Indice dei contenuti per October/November 2021 in SAIL

Like an ostrich on a bad day, I’m head-down in the lazarette of Nellie, my Beneteau First 42, dealing with the propane tank. My wife taps me on the shoulder, and I rise to see a pair of foiling catamarans accelerating onto their carbon-fiber wings. As the blood drains from my head, their hissing wakes sound like tearing dollar bills. They disappear behind the bulky cruiser next door, a 66ft Oyster with a uniformed crew and a tender as clean as a wedding cake. I nod and return to the task at hand. Amidst the glories of this era of foiling Cup racers and electric furlers, I’ve also found myself enjoying the resurgence of simpler sailors, the younger ones especially: sailors like Jerome Rand, who left Gloucester, Massachusetts, in October…

For all the consolidation in the boatbuilding world in recent years, there remains plenty of variety out there, as can be seen in these two new monohulls. The products of two very different boatbuilders, they also offer two very different takes on performance-cruising, even as they also both offer much of the very latest in yacht design. HALLBERG-RASSY 400 In the minds of many sailors, nothing says “tradition” like Sweden’s Hallberg-Rassy. If anyone thinks, though, that this means the veteran builder of sturdy, bluewater cruisers is in any way standing still, they couldn’t be more wrong. As evidence, look no further than the company’s new Germán Frers-designed Hallerberg-Rassy 400. Aft, the boat features a large cockpit opening onto a drop-down swim platform, twin helms and twin rudders. Forward, a nicely…

I’ve often written in boat reviews over the years that pretty much any boat sails well in 15 knots of breeze (typically as a word of explanation as to why sail trials done in drifting conditions are as relevant as those done in a small gale). However, it recently occurred to me there is an exception to this rule, and that is aboard a performance trimaran like the Corsair 880. The reason for this is the basic nature of tris. Aboard a monohull (especially one with a keel), things may get a little hectic in the event you’re ever hit by an unexpected gust. But the fact that a monohull heels before the breeze provides you with a kind of automatic safety valve. Not so a tri. The tremendous form…

I typically don’t ask the crew about their favorite parts of a charter until it’s done. After all, how can you pick a highlight on, say, Day 2? I broke that rule, though, on a recent sail through the Exumas, the chain of Bahamian islands that extends in a southeasterly direction from Nassau on New Providence Island down to Georgetown on Great Exuma. The reason I asked is because we saw and did so much it became too hard to keep it all straight. Not surprisingly, their answers varied. One thing we all agreed on, though, was that a single week wasn’t going to be enough to even scratch the surface of this cruising ground, and we’d definitely be coming back for more. We landed in Nassau, rented a car…

I’ve always known the importance of having good sails. As a low-budget boat punk, I prioritize making sure I can get where I’m going with the help of the wind, as opposed to under power. It isn’t necessarily my goal to be engineless, or basically engineless. It just happens that way, as I never seem have enough money to put much in the way of resources into an engine when there are other, more pressing matters necessary to make the boat seaworthy. Like sails. My current boat, Teal, is a 1962 Tripp 29 with an electric inboard that has a max range of nine miles traveling at 3 knots in a dead calm. Before that I had a 2.5hp outboard on a boat displacing nearly 10,000lb. At times my only…

Send your photos to sailmail@sailmagazine.com And don’t forget to sign up for our free eNewsletter, Under Sail, via our website sailmagazine.com Our last season together before sailing in our separate directions off to college— Dina Vechnyak,, via sailmail@sailmagazine.com We took this sunset photo from our mooring in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas on S/V Simplicity— Deb Marlor, sailmail@sailmagazine.com A couple of young sailors enjoying an afternoon on the Merrimack River, Massachusetts— Jean Kennedy (mother of one of the sailors), sailmail@sailmagazine.com…

I was preparing some tea just before heading topside for my watch. Even though it was summertime, the tea was not iced—it was hot. Th at’s because our boat was in the High Arctic. We were trying to complete a westbound transit of the treacherous Northwest Passage. If we succeeded, it would be particularly admirable because our sailboat was not some beefed-up, steel expedition vessel. Instead, she was a fiberglass production boat—a Tartan 42. Suddenly, the boat started vibrating and screeching. I hollered up to the helmsman, telling him to kill the engine. The owner came barreling out of the aft-cabin, and we set about trying to determine the problem, which we swiftly concluded was a drive-line issue, since there was no vibration when the engine was running in neutral.…

