Multihull + Accommodations: Discovery 50

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

John Charnley, founder of Discovery Yachts, is a circumnavigator whose vision of the ideal world-girdling yacht metamorphosed into the Discovery 55, a fast, strong, attractive and practical cruiser. It has now evolved yet again into the Discovery 50 catamaran, which is—not surprisingly—fast, strong, attractive and practical. Designed by Bill Dixon, who is known more for large high-end

2010 Best Boats Cruising Monohull Under 50ft: Catalina 445

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

Catalina’s latest big cruising yacht met with a great reception at the Oakland Strictly Sail show in April; orders quickly went into double figures, which is no mean feat in this economy. Designer Gerry Douglas obviously enjoyed himself with this boat; it is packed with details and features gleaned from his decades of experience in design and building. The end result is a fine all-round sailing

2010 Best Boats Performance Boat: J/95

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

Rod Johnstone’s latest design taps into a new market segment for the Rhode Island-based company: shoal-draft boats. The versatile J/95 has both twin rudders and a centerboard, neither of which has been seen on J/Boat before. With the ballasted board up the boat draws just 3 feet, while remaining perfectly controllable under full sail. The J/Boats performance ethos remains intact; the boat is

2010 Best Boats Cruising Multihull: Leopard 38/Sunsail 384

by Peter Nielsen, Posted August 12, 2011

It looked as though this award would be a toss-up between a handsome pair of new cruising cats from France—the Lagoon 400 and Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41—until we stepped aboard the South African-built Leopard 38 and its twin, the Sunsail 384. It was immediately obvious that here was one of the best-executed sub-40-foot cruising catamarans we have yet seen.Although there is