The deck is still wet with dew as the crew arrives one by one for boat call. The stillness of the sunny morning is broken by sailbags heaved onboard and dragged across the non-skid. Trimmers stroll from bow to stern leading tapered sheets and guys through and blocks. It’s the regular busy work of getting a 12-Metre off the dock and racing and it’s the first day of the 12 Meter North, Americans in Newport, Rhode Island. It’s also Weatherly’s big day.

The boat’s owner Steve Eddleston eventually arrives with the sandwiches. He’s got a cup of coffee and a big smile as he admires all the activity from the aft deck. We’ve never met, and he’s invited me aboard for the day’s races. I’ve got GoPros and microphones, and thankfully, he’s a natural on camera, an animated storyteller who effortlessly rolls from one life yarn to the next. He’s got a strong Yankee accent with a raspy Down Easter twang. But he’s a Kiwi, his wife is Mexican, and now, of all things, he owns a 12 Metre.

Eddleston’s is a wonderful success story. As a young adult he was a hardworking software engineer who traveled the world, selling, building and servicing those big old-school mainframe servers from back in the day. Work took him to Mexico, where he met his wife—another fun story of persistence. He made a name, a family and a fortune, retired, served on boards and then bought a Planet Fitness franchise—covering the entire state of Rhode Island. Somewhere in there he was a hardcore distance runner, too, which is all to safely say he’s got energy, wisdom and vision. Which brings him today to Bristol, Rhode Island, Cap’n Nat country. Somehow in his life story arc, his ownership of a classic 12 Metre makes total sense.

His path to Weatherly’s helm started in Maine, where he taught himself to sail on a Hobie Cat he found in the classifieds. No mentor, no program, no junior sailing instructor—just curiosity and stubbornness. “I can figure this out,” he said when he bought the Hobie. He did figure it out, and it wasn’t pretty, but then came years of solo hotdogging on the Hobie.

Fast forward to 2002. At a corporate planning conference in Newport, the company had chartered Weatherly for an afternoon group outing. Eddleston was the only real sailor among them, so he didn’t hesitate when offered the wheel. “It’s the most incredible feeling,” he says, closing his eyes and reliving the moment. “She’s 30 tons and when she first takes the load of the wind…it’s just incredible.”

In the early days of COVID, when he started looking seriously at classic boats, a surveyor suggested Weatherly to him. He met George Hill, its previous caretaker (Hill’s is also a long and inspiring story), and so it began. “George told me, ‘Steve, this has been my livelihood for 36 years. I’ve made my living with this boat, and I’m ready to retire and move on. I’m looking for another caretaker.’”

When he finally purchased it, he told his wife, “This may be the best thing I ever do or I’ll be trying to sell her in 12 months.”

He was no fool, however. He did calculate his decision with trepidation at first. The risk, the maintenance, the unknowns—they didn’t immediately appeal to his practical side. But the plan was simple: He would keep doing what Hill had done so well. The boat was in good shape and everything worked. He went into it thinking he wouldn’t change much, but after a few years, that philosophy changed.

He checked Weatherly into the spa for a 22-month deep-tissue treatment.

“It started with, ‘Let’s paint the deck,’” Eddleston says. Then it went deeper, all the way to a full structural review and a lot of craftsmanship to get it tight and solid. “So yeah, it became a big project.”

The deck came off and they got in under the skin of the boat, into the frames and the structure. The loads are enormous on a 12 Metre, so he and his boat captain agreed it was best to fix for the future. “The powers and the loads on these boats are phenomenal,” Eddleston says, “so it doesn’t do any harm to go in there and triple-check that everything is Bristol.”

Weatherly went into the spa as a 68-year-old and came out as an 18-year-old, he likes to say, “so she’s good for another 60 years for the next caretaker.”

His last word strikes me. We typically refer to raceboat owners as “owners.” I had never thought of caretaker as a term for classic yachties the likes of Eddleston and so many others. But it’s perfect. Weatherly is not just another pretty 12 Metre for sunset sails and the occasional race; the longer she sails, the more souls she touches. The more she sails the larger her community of admirers grows. No one forgets their first sail on Weatherly.

Over the boat’s long career, Eddleston says, “People married aboard her, renewed their vows, and celebrated milestones on her deck.” A surprising number of women in New England bear the name Weatherly, he adds matter-of-factly, because their parents were inspired by the boat’s America’s Cup victory in 1962.

At a recent regatta, Eddleston met one such woman—her mother, pregnant during that Cup summer, felt it was the natural name for her daughter after Weatherly’s win.

In Eddleston’s heart Weatherly is more than a classic racing yacht and relic of the Cup. She is a kind of floating town, with citizens, fans and more than six decades of history that took her to Seattle for the Boy Scouts, through the Panama Canal, and to the bottom of Long Island Sound. US-12 is one of a unique club of the other famous traditional 12’s still sailing in Newport: American Eagle, Intrepid and Columbia. They each have their own loyal population, and it grows with every sailor that steps on a deck or turns a coffee grinder.

The 12 Metre crew scene is a tight-knit one in Newport, and if there was one thing that worried Eddleston initially, it was finding 16 reliable mates every time he wanted to go for a sail. As a solo Hobie guy, his Rolodex was pretty thin. But it didn’t take long to string a starting team together. As soon as word got out that Weatherly had a new owner, experienced sailors began to appear, introducing themselves, offering their services as crew. Within a short time, he says, he found himself with a call list of 50 to 60 people, plenty to staff the boat for racing and events.

