The modern cruising landscape is undergoing a metallic makeover as shipyards double down on aluminium new builds. No longer reserved for utilitarian workboats, the latest wave of adventure yachts combines go-anywhere ruggedness with a level of interior refinement that challenges the traditional luxury market.

From French centreboarders designed to beach on remote shorelines to high-performance catamarans built for 200-mile days, these new launches prove that you don’t have to sacrifice elegance to achieve ultimate autonomy.

Here is a closer look at the three standout aluminum designs leading the charge into the world’s most demanding waters.

Allures Horizon 47

Allures has been building aluminium centreboarders for bluewater cruising for over 20 years. The niche of this Normandy shipyard lies in combining aluminium hulls with composite decks, offering a robust structure with a lighter deck and curved deckhouse. With this new Horizon model, Allures is striving for more elegance and desirability.

Marketing manager Jérôme Guillou says Allures learned a lot with the 51.9, and improved it as much as possible, so now wanted something different, “a new proposal”. The Horizon is still a robust design for bluewater cruising, but is conceived to offer some extra elegance, including a large open interior from which to see the world.

Long-term design partners Berret Racoupeau came up with some smart ideas. The side-deck is the same single-level as the cockpit, all protected by a 40cm-high bulwark. Yet where this high freeboard could potentially reduce visibility from the deck saloon, cutaways incorporated in the bulwarks help facilitate and emphasise the extensive views available from the main living space, whether standing or seated.

Covered cockpits are, sensibly, an emerging theme on production cruising yachts, and here offers a fully protected watchkeeping position. Meanwhile, the beamy, scooped transom area provides that luxurious terrace-on-the-sea effect, with a large swim platform below the davits, which will be welcomed in warm, calm waters.

Guillou describes the design as “a revenge of the monohull on the cats”.

The main layout difference it lacks over the larger 51.9 is a full-beam aft owner’s cabin. Instead, the forward cabin is the 47’s master and can be chosen with or without an en suite heads and separate shower. A central island structure provides some bracing to the galley, while the aft port cabin can be a technical room or a third sleeping cabin.

The first five hulls have been sold. Hull construction began last year in Condé-en-Normandie, with fit-out at Allures’ Cherbourg yard. The structure includes 16 aluminium frames spaced every 70-90cm, a keel casing for the centreboard to retract into, and a grounding plate to allow the 47 to beach safely. Tankage includes 650lt of diesel and 500lt water.

Allures is planning to launch the first hull this autumn and present it at the Paris and Düsseldorf boat shows over the winter.

Allures Horizon 47 specifications

Hull Length: 14.25m 46ft 9in
Beam: 4.70m 15ft 5in
Draught: 1.20-3.10m 3ft 11in-10ft 2in
Displacement: 15,000kg 33,069lb
Ballast: 4,950kg 10,093lb
Price: €827,118 ex VAT
Contact: allures.com

Nahoa M

Two years ago we introduced the Nahoa 55 in these pages, an aluminium explorer design conceived by and for a highly experienced cruising family – and popular YouTubers Ben Brehmer and Ashley Stobbart of Sailing Nahoa. A powerful-looking catamaran with a high bridgedeck, prime features include plenty of protection, and the ability to handle lines from a forward cockpit. The project began as a one-off build, with a focus on a short-handed cruising yacht that can offer sustained high average speeds, and has now been developed into a production brand.

That decision led to Brehmer and Stobbart employing Pierre Delion, an experienced naval architect in both production (Explocat, Django, Mojito) and offshore commercial vessels, to create a production-friendly design. Delion and his Nantes-based team have progressed the design, also shifting the proportions slightly. As Brehmer explains, it’s now around 57ft overall and 55ft on the waterline, with “roughly the interior volume of a typical 50-footer.

“The aim is sustained high average passage speeds while keeping the platform light, efficient and manageable for a short-handed crew.”

The forward cockpit and protection philosophy remain central. “The design focus is on control, repeatability and manageability… recognising that real-world offshore sailing often involves layered swell systems, gusty squalls and long passages where crew fatigue becomes a critical factor,” adds Brehmer.

The bimini space helps provide over 5kW of solar panel capacity. And while the performance spec points to the ability to maintain double figures under sail and clock 200-mile days, it is still powered by twin 80hp diesels fed by generous tanks (1,800lt). Construction of hull No1, for Sailing Nahoa, is scheduled to start in the coming months. Fully welded marine-grade aluminium is selected for impact resistance and global repairability. The initial production run is limited to four hulls, and pricing is expected to “sit competitively within the premium aluminium expedition sector”.

Nahoa M specifications

LOA: 17.3m 56ft 9in
LWL: 16.8m 55ft 1in
Draught: 1.55m 5ft 1in
Displacement: circa 20t
Contact: nahoayachts.com

Ovni 490

Alubat’s Ovni marque is famed for its aluminium centreboard cruisers. The 490 is its latest pilothouse model in the current Mortain/Mavrikios-designed range, which features broad forward sections and voluminous interiors.

We featured it in these pages a year ago, just before the first boat launched last autumn, an electric-powered example and the fourth Ovni for this owner. It should be noted that twin shaftdrive 50hp Volvo diesels come as standard (along with 1,000lt fuel tanks).

A bold design marked by its reverse stem and two-tiered coachroof structure, the 490 is already proving popular with seven ordered. Again it can take to the ground, and stands out for its purposeful look, including the bare aluminium hull and big arch framing the aft helms.

The appeal of this three-cabin model centres on the protection it offers, both from its long and partially covered cockpit and its full pilothouse, from where two or three people can sit in shelter.

Further forward, there’s a raised saloon offering clear views when seated. Practicalities continue through the interior, including a passageway utility room-style space for a wet-weather locker, washing machine and extra refrigeration. There’s also a technical locker that can be accessed from the cockpit, while the full-height sail locker can also be reached via a watertight door in the forward heads compartment.

The second hull launched as we went to press, and the third will be exhibited at the La Rochelle show in September.

Ovni 490 specifications

LOA: 15.95m 52ft 4in
Hull length: 14.90m 48ft 11in
Beam: 4.80m 15ft 9in
Draught: 1.00m-3.10m 3ft 3in-10ft 2in
Displacement (max loaded): 21,000kg 46,300lb
Price: €1,035,000 ex VAT
Contact: alubat.com

Garcia Explocat 52.2

The Explocat has helped cement Garcia’s reputation for its aluminium exploration range, and the Cherbourg yard still promotes this range as the only small series aluminium catamarans designed for bluewater cruising. Another Pierre Delion design, combined with styling from Franck Darnet, the 52 has proven popular with 16 ordered since its inception six years ago.

Like its sister company Outremer, Garcia continues to advocate the benefits of a bulkhead-mounted swing pedestal, which allows the helmsman to steer with the wind in their hair or from a protected position from beneath the cockpit bimini.

Updates included on this 52.2 centre around this feature, and include the choice of having the winches conventionally located on the coachroof, together with an extended helm seat and optional cockpit galley (pictured), or to locate them in the cockpit so you can steer and handle the sails from a fully protected position to suit short-handed cruising.

Other reworked features include larger hull windows and improved cockpit layout and transom access.

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Walk the pontoons in any busy marina and you can often feel the difference between a yacht that is ready to go and one that isn’t. Neatly coiled lines and a quiet sense of order suggest a yacht that will work in a turnkey fashion. The kind of readiness that turns a short weather window into an opportunistic sail, rather than a troubleshooting session.

Increasingly, the expectation of modern owners is of a yacht that behaves itself and is ready to go. Owners are time-poor, sailing time is often condensed, and the tolerance for arriving aboard only to spend the first day fault-finding is lower than it used to be. These days owners want fewer preventable surprises at the start of a trip, and need less dependence on physically being there to keep the yacht in good order.

Beneteau has adopted Seanapps technology on its new builds. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

Monitoring your yacht remotely: Pursuit of readiness

A ready yacht isn’t perfect, but it is broadly predictable. Batteries behave as expected. Bilges stay dry. You don’t spend the first precious half-day checking that nothing has gone awry since the last visit.

Traditionally, the solution was human: time, knowledge, and a good support network. A helpful yard. A guardian who runs systems, checks lines, keeps an eye on weather and deals with the small issues before they become big ones. That remains fundamental – particularly when owners live far from their yachts, or use them in short, intense bursts.

What’s changing is the layer that sits on top of that support. Technology that alerts you of problems even when you are far from your boat.

