Design and Technology
The Latest Boat Trends from Dusseldorf
The world’s biggest boat and watersports show, held in Düsseldorf on the banks of Germany’s Rhine River each January, is the place to scope out emerging trends in the boat design and building. What would be the new trends for 2018 and beyond? Hint—sophisticated electronics ...read more
Just Launched: Bavaria’s New Look
Having had maximum use out of its Cruiser line of Farr-designed hulls, Bavaria Yachts is in the process of renewing its entire range. The first of the new-look Bavarias designed by Mario Cosutti, the C57, debuted at Boot Dusseldorf last year and has now been joined by two new ...read more
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild: Debut flights
Back in its July issue, SAIL reported on the pending launch of Sebastien Josse’s new Team Gitana maxi Edmond de Rothschild and the fact that it was being designed to achieve full-foiling flight, much like an America’s Cup catamaran. Well, now the boat has not only been launched, ...read more
Sailmaking in the Nevada Desert
Sailmaking ain’t what it used to be, especially out in the Nevada desert Some years ago I visited the Bavaria factory and was amused at the thought of a powerhouse boatbuilder turning out its products smack bang in the middle of rural Germany, surrounded by fields of cows and ...read more
Video: Build a Boat in 2 Minutes
Seeing certainly appears to be believing when it comes to the Reverso skiff. Marketed by Red Beard Sailing here in the United States, the little French-built boat not only opens up a whole world of possibilities in terms of sailing areas and ease of storage, it appears to offer ...read more
The Next Big Thing: Inflated Wing Sails
If there was any doubt that sailing is currently in a state of flux, those doubts should be fully and finally put to rest by the advent of the new “Inflated Wing Sail,” from Switzerland’s Next technologies Sarl. On the plus side, assuming everything works as advertised, this ...read more
100 Years of Boats
Photo courtesy of Bill Clausen/Lightning Class Who doesn’t love one-designs? Not only do these boats arguably represent competitive sailing in its purest form, they also represent sailing at its most democratic, allowing even those of modest means to compete at the sport’s ...read more
Just Launched: Three Innovative Cruisers
Slovenia’s Elan Yachts has been on a roll these last few years, introducing a number of new models designed by Briton Rob Humphreys. The latest is the Elan GT5, an interesting 43-footer that brings a fresh approach to the performance cruising genre. Based on the beamy, ...read more
Foiling Monohull Design
Examining Vendée Globe boats on the dock in Les Sables d’Olonne prior to the start of the race last November, one thing was perfectly clear: the genie is out of the bottle when it comes to foils on monohulls. All six of the new generation International Monohull Open Class ...read more
Full-Foiling Performance Made Simple
The latest bid to bring full-foiling sailing to the masses, the new UFO Foiler is reportedly as easy to launch and maneuver as it is to get airborne. It also costs a mere $7,600, including sails. Talk about user-friendly! (To see the boat in action, fast forward to around 4:25 ...read more
Hanse’s Innovative Rudder Drive System
In Hanse’s innovative Rudder Drive system, a Torqeedo electric motor embedded in the boat’s rudder provides propulsion. The system will make its debut on the new Hanse 315 e-motion. It was developed by Hanse in conjunction with fellow German company Torqeedo, a leader in ...read more
Boat Decks: Teak vs Synthetic Teak
Since the advent of fiberglass boat production, sailors have had a love-hate relationship with teak decks. On the one hand, they provide a good nonskid surface and add a feeling of warmth to a boat’s appearance. On the other, teak is expensive and time-consuming to maintain. By ...read more
Comparing Design Ratios
Given the infinite number of variables involved, making any kind of objective comparison between two different sailboat designs might, at first, seem impossible. However, with the help of design ratios, you can not only compare and contrast different designs, but get a pretty ...read more
Chart Plotting in the Digital World
When upgrading your boat’s electronics, you need to consider which electronic charts are available and supported by the various chartplotter manufacturers. The major multifunction displays from Garmin, Raymarine, Lowrance, Simrad, B&G and Furuno now support digital charts from ...read more
Some Common Centerboard and Daggerboard Designs
We’d left Clearwater that morning and were now headed north, a mile or so off the barrier islands protecting St. Joseph Sound. To me, the obvious way to get closer inshore was via the channel immediately south of Anchor Key. Not only were the soundings a good 8ft or more, but ...read more
Foiling Monohulls
It’s easy to forget it was just three years ago that Team New Zealand turned the America’s Cup on its head when it persuaded its AC72 catamaran to lift off the water and fly, thus changing performance multihull design forever. Now, both new multis and older ones retrofitted ...read more
Garcia Exploration 45: Jimmy Cornell’s Ideal Boat
Jimmy Cornell’s first two cruising boats were built of fiberglass and steel respectively. By the time he got to his third Aventura, an Alubat Ovni 435, he had settled on aluminum as his preferred hull material. His fourth Aventura, like the Ovni, is aluminum with internal ballast ...read more
Here Are Ships Built
The old map of the region had the words written ornately on it, Hic Fabricatur Navalis, Here Are Ships Built. I was sitting in a small café in Jakobstad, Finland, on a quiet street in the old part of the town, sipping coffee in front of a fireplace, watching the snow fall ...read more
Tech Talk: Rudder Nodules
One of the coolest new builds to emerge from a boat shed in years is Rambler 88, a Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed all-out monohull monster that was completed by New England Boatworks, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, this past winter. While Rambler 88 brims with bleeding-edge design ...read more
Sailing the Foiling Gunboat G4
Timbalero III was the talk of the town as she made her debut at Antigua Sailing Week, with good reason I first spotted her as we headed back into Falmouth Harbour after the first day of racing in Antigua Sailing Week. I was on the deck of Alize, a 1987 Beneteau First 435E owned ...read more
Just Launched Boats Featured at the Strictly Sail Miami Boat Show
If you’re a local, last February’s Strictly Sail Miami boat show is a welcome respite from the powerboat-dominated regional shows of the deep South, and if you’re a Northerner hankering after some warmth, it’s a great opportunity to leave the snow and ice behind and check out ...read more
New Cutting-Edge Multihulls
Three new designs—including a couple of cruising cats and a red-hot trimaran with minimal accommodations and speed to burn—provide even more evidence that the multihull world is the place to be in terms of innovation. The challenge from a buyer’s perspective is deciding which one ...read more