Catamarans and trimarans have gone from occupying the fringe of the sailing world to the front and center. Whether it’s a cruising catamaran, a bluewater racing trimaran or the latest red-hot racing beach cat, you can always count on these boats and the people who sail them for some excitement afloat.
Flying into Tortola in the British Virgin Islands one December morning, three months after Hurricane Irma, I felt like a war correspondent dispatched to the battlefront rather than a sailing magazine writer on an assignment to go cruising.As my LIAT plane descended toward Beef ...read more
It’s hard to believe how far foiling has come since the Moth class figured out how to reliably take to the air in the early 2000s.Was it really only in 2013 that the America’s Cup was dragged kicking and screaming into the foiling world by Emirates Team New Zealand back in San ...read more
I always wanted to see with my own eyes the places where Western history was made. Since most of our forefathers were explorers by ship, it seemed fair for me, as an American, to discover those lands just as they’d left European shores to discover ours hundreds of years ago. So ...read more
Randy & Lennie SmithPort of Origin: Delray Beach, FloridaBoat: Happy Together (Leopard 48)We are all about the education and entertainment of this awesome watery lifestyle. This adventure began in July of 2015 aboard Happy Together and has taken us all around the ...read more
When François Gabart sailed his giant trimaran Macif across a line between England’s Lizard Point and Oussant in France on December 17 after 42 days at sea, the 35-year-old Frenchman not only set a new singlehanded round-the-world record, he cemented his place among the great ...read more
Fountaine Pajot New 42The French cat powerhouse has been on a roll these last few years, cranking out new models that not only replace their older line but take a step forward in design and user-friendliness. The New 42’s “real” name had not been revealed as we went to press, but ...read more
Over the last 10 years the RORC Caribbean 600, a distance race that starts and finishes in Antigua and winds around the Leeward Islands from Guadeloupe in the south to Anguilla in the north, has grown to become a highlight of the island regatta season. It’s hotly contested by ...read more
It was the summer of 2013 and Aussie sailor Bill Macartney was in San Francisco for the 34th America’s Cup—the summer of “the Comeback” and the moment when the Cup officially took to the air thanks to the efforts of Emirates Team New Zealand.“Seeing Team New Zealand come roaring ...read more
.This is the new foiling TF10 trimaran. A high-tech carbon fest, allowing sailors to foil easily from about 8 knots of windspeed. It was designed from scratch as a helluva fun foiling package. March 2018 ...read more
.This year’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswomen of the Year Awards, which went to J/70 World Champion Peter Duncan and Enoshima Olympic Week Laser Radial Gold Medalist Erika Reineke, were presented at the New York Yacht Club’s famed Manhattan headquartersMarch 2018 ...read more
Although sailing has always been inherently dangerous, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that in addition to elevating boatspeeds, today’s foiling multihulls are also dramatically upping the level of risk. In the run-up to the 35th America’s Cup, regatta organizers were fond of ...read more
GEORGE & JAN TODDPORT OF ORIGIN: DALLAS, TEXASBOAT: LAGOON 570, WILDCATWe began our sailing adventures while living and working in Dallas, Texas, cruising the Bahamas three to four weeks a year back in 1985 on Oh Kay, otherwise known as the (Not) Oh Kay, a 36ft Island Trader ...read more
Modern cruising catamarans and trimarans have unique requirements in terms of sail design and construction. The reason for this stems from the stability provided by their wide beams, which in conjunction with their lack of heeling can make it difficult to determine when to reef ...read more
Our bareboat charter in southwest Florida had crept up on me, and though I had a fair idea of what awaited us. I had not spent much time researching our destination or potential itineraries in depth. My crew had expressed a desire to spend as much time as possible “off the grid” ...read more
Our whistle-stop tour of French multihull builders begins in Bordeaux, famous first and foremost for its viticulture and also as the home of Lagoon Catamarans. If you’ve never experienced a major boatbuilding operation in its pomp, the row of aircraft hangar-sized buildings that ...read more
Banuls 60Financier Raphael Blot wanted a high-performance catamaran for family cruising, but couldn’t find an existing design that suited him, so he commissioned naval architects Renaud Banuls and Charles Simonin to draw a boat to his specifications. Banuls, who has worked with ...read more
There are few accolades in sailing more sought after than the title “record holder,” and there are few records more sought after than that for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, west to east. The record is for the fastest time from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, at the entrance ...read more
It was a dark and stormy night—OK, not really dark since it was day, but pretty stormy—when we cruised into Salt Whistle Bay on the Caribbean island of Mayreau aboard Indigo, our 46ft Leopard catamaran. We had just sailed north from Union Island heading for the Tobago Cays, but ...read more
The memories are vivid. Dolphins and diesel fumes. A blood-orange moon rising to starboard as engine trouble loomed to port. A spinnaker like a taut, glowing veil before a sun that shone down later on its wet, shredded remains. We were 30 days at sea, a virgin ocean-crossing crew ...read more
First Time with a Frenchman by Annie DikeMHS Summer 2017 ...read more
Vraiment Incroyable! It’s official, we have now truly entered a “Brave New World” of sailing; either that or the world has truly lost its mind.This past fall, SAIL magazine first covered the Brest Ultime Challenge, a singlehanded nonstop round-the-world event set to take place in ...read more
The French obsession with long-distance sailing, whether solo or fully crewed, has long been a phenomenon of superlatives. But even those superlatives pale in comparison to what French sailing legend Francis Joyon and his five crew managed to accomplish this past winter: smashing ...read more
If there’s one thing wrong with all too many sailors—sailing journalists, in particular—it’s that we often get to be way too serious about our sailing. Granted, there’s a good deal to be serious about, and if you aren’t careful you can get hurt and/or cause a fair bit of damage ...read more
