It’s hard to find interesting designs for review these days. So this month I thought we’d try a little different approach. In early 1973 I quit my design job in Seattle, loaded my Peugeot wagon an

The Beneteau First series has a long history and proud pedigree. Launched in the late 1970s, Beneteau First designs have collected wins all over the globe. Over time, the design ethos wavered a bit, b

This month we are going to look at a revamp of the X4.9. I’m not very familiar with the 4.9 but the promotional material I have does a good job of highlighting the changes and there are many. X-Yach

Holy cow! We have a 40-foot folding trimaran to review. This will be fun. My buddy Doug, who lived on the next beach, had one. It wasn’t a Dragonfly but it was similar and not as nice as the Dragonf

The Annapolis Sailboat Show is the place to catch all the newest models making their debuts, but there’s always one boat that creates a bigger buzz than the rest. Last October the Jeanneau Yachts 55

The Excess 14 was in high demand for test sails following the Annapolis Sailboat Show in October. It was easy to see why as the boat swung by my pickup point at the end of the South Annapolis Yacht Ce

I can’t recall seeing a Tim Jackett design I did not admire. Tim’s eye captures class proportions and shapes while insuring that performance does not take a back set to aesthetics. It’s sim

Here’s a new model from the Solaris yard in Aquileia, Italy. The design is by Javier Soto Acebal, with design contributions from the yard’s in-house design team. In keeping with the well-establish

It’s exciting to see Mark Mills step away from his ultra-high-performance sportboats and show us what he can do when asked for a custom 41-foot cruising boat. The client asked for a fast cruiser tha

I’m not sure when I first became aware of Wally yachts. They are built in Milan, Italy. The company concentrates on maxi types with very sophisticated design work from a number of top designers. The

I’m struggling to find a name for the new crop of high-performance racers like this brand new ClubSwan 28. They are not extreme. I’d say the label of extreme belongs to the foiling America’s Cup

Now we will flip the design focus 180 degrees and see what designers Berrett-Racoupeau do when the focus is on volume for an LOA limit as opposed to the SwanClub 28’s focus on boat speed for a given

Once in a while someone will ask me, “Who is your favorite designer?” It depends on the day and my mood but I usually have a very short list, if you rule out designers no longer with us. Currently

Beneteau is certainly the big name in production boats today. It has a lot of practice providing boats that serve a wide range of buyers. Part of the company’s success is its pursuit of interior vol

It was quiet in my office, except for my hi-fi. It seemed like with my move to the new beach shack there was the inference that I had retired. Not so. I’m not dead yet. Bruised maybe, but not dead.

Now let’s see what Hallberg-Rassy working with my favorite designer, German Frers, can do with the volume issue. This is a substantially heavier boat than the Jeanneau. Heavier means more displ

We have two big production built cruising boats to review this month and both are from very prestigious yacht design offices and built by very successful builders. Our theme for this month will b

I was 14 years old and beginning to get very interested in yacht design. I have no idea why. Nobody in my family had ever owned a sailboat. I had probably been sailing twice. But with the focus a