Connected systems don’t replace seamanship or maintenance, but they do make the yacht legible when you’re not there. They turn a hunch that something ‘feels off’ into notifications of what has changed, and when. They give owners or yard staff the chance to intervene early – and early fixes are usually cheaper, easier, and far less likely to steal a weekend.

It isn’t glamorous. It’s about shorepower that trips out, a bilge pump that starts cycling more often, a fridge temperature creeping up. The value to an owner isn’t constant information, but the right information at the right time.

Data from the modern breed of smart sensors can be viewed on your phone

Tide change

Nick Heyes, managing director of Digital Yacht, describes the recent shift in this connected tech as a move from bolt-ons to platforms. For years, yacht technology arrived in pieces: a box for this, an app for that, each doing its own job but rarely giving you one coherent picture of what was happening aboard. The change, he says, is that it’s finally starting to work seamlessly together.

“It’s like the early days of smart homes,” says Heyes. “You could buy clever devices and you’d feel very modern, but you were still running around with different apps and different logins. The magic isn’t another gadget. The magic is when it all joins up – when it becomes one system that quietly does its job in the background.”

That joined-up part isn’t just a nicer interface. It changes outcomes. “Owners don’t want to become data analysts,” he says. “They want the yacht to make sense. They want to glance at a screen and know, with confidence, that everything is as it should be – or, if it isn’t, a clear nudge that something has changed and needs attention.”

When choosing smart systems, check data requirements or any monthly subscription fees. Built-in SIM cards can remove the need for wifi connectivity.

Downtime – when the yacht is out of service for maintenance or similar – is central to this. Not just for private owners, but particularly in charter and shared-use fleets, where a small fault quickly becomes a cancelled handover.

“If you can monitor properly and catch trends early, you keep yachts in service. You keep owners sailing,” says Heyes. “In fleet use it becomes a commercial reality – fewer cancellations, fewer emergencies, better standards.

“Aviation doesn’t wait for something to fail at the worst possible moment. They treat reliability as something you manage. We’re moving towards that mentality.

The more you can see, the less you’re guessing — and the less you’re guessing, the fewer trips you lose.”

Heyes points to the accelerant behind it. “The influence of AI has grown exponentially,” he notes. “Its significance can’t be underestimated. Pair solid, dependable hardware with the pace that software can now develop, and suddenly the cost comes down, the quality and accuracy go up.”

Connected as standard

Every market shift has its ‘this is now normal’ moment. One of the more telling developments in the era of the ‘smart yacht’ is when a mainstream production builder embraced connected tech in the fit-out stage, rather than leaving it to owners to add later. Beneteau has adopted Seanapps across the Group, with an explicit ambition for it to become standard fit.

Their stated aim was for the circa 9,000 boats the company builds every year to be equipped with Seanapps as standard equipment.

Boat share and peer-to-peer platforms have scaled up rapidly in recent years (the US market is valued at over $25million per annum) and have been early adopters of smart tech. Photo: Matt Prosser/Flexisail

The significance isn’t that this makes yachts ‘smart’, but that it normalises a joined-up connected layer on everyday cruising yachts, that can provide remote oversight of key systems and maintenance prompts. There are still limitations – what you can see depends on the yacht’s fit-out and the quality of its connection. But it does shift expectations, because ‘connected’ is no longer only an aftermarket upgrade added piecemeal.

Connected yachting is now arriving at its ‘this is normal’ moment – not because every yacht is suddenly full of sensors, but because the building blocks are becoming familiar.

If you fit a modern electronics package today, you’re increasingly buying into an ecosystem rather than a collection of standalone screens. Apps are part of how owners update charts, transfer routes, check system status, and move information between devices. Your phone becomes an extension of the yacht, and remote monitoring follows the same pattern: a hub aboard, a familiar app, and alerts delivered wherever you are.

In practical terms, many standard set-ups now allow owners to check position, set a geofence, receive an alert if shorepower drops, and keep an eye on the boat’s vital signs: power, water, heat and unexpected movement.

Garmin’s OnDeck and Raymarine’s YachtSense sit in this space, alongside dedicated monitoring systems that focus less on performance data and more on the unattended-yacht essentials. Some yacht builders, such as Y Yachts and Oyster, have their own smart systems which include remote monitoring.

Geofencing for boat movement is built into Garmin’s system. Photo: Garmin

Open playground

But while big brands have made remote monitoring feel normal, another interesting development has happened alongside that: the market has opened up, and smaller innovators can now build useful tools without needing to own the entire ecosystem.

Open-source software makes it easier for systems to talk to each other, for owners to tailor technology to what they care about, and for niche solutions to flourish.

Through his YouTube channel, Smart Boat Innovations, Rob Ferenczi spreads knowledge about how owners can build their own systems on a relatively small budget using accessible components, including a Raspberry Pi, and open-source software.

One underplayed element of remote monitoring is the ability to track patterns that might indicate something is beginning to go wrong before permanent damage occurs

At one point Ferenczi left his yacht anchored under Sydney Harbour Bridge while he was back in the UK building up his cruising fund, keeping an eye on the boat using a public webcam of the harbour. The lesson was clear: when away from your yacht, the unknowns occupy your head.

What his videos teach now replaces such workarounds with proper signals and alerts chosen for usefulness – battery levels, bilge pumps, engine and anchor alerts – and take yacht owners from the basics of creating smart switches up to integrated systems.

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Monitoring your yacht remotely: Connected berths

Remote monitoring isn’t just for owners. Marina operator D-Marin has begun rolling out monitoring layer across its network in collaboration with Sense4Boat – a system designed specifically for unattended yachts. The sensors focus on the things that most often turn into costly incidents in marinas: water ingress, battery issues and overheating, fire and heat, and unauthorised movement.

For Gorjan Agačević, CEO of Sense4Boat, the scale matters because it turns monitoring from a niche upgrade into something you can normalise across an entire marina group.

“This isn’t a handful of early adopters,” he says. “We’ve installed 20,000 sensors across six countries.

“Once you reach that sort of scale, you stop talking about gadgets and start talking about standards – what a modern berth holder should reasonably expect when their yacht is unattended.”

D-Marin staff get early warnings from Smart4Boat systems

D-Marin says that since fitting the system across most berth holders’ yachts, the marina group has had over 100 alerts, some of them critical. In one case, it helped raise the alarm during a battery fire – exactly the sort of incident marina operators worry about, because fires rarely stay politely contained to a single berth.

Nataša Subašić, regional director for D-Marin in Croatia, describes the practical difference as speed. “You don’t want to discover a problem when it’s already visible from the pontoon,” she says. “You want to know while it’s still small – while it’s a rising temperature, a battery behaving oddly, a trace of water where it shouldn’t be. That’s when you can act quickly and quietly.”

Agačević points out that this only works if the system is frictionless. “If it needs rewiring, or a hub, or a complicated install, uptake collapses,” he says. “The job is to protect unattended yachts from the big four – water, heat, batteries and theft – and to get the right people moving quickly when something changes.”

Perhaps the biggest reason the rollout has worked is that it isn’t sold as another optional extra. At D-Marin, annual berth-holders receive the monitoring sensor pack as part of their contract, so the decision becomes about using it – not justifying it.

There has been a social effect too. “The surprising thing is how quickly it becomes normal,” says Subašić. “People start asking whether the yachts around them are monitored as well. They understand how marina fires happen – it’s rarely one yacht, it’s what happens next. Anything that gives earlier warning doesn’t just protect one owner, it helps protect the whole dock.”

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post Monitoring your yacht remotely: The modern technology helping you keep an eye on your boat appeared first on Yachting World.

The multihull market in 2026 is no longer a monolith of charter cats versus speed machines. As we head to the 16th edition of the International Multihull Show at La Grande-Motte (22-26 April), the lines are blurring more than ever.

We are seeing a fascinating divergence: on one hand, ultra-lightweight carbon weapons designed to outrun weather systems; on the other, voluminous floating homes that entice powerboat owners into the world of sail.

With a record 80 hulls expected afloat this year, I’ve picked out the four premieres that best represent this shifting landscape

Outremer 48

The Outremer 45, which launched 12 years ago, became a benchmark model for fast bluewater cruising. In 2017, it was stretched to a 48 at the transoms, while its popularity became cemented by the biggest sailing YouTube channel, Sailing La Vagabonde.

The International Multihull Show at La Grande-Motte, France, will be the first public showing of this fresh new 48.

Feedback from over 100 owners led to some demanding improvements for the new model, which centred on performance, comfort and ergonomics. Outremer will have confidence in addressing these, thanks to the success of its recent 55 and 52. The 48 clearly continues the learning and style of these models, including the hallmark coachroof line, and once again leans on the heavyweight French design team of VPLP, Patrick Le Quément, and Franck Darnet.