For several years, he personally managed the crew boss role—deciding who sailed when, where new sailors should be placed, who might need to step back for a while if they couldn’t reliably make boat-calls. Over time, he began handing that job to others as part of their own development, recognizing that building a racing program means building leaders, not just followers. Spoken like a truly successful franchise owner.

He’s also now the de-facto commodore of the Newport fleet, which itself is so iconic that the city’s manhole covers and public works vehicles now sport a logo of two 12s, hard on the wind. He helped rally enough boats and enthusiasm to stage the 12 Metre Worlds in 2023, drawing 10 boats—five classics and five moderns. It was a sight to behold and one he hopes to recreate again.

Eddleston’s racing plans for the boat include the 12 Metre World Championships in 2028, so he’s got a long way to go, with more boatwork, a better mast, new sails and mechanical upgrades to get the boat around the buoys better. Straight-line speed, perfect sets, dip-pole jibes and douses is what 12 Metre crewwork is all about.

“The power and beauty of these boats when they’re on the wind and the crew is working—it’s like an orchestra,” he says. Everybody knows what they’ve got to do at the right moment. It’s the most enchanting and powerful form of sailing I know.”

Now that Weatherly is properly marinated and the crewwork improving race by race, Eddleston’s aspirations are both pragmatic and idealistic. On the water, he is clear: under his watch, Weatherly is “first and foremost, a racing boat.” Charters still matter because he loves that the general public can experience the same sensation of sailing a 12 Metre that captured him. But the core of the program is competition. The North Americans and local regattas are not for trophies, but as check-ins for the Worlds.

And when the time comes to pass on his caretaker role, he says, he’ll be pleased to have passed on a boat that is better, stronger and faster than when he found her—just as Hill did. He happily imagines Weatherly sailing another half-century and beyond, still racing, still teaching, still thrilling people who have never stepped on a race boat before.

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Performance Dinghies

Bigger, roomier and sportier on the water than it looks on the dock, the Fusion 2 is designed to get new sailing adults excited and learning. The judges agreed that it sails great and would appeal to clubs and families.

The Maverick is the multitool of watersports. For sailing, there are inflatable seats and it tracks upwind just fine. Pop in the windsurf rig or practice your wing technique. No wind? Bust out the SUP paddle. For waterside living, this 10-foot, 95-pound dinghy will entertain all summer.

A gem of a dinghy from Mackay Boats, the VX Two was the top boat from our BOTY session in St. Pete. The judges described it as perfect in every way, a sophisticated but simple skiff-style dinghy for more experienced sailors.

Foilers

The IODA is a 10-foot foiler that the judges felt was challenging to sail as first-timers. It’s better suited for smaller and more nimble sailors. The judges felt that the BirdyFish S was far easier to sail and more versatile.

The BirdyFish Race was a contender from our St. Pete session. It’s a bigger scow-shaped craft than the BirdyFish S, and it was praised for its excellent construction, robust foils and the ability to sail two-up and share the fun. The Race’s gennaker takes the fun factor up a big notch. 

Club Racers

The J/7 made its BOTY debut in St. Pete in February, and in the lighter conditions, without a spinnaker, it was difficult for the judges to really assess the true performance of the boat. As a targeted multipurpose boat,  it has all the traits of a J Boat: lightweight, roomy, responsive and great upwind.

The development of the Storm 18 was thorough and the result is a legitimate multipurpose boat that’s built to last the abuses of adult sailing lessons, club team racing and recreational sailing. The judges praised the boat’s performance and versatility, but the demo tested in St. Petersburg was not yet perfected. Production is now apace, however, with several U.S. yacht clubs committed to fleets.       

Crossovers

With the Beneteau First 30’s highly refined hull and obsessive attention to detail with weight management, the engineers and builders at Beneteau have delivered what they tout as the first in a new genre of “planing cruisers.” Belowdecks is a weekender-worthy interior, and on deck, the sail-control systems and cockpit ergonomics all add up to make it an excellent platform for coastal and shorthanded races, especially courses with predominant downwind angles where its planing attributes can deliver.

The Argentinian-built Zonda Z28 follows the award-winning Z24, selected as the 2024 Best Recreational Racer. Whereas the Z24 was light and sporty, however, the 28 is much more of a cruiser-leaning design. With a lot of interior volume, an electrified lifting keel and a retractable transom-hung carbon rudder for shallow-water venues, the judges noted it being well-priced and well-built. With the rig out of tune for the test, they did, however, have helm control issues in the day’s 15-knot breeze.  

Multihulls

As the most sophisticated HH Catamaran ever tested as part of Boat of the Year, the HH52 delivered an exceptional sailing experience for the judges who praised it for its ergonomics and systems. Whatever the sail combination or angle, the judges said, the feel on the tiller was sensational as was the level of detail in the construction and execution. As a multimillion-dollar catamaran loaded with performance features, it will make many a happy owner.

The 15-foot inflatable Happy Cat Star Carbon is one not to be overlooked by adventure-race fanatics. Super durable rubber tubes for the hulls and a carbon frame to keep it all stiff and fast made for high-speed and thrilling test for the judges. With a gennaker deployed, they had the fun-meter pegged. The entire boat breaks down into duffel bags, and the accessories list from Grabner, the builder in Germany, is extensive. 

