Sail Magazine

by Adam Cort

Adam Cort is SAIL’s executive editor. He lives and sails in the Boston area.

A Down East Idyll, with Hurricanes!

by Adam Cort, Posted March 7, 2011

We were ghosting toward the mainland, gybing back and forth to make the most of a faint morning breeze. The sun was out and it was hot. To the north I could see swells breaking over Horseshoe Ledge and a rock formation called The Drums. I was also keeping an eye out for lobster buoys. The tide was ebbing, setting up a wicked crosscurrent in spots, and I’d already been forced to alter course

SpeedDream Prototype To Be Built

by Adam Cort, Posted March 7, 2011

The SpeedDream team plans to have a scaled-down, 35-foot version of the 100-footer it hopes will someday top 50 knots in the the water by this summer. According to project leader Vlad Murnikov, the SpeedDream-35 prototype will allow him to test the various concepts he hopes will produce a monohull that is capable of logging 1,000 miles in a day and is faster than even the fastest offshore

Katusha, Cayard Take RC44 Opener

by Adam Cort, Posted March 7, 2011

The RC44 class kicked off its 2011 season in style, with thousands of shore-side spectators on hand to see the Russian flagged Katusha, with Paul Cayard calling tactics and amateur helmsman Bob Little behind the wheel, win the opening regatta in San Diego.Finishing second in the 11-boat fleet was Oracle Racing, with Russell Coutts calling tactics and owner-driver Larry

Trialing the First J/108 in North America

by Adam Cort, Posted February 7, 2011

It was the perfect test for the new J/108. We were in Key West, and the light southerly breeze was opposing an ebb tide, creating a nasty chop in the shipping channel, so we opted instead to make an end run between Sunset Key and Wisteria Island.Doing so in a typical, deep-draft, 35-foot J/Boat would have been risky at best—on the chart the passage between the two islands shows a couple of

St. Bart's Bucket by the Numbers

by Adam Cort, Posted February 1, 2011

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ultra-chic Bucket Regatta series, which began on Nantucket Island in 1986 and has since moved to Newport, Rhode Island, and the island of St. Barthelemy. The first Bucket was an informal affair, with seven boats competing over a 15-mile course. Since then, the Bucket has grown tremendously and has become the event for megayachts,

Best Around the Buoys Blog at KWRW 2011

by Adam Cort, Posted January 14, 2011

Inaugural Best Around the Buoys Team WINS PHRF 1 at Key West Race Week! Congratulations to the Best Around the Buoys crew aboard the J/111 Kontiki V, overall winners of PHRF 1 at Key West 2011!

SAIL Magazine Announces 2011 Pittman Innovation Awards

by Adam Cort, Posted January 10, 2011

SAIL’s annual Pittman Innovation Awards recognize the most innovative products in the sailboat market. For 2011, SAIL's editors have selected 15 groundbreaking new sailing products. "It was more difficult than ever for our judges to narrow down such a strong field of new products. Here's proof that the marine industry is forging ahead with research and development," said Editor-in-Chief Peter

Friend or Faux?

by Adam Cort, Posted January 10, 2011

One of the most eye-catching boats at the Newport boat show last fall, the Scandinavian Cruiser 20, is a fast daysailer with a narrow hull and a traditional teak deck. At least it looked like teak. As I was checking out the SC20, something about those decks struck me as being a little off. Then it hit me: they looked too good, too clean to be real. The fact that I had to ask to make sure they

Barcelona World Race

by Adam Cort, Posted January 10, 2011

After four grueling days battling light winds and contrary currents in the Mediterranean, the entire 14-boat Barcelona World Race fleet is now out on the open Atlantic and headed south, with American Ryan Breymaier and his teammate, Boris Herrmann, aboard the Open 60 Neutrogena in sixth

High Performance Multihull Milestones

by Adam Cort, Posted January 3, 2011

Multihulls have been around for a long time. The Chinese reportedly sailed double-hulled junks as early as 2700 BC, and ancient Polynesians used a variety of multi-hulled craft to colonize the South Pacific. The Englishman William Dampier was the first Westerner on record to use the word “catamaran” back in the 1690s during a trip through the Tamil region in Southern India. The word itself comes