Ease of handling is once again a priority – including a bulkhead helm station with swivelling double seat and a wheel which can be canted to allow steering from outboard or a fully protected position inboard. The low boom is easy to access with steps to the coachroof at the mast base.
Headroom and glazing are also enhanced, with this new 48 offering more ventilation and near-unobstructed views from the main living area. Meanwhile, the forward-facing navstation makes for a comfortable and proven option for standing night watches.

The 48 also has more volume, headroom and refrigeration space over its predecessor. ‘My Free Space’ is Outremer’s term for an adaptable cabin, in this case, in the forward port hull, which can be chosen as a bunk or double cabin, workshop, office or kids’ room.

The increased payload capacity (now four tonnes) is another benefit which will suit today’s cruisers who carry an increasing amount of kit.

The production of these smaller Outremers moved to Lorient after parent company Grand Large Yachting acquired Marsaudon Composites. However, Outremer is also rapidly developing its larger models too, with the recent news of two new models coming next year in the 57 and 64. The 57 is an evolution of the 55, while the 64 is a true flagship with integrated crew quarters, which will link Outremer’s offerings more closely with its sister company Gunboat.

We’ll report back in more detail on the 48 following its premiere.

Outremer 48 specifications

LWL: 14.63m 48ft 0in
Beam: 7.56m 24ft 10
Draught: 1.25-2.10m 4ft 1in-6ft 11in
Displacement (light): 10,500kg 23,148lb
Sail area (upwind): 117m2 1,259ft2
Price: €1,190,000 ex VAT
Contact: catamaran-outremer.com

Aquila 50 Sail

We’ve seen many sailing yacht designers and yards in the past turn their hands to motorboats – which makes sense, as they are used to drawing and building highly efficient hulls. Rarely, if ever, though, have we seen it the other way around, with a power brand creating a yacht line.

Since its formation in 2012, Aquila has built up a vast range of powercats, and this year sees it branching into the sailing sector with the premiere of this voluminous new 50ft model. These fully resin-infused multihulls are built in a state-of-the-art, one million square feet facility in China, which ensures a high level of quality control.

One look at the huge spaces on the flybridge and forward cockpit shows that volume and comfort have clearly been prioritised, with a choice of four to six en suite cabins offered. Yet some reassurance in their performance ability comes from the fact that renowned Slovenian firm J&J (Elan, Shipman, Sunbeam) has drawn the lines for these new sail models. The new range includes a 45 due later this year and a 65ft model in 2027.

The 50 on display is an electric drive (ES) model, fitted with twin Torqeedo 50kW Deep Blue motors. It’s offered either with this hybrid setup or conventional diesel propulsion.

Aquila 50 Sail specifications

LOA: 14.97m 49ft 1in
Beam: 7.86m 25ft 9in
Draught: 1.45m 4ft 8in
Price from: €950,000, or €1.2m for the hybrid version
Contact: aquilaboats.com

Trimarine Composites TRM43

While it may look like a performance weapon, and is built by long-standing specialists in lightweight craft to ensure it is lighter than anything else in its class, this TRM43 is a bluewater cat conceived for an experienced long distance sailor. Fast, reliable and autonomous are the foundations of the project.

The lightweight displacement figure of 5,600kg is seriously light, and helps make for a potentially very rapid yacht. Indeed it is a full two tonnes lighter than the Marsaudon TS42, the boat it arguably resembles the most, which, when it was still being built, was probably the lightest production cruising cat in this size sector. No surprise then that the design is by Christophe Barreau/Frédéric Neuman, who worked on the TS42, as well as previous Outremer and Catana models. It features a powerful, wide beam (8m), a long bowsprit and daggerboards, tiller steering from bucket seats, and purposeful trawler-style coachroof windows.

The choice of yard is also key to this light weight. Trimarine Composites has quite the back catalogue, from Amercia’s Cup and IMOCA builds to Brenta daysailers, racer cruisers such as Lann Ael 2, and the GP70 which launched a couple of years ago. In short this Lisbon yard knows how to make fast yachts. The TRM43 is built in a composite of carbon and glassfibre with Corecell foam and epoxy resin. The main structures are all in carbon. Combine this with the slender hull forms and plenty of sail power and the result is the TR43 should start sailing and matching wind speed from just 2-3 knots of breeze and can clock 250-mile days.

Systems and fitout are kept simple to ensure sailing performance and independence. Solar panels above the davits and bimini recharge the lithium batteries, which provide enough power for near unlimited autonomy at anchor. The watermaker produces 40lt per hour, without needing to run the twin 30hp Volvos, while the bimini features a rainwater harvesting system.

The TRM43 can be spartan to suit solo sailors or include more comfort for cruising with full crews. As it is very much a semi-custom approach, Trimarine has priced it for construction at €900,000 with a base configuration and systems package of €460,000, with options and final spec finalised to suit each owner.

Trimarine Composites TRM43 specifications

Hull length: 13.08m 42ft 11in
LWL: 13.04m 42ft 9in
Beam: 7.92m 26ft 0in
Draught: 1.0m-2.5m 3ft 3in-8ft 2in
Displacement (light): 5,600kg 12,346lb
Contact: trimarine.com

Simbad 55

The International Multihull Show this spring will feature the world premiere of the first new model from this fresh new brand.

Spanish yard Simbad Yachts is aiming to appeal to a new generation of sailing enthusiasts, those looking for true ease of buying, managing and sailing a luxurious catamaran. It has a deliberately transparent approach to its pricing to help show the equipment-rich and ready-to-sail level of its yachts.

Simbad, which uses the Spanish spelling of the fictional Sinbad the Sailor (‘Simbad el Marino’), is a privately funded shipyard in Alicante. It is building its first three of these 55s on spec. All production is in-house, from a former refit yard with the facilities to crane its new builds straight into the water.

Plenty of reassurance comes from the experienced French designers behind this first model. Naval architecture is by Pierre Delion (Garcia, Mojito, Nahoa), with exterior styling and interior design by Franck Darnet, the accomplished multihull stylist behind yachts such as Privilege, JFA and the current Outremer and ORC ranges. When I spoke with Darnet at the Düsseldorf show in January, he explained that Simbad’s vision is to produce luxurious and voluminous cats with broad appeal.

In this respect, the Simbad 55 is a flybridge model designed to attract powerboat owners, too. It is fitted with twin 110hp or 150hp engines to ensure it can cruise at double figures. Joystick steering also integrates engines and thrusters, while docking manoeuvres are aided by 360° cameras.

Darnet believes Simbad has the energy and finance behind it to offer something special. The company wants to produce catamarans that are easy to sail and offer real comfort. And it aims to deliver each boat properly ready to sail. It also offers a full service and management scheme, storage and delivery service, shared ownership plans, as well as a new form of leasing programme, where the yacht can be purchased in instalments (and sold back).

Three different versions of the 55 are offered: Legend, Ultra and Solent, all with very inclusive specs as standard. The Legend features full comfort accessories, including Sea.AI anti-collision radar and night vision cameras, electric sail controls and in-boom furling, a carbon rig and Doyle sails, and a jet tender. All three versions offer a choice of galley layouts, and two to five cabins.

Refreshingly, the pricing and spec comparison between the three different lines of 55 offered is all clearly shown on Simbad’s website.

Simbad 55 specifications

LOA: 17.59m 57ft 9in
Beam: 8.52m 27ft 11in
Draught: 1.64m 5ft 5in
Displacement: 30,000kg 66,138lb
Upwind sail area: 173m² 1,862ft2
Price from: €1.3m base; €1.89m Solent; €2.38m Ultra and €2.99m Legend
Contact: simbad-yachts.com

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post 4 must-see multihulls: Top launches set to premiere at La Grande-Motte 2026 appeared first on Yachting World.

On first glance, you might assume Raven is pure AI-generated fabrication. A fantastical superyacht with 7m canting foil arms? But the fact the majority of these photos show it scorching across the Atlantic to set a new monohull record for the RORC Transatlantic Race should help prove that this Baltic 111 is really very real. They also support my case for this being one of the most remarkable vessels ever built.

It’s a craft with the potential to sail so fast that it has to be limited, literally kept on a leash, restricted by the materials and technology of its day. “If you don’t stop the boat, it will break in two,” warn its designers. The concept revolves around achieving and respecting extreme speed.

Crucially, Raven is a superyacht, not a stripped-out supermaxi. And even if it wasn’t armed with those Transformer-like appendages sticking out of its sides, it would present a new level of performance superyacht cool, where statement Maxi meets Monaco glam.

