Airdeck Rollup Boats
In a test of seven roll-up boats with inflatable decks and keels, the Zodiac Cadet 310FR ACTI-V was the top choice. Best Buy honors go to the Mercury 310 Airdeck Hypalon.
Headings: Canting Ballast Keels
There's no question that they work, but there are still issues being worked out in the upper reaches of the racing game that will take time to trickle down.
C&C 29
Produced in two decidedly different versions, this boat sold well behind the C&C name. The original MK I design was a good light-air boat, but was a handful in heavy air.
Headings: State of the Art
With this column we begin a long-term exploration of modern boat designs and systems, intended to keep us up-to-date on which advancements are within reach—and worth reaching.
Hanse 371
Moderate in design, easy to sail, and built to take hard knocks, this German import is also nicely priced.
Catalina 350
The 350 follows the lead of the successful 310, with well-designed space in the saloon, and more comfort for fewer crew. Our test sail was slow, partly due to a battenless main.
Newport 41
Derived from C&C's Redline 41, this design had a long and successful production run. It lacks some of the amenities of 'full-volume'modern boats belowdecks, but is a tough, fast, seakindly boat offshore.
Santa Cruz 27
Bill Lee's first production boat set a standard for fast, lightweight keelboats that are easily sailed by a small crew.
Freedom 30
A collaboration between Garry Hoyt on the marketing side and Gary Mull on the design, and built tough by Tillotson-Pearson, this boat, while not quick in light air, is a total cinch to sail.
Offshore Log: IMX 45 Boat Review
Nick Nicholson recently returned from the Marblehead-Halifax Race, in which he was aboard the winning boat as navigator. He decided to devote his column this month to a review of that boat.
Should We Rescue This Free Sailboat??
A friend is giving away an old sailboat for free, and now we have to answer the dangerous question every sailor secretly loves: is...
Latest Sailboat Review
Bob Perry’s Salty Tayana 37-Footer: Boat Review
With several hundred boats sailing the seas of the world, the Tayana 37 has been one of the most successful products of the U.S.s Taiwan-built boat invasion that began in the early 1970s. Its shapely Baltic stern, scribed plank seams molded into the glass hull, and lavish use of teak above and belowdecks have come to epitomize the image associated with Oriental boats.