After a stunning session on the Happy Cat, the judges were left wanting on the MiniCat 520 Explorer, which did not have the same level of stiffness or balance. As a recreational inflatable catamaran, they didn’t feel it was suited for serious adventure racing.

The post 2025 Boat of the Year: The Runner Ups appeared first on Sailing World.

Saffier isn’t a brand well known in the States, and as far as we know, they’ve never entered a single model into our Boat of the Year world. But after admiring a brand new Saffier Lite 24 on a trailer all summer, we persisted in convincing them to show us what they’ve been hiding in Europe for the past few years.

Saffier, says our demo host and dealer Anton Webre, promises there is no pretending with its boats. “It is a premiere performance daysailor brand. That is their DNA. Dennis (Hennevanger, the builder) will tell you that if you’re looking for something else, then look somewhere else.”

Webre sells quite a few Saffier models, especially the builder’s bigger mooring candy. The 24 Lite, he says, is one sweet little harbor burner. Yes, it’s pricey at $195,000 (as quoted, with tariff), but sailing it is believing it.

“Esthetically, this boat is really, really nice,” Davis says. “It would be a beautiful thing to have for a Wednesday night club race series.”

It’s also light and plenty lively, Davis adds. At only 1,300 pounds, the boat is really stable, so the ballast is clearly in the right place. And sailing upwind was a delight. “It’s designed to be a stay-in-the-cockpit boat,” Davis says, “so yeah, sit on the cushions and enjoy it.”

Comfortable, very light and very cool-looking daysailor is what Ingham jotted into his note pad, while also noting the quality and finish of the composite hull, built in the Netherlands, northwest of Amsterdam, in what is described as a technically-advanced and clinically clean shop. Saffier’s story is a captivating one, but it is one for later. We know very little about them in the States, but what we do know is that they’ve been building award winning and ground breaking sailboats since 1999. The Saffier 24 Lite is yet another for them.

“It’s a boat where you get out on the water, by yourself or with a bunch of people,” Webre says. “It’s all so easy to use, thoughtful and beautiful.”

The judges also pointed out its impressive gelcoat finish and that there is not one piece of wood on the boat. It’s all composite, including the synthetic decking, which comes in almost any color.

Aluminum is the standard rig, and while carbon is an option, Webre says not to bother. The aluminum rig is perfectly fine. And for the dry-sail racer in the group: A single-point lift eye is embedded into the rock-solid keel grid. Easy in, easy out on the hoist.

It’s certainly possible to shorthand the 24 on a beer-can twilight, but four would be perfect company. Whether racing with a code zero, an A2 or even JAM, there’s something for everyone. All controls cascade aft to companionway clutches. With cabin-top winches, it’s all simple and effective. The jib is self-tacking and runs on a flush deck track, the Zero is on a furler at the end of a carbon sprit, and the mainsheet block is set on the cockpit floor post.

Behind the helm is a sprawling aft cushion lounge for guests to enjoy the ride, away from the fray, and down below is sitting headroom only and acres of cushions encircling a compression post. You hardly know the electric sail drive unit and batteries are there. Inside, there’s nothing more until you toss the overnight gear drybags on board and see where that takes you. “I’d overnight it with my son,” Webre tells the judges with a hint of sincerity, “but my wife would not.”

And that’s okay, because there is no night in daysailor. But there is all day—and there is twilight—in the Saffier 24 Lite.

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For the first day of our Boat of the Year test sailing, small-craft warning flags were whipping, and so too was the rain when we sailed off the beach at the Annapolis Sailing School with the BirdyFish S—S as in solo or single—without any clue of how to handle the scow-shaped 14-footer and its long, arcing and pointed “mustache” foils.

When it’s time to put our judge Monica Morgan into the driver’s seat, she hops in with her trademark giddy giggle. We don’t know what she knows: She’s never foiled.

She orients herself with the whereabouts of the boat’s key control lines: a 16-to-1 vang, downhaul and the 2-to-1 mainsheet. She promptly trims the reefed square-top mainsail, turns onto a reach, sails 100 feet or so away, then rises up onto both foils, streaking away as if she’s done it a million times.

“Insanely easy,” is how Morgan would later describe the experience, which is the whole point of the BirdyFish S.

Unlike the BirdyFish Double (Race), which has symmetric J-shaped foils, the BirdyFish S has curved asymmetric foils that can’t be inverted or swapped if damaged, so launching should always be a calculated effort. Still, says Hardy Peters of East Coast Sailboats, the U.S.’ BirdyFish distributor, getting underway is a simple affair. With the foils up in their stowed position, step one is to roll the boat to the water’s edge on its custom wheels, which fit into slots in the hull. These are removed once the boat is afloat, and then stored in a bag on the boat. Wade to waist-high water (two feet or more), push down and lock the foils into their sacrificial Delrin bearing cases. Do the same with the rudder and off you go.

Like the foils themselves, the BirdyFish S’s polyester and honeycomb hull is built (in France) in halves and then glued together. A robust structural bulkhead runs the full length of the boat, giving it some serious rigidity. The scow hull shape also provides strength and, more importantly, stability. Unlike other singlehanded foilers (such as the Moth or Waszp), the BirdyFish is stable at rest and far more forgiving in crash-downs.