That said, the sharp styling, from guest cockpit to interior furniture and finish, was executed despite spacecraft-levels of lightweight construction. Achieving this foiling performance required the design and project team to create a yacht around half the weight of most conventional carbon superyachts.

Let’s consider that 6-day 22-hour crossing. It’s half the time it took larger competitors, including Swan’s new flagship 128 and the Truly Classic 128, and it clips Comanche’s record, a yacht considered to be the fastest offshore racing monohull.

Raven sailed at sustained speeds above 25 knots and at less than 10° heel – more comparable to a multihull.

Where America’s Cup yachts fly (but stop abruptly as they hit the water), Raven is a semi-foiling design. The stern stays immersed and the leeward foil lifts the hull enough to skim at a low heel angle. Photo: Roddy Grimes-Graeme / Aquafilms

Such stately heel angles are thanks to those foils. While canting foil arms like these were first conceived back in 2017 to make the America’s Cup AC75s fly, Raven’s are used more like giant stabilisers. The leeward foil produces phenomenal righting moment, supporting up to 60% of Raven’s displacement, and allowing the yacht to keep going faster without leaning over.

Post-launch, it took Raven’s crew of elite maxi sailors and technicians two and a half years to gear up this complex weapon, testing and optimising it over 17,000 Atlantic miles, before they were ready to take on this RORC Transatlantic Race record challenge.

Speaking with the design and project team at length was fascinating, not least to discover how, when you break new ground, you have to set safety parameters for the yacht’s structures and those sailing aboard.

“We know the boat’s fast, it’s just a matter of keeping it in one piece,” commented sailing master Brad Jackson on completing the record crossing.

A 9.3-ton bulbed keel is hung on a fixed 5m long fin. Hard chines help form stability but without her foils Raven also needs the assistance of water ballast to maintain stability while sailing. Photo: Fraser Edwards

Free thinkers

The pursuit of such extreme parameters takes vision. The craft is the product of many eminent design and engineering minds, especially the overall concept from virtuoso Finn Jarkko Jämsén. The founder of an award-winning Finnish design company is credited with the much-imitated lines of the Axopar powerboat range.

After working with Raven’s owner for many years, he explained how his brief crystallised into a superyacht that was to be faster than any racing yacht – no small task!
Jämsén studied canting keels and other technologies, but knowing they had a speed ceiling he put a tender out to five naval architects. Spanish firm Botin & Partners answered that call in 2020, at a time when they were working on the NYYC American Magic design for AC36. With a prototype foiling in Newport, Botin knew the lifting foil concept worked.

Appendages and phenomenal loads: Raven is the first superyacht to use (7m) foils in this way. The side arms are canted using huge hydraulic pistons. The foil cant angle is adjusted for point of sail and the flap angle trimmed for optimum heel angle. Photo: James Tomlinson

Super cruiser

“We presented that straight away, and they said yes,” explains partner Adolfo Carrau. “But the idea was never to make the boat a foiling boat… the appeal of the project was that it had to be a super cruiser, the equivalent of a Ferrari or a McLaren.”
Carrau explained that because the design doesn’t foil, it was a high-risk undertaking. “The dynamic righting moment once the boat starts to pick up speed keeps increasing, and there’s no limit, really, the limit is structural. If you don’t stop the boat, it will break in two,” he cautioned.

Meeting the owner really helped the design team, as he understood these risks involved. “We had to pick a maximum righting moment we were all comfortable working with,” Carrau continues. “So, once we defined that, we had to work backwards. What was the top speed that we’re going to allow the boat to sail to? And that was around 33-34 knots.”

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The challenge became how to create an offshore speedster with record-breaking potential, yet one that is also a superyacht that could be sailed for fun and incorporates a proper interior. Even if a fully foiling boat were structurally possible, the keel would have to be sacrificed to reduce enough weight without stripping the interior.

Raven required the inherent stability to be a performance superyacht even if the foils were disabled or removed. “If something goes wrong and we don’t have a secondary stability system in there that would be too heavy a penalty to carry,” thinks Jämsén. “So that’s why we went for skimming because it’s still fast, but if something happens, it’s still just a normal boat.” A combination of significant form stability, a low bulbed keel and 10-tonnes water ballast ensures this inherent stability.

Safety was a paramount concern, but a big question was how to make it light enough yet still safe. “We basically break a rule by having a smaller bulb, but then we have infinite righting moment from the body [hull],” Jämsén divulges. “So when we start speeding up, we just build up the righting moment, constantly bigger and bigger.

“Raven is a boat that if you let it go, you break the boat. Because it just wants to go faster, so it’s more a question of controlling that.”

‘Speed keeps increasing and there’s no limit. If you don’t stop the boat, it will break in two’. Photo: James Tomlinson

Such pace prospects would bode well for its brief, which Jämsén says was “to be the fastest, and to have a proper chance to break records”. From here, they could build a ‘platform’, a versatile yacht that can be optimised over time and given an afterlife. In this way, Raven has a deck-stepped mast that can be replaced, perhaps by a wing mast in time; the rudder stocks are designed to be able to accept T-foils; and the foils are attached in the hinge points to allow different types of foil arms.

Above all, this platform needed to be built on a new scale of lightweight.

An entire 1:1 mockup was produced prior to build. Photo: Eva-Stina Kjellman

The build challenge

The ambitious aim was to take a massive 50% out of the weight of a comparably-sized performance superyacht. Target displacement was set at 55 tonnes (as a comparison, the 110ft Baltic carbon performance cruiser Zemi built at a similar time weighs 95 tonnes). Despite pitching it to four yards, Jämsén remarks, “Baltic was the only yard that was willing to make the boat – massive hats off to them for that kind of boldness and trust.”

Baltic’s project co-ordinator, Mattias Svenlin, confirms it was “another level entirely in terms of weight saving.” He describes the many challenges and how these forced the Finnish yard to review all its standard ways of building. The team even constructed an entire 1:1 mock-up, then the full mould in carbon fibre.

“One of the biggest weight savings compared to the theoretical weight was probably the surface treatment of the hull and deck,” Svenlin tells me. The bold decision to invest in a 111ft carbon fibre hull mould ensured the simultaneous expansion of the mould and the optimised carbon fibre skin during curing. Baltic worked with and challenged the paint manufacturer to review sequences, thicknesses, and required paint quantities, which halved the weight per m2. “Achieving superyacht quality on all painted surfaces while reducing the weight by around 400kg is pure boatbuilding joy,” exclaims Svenlin.

The ‘bird’s nest’ guest cockpit (above) is formed of carbon mullions hand painted to resemble timber – it provides natural light to the interior. Photo: Eva-Stina Kjellman

Raven’s construction took nearly two and a half years, during which the weight of every fitting was scrutinised, down to 3D-printing the titanium head of the retractable propulsion system.

Customising every part to save weight like this also necessitates thorough testing to ensure it is safe and will work. Raven uses a diesel-electric hybrid system comprising a 130kW electric motor, retractable propeller with carbon blades, and twin 80kW Yanmar generators to charge twin battery banks.

“We made a custom propulsion line because then we don’t need to have a gearbox, so have a hybrid system that is lighter than conventional,” Jämsén explains.

The battery bank is in a bespoke steel enclosure for which the team conducted their own fireproof tests. Creative styling helps celebrate this new level of weight obsession. Jämsén wanted to expose the structures as much as possible – even the coloured wiring looms and ballast tank transfer pipes are deliberately visible.

Accommodation comprises a master cabin aft, with a fold-down double berth, aft and foreward saloons (latter pictured), and two more guest cabins and crew quarters forward. Raven’s entire build required new forensic levels of weight scrutiny. Photo: Avian

Since Raven’s autumn 2023 launch, the team has invested more time in finding extra weight savings. Such a complex machine takes time to understand. Team manager Klabbe Nylöf says that during their first year afloat, which they largely spent getting it ready for the owner to sail safely, they discovered more of her performance potential.

“Stage two of the boat’s life has been focusing a lot on performance,” Nylöf explains. This included removing the owner’s berth as he realised he wouldn’t sleep on that in race mode. The design anticipated some of these alterations. “We’ve stripped out 5-10% of the weight – when you start racing, you destroy those kinds of things [beds, sofas etc]. All the static things like galley, toilet are exactly the same.”

Raven in flight

Raven spent most of its first two years based in the Canary Islands, using the Atlantic for testing grounds. This was a critical period, one in which Nylöf emphasises the project could have stalled in other hands – it needed the right specialist team (and owner to keep investing), to ensure the design and build potential was fully realised. He also points out that they had no structural issues.

