Boats

Long a major force in the boatbuilding world, Hunter Marine Corp. just seems to keep getting better and better at building sailboats. The latest Hunter to hit the water, the 50AC, demonstrates that despite its success the company refuses to rest on its laurels.Sailing in 8-10 knots of wind on Miami’s Biscayne Bay, the 50AC behaved like a perfect cruising platform. Despite being equipped

Lagoon 560

by Sail Staff, Posted March 11, 2011

The latest boat from the world’s largest catamaran builder replaces the long-in-the-tooth Lagoon 57 and joins the 500 and 620 in Lagoon’s revamped flagship line. And flagship is about right; you’d need an 80ft monohull to get anywhere near the space you’ll find on this big cruiser. The four-cabin/four-head layout is likely to be most popular, but there is also a five-cabin version. Lagoon’s

Oyster 885

by Sail Staff, Posted March 11, 2011

Time was when the Oyster 71 was the biggest of these bespoke yachts that one could aspire to. Now that the British company is building superyachts—making it the only boatbuilder whose range starts at 46 feet and peaks at 125 feet— the 71 is merely mid-range. The new 885 is the biggest boat Oyster could design to slip just under the 24-meter waterline load line rule. Any boat over that is subject

Alibi 54

by Sail Staff, Posted March 11, 2011

High-performance cruising catamarans are few and far between, perhaps because most cat buyers want to go cruising long-term and thus buy boats built for comfort rather than speed. High performance also means light weight, which in turn means a price premium, so boats like the Alibi 54 are aimed at a small but discerning and well-heeled audience. From its dreadnaught bows to its stepped transoms,

Hallberg-Rassy 64

by Sail Staff, Posted March 11, 2011

This new luxury center-cockpit cruiser carries the renowned Swedish company’s design and build ethos to a logical conclusion. While only 3 feet longer on deck than the 62 it replaces, the 64 has an extra 7 feet of waterline length that will bring its performance up a level. Polars predict double-digit speeds in anything over 10 knots of wind, just what you want for a quick dash across the

Class of the Month: Class 40

by Adam Cort, Posted March 11, 2011

The Class 40 began in 2004 as a scaled-down, less-expensive version of the Open 60 and Open 50 monohulls that are the darlings of professional shorthanded offshore racing in Europe. The idea was to give amateurs an affordable class that was a step up from the Mini Transat 6.5, but pros have since embraced the boat as well.In the 2006 Route du Rhum race from France to Guadeloupe, 25 Class

Remaking History

by Kimball Livingston, Posted March 11, 2011

It’s a good bet that Starling Burgess, when drawing the lines for his 1934 America’s Cup defender Rainbow, never imagined that a new Rainbow would be almost ready to launch 77 years later. Or that a new version of his 1937 defender, Ranger, would be already sailing. But the J Class represents the epitome of beauty and elegance under sail, and because of that, the Js are back. Six

Scandinavian Cruiser 20

by Adam Cort, Posted March 11, 2011

A couple of days after last fall’s Newport Boat Show, I had a chance to take the Scandinavian Cruiser 20 out for a spin on Narragansett Bay. Despite being one of the smallest boats there, and up on a trailer besides, the SC20, with its classic lines, teak deck and royal blue topsides, was one of the show’s standouts.It was also one of the most surprising boats I’ve sailed. In retrospect, I

Lagoon 450

by Tom Dove, Posted March 11, 2011

Innovate. Sell. Innovate again. That’s the “Lather, rinse, repeat” cycle of a successful boatbuilder.The Lagoon 450 is a fine example of this maxim at work. The Lagoon catamaran company first introduced an open flybridge design with its Lagoon 440 and sold hundreds of them over several years. Once that business was rolling along well, they changed the design to create the 450—and already