Most other high-tech foilers also have dynamic rudder-angle adjustment, but with the BirdyFish S, rudder angle is preset and can be adjusted on the water with a wrench. The single-piece aluminum mast and a black Dacron mainsail with two reef points also opens up the boat to sailing in a wide range of conditions. It can be sailed upwind and downwind in displacement mode, with one crew or two, with all reefs or none at all.

“You’re probably looking somewhere between 185 to 210, max is 310 (pounds),” says Peters. “I’m 250 pounds and I can get this boat up and out in 8 knots of breeze.”

The sailing technique, Peters explains to the judges before splashing, is to shift weight aft when building speed, and once it takes off, shift forward enough to give the boat a slight bow-down attitude. Minimal rudder movement is essential, he adds, “Don’t sail it like an ILCA. Subtle tiller movements prevent spinouts.”

As for tacking, he says, “This boat will easily foil tack and jibe. Just remember that the best [exit] angle on this boat is 55 degrees. So, you have to take that 55 and go another 55 or more, so you’re looking at a 110-degree turn basically. But on a jibe, it’s a lot less.”

Both Morgan and fellow judge Mike Ingham eventually figured out the technique enough to pull off a few, albeit sketchy, foiling turns in 15 to 20 winds and flat water. And their straight-line speeds were more than impressive.

“I was a little surprised at how fast it would go,” Morgan says. “I almost wiped out once, but I never felt like I was just gonna get launched off the boat. I felt pretty locked in tacking. I was trying to figure out the right rate of turn for the tack, because you couldn’t go too slow, but if you went fast, it felt as if you were spinning out. I had that feeling a couple times, mostly tacking, but as a first-timer, it was really rewarding to go foiling so easily.”

To validate the boat’s versatility, before wrapping up our test sail, we put both Morgan and Ingham on the boat and shook out the reef. With both of them working in sync to balance the boat onto its foils, they hit their top speed of the day in one dark and streaking puff. We could hear the whooping from a good mile away, until the sleigh ride ended in a spectacular explosion of spray. Ingham slipped from his hiking strap, and Morgan casually tacked the boat back upwind and retrieved her teammate. It was easy for Ingham to get back into the boat and they soared away again.

“It was a surprisingly easy boat to foil,” Ingham says. “It was like stress-free foiling that was always just in the groove.” Morgan seconded the sentiment and says, “For never having foiled before, I was able to do it within 30 seconds, and that’s kind of crazy. But I also felt really stable on the boat, not intimidating or overwhelming at all.”

The post 2025 Boat of the Year Best Foiler: BirdyFish S appeared first on Sailing World.

Here is a reason why Dragonfly owners are okay with waiting two years or more to get their hands on the new 36. Everyone that has tested it agrees: It’s a multihuller’s dream boat. “Exhilarating” is the one word that BOTY judge Monica Morgan came away with after a windy session on the 36.

“It was such a joy to sail,” she says. It was effortless to sail in 25 knots under a big main at full hoist. Proper winches and everything led correctly into the cockpit, tails disappear into lockers. “It was fast and stable, and felt so safe and bulletproof,” she adds. “It wasn’t hitting waves, it was just cruising through them. The helm felt amazingly light, and everything was just so simple, but it made sense, and it is so classy.”

Dragonfly’s Jens Quorning, a master of his craft, confidently says the Dragonfly 36  is the best they’ve ever done. “Up in the bows we have some new modern tricks with the wave-piercing center hull bow. We’ve got more buoyancy there, and more buoyancy forward in the floats. It is really hard to force it down.”

That also allows him to pile on the sail area and have fun. He’s especially keen about the electric Code Zero furler that “introduces more fun sailing and allows our owners to go out and do 20 knots, easily.”

The rig towers 60 feet above the deck, which Quorning says is “probably the tallest mast on any 36-foot production boat, for sure.” He adds that he and his like-minded owners like a lot of sail area. “With a more intelligent hull design, you want to push it hard, and especially downwind,” Quorning says. “With the right buoyancy right where you want it, you can push up the speedometer.”

Dobbs Davis, our panel’s big-boat guru, felt the same way: “It was blowing 30, the helm was so gentle and balanced. With the weather ama just kissing the wavetops, the sensation was amazing. It just wanted to keep going faster, slicing through the water really nicely.”

With a centerboard in the center hull, Davis adds, the boat tacked just as well as a monohull, and with electric winches available, the jib wind was easy. The code zero can go in and out all day, especially when the hydrogenator and solar panels are topping off the batteries.

The overall bigness of the boat and the beautiful composite work of the beams, the coamings and the interior give the immediate impression of a bigger boat. “I felt like I was on a 40-footer,” Davis says. “Part of that is stability, but it’s the center hull form as well. The whole thing is exceptionally engineered and the details beautifully executed, including the cabinetry. I know there was a lot of tooling that went into that, so what’s amazing to me is the amount of effort it takes to make that right.”

The judges noted the boat feeling light for its size. Quorning says that’s because he’s finally been able to shed the weight of heavy steel fittings in the folding system. All parts are now composite, all of it done in-house, vacuum-infused vinylester and carbon in the bulkheads and beams.

