Old salts grouse about modern aesthetics. It’s just what they do, and the hard lines and spartan interiors of today’s production boats give them many reasons to complain. French builder Wauquiez, however, seems to consistently be able to marry contemporary elements with ...read more
Coming fast on the heels of its predecessor, the Bali 4.0, the Bali 4.1 adds a number of improvements, many of them inspired by feedback from owners and charterers. She’s an evolution of a concept that has already proven popular and very many benefits from its builder’s ...read more
The Beneteau sailboat line has long represented a kind of continuum, both in terms of the many models the company is offering at any given moment and over time. This does not, however, in any way diminish the quality of its individual boats. Just the opposite. Case in point: the ...read more
France’s Garcia Yachts, which teamed up with bluewater legend Jimmy Cornell in 2013 to create the Exploration 45—a concept that has since been extended to a 52-footer and even a 60-footer—has now launched its first catamaran. The Explocat 52 is to be constructed ...read more
In a time when most new cruising boats are coming from Europe, it is refreshing to meet the Tartan 395, a brand-new design from a respected American builder. Not only that, but this is a proper yacht in the traditional American sense of the term that it is also entirely modern ...read more
The Danish builder X-Yachts, founded in 1979 by brothers Lars and Niels Jeppensen, has focused on creating high-quality cruiser-racers for many years now. Mixing lightweight construction techniques with no-nonsense structural integrity, the company has a well-deserved reputation ...read more
Peter Nielsen looks at Beneteau’s latest entry-level boat and a new cruiser from Tartan Group Beneteau’s commitment to entry-level boats has been reaffirmed over the last year with the assimilation of the sporty Seascape line of pocket cruisers and the ...read more
“It’s a smaller-size Hanse cruiser, but with some big-boat features,” says SAIL’s Cruising Editor, Charles J. Doane. At last fall’s Annapolis Boat Show, Doane had a chance to take a close look at the new Hanse 348. Some of the boat’s highlights include under-deck galleries for ...read more
In the 50 years since its inception, Boot Düsseldorf, the indoor extravaganza held each January on the banks of Germany’s Rhine River, has grown to become the 1,000lb gorilla of boat shows. The demise this year of the competing London Boat show and the slow slide into obscurity ...read more
When I asked Fountaine Pajot’s Laurent Fabre if the new Astrea 42 was replacing Fountaine Pajot’s earlier Helia 44, his response was a firm “Non!” The reason, he said, is the Astrea isn’t just a shortened or tweaked design, but rather an all-new design for this LOA that borrows ...read more
There are boats and then there are those boats that turn heads, and for me, the boats built by Hylas have always fallen under the latter category. Sturdy ocean-crossers, these capable couples cruisers beckon to those with dreams of voyaging to distant shores in comfort and ...read more
After years of quiescence in the wake of the Great Recession, iconic Island Packet is back with its new 349, a re-boot of the old Estero that not only looks great, but takes the Island Packet style of sailing performance to a new level. Design & Construction First among the many ...read more
At this past fall’s Annapolis Boat Show, SAIL magazine had a chance to corner Neel Trimarans founder Eric Bruneel and have him give us a tour of the accommodations aboard the new Neel 51, winner of the “Multihull over 50ft” category in the 2019 Best Boats contest. For a complete ...read more
When I boarded Fountaine Pajot’s new flagship, the Alegria 67, at the Cannes boat show last September, the first thing I noticed was that several groups of people were carrying on private conversations in separate lounging and seating areas in the saloon—that’s how big this boat ...read more
Video by Lydia Mullan This past fall SAIL magazine had a chance to capture some onboard sailing video of the Figaro Beneteau 3, the world’s first large production foiling one-design monohull and a winner in SAIL’s 2019 Best Boats awards. Better still, we were also given a guided ...read more
Whether because of the voyages they’ve made or the people who have sailed them, some boats have achieved near-legendary status. We tracked down some of history’s most iconic boats that are still sailing today. Suhaili Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s 32ft ketch, Suhaili, is one of the ...read more
Because of its similarity to the previous Nautitech 40 Open, a winner in SAIL’s Best Boats contest a few years ago, you could perhaps label the latest version of the boat as a “Mark II” design. Nonetheless, the many tweaks made to the already award-winning design more than ...read more
Jeanneau America’s Paul Fenn and Catherine Guiader recently took out a few minutes to talk about the various Jeanneaus scheduled to appear at the upcoming Miami Boat Show February 14-18. These include the Jeanneau 349, Jeanneau 389, the “new generation” Jeanneau 410, Jeanneau ...read more
We recently came across this fun video in which “family guy” Martin Olesen finds himself aboard a Beneteau First 27 trying to set a new class short-distance speed record in what can only be described as “challenging” conditions (to say the least). Good stuff! For more on the ...read more
Though it’s a modern truism that boatbuilders favor bigger boats because they make more money on them, several production builders have recently begun introducing some smaller models to their product lines so as to attract new and younger sailors to the sport. Among them is ...read more
It’s easy to get a big head sailing around on a boat like the Seawind 1260, if for no other reason than the fact you’re not only going faster than pretty much every other boat around, but you’re doing so in exceptional comfort. Add to that the fact the boat also happens to be ...read more
Anyone under the impression that change in today’s production catamarans is about little more than cosmetics needs to check out the Lagoon 50—an all-new design that went on to become the winner in the 40 to 50ft cruising multihull category in SAIL’s 2019 Best Boats awards. ...read more
Some years ago, the book Aak to Zumbra catalogued—and celebrated—the incredible diversity of watercraft that has evolved over the centuries, a diversity that remains evident to this day in the 11 winners comprising the “Class of 2019” in SAIL’s Best Boats contest. Indeed, it ...read more