Under sail, Raven looks otherworldly, where beauty meets the beast, an aquatic predator sporting ungainly wings. In terms of motion at sea, Nylöf says there’s no disguising the fact that it’s still a big, voluminous yacht.

He says its not like Comanche, which has low freeboard, instead, Raven’s additional volume adds to the impression that you are “completely sending it offshore… but a 111ft yacht that doesn’t heel that much, means you get fooled sometimes that you’re not doing that high speed.”

Jämsén’s styling celebrates the structures. Deckheads use lightweight rattan finishes and the furniture is built from hollow carbon piping. Photo: Avian

The crew found that the foil also dampens the motion through waves. It’s still noisy and uncomfortable, and pipe cots are necessary at sea, Nylöf continues. “But once the boat starts accelerating and the foils are working well, with zero resistance, you get that breathtaking acceleration – actually very similar to a multihull, it feels like it just doesn’t want to stop, it just continues to speed up. That’s a fantastic feeling.”

This acceleration quality was a factor celebrated on reaching Antigua. Skipper Damien Durchon likens it to the swiftest ocean-going yacht, the MOD70, and praises its stability: “The interesting thing is that the better it performs, the safer it becomes. At speed, the sensations are incredible. At 25 knots it already feels fast, but once you’re above 30 knots you’re moving quicker than the waves themselves.”

To generate the power aloft for this pace, Raven employs a more typical supermaxi sail package. A Southern Spars carbon mast carries Helix structured luff sails from North, while the 8m bowsprit encourages a triple-headed sailplan. Trimming these sails is more comparable to a racing multihull, as the apparent wind angle is nearly always well forward, while depowering the main is via a traveller which spans most of the 7.4m beam.

The real science is in controlling those foils and trimming their flaps to provide optimum lift when offshore. Designed to lean onto her pronounced leeward chine, Raven’s stern stays immersed, while the canting side arms are operated via hydraulic rams to control the T-shaped foils and produce the dynamic lift.

Even the shower seat is carbon, painted to look like bamboo. Photo: Avian

“We found with the current foils, we were able to lift 50% of the boat’s displacement, or 25 tonnes,” Botin’s Carrau explains, “already a huge number unseen on any boat that we know of. Because you’re lifting the hull, you’re reducing wetted surface, and that’s where the speed comes from. Plus, it’s coming from leeward, so you’re getting positive righting moment. So it’s a virtuous cycle happening there.”

Comfort at speed

The canted angle of the immersed foil is trimmed to the sail angle, while the foil’s flap angle is adjusted to suit the desired heel angle. “So, you just put more flap, and the boat gets more upright and more bow up, and so it’s actually way more comfortable,” Carrau continues. “They’re not power reaching at 28° of heel, they’re really heeling at 8° to 10° and bow-up so they can really push as hard as they want.”

Learning how best to use and trim the foils and developing the programme to control them became the team’s highest priority. Their flight control system takes heel, pitch and wind input, but it is a continuous job to get it working properly, Nylöf explains. “It has taken us 18-20,000 miles to get a programme where the boat can handle itself.”

Two engineers are on rotation full-time to ensure these systems are working and feeding the correct information.

The foil trimmer is a dedicated role, much like the mainsheet trimmer. “The more load on the mainsheet, the more flaps you need to stop it heeling over, then the boat accelerates, and you need less flap,” adds Nylöf.

Racing aboard. Spray rails were added aft to protect the crew, while steering and sail controls are done from an IMOCA-style, semi-covered working area aft. Photo: James Tomlinson

“It’s the first boat in the world that we are aware of that has the dynamic righting moment live in the display,” Carrau adds. “So they keep trimming and closing the apparent until they’re close to the maximum righting moment. And that’s where we feel this acceleration, because that’s when the boat starts lifting and off you go.”

The challenge is then knowing when to back off – “sometimes in the ocean in the middle of the night, surfing a wave, you just cannot stop the boat. So that’s part of the learning curve, and that’s why the boat has big safety margins.” Carrau points out the conflict here, as sailors inherently want to go faster. But once Raven is really up and humming, you have to unload the sailplan and let her sit at that 30-knot area, where it will maintain such speed comfortably without activating the alarms.

“It’s a different type of sailing – there’s no boat like that in the world.”

During their extensive testing phase, the Raven team also worked closely with the Wolfson Unit in Southampton to help it meet RORC’s stability criteria. “They had to create regulations for semi-foiling boats that didn’t exist,” Carrau explains. Getting accepted onto an offshore race and then succeeding is not only a proof of concept, but it changes the mentality around this technology, he believes.

The novel bird’s nest centre-cockpit (filled with sail bags on the Transat) allows Raven to accommodate guests safely. Jämsén devised it with a clamshell-style fold-over bimini roof to further protect from spray. Photo: Dan-Erik Olsen/Prime Productions

More records to break?

With Raven’s structural and stability requirements quantified, is the vessel now poised for more record-breaking? “It wasn’t about building a Comanche-beating boat,” maintains veteran navigator Will Oxley, speaking on the Yacht Racing Life podcast. “This is the first foil-assisted boat like this that has done the Atlantic, and this was our third crossing. The more miles we did, the more interest the owner had in going fast.”

Oxley predicts Raven can clock 600-mile days – “meanwhile, it’s more comfortable than anything else I’ve sailed”. As well as the significantly reduced angle of heel, this comfort factor comes from not flying and its associated crashes. “When the foils stall, she sails like a normal boat,” Nylöf confirms.

Broad reaching is the zone where Raven is perhaps unbeatable – ocean drag racing then. Stable tradewinds during the RORC Transatlantic helped it really spread its wings, although it required plenty of gybing. The compromise with these foils and huge furling headsails, is that the boat isn’t optimised for VMG racing, particularly upwind or full downwind sailing.

‘There’s a lot of performance yet to be untapped’. Photo: James Tomlinson

The design team is now trying to find more speed in lighter winds. “There’s a lot of performance yet to be untapped if the owner wants to keep going. Mind you, they cannot go any faster,” Carrau cautions. But they can keep optimising the boat so they arrive at those 30+ knot speeds earlier.

Following a rest period to allow non-destructive testing ashore in the US, the team may attempt the west-to-east Atlantic record. While this is for manually-powered yachts – which Carrau concedes Raven will never conform to – “at least unofficially, it’s an interesting one, because when they’re going 130° or 135° true, the boat is probably unmatched right now. It’s very, very fast.”

Nylöf broadens this ‘sweet spot’, adding that in 20-28 knots of wind from 90-135°, “she’s astonishingly fast.” If the owner chooses to keep spending money, the upgrades could keep adding pace at wider angles. Consider the amount of foil development alone in the five years since hers were designed. Jämsén says they anticipated such revisions at design stage, creating a titanium ankle so they can adjust the overall foil angle. Raven is a tunable instrument, a platform, he reminds us.

“And when it retires from breaking records or having fun in the open ocean, Raven also has a second life – then it can be that fast, super nice boat,” Jämsén quips. “Raven is a one-off super-product.”

Baltic 111 Raven specifications

LOA: 34.00m / 111ft 6in
DWL: 33.10m / 108ft 7in
Beam: 7.40m / 24ft 2in
Draft: 4.80m / 15ft 8in
Displacement: (lightship) 55 tonnes
Ballast: 9,300kg / 20,500lb
Design: Jarkko Jämsén; Botin Partners

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When the idea of a big sailing yacht with no combustion on board was pitched to designer Marnix Hoekstra at Vripack, he was instantly enthusiastic. A mould-breaking electric boat of 69m was just the sort of challenge he relished. It was the summer of 2019, and experienced clients had put their faith in yacht management company Fraser to recruit the right build team for a luxurious superyacht with zero emissions.

“Everybody else was like, ‘yeah, no – that’s not going to happen’,” remembers Hoekstra with some glee. “So, I brought my smartest guys, and we got into those ‘how might we?’-type questions.”

Hoekstra agreed to take the commission on two conditions: “First, I would only participate if there was no fossil fuel on board. If we had a range extender or generator as back-up mode, we’d quickly fall into the trap of using it.” Then there could be no compromise on good looks. “Nowhere in the project could the technology we innovate reduce the aesthetic beauty of the boat itself.”

Dykstra Naval Architects was the next to embrace the project, followed by Vitters Shipyard, completing a Dutch trifecta. And though we don’t know the identity of the clients, progress on the yacht has been more than public. Working closely with the owners’ non-profit, a renewable energy accelerator called Foundation Zero, every piece of research and every technical solution has been published under an open-source agreement aimed at driving change across the marine industry. Now, after more than six years of work, project 3094, aka Zero, is finally nearing launch.