Sticking with its proven design formula, but also cherry-picking a number of popular features from some of its other recent models, Leopard Catamarans has launched a “best of” package with this new boat that sold nearly 30 units before hull #1 even touched water. Like a greatest hits album, the Leopard 42 combines the best of its 40ft and 50ft sailing siblings, and even grabs a few interior styling features from the Leopard 53 powercat. The result has been rolling off the production line in unprecedented numbers. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION Naval architects Simonis Voogd and South African builder Robertson and Caine created a boat that cruising couples as well as full charter groups will love. Construction consists of a foam-cored vacuum infusion pair of hulls topped by a one-piece cabinhouse—a…

Chartening and the notion of going “off the beaten path” may sound self-contradictory. Charter companies tend to put bases where demand is high and they can turn a profit, so if you’re lucky enough to find an outfit and a destination that gets away from the typical—say yes. To be clear, “off the beaten path” doesn’t mean unfriendly or uncomfortable, and certainly not boring. In fact, you may even find yourself discovering your “tribe” when chartering farther afield in a place where it feels more like actual cruising. To do this, though, you need to go where the cruisers go—which is how we found ourselves connecting with West Coast Multihulls (WCM: westcoastmultihulls.com) in Loreto, Mexico, on the Baja Sur peninsula about halfway down the Sea of Cortez. Here, you know…

When I began repairs on my Santana 27, Shirley Rose, I focused on the major systems rather than cosmetics. My goal was to create a safe boat for the often rough conditions on San Francisco Bay, and I didn’t much care about winning any beauty contests. Th at said, while there were no urgent safety issues in the interior, it did still require a few repairs. Not only that, but as I spent more and more time aboard, I also found myself wishing things were a bit more warm and welcoming. The interior work actually began while the boat was on the hard. The cabin looked nice with its porthole shades, settee cushions and headliner, but a scent of mold was in the air. I therefore recruited two (very good)…

With 2021 drawing to a close, Laser sailors find themselves reflecting on both their class’s 50th anniversary, and the passing of the man who made it all possible: Canadian designer, sailor and sailing journalist, Bruce Kirby. Kirby, who died this past July at the age of 92, started sailing competitively at an early age and in many ways began designing of necessity in order to sail the kinds of boats he felt he needed as a member of the International 14 developmental dinghy class. In the 1960s Kirby also represented his native Canada in the Finn and Star classes in multiple Olympics and worked as a marine journalist for a publication called One Design Yachtsman, now Sailing World. It was while he was working for One Design Yachtsman in 1969…

Gragkkkk! Schschs! These are NOT the sounds you want to hear as you trailer your boat to the launch ramp. I was about a mile away from the ramp at the time, and looking in the rearview mirror I immediately noticed Betty Jane, my 1982 Mystic 20 Catboat, was now riding a good deal lower than she should. Slowly pulling over to the side of the road, I got out and found the tongue of the trailer had broken in two and the front of the trailer was now dragging on the pavement. Th is was not the way I’d envisioned putting Betty Jane back in the water for her first sail after an extensive refit. Luckily, I was able to pull the car and trailer far enough over to…

Judging your own readiness is never easy. Th at goes double for chartering and running a yacht on vacation. What I hear most often from first-time charter guests is that they’ve been sailing for decades, so how different can it be to charter? The truth is it’s very different because managing a weeklong charter is a far cry from things like dinghy racing or daysailing a 30-footer on a lazy summer afternoon. Th is goes double if you’ve never sailed a large catamaran. If you’d like to get a better idea where exactly things stand with respect to your own sailing, try asking yourself the questions below. And don’t worry if you find yourself coming up short. There are plenty of ways to obtain the requisite skills! CORE SKILLS Sail…

For all that the pandemic turned the world upside down, the summer of 2020 proved to be a surprisingly good one for sailing. Sales of boats—both new and used—went through the roof, and sailors everywhere found ways of getting out on the water, either alone or with friends and family as part of their personal “bubble.” One kind of sailing, though, that didn’t fare so well was racing. Granted, local sailors did their best to find alternatives. But with the exception of the America’s Cup and Vendée Globe, major regattas everywhere had to be put on hold—which only served to make it that much more fun being able to compete again in 2021. THISTLE NATIONALS Hosted by the Cleveland Yacht Club and held on the unpredictable, occasionally tempestuous waters of…