When folded, the beam is roughly 12 feet, great for storage and slip life. And liveaboard is definitely possible for extended fast getaways. And that’s why Quorning is also proud of what they’ve accomplished with the 36’s interior. They’ve managed to bump out the center hull enough to create space and accommodations that, he says, is on par with most modern 40-footers. All the sails, toys, bikes and gear go into the floats.

“There is tons of headroom, the head is lovely, and the aft cabin is really spacious,” Morgan says. “It was all so functional down below, everything had its place and fit really well.”

The engine is aft, under the cockpit, and the sail drive is not below the belly of the boat, Quorning says. “It gives us more freedom and more space in the main cabin. Less smell, less noise in the cabin.”

To its value and quality, Quorning is transparent about his Dragonflys being perceived as expensive. But building in Denmark is expensive, and quality comes with a price. “It’s a high-tech product with a lot of man-hours,” he says. “But we sell a lot of boats because people really admire our boats.”

Judge Mike Ingham would second that, and if he had the funds, he’d seriously consider buying one and giving the Scandinavian multihull racing circuit a go.

“It’s just such a classy boat, really well made, really functional, something you’d want to own, if you could afford it,” says Ingham. “Its stated purpose is to be a fast, safe, comfortable, offshore cruiser-racer, and it just knocks it out of the park in my mind.”

When we sailed with Quorning in October he shared that there were 35 owners in the queue already. And widely praised throughout Europe, the wait now extends well beyond 2028. It’s no surprise the Dragonfly 36 is in demand.

The post 2025 Boat of the Year Best Multihull: Dragonfly 36 appeared first on Sailing World.

Melges is on a roll. From its humble shop in Zenda, Wisconsin, to its Watersports Center in Florida, they reignited the adult dinghy racing scene with their Melges 15, of which more than 1,200 and counting have been built. But the 15, as popular as it is, does have one limitation: it’s a double-hander. So, what’s a larger sailing family to do? Try the Melges 19, a supersized twist on the Melges 15 that delivers a supersized sailing experience for a trio.

“This is our aim at a true three-person family boat,” Eddie Cox of Melges Performance Sailboats tells our judges. “There’s a real gap in our line, and this fills it. We wanted to build something that was simple to use and affordable—under $35,000 for the boat and sails, on the water.”

“Simple,” as Cox describes the boat, does not do justice to its sophistication. It’s an immaculately infused epoxy hull that weighs in at 375 pounds, and once again they entrusted the naval architecture firm of Reichel/Pugh  to deliver a hull shape that Cox says is revolutionary. “It’s so stable yet not sticky upwind,” he says, “This boat is really free upwind, and with a nicer rocker and taper into the transom, it’s a downwind sled, too.”

While cognizant of criticism about yet another one-design class with the potential to disrupt the livelihood of legacy one-designs like the Lightning and Thistle, the judges acknowledged that certain classes will continue to enjoy their followings so long as there are active builders. The Melges 19, they say, will better appeal to a newer generation of sailors who prefer a sportier asymmetric sailing experience. This one’s out of the bag, and the judges must evaluate it on what it is, not what it has the potential to do. Natural selection in the one-design world will do its thing over time, they agreed, but given their enjoyment of sailing the boat, and the commitment of Melges to support its classes, the Melges 19 is certainly the most exciting dinghy of the year.

The Melges 19 incorporates several design features that make it suitable for a family-oriented three-person racing experience over many heavier legacy classes. Lightweight construction makes it easier to launch and handle for a wider range of sailors. And the comfort and ergonomics of the cockpit, which Ingham described as considerably deep, will provide more comfortable hiking. The structural spine that runs the length of the cockpit doubles as a support during tacks, which is beneficial even for older sailors.

They appreciated such simple but modern features as the self-tacking jib and its athwartships jib tracks. But its accessibility, the judges say, is its best trait. The boat accommodates sailors of varied abilities and ages, with spacious and obstruction-free arrangements. The loads on sheets and control lines are not excessive, making it manageable for smaller or less experienced crew members.

“A smaller person can definitely handle it, which is really cool,” says Morgan, a sought-after crew in a number of one-design dinghy classes, including the Lightning and Melges 15. “Nothing on this boat felt overly loaded. It’s just so easy to hike, it’s easy to crew.”

And it was definitely easy to drive—that is the Melges Midas touch. “The boat is just so easy to understand,” Morgan adds, appreciating the simplicity of the boat’s straightforward and minimalist layout, especially after her recent experience rigging a new custom 6 Metre with a cat’s cradle of control lines. “We were never sitting on any hardware, jib sheets or spinnaker gear. We weren’t tangled up in maneuvers. And for the three of us having never roll-tacked together, we did a lot of tacks and jibes with no snafus.”

Davis, Morgan’s fellow judge, who was nursing a bum knee, noted that the cockpit spine goes beyond giving the boat its structural rigidity. “They made that into an ergonomic feature rather than an impediment, so for an older guy with a bad knee, it was great because it gave me something to support coming out of the tack.”

Davis notes that high-quality epoxy construction is what makes the Melges 19 feel “really solid and robust,” but he’s also cognizant of the fact that the boat is plenty powerful, with a generous amount of sail area and a hull that will always want to get-up-and-go. This is not targeted at entry-level families learning to sail, he says—although they certainly could—but rather the families that are already experienced. “For them,” he says, “this thing would be awesome.”