Regenerative power: custom sheet winches and captive winches generate electricity in rewind mode or as they pay out

Leap of faith

“There were just so many unknowns when we quoted for the project – more than the items we knew!” exclaims sales and marketing manager Bas Peute at Vitters. “We knew it had to operate with zero emissions. We also had the notion of the outside shell, that it should be a superyacht with a high level of comfort and detail. But at that time, we still had no idea how we could get a zero-emission yacht up and running!”

That outside shell bears all the hallmarks of modern classic Dutch design, with sweeping flush decks, low-slung twin deckhouses and lavish overhangs. But with energy use forming the core of the project, it was below the waterline that the first big decisions had to be made. And that’s where Dykstra brought to bear its vast experience, which spans yachts as different as Maltese Falcon and the J-Class.

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“The design of the hull was very important in conserving energy while under power and also being able to sail in as light a breeze as possible,” explains Dykstra partner Mark Leslie-Miller. “We really made a very long hull for the amount of interior space.” A volume of 491 gross tonnes may sound like a lot, but for comparison, Perini Navi’s 70m Sybaris offers nearly twice as much.

Dykstra tapped into some flashy software and the expertise of Emirates Team New Zealand as they sought to find the sweet spot between low drag and high form stability. “For different points on the polars, we could see how much speed it cost or gained if we changed the parameters of the vessel,” explains Leslie-Miller. “It made it very efficient to research.”

Although she packs a jaw-dropping 28 tonnes of custom lithium batteries storing 5.2 megawatt-hours of energy, Zero’s range under electric motor is still a relatively modest 400 nautical miles. “So, she needs to go sailing,” concludes Peute.

Hydrogeneration when sailing: two props, mounted on rotating pods fore and aft of the keel, swing forward for hydrogeneration and can produce up to 250kW of electricity when sailing full speed.

Maximising energy

Sailing is also the way that Zero will generate most of her renewable power. The hyper-modern hard-tops carry 100m2 of solar panels that can churn out 23kW while also capturing up to 55kW thermal energy. But this is dwarfed by the yield from so-called hydrogeneration under sail – when the movement of water past the hull turns the twin propellers and allows them to generate electricity.

The two Hundested props are mounted on rotating pods fore and aft of the keel, so they can act as side-thrusters, or swing forward for hydrogeneration. This system is expected to produce a staggering 230-250kW of electricity when the boat is making her optimum 16 knots of boat speed. But even from speeds of 8 knots the boat can cover her own energy needs – both for sailing systems and hotel loads.

“She should reach peak speed in 15-20 knots of true wind,” says Eduard van Benthem, a highly experienced marine engineer and project manager of Zero. “But hydrogeneration could cost up to two knots of boat speed, so it makes sense to find the right sailing conditions.”

Solar fields: the carbon fibre biminis are fitted with 100m2 of panels that can produce 23kW

To this end, Zero is equipped with a dedicated navigation room, backed with a comprehensive suite of custom software, whose purpose ranges from monitoring the complex flow of energy to analysing weather data to identify the best route for recharging the batteries. In an unexpected way, technology has brought us back full circle to the days of trading under sail, when masters attempted to spot weather systems that would bring the ship to her destination as fast as possible.

I ask whether this means that the owners must be prepared to accept limits on where they go, and when.

“First and foremost, this is a sailing boat,” answers van Benthem in what I interpret as slightly cryptic affirmation. Peute is clearer: “You can’t go from Amsterdam to Antigua under power, and if there’s no wind or the wrong wind, you have to change plans. But the data gives you more options.”

Natural ventilation: smooth, hollow Carbo-Link masts use a natural chimney effect to extract hot, stale air from below

Big data

That said, Zero won’t be spreading her wings too wide in the first year after launch. There are so many complex systems to test, calibrate and master that it’ll take that long simply to complete the sea trial phase. The boat is packed with more than 1,000 individual sensors capable of generating over a billion data points every day.

“That data’s got to be streamed onshore for post processing,” says Leslie-Miller. “It’s all super interesting stuff that you can look at in a lot of detail. But it’s not for interaction with the crew on a day-to-day scale. The trick is also to know where you can do more with less.”

Among the data gathering is some experimental sail monitoring tech, which might be more familiar from the world of self-driving cars. Lidar scatters invisible light towards the sails and picks up reflections that allow a computer to build a 3D image of the sail shape in real time. This could then be used to make recommendations to the crew. “One of the things we see on large cruising boats at some point mid-ocean, is that getting the sails trimmed optimally becomes less of a priority,” explains Leslie-Miller. “We want to help the crew with that.”

It’s not just Lidar, either. They’re also looking at photoimagery, digital telltales and exit angle sensing devices. “It’s very much a development thing, but I have high hopes for this,” he continnues. “Zero would benefit so much from having optimal trim to sail everywhere and produce maximum power.”

Heat harvesting: waste heat from devices such as thrusters is stored in a molten salt battery. Heat fired chiller tech uses this energy to cool water, feeding water circuits around panels and bulkheads to cool the living spaces

Development has focused just as hard on the debit side of the energy equation. Hotel facilities are believed to account for half the energy consumed on board, but solid data was difficult to come by. So, the team installed data loggers on a large yacht and pored over the results. Aircon and water heating proved to be the chief energy culprits, but the next step took a flash of insight from a physicist called Bob.

“Bob came with the understanding,” says Hoekstra. “He said, ‘I’m looking at a lot of thermal here’. Only when he separated that out did we have the ‘Aha!’ moment. Then we could collaborate again on how to harvest, store and supply heat.”

The first part of the solution is to extract waste heat from the many onboard devices and from a novel glycol circuit cooling the solar panels. Then a mind-boggling molten salt battery stores it for use during the night. As well as using the harvested heat for hot water systems, established heat-fired chiller technology uses the heat energy to cool another water circuit to around 12°C. Wall and ceiling panels throughout the boat circulate this cold water to cool the living spaces.

“It’s a bit like underfloor heating in homes, except it’s in the walls and ceilings,” says Peute. “It keeps things at a very nice temperature without any of the noise or draught associated with aircon blowers.”

At the same time, natural ventilation replaces inefficient fans, thanks to a smart redesign of the carbon mast. Working with spar manufacturer Carbo-Link, the designers realised that they could exploit a natural chimney effect – if the masts could be built hollow and perfectly smooth on the inside. As the mast heats up during the day, the hotter air inside starts to rise, pulling in stale cabin air from below. “By using the mast as a fan, we save 3-4kW in forced ventilation,” says Van Benthem.

Taken altogether, Zero’s cooling is some eight times more efficient than traditional aircon, saving an astonishing 300kWh of energy every day. “It’s all about a series of small, incremental gains,” he adds.

A new scale of battery bank tech: 28 tonnes of custom lithium batteries store 5.2 megawatt-hours of energy

On the flip side of the cooling coin is insulation, and the team has also been busy here. Zero has double glazing with a heat-reflective finish, a 2-3cm layer of cork between the Tesumo decking and the aluminium substrate, and a novel melamine foam, called Sorbermel, lines the interior.

It is far more efficient than traditional glass wool, giving a 70% weight saving for the same performance. “Normal insulation is held to the aluminium hull with metal pins, but all these pins are potential heat bridges,” says Van Benthem. “So, we took literally thousands of them off and glued on the melamine instead.” Cable and pipe trees that pierce bulkheads or frames have also been insulated.

Designers took the quest for energy efficiency to the nth degree. For example, they have designed a camera system to monitor the temperature of the pans on the induction hob. The idea is to warn the chef if they are overheating – a feature they reckon will save 50% or more cooking energy.

Smooth, hollow section carbon mast in build

They also re-engineered the extractor fan to harness the Venturi effect, halving the amount of ‘good’ air drawn out of the galley and slashing energy use by 60-80%. Or take the simple positioning of the freezer inside the walk-in fridge. “Any cold air that escapes from the freezer saves energy in the fridge,” says Peute.

Every little helps

On deck, the vast custom sheet winches engraved with a cursive ‘Zero’ have a rewind mode which actually generates electricity – just like the brakes on a hybrid car. “It’s not a vast amount, but every little helps,” says Peute. It’s the same for the 13 captive winches hidden below the deck, which generate power as they pay out. And the use of energy-hungry hydraulics has been kept to an absolute minimum, with most deck gear running off the boat’s DC power system. A large Reckmann headsail furler has even been converted to use electricity.

