Sail Magazine

by Tom Dove

Veteran new-boat reviewer Tom Dove divides his time between Annapolis, Maryland and Florida

Beneteau First 50

by Tom Dove, Posted August 11, 2008

There's a whole lot more here than headroom and easily handled sailsThe hull form is sleek and sophisticated, the eyebrows above the ports denote competence and self-worth, and some of the accessories belowdeck are fine leather. The Beneteau First 50 starts with style, but it carries through with performance. An owner looking for a fast cruiser, an occasional racer, and/or a

Passport 515 CC

by Tom Dove, Posted August 11, 2008

Contemporary styling and custom features provide exciting alternatives for the serious cruiserSome people are satisfied with the basics—a basic car, off-the-rack clothes, a standard house floor plan, a production boat. But others are not. Bob Perry's Passport Vista 515 Center Cockpit cruiser comes from a builder who specializes in satisfying sailors who like to have

Catana 50

by Tom Dove, Posted August 8, 2008

Catana is back, and with a vengeance. This builder of performance-oriented cruising catamarans foundered when the fin-de-sicle dot.com crash decimated its customer list. But the company reorganized and is again building these swift, dramatically styled yachts in its Catalonian factory. This new 50-footer is very different from the 52-footer Catana was building under the old regime. Hull and

Beneteau 46

by Tom Dove, Posted May 27, 2008

Beneteau boats keep getting better looking while retaining the consistent quality and good finish that keep owners coming back as they move up in size. The new 46 could be an “ultimate boat” for many sailors who have experience in smaller vessels and are now looking for a stylish, fast, spacious boat that they can continue to sail into their retirement

Catalina 320 MK II

by Tom Dove, Posted May 20, 2008

Catalina boats typically have long production runs, and Catalina is more likely to tweak and update a boat than to totally redesign it. After building 1,039 Catalina 320s since 1993, with few changes other than offering a shallower wing keel about halfway through the production run, the company decided it was time to bring this popular vessel solidly into the new century.The

Grand Soleil 37

by Tom Dove, Posted July 17, 2007

On a gorgeous autumn day, I found myself trimming the mainsheet aboard a Grand Soleil 37 during a race series in Annapolis. There couldn’t have been a better way to test the sailing performance of this new boat from Italy.Though there are relatively few of this builder’s boats in the U.S., Grand Soleil is well respected among the cognoscenti here and in Europe. Its nicely

Far Harbour 39

by Tom Dove, Posted July 6, 2007

Click here to read a PDF version of this reviewMany of us would like to see the world from the deck of our own sailboats, but time, money, and long, slow offshore passages can interfere with that dream. Sailboats are efficient but slow, earning money requires time and roots, and crossing an ocean takes determination

Moorings 4300

by Tom Dove, Posted June 6, 2007

Sitting at a table with designers and engineers in Miami, I have the sense of a futuristic adventure, akin to NASA in the ’60s or Silicon Valley in the ’80s. Their enthusiasm as they wax on about voltage levels, firmware, energy conversion, and interoperability is contagious. The unlikely source of all this is a catamaran, the Moorings 4300 Electric. In a Caribbean charter fleet

Delphia 37

by Tom Dove, Posted January 29, 2007

Just when a seasoned boat reviewer thinks he’s seen all the possible variations among midsize cruising monohulls, along comes a vessel to jar him out of that notion. The Delphia 37 did that for me. The designer is unknown in America, the factory is in Poland, and the boat is a delight to sail. On DeckThe deck and cockpit will work nicely for daysailing,

Morris 42

by Tom Dove, Posted October 5, 2006

Tom and Cuyler Morris appear to have two runaway bestsellers in their M 36 and 42 daysailer/weekender designs. So why are they building another cruising boat that has much of the styling that got them started in the boat-building business years ago? “It just seemed like the right thing to do,” says Tom Morris. Morris observes that while Europeans are surrounded by historic structures, they like