Sailboat Reviews

Just as the Caribbean cruising dream was at its peak in the American consciousness, Endeavour yachts brought in Americas Cup designer Johan Valentijn to create a new breed of Endeavours to compete with an already crowded field of center-cockpit cruisers, most of them bound for the Caribbean charter trade. The end result was a boat that managed to maintain a surprisingly tolerable aesthetic, unlike the typical wedding-cake center cockpit cruiser. The combination of teak trim, bootstripe, and balanced proportions camouflages what is essentially a floating condo.

The Endeavour 42 is relatively heavily built to charter-boat scan'tlings, but inconsistencies between hulls means there will be some variability in quality. The biggest refit challenge is the fuel tank.

Ive been the fortunate witness to the rebirth of a boat and the inspiring maturation of a boy. And Practical Sailor readers have unknowingly been along for the ride. For the past five years, boatbuilder Robert Helmick has allowed his Endeavour 42 Lost Boys to serve as a test platform for a wide array of sailing gear featured in these pages.

After corrosion destroyed the water-lift muffler aboard his 1972 Irwin 37 (above) and he could not find a replacement, subscriber Gene Millard fabricated his own.

Its hard to mistake the Stiletto 27s appearance-typically with blazing topside graphics and aircraft-style, pop-top companionway hatches. Its also hard for the average sailor to appreciate the sophistication of the Stilettos construction-epoxy-saturated fiberglass over a Nomex honeycomb core. There is probably no production hull built in the U.S. with a better strength-to-weight ratio than the Stiletto. And although the design is 40 years old, the Nomex honeycomb fabrication is still impressive.

This summer, Stiletto Manufacturing will be launching the all-new Stiletto X-Series, including a foiling catamaran, with the first boats expected to splash about the time this article went press. Carrying on the Stiletto tradition, the 10-meter X-Series models are being marketed as high-performance boats that are fast, beachable, trailerable, and affordable, as well as easy to handle and ideal for coastal family getaways.

If you grew up sailing in Florida in the 1970s and 80s as I did, you probably spent many hours daydreaming and looking at Hunters, or if you were fortunate, sailing one. Those memories might not exist at all were it not for bit of luck and perseverance. While the U.S. economy was caught in a global recession, the Hunter Marine plant in Florida was still churning out sailboat hulls by the dozens.

The Tartan 31 is one of the new line of performance cruising yachts from the venerable-and durable--Grand River, Ohio boatbuilder. In the last few years, Tartan Marine has come out with a range of new models, including the T-28, the 3500 and the 4600. A 41-footer is in the works. Both the 28 and the latest version of the 31 are part of the new Piper series, which are marketed in sailaway condition. Tartan has a reputation for solid construction and good workmanship and that's what the 31 is: solid and well put together. The hull is hand-laminated with alternating layers of chopped strand mat and unidirectional E glass. Behind the NPG/ISO gelcoat there's a layer of vinylester resin, which so far appears to provide the best osmotic blister protection available.

For better or worse, the Columbia 8.7 is modern in appearance, with a very straight sheer, pronounced forward overhang, and no overhang aft. The stern is decidedly unusual, with an exaggerated wineglass-section transom. This reduces the apparent size of the back end of the boat, which would otherwise look very ungainly since beam is carried well aft. From an aesthetic point of view, you either like the stern or you don't.

The Dragonfly 800 comes in two configurations, one for racing and one for what the company calls cruising, which is a misnomer only in that it implies a plodding demeanor, which is hardly the case. The essential difference is a taller mast and Kevlar sails for the racing model.