Comfort and elegance were a key part of the brief. Dykstra penned a boat with long overhangs and twin deckhouses, making sure to keep sailing controls well clear of the guest areas. Even the dorade boxes got a makeover

Water management has been another big focus, because even modern watermakers are very energy intensive. Besides all the usual water cleaning systems, there is a whole network dedicated to so-called ‘technical water’ collected from the sails when it rains and even from condensation around cooling systems. “It’s used for hosing down and cleaning the decks, and for flushing heads,” explains Peute.

Novel, it certainly is. Innovative and thought-provoking. But extraordinarily for a fully custom yacht that has not yet left the build hall, Zero is already slated for its first refit. There are some wry smiles about this, but the reason is obvious. “There’s always room for improvement because the technology moves on,” says Van Benthem. “You have to freeze the spec at the optimum available at that time, but batteries, for instance, are constantly improving.”

In building an open-source yacht that is designed to move the yachting industry towards more sustainable solutions, the owners have ended up with a sort of mobile science experiment. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing,” is how Vripack’s Hoekstra puts it. But perhaps the owner’s rep is closer to the truth: “This is not a sailing yacht, it’s a sailing platform!” says Van Benthem.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post Science under sail: How Project Zero is helping build the future of emission-free yachting appeared first on Yachting World.

Locating a crew member who has fallen overboard in anything other than the most benign of conditions is a huge and frankly scary challenge for those on board. If you are not sure whether you should have a PLB or an AIS beacon, this guide will help you work out which device is right for your type of boating. The answer might just be both.

Your odds, as a person overboard, of being recovered are less than 50:50 according to the latest MAIB report stats. Add a lifejacket and your odds of being found are still marginally 50:50, but you at least might survive long enough to be rescued—provided your lifejacket has a sprayhood, light, and reflectors. If you have been thrown a danbuoy or Jonbuoy MOB marker, you have a slightly higher chance of being seen. But when you are alone in mountainous seas, there are a couple of pieces of tech that will up your odds of being found to over 90%.

Important for 2026: As of 15 April, it is now a legal requirement to register all 406 MHz PLBs carried on UK-flagged vessels and powered watercraft.

Jump to PLB
Jump to satellite trackers

At a glance:

The best personal AIS beacons available right now

sMRT alert AIS beacon

Specifications: Alerting Radius: Up to 5NM (depending on antenna height) | Battery Life: Minimum 12 hours at -20°C (5-year shelf life) | Waterproofing: IP67 | Dimensions: 137mm (H) x 62mm (W) x 26mm (D) | Weight: 212g | Features: M-class compliant, DSC automatic calling, NFC enabled

Reasons to buy: A flat, slim, robust unit that is simple to use | Internal DSC receiver confirms when a distress signal is acknowledged | Powerful signal with smartphone app management
Reasons to avoid: Not a satellite beacon | Works only with localised rescue operations

The first M-class compliant AIS beacon to come to market in 2024, this is the beacon I wear daily. It is a chunky item, and whilst I have this mounted inside my lifejacket, I have also used it attached to my lifejacket belt or in a pocket. It doesn’t need the lifejacket to inflate to activate; simply immerse it for 2 seconds in water or press the big button. It really is an “idiot-proof” device.

Ocean Signal MOB 2

Specifications: Positioning: GNSS via GPS and Galileo | Battery Life: 5 years (12+ hours operational) | Waterproofing: Waterproof to 10 metres | Weight: 92g | Features: M-class compliant, AIS/DSC, Integrated NFC, IR/White strobe lights

Reasons to buy: A small device that fits into almost every lifejacket on the market | Designed for automatic activation when a lifejacket bladder inflates
Reasons to avoid: Can be a fiddly device to set up initially | May require a service agent

The most popular AIS man overboard device (the MOB 1) has received a refresh and is now M-class compliant. As part of a new initiative to avoid clutter on emergency VHF DSC channels, these beacons follow the new M-class protocol. It looks very much like the old model, but features a tapered lower body making it even slimmer, and NFC connectivity for easy battery status checks.

McMurdo S20 Lifejacket AIS Beacon

Specifications: VHF Range: 4nm typical (with receiver antenna >5m above sea level) | Battery Life: 36 hours operational (5-year shelf life) | Waterproofing: IP68 | Dimensions: 129mm x 52mm x 40mm | Weight: 160g

Reasons to buy: Flat, slim unit fits easily in most lifejackets | Simple manual activation designed to work within a lifejacket casing
Reasons to avoid: Requires professional fitting for automatic activation | Not a satellite device; limited use if sailing solo far from other vessels

I have had this unit fitted to most of my lifejackets in the past. It is simple to operate: a swift pull of the lanyard slides the housing off and the beacon begins transmitting. The casing can take quite a sharp pull to remove, so it is worth practising to familiarise yourself with the force required. Under the red removable case is a second slide-out piece with a magnet; this must be all the way out for the unit to function.

Ocean Signal RescueMe MOB1 AIS

Specifications: Operating Frequency: 161.975/162.025 MHz | Battery Life: 7-year shelf life; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 10-metre depth | Dimensions: 134mm x 38mm x 27mm | Weight: 92g | Features: Integrated DSC transmitter, high-intensity strobe light

Reasons to buy: Exceptionally slim design fits almost every lifejacket on the market | The smallest and lightest AIS unit currently available
Reasons to avoid: Not a satellite beacon; limited effectiveness for solo sailors in remote waters | Can be fiddly to set up for automatic activation

Introduced in 2015, this compact personal AIS beacon remains incredibly popular due to its diminutive size. It is designed to fit neatly next to the oral inflation tube of a lifejacket. While it can be set to activate automatically upon inflation, the setup is somewhat fiddly and must be redone every time the lifejacket is serviced. The integrated strobe light is a brilliant addition for final precision locating of a casualty at night.

ACR AISLink MOB Personal Beacon

Specifications: Operating Frequency: AIS Channel 1 (161.975 MHz), AIS Channel 2 (162.025 MHz), DSC (156.525 MHz) | Battery Life: 7-year shelf life; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 10 metres | Dimensions: 115mm x 46mm x 27mm | Weight: 92g | Features: Manual or automatic activation, high-intensity LED strobe light

Reasons to buy: ACR is a tried and trusted name in the marine safety gear market | Simple activation; can be configured for automatic deployment | Comes with a variety of fixing methods for different lifejackets
Reasons to avoid: Not a satellite beacon | Will not notify rescue services via satellite if sailing solo far from other vessels

ACR is to emergency maritime equipment what Hoover was to vacuum cleaners; in the USA, people often simply refer to these units as “ACRs”. This model is an AIS-only unit. When activating the device, the central grey panel is pulled away, revealing a sprung antenna that unfurls rapidly to stand at 90 degrees. Beware of your eyes when inspecting how this part works! It is a reliable, no-nonsense piece of kit from a market leader.

Weatherdock Easy 2-MOB

Specifications: Operating Frequency: AIS 161.975/162.025 MHz; DSC 156.525 MHz | Battery Life: 12+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: IP68 (fully buoyant) | Dimensions: 195mm x 50mm x 30mm | Weight: 120g | Features: Bluetooth connectivity, DSC “closed loop” distress call for up to 8 ships, red LED torch

Reasons to buy: Built-in buoyancy; the unit floats if dropped | Uses Bluetooth to program a “closed loop” of vessels for immediate notification | Fully automatic activation on contact with water
Reasons to avoid: Risk of accidental trigger if sailing in extreme conditions due to the water-contact sensor | Uses a salt capsule for auto-activation which requires periodic replacement

The Easy 2-MOB immediately begins sending emergency signals to a group of up to eight vessels (including the mother ship) in a closed loop upon water contact. These MMSI numbers are easily programmed via Bluetooth using a free smartphone app. To fit the unit, you simply slide it upside down between the folds of the lifejacket bladder. I particularly like the “armed/disarmed” slider, which gives you peace of mind when packing the gear away.

