Design and Technology

Though they don’t reel off the miles like a performance-cruiser, I would argue that some of the purest, best sailing can be found aboard small boats. Frankly, when it comes to being an expert in trimming sails, balancing loads and steering clean courses, a responsive small boat ...read more

In the following excerpt from Wild Seas to Greenland — A Sailing Adventure with Ocean Racer Ross Field, veteran mariner Rebecca Hayter, recounts how Field prepared the aluminum-hulled Rosemary, which he bought in France, for a try at the Northwest Passage “People often ask: why ...read more

Although the 1903 defender of the America’s Cup, Reliance, was deemed a “racing freak”—the boat pushed design rules to their limit and couldn’t be beaten, at least in very specific conditions—designer Nat Herreshoff was nonetheless onto something. A century later, purpose-built ...read more

Time was when New England was preeminent among the production boatbuilding regions of the world. More recently, however, the mantle of leadership has seemingly passed elsewhere as the industry has gone increasingly global. Nonetheless, an enduring legacy of hard work and talent ...read more

The AC75 rule crafted for the upcoming 36th America’s Cup was intended to be open to multiple interpretations, and the result has been four very different designs. Coupled with the fact the AC75 is unlike any other boat that has ever come before, the current Cup cycle is fast ...read more

I well remember the first time I ever saw a flying sailboat. I was on Narragansett Bay several years ago, test-sailing one of those old-fashioned boats—the ones with hulls that float in the water 100 percent of the time—when we spotted a foiling Moth speeding out of Newport like ...read more

Things may still be frightful up north, but down in the Caribbean the weather is just fine, and the recently launched Jeanneau Sun Loft 47 looks like just the boat to take advantage of it. Designed by long-time Jeanneau collaborator Philippe Briand, the 47 is being billed as a ...read more

In our January issue, we announced that among our 2020 Best Boats winners was the F101 full-foiling trimaran, which took the prize in the “Performance Boat under 30ft” category. The reason our judges gave the zippy little 17-footer the nod was because of the fact it’s an ...read more

Sailing at 19 knots in 15 knots of breeze is not an earth-shattering experience anymore. I was thinking about that on a perfect late summer day in Narragansett Bay while we were slicing along on the most technologically advanced cruising catamaran I’ve ever seen—the Eagle Class ...read more

There has been a long tradition, both in the United States and abroad, of sturdy trailerable cruisers carrying their crews hither and yon in search of adventure. In fact, so celebrated are the accomplishments of these little tough-as-nails boats—think the West Wight Potter, ...read more

In a racing scene that’s bristling with innovation, legacy builder Nautor’s Swan refuses to be left behind in its quest to dominate the champagne end of one-design sailing. Arriving hard on the heels of the radical Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed ClubSwan 50, the ClubSwan 36 offers a ...read more

Following up on the J/121, which won a SAIL Best Boats award in 2018, the new J/99 represents a similar concept in a smaller package. Specifically, the new 32-footer’s deck layout and rig have been optimized for smaller and even doublehanded crews, with an eye toward meeting 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 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

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 tour of how it all ...read more

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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