Cox says one reason they chose a daggerboard rather than a keel was to have the boat be easy to trailer and launch in any way—trailer, beach dolly or hoist. And cost considerations are a major factor in the package: from the aluminum rig, to the one-design class sails to stock hardware and ropes.

The intended race-weight range, Cox says, is 475 to 550 pounds, which is right around three average adults, and ideally, one junior sailor to mentor, but Ingham says the ideal number is likely at the bottom of that range. “In this kind of boat, crew weight will matter.”

With sheets and controls spread throughout the boat, the judges agreed with Cox’s pre-sail assessment that there is a job for everybody in the boat. “You can have the driver either just driving or driving and playing the main and backstay,” he says. “You can have the middle person doing the backstay, trimming the main and trimming the kite. You can have the bow person trimming the kite, dousing the kite, setting the kite. You know, you can split up the jobs depending on the skills that you have on the boat, which makes it super conducive to families.”

Ingham ranked the Melges 19 high on his list on account of it delivering perfection. He was especially appreciative of the deep cockpit floor that gave him the feel of being in a sportboat rather than a knees-to-your-chin dinghy. “There really is nothing like it in this modern three-person dinghy category today,” he says. “So for me, it does move the dial. It’s lighter than the legacy boats, it’s asymmetric and it’s a lot more comfortable to hike on. It just moves, and in the bigger puffs it never came close to feeling like it was gonna wipe out. A puff would come, you just bear off…easy and quick.”

The post 2025 Boat of the Year Best Dinghy: Melges 19 appeared first on Sailing World.

Nautor Swan’s Federico Michetti is a world-class sailor obsessed with perfection. Sail a short distance with him, and you’ll watch him make OCD-level adjustments. And when those adjustments come easy, as they do on the ClubSwan 28, he can’t help himself. Two-tenths of a knot slow? He feels it before the crash happens, and he’s already moving to the 28’s mast jack handle, the three-dimensional jib lead, the cunningham tugging the mainsail’s structured luff, or the myriad other controls that get a noticeable response from the 28-footer. Shift a gear and you feel it. Get it into a groove and it is lights-out fun, both upwind and downwind. This is Michetti’s kind of boat—a proper raceboat.

The judges agree, it’s Boat of the Year worthy.

“This thing is a pretty sexy boat,” judge Mike Ingham says. “I can definitely see the curb appeal, and we knew it was going to be sophisticated. Everything is ergonomically correct. It’s a performance boat, but it’s also a beautiful machine, and from the second we stepped on it, I was like, whoa. This is cool.”

Built in Cartagena, Spain, by the Sinergia Racing Group for Nautor Swan, the ClubSwan 28 is the smallest offering in ClubSwan one-design lineup that now stretches to 50-footers. Conceptually, Michetti explains to the judges, the boat is meant to bring new owners into the Nautor Swan stratosphere, with a no-hassle one-design boat and an organized and builder-supported regatta circuit.

The design itself is all Juan Kouyoumdjian: It is unique, technical and loves to sail on its rail. From the chines to the reverse sheer and deck chamfer, it all adds up to a fast and forgiving platform. “The whole package is about reducing drag and windage and saving material and weight,” says Dobbs Davis, an ORC measurer with a keen eye to the behaviors of modern hulls.

Good hull design is nothing without a legitimate rig and sail package, however, and here Ingham was having fun with the boat’s easy-to-play sail controls—especially the hydraulic mast ram and the structured luff (the boat had a North Sails quiver for our test sail) for mast control in the absence of a backstay.

“It’s interesting because it’s got a ram that you can adjust throughout the race, but with the cunningham and the structured luff, you’re bending the mast with compression,” Ingham says. “The cunningham is led back to the main trimmer, just below the mainsheet block, and when you pull that on, mast bend is noticeable. It’s really sophisticated in that you have multiple ways to quickly depower, between the rig itself and the structured luff.”

Prepreg vinlyester construction gives the boat impressive stiffness and a solid feel underfoot, Davis says, and that was noticeable during their session in 10 to 15 knots and flat water. “When you get on a this boat, it is a completely different feeling. It really is. Things are tight as a drum and when we pulled the controls on hard, nothing flexed. It’s incredibly solid.”

Michetti, a world champion of a bunch of grand-prix one-design classes, has the experience to ensure the boat’s ergonomics were right. Access to lines, the layouts, and the overall crewing ergonomics were strong selling points for judge Monica Morgan.

“It was really comfortable,” she says, “the cockpit had plenty of room, and even on the rail it didn’t feel as if we were all bunched up. Being a smaller person, I could do most things on the boat, and that’s pretty cool. I can see it as being manageable by a novice owner that’s new to racing. And I could see a high-level sailor being able to push its limits. There’s plenty of power in the sails, it’s really responsive, and it’s especially fun downwind.”

At 2,600 pounds, the boat is light, and with an L-shaped keel that draws 6 feet, the ClubSwan 28 can be easily trailered and raced in skinny-water venues. Michetti says an experienced team can have the boat off the trailer, tuned and sailing in four hours or less. And as to professionals, one-design class rules have no limitations aside from an owner-driver restriction and a maximum crew weight of 400 kilograms. The owner, however, can declare a weight of 85 kilograms and be exempt from any crew weigh-in requirements.

