Fresh from the 2020 Düsseldorf boat show where one of his boats won a number of major awards, you might have expected French naval architect Olivier Racoupeau to be taking a break. But when I catch up with him by phone, he sounds breathless and concerned about his next deadline, ...read more
Walk around any boat show, and you’ll see a number of differences in the way designers and builders have decided to locate the steering stations aboard their cruising cats. Each position has its good points and bad, among them visibility, protection from the elements, ...read more
After the accident, as we were getting ready to put Zingaro, our Lock Crowther-designed Spindrift 38, up on the hard, clean her up and say goodbye, my partner, Kimmi, and I were more than a little overcome by nostalgia. Zingaro is my fourth boat, but my first catamaran. On her ...read more
If you Google the name Patrick Le Quément you’ll come up with some 194,000 hits, most attesting to the Frenchman’s long and successful career designing automobiles. Ford’s iconic (in Britain) Sierra? That’s one of his—at first nicknamed “the jellymold” by detractors, it went on ...read more
From the outside, the cruising life can look like it’s all sunny sailing in a tropical paradise, but ask anyone who’s done it and they’ll tell you there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done before casting off. Four of the sailing community’s favorite multihull vloggers weigh ...read more