There is only one class spinnaker allowed (maximum area is 936 square feet) and only two class jibs. At ClubSwan events, the race committee determines which sail is to be used across the fleet based on the wind strength.

ClubSwan regattas, of which there are plenty in Europe, give owners and crew a unique environment that hints at a modest level of exclusivity. The U.S. plan for the class—as of October 2025—is to launch a series in Pensacola, Florida in the winter and Newport, R.I., in the summer. Success of the endeavor will rest upon Nautor Swan remaining committed to the class stateside. Should that happen, there’s a fun future of high-level class racing for those who seek turnkey racing.

“That is the one cool thing about the ClubSwan concept and this boat. Aside from the M32 catamaran group and the IC37s for New York YC, which is a different sort of thing, nobody has done anything like this in the U.S. for a conventional keelboat class, so this is a new deal,” Davis says. “Federico said they’re very motivated for the U.S. market because they see the potential here as untapped.”

Michetti’s stated price for the boat, in October and the midst of the U.S. tariff uncertainty, was $283,000. The judges agree that while that may seem high initially, it is a reasonable cost to experience the ClubSwan racing sphere. But for this price, they add, there’s a lot that comes with it: a sophisticated carbon build, purposeful high-quality hardware and systems and access to the club. And yes, you can club race it, day sail it and show it off all you want. It is a Swan.

The post 2025 Boat of the Year: ClubSwan 28 appeared first on Sailing World.

The start of the Blakely Rock Race is delayed due to fog and light wind. On our 44-foot racer/cruiser Dark Star we are milling around as the fog swirls around the Seattle-based racing fleet. Boats appear, then disappear.

There’s Terramoto with its new taller rig, then they’re gone. There’s Pippa with its graceful curving sheer line, before it too evaporates. There’s the Riptide 41 Blue with its new owner, which vanishes into the fogbank. As we’re yacht spotting, it occurs to me that a good percentage of the fleet are Paul Bieker-designed custom boats. 

How had this come to pass? 

Thirty years earlier, my wife Libby and I had launched the first Riptide, a light and nimble 35- footer named Ripple (in still water). Now there were nine custom racer/cruisers in the Pacific Northwest, which makes for one extended the Riptide family. 

Obviously, this development should be celebrated. These are very cool boats, each one different, each one a reflection of the owner and designer. And they all reside near Seattle or Vancouver. So, why not try to get all the boats together in one place?

I ran the idea by a few trusted associates (Libby, Paul, and a few friends). They were mildly amused at the idea, which was enough to encourage me to proceed. Then I learned that the first Riptide designed, the 55-foot cruiser Rocket Science was soon to depart for French Polynesia. This brought some urgency to the project, and I set a date for the first ever Riptide Rendezvous. 

As I contacted Riptide owners, I got very positive responses, so I knew this could work. In the end, the Canadian boats could not make the trip, but all the seven Seattle area boats agreed to come. The party was on. 

To begin, I arranged dockage with the Port of Seattle for slips at Shilshole, and then, with Corinthian YC for use of the adjacent clubhouse, we put on the schedule a talk by none other than Mr. Bieker himself. I didn’t really try very hard to generate attendance, but word traveled fast around the sailing community. I also invited previous owners of boats that had been sold. Then came the fun part; Riptide stickers, hats, flags. The original intention was a fairly intimate gathering of Riptide boats and owners, but it gradually morphed into a community gathering, as lots of local sailors were interested in the boats. 

When the fateful day arrived, I was nervous. What if the boats didn’t show up? What if nobody came? I had a restless night’s sleep, but in the morning, I moved Dark Star from its slip to the public dock. Bieker’s personal boat was already there, the plywood 27-footer Orn.  As I tied up, other boats started arriving, and my heart soared.  

First came Rocket Science, in the final stages of preparation for its ocean passage. Next came Ripple, our first 35-footer, now owned by our friends Christine and Justin Wolfe, of Orcas Island. Then Blue, a 41-foot speedster I had successfully raced twice to Hawaii.  Then the beautiful Pippa, a 30-foot day sailor. Then Terramoto, originally sistership to Ripple but since refined into the fastest 35-footer around.  Finally, the elegant and sleek carbon 30-foot rocket ship Baby Blue. I was nearly in tears. This was happening. 

The next two hours were magical. Lots of local sailors came and climbed around the boats. There were kids and dogs, old-timers and juniors, smiles all around. The owners were rightly proud of their boats, and it was also clear they felt part of a little club of fellow owners, people who wanted their own vision of a sailboat, and knew where to go for the design. Each boat is a kind of composition of the owner’s dreams and Paul’s vision and experience. 

When we moved to the yacht club, Bieker give a lovely and informative lecture on the evolution of his designs, from International 14s to America’s Cup and everything in between, including the nine Riptides in the Northwest. 

I got to thinking about why all the Riptides were in the Pacific Northwest. Surely these are universal designs that would be successful anywhere in the world? But maybe there is something uniquely Seattle about these boats. While each boat is completely different, they all share a few qualities; a desire for speed and simplicity, a disdain for rating rules, a sense that a racing boat should also be able to cruise, careful engineering with meticulous construction. Aesthetics that flow from function, free from preconception. A nod to the past, but something new. Boats that are fun to sail and designed to put a smile on the sailor’s face. 

Surely there are other examples of boats that are closely tied to place. Think of the Beetle Cats of Buzzard’s Bay and Cape Cod, timeless and perfectly suited to New England. The nimble Lido 14 in the enclosed basins of Southern California. The ubiquitous Flying Scot, a perfect family racer/cruiser for the lakes of the southern U.S. Or the radically over-canvassed Dhows of the Middle East. Each is reflection of place, not intended for universal appeal. Maybe the Riptides are just that for the Northwest; perfect sailboats for what we do here; race and cruise in a beautiful place, where the wind can be 5 knots or 30 knots. 

And perhaps there is something about the Northwest spirit that these boats reflect; independent yet traditional, technical but beautiful, unique but not precious. I don’t know, but I am eternally grateful to be a part of the Riptide family.

The post A Riptide Rendezvous appeared first on Sailing World.

if you’re looking for a boat that is fast, fun and stable, look no further than the good ol’ reliable beach catamarans, which gained popularity in the early 1970s because of one man, Hobart “Hobie” Laidlaw Alter. Alter invented the Hobie Cat and went on to revolutionize beach-cat sailing with nearly 30 different models during his lifetime. The Hobie name lives on as a moniker of the many two-hulled sailboats still out there. But there are now many builders producing excellent alternatives: Nacra, Goodall, Cirrus, Topcat, RS and Topaz, to name a few.

My path to cat sailing is the same as many others. I caught the bug watching my father sail off the beach in Central America in the 1970s in a Laser with his buddies. Soon I had my own yacht, a Styrofoam Snark that I tricked out to be mine. I loved that boat. But one day, a family friend took me for a ride on a lime-green Nacra, and we tore up and down the beach with that boat. I was hooked on the speed, and hanging out in the trapeze blasting through the water.

My father sold the Snark, and that was the end of my monohull days. I sailed Prindle cats off the beach in Miami during college and got my first Hobie 18 SX with wing seats after that. I’ve always loved the speed of the boats because you can go places fast, but as I gained more experience, I started racing, then realized that I wanted an even faster boat. I transitioned into a Nacra F18 Evolution, a great boat and top of its class in the world. I raced around the buoys with world-class sailors, sailed expedition-style races, and even long-distance races. It all evolved from that one Nacra session.

I know that a lot of sailors are reluctant to try beach-cat sailing because of the unfamiliarity of it. Access to trying one can be a barrier too, so the best way to get hooked is to find a rental location when on vacation, a sailing school, or a sailboat dealer with an experience center or club with a beach-cat fleet. It’s good to have someone who knows what they’re doing to walk you through your first experience.

I’m confident that your first ride will, like with me, get you hooked, and maybe thinking how you can get your hands on your own starter beach cat. Here’s where I’d start looking:

The Hobie Wave is an exciting and insanely easy-to-sail catamaran for sailors of all sizes and skills levels. It’s readily available for rental at resorts and beach clubs, both new and used. At 13 feet long and 245 pounds, with a capacity of 800 pounds, this boat can be sailed solo or with a crew of four. It has a simple rig, with only a downhaul and mainsheet—and no boom. The rotomolded hull is virtually indestructible, so launching and docking is stress-free. The Hobie Wave enjoys a cult following among catamaran sailors, as well as a racing class for people of all ages.

The RS Cat 14 is the next step up in the entry-level catamaran world. It’s designed for youths and adults, from novice to experienced sailors. The boat has the potential to grow with you as your skill level improves by adding more sail options to the boat. Durable rotomolded construction makes it a very tough boat. At 14 feet and 275 pounds, with a capacity of two people, the boat is easy to move and set up, which makes it easy to trailer, and to explore and play in different venues. It’s simple to sail, but it also brings in that potential next-level sailing experience on the water.

For a versatile boat that’s ideal for coming into the cat world with something new and modern, the Nacra 500 MK2 is a solid option. With fiberglass hulls, boomless main, no daggerboards, and high-quality hardware and sails, the Nacra 500 MK2 is a fun, fast, and easy boat to sail, with plenty of options to eventually turbo the ride. It’s a good recreational sailboat for youth and adult sailors, as well as a fun boat to race with friends in a class or mixed fleet. It sets up quickly and is easy to transport. Sail it solo, double up, or take four people (including yourself) for a fun day on the water.

With the Nacra 570 MK2, the performance leap from the 500 to the 570 is real. The MK2 version of this boat is the top dog in the recreational-beach-cat market. Its strong and incredibly sturdy hulls, combined with its hydrodynamic and sleek design, make it way faster than the average beach cat, while still staying particularly stable. At 18 feet 3 inches, the boat is light for its size at 364 pounds, so it is easy to move around on land and on the water. If you are moving up from a Hobie 16 or an older 18-foot beach cat, or coming into beach-cat sailing from the sportboat or skiff world, this is a true beach cat that will check all the boxes.

The post Four Proven Catamarans To Get You Started in Multihull Racing appeared first on Sailing World.

Sailing World‘s Boat of the Year team conducted its second phase of tests at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis in October, with the incredibly technical yet seemingly simple HH 52 catamaran as the flagship of this year’s new-boat fleet. Captain and co-creator Chris Bailet took on a tour ahead of its sailing session to get a closer look at the evolution of this breed of high-performance crossover catamarans.

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