SIMY My-MOB

Specifications: Positioning: 72-channel GPS and AIS SART transmitter | Battery Life: 7-year built-in battery; 24+ hours continuous operation | Waterproofing: Fully waterproof | Dimensions: 115mm x 40mm x 22mm | Weight: 95g | Features: Coiled spring antenna, manual or automatic activation options

Reasons to buy: Very small and compact; fits easily into a lifejacket | Manual operation is incredibly simple | Developed by specialists in miniaturised space electronics
Reasons to avoid: The manufacturer is less well-known in the general marine safety market | Like all AIS units, it is not a satellite positioning beacon

Digital Yacht teamed up with SIMY (a division of the space company Syrlinks) to create this beacon. When activated, the red cover slides downwards to reveal a coiled antenna that looks a bit like a slinky spring. Once it acquires a GPS signal, it transmits your location to any vessel with an AIS receiver. While the manufacturer states a range of up to 10nm, in reality, you should expect closer to 4nm when floating at water level. Its unique cover design only requires a 1cm movement to auto-activate, making it very reliable when triggered by a lifejacket inflation strap

Best Personal Locator Beacons (Satellite radio beacons)

The best combined AIS and PLB

Ocean Signal PLB3

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite beacon & AIS radio beacon | Battery Life: 24 hours at -20°C | Weight: 190g | Dimensions: 20cm x 3.6cm x 3cm | Features: Return Link Service (RLS), NFC connectivity

Reasons to buy: Combined AIS and satellite location in one unit | Only one battery to maintain and replace | Can be semi-automatically activated by lifejacket inflation
Reasons to avoid: At the top end of the price range | Quite long and may be a struggle to fit in smaller lifejackets

This is the first beacon to combine both PLB and AIS units in one. It is essentially the MOB 1 and the PLB 1 stacked together, creating a stick-style beacon. After hands-on testing, we can confirm it fits the majority of offshore lifejackets, but be aware it stiffens one side of the jacket considerably. The auto-arming procedure is quite fiddly, so I recommend having it fitted by a professional service centre.

ACR ResQLink View

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite with Return Link Service (RLS) | Battery Life: 28 hours operational | Weight: 148g | Dimensions: 11.48cm x 5.16cm x 3.78cm | Features: Digital LCD screen, built-in strobe light

Reasons to buy: Smooth, easy-to-operate unit with a helpful LCD screen for user feedback | RLS confirms that your distress signal has been received
Reasons to avoid: Fiddly to stow in a pouch due to the wraparound aerial design

This PLB unusually incorporates a small LCD screen, which fundamentally improves the user experience by providing status updates. The Return Link Service pings back a confirmation that your signal has been reached. It uses a hinged base for the aerial which reveals the activation button once rotated. The clear housing makes it very easy to inspect for water ingress.

ACR ResQLink 400

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite, 121.5MHz homing signal | Battery Life: 5-year shelf life; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 5 metres for 1 hour; 10 metres for 10 minutes | Dimensions: 114.8mm (L) x 51.6mm (W) x 37.8mm (D) | Weight: 144g | Features: Built-in buoyancy (it floats!), GPS & Galileo GNSS, strobe and infrared strobe

Reasons to buy: Inherently buoyant without needing an extra pouch | Simple, robust design with global MEOSAR compatibility | Includes a multi-function clip system for various attachment options.
Reasons to avoid: The wraparound aerial can make it a bit of a faff to extract from tight neoprene pockets |Does not feature a digital display (see the ResQLink View for that)

ACR is to emergency maritime equipment what Hoover was to vacuum cleaners. The ResQLink 400 is a reliable, “no-frills” version of their premium beacons. I like the simple manual activation: you slide the aerial tab out and rotate the hinge, which automatically reveals the protected activation button. Because the casing is clear, you can easily inspect the “gubbins” inside for any accidental water ingress or damage during your periodic safety checks. It’s a solid, trustworthy choice that literally keeps its head above water.

McMurdo Fastfind ReturnLink Personal Locator Beacon with RLS

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite with RLS | Battery Life: >24 hours at -20°C | Weight: 164g | Dimensions: 36mm x 50mm x 112mm | Features: Rubberised outer casing, multiple attachment kits

Reasons to buy: Reassuringly ruggedised and easy to grip with cold hands | Fits easily into a pocket or lifejacket
Reasons to avoid: No built-in floatation; must be tethered | No AIS functionality for local vessel notification

The FastFind feels like a quality bit of kit. Activating it is simple: pull up a small lever and pull hard to break the tab, allowing the top cap to be removed. The aerial then unwinds to stand at 90 degrees. It is one of the best PLBs on the market, but remember it does not have AIS, so you may want to pair it with an AIS beacon if you want nearby boats to find you quickly.

Ocean Signal RescueMe personal locator beacon

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite, 121.5MHz homing signal | Battery Life: 7-year shelf life; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 15-metre depth | Dimensions: 77mm (H) x 51mm (W) x 32.5mm (D) | Weight: 116g | Features: 66-channel GPS, retractable antenna, high-intensity strobe (>1 candela)

Reasons to buy: Exceptionally small—roughly 30% smaller by volume than most competitors | Long 7-year battery life reduces maintenance frequency | Designed for easy single-handed operation
Reasons to avoid: Does not float on its own; requires the provided flotation pouch to stay buoyant | The tiny size might be difficult to operate for those with very large hands or when wearing thick gloves

This is the ultimate “fit and forget” beacon. It’s so small that it fits comfortably onto a lifejacket belt or even in a trouser pocket without being cumbersome. Unlike many other units, the antenna is manually pulled out and rewound using a little finger winder on top. This means you won’t accidentally “have your eye out” when deploying it, though you must remember to pull it out before hitting the trigger in an emergency. It’s a proven lifesaver that has been featured in numerous real-world rescue stories.

McMurdo FastFind 220 PLB

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite, 121.5MHz homing signal | Battery Life: 6-year shelf life; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 10-metre depth | Dimensions: 106mm (L) x 47mm (W) x 34mm (D) | Weight: 152g | Features: Galileo & GPS GNSS, SOS Morse code LED flash, safe-stow antenna

Reasons to buy: Robust, ruggedised design that feels substantial in the hand | Very simple three-stage activation process | Excellent value for money for a global rescue beacon
Reasons to avoid: No inherent buoyancy (though it comes with a flotation pouch) | Lacks the Return Link Service (RLS) found on the newer FastFind models

The FastFind 220 is a classic in the sailing world. It is a rugged, waterproof, and GPS-enabled beacon that builds on the success of the older 210 model. It doesn’t float on its own, so you must ensure it’s either in its pouch or securely tethered to your gear. The secondary 121.5MHz homing transmitter is a vital feature, as it allows Search and Rescue teams to home in on your exact location once they arrive in the general area. It’s a dependable, “workhorse” piece of safety kit.

Kannad SafeLink SOLO

Specifications: Signals: 406MHz satellite, 121.5MHz homing signal | Battery Life: 5-year replaceable battery; 24+ hours operational life | Waterproofing: 10-metre depth | Dimensions: 112mm (H) x 36mm (W) x 50mm (D) | Weight: 150g | Features: 50-channel integral GPS, SOS LED flashing light, multi-attachment kit included

Reasons to buy: Great value for money for a globally recognised beacon | Comes with a comprehensive kit: lanyard, buoyancy pouch, and universal carry pouch | Simple three-stage activation (snap off the cap and press the button).
Reasons to avoid: Not buoyant without the flotation pouch | The 5-year battery life is shorter than the 6 or 7 years offered by some rivals

The SafeLink SOLO is a reliable, budget-friendly entry into the PLB market. It operates on the global COSPAS-SARSAT system, just like the more expensive units. Activation is straightforward: you snap off the top cap to reveal the button. It also features a manually activated SOS LED light, which is a massive help for visual identification in the dark. While it doesn’t have the “premium” feel of some high-end units, it does exactly what it says on the tin: it gets you found.

The Best Satellite trackers / personal beacons

Garmin InReach Mini 2

Specifications: Weight: 100g | Waterproofing: IPX7 | Dimensions: 5.17cm x 9.9cm x 2.61cm | Features: 2-way messaging, SOS button, TracBack routing

Reasons to buy: Tiny device that fits into any compact gear set-up | Excellent battery life (up to 90 days in certain modes)
Reasons to avoid: Some may find the tiny interface fiddly to use | Requires a monthly subscription

The Garmin InReach Mini 2 is a wearable device you’ll virtually forget is there. You can send and receive texts via Bluetooth on your smartphone or use pre-set messages directly from the unit if your phone dies. It’s a brilliant tool for keeping family informed of your progress during a passage without needing a full satellite phone.

Zoleo Sattelite Communicator

Specifications: Dimensions: 91mm x 66mm x 27mm | Weight: 150g | Waterproofing: IP68 (Dust and water-resistant to 1.5m for 30 mins) | Battery Life: 200+ hours (checking messages every 12 mins) | Features: Dedicated UK SMS number and email, 24/7 SOS monitoring via Global Rescue, seamless network switching (Satellite/Cellular/Wi-Fi)

Reasons to buy: Assigned a permanent dedicated number, making it easy for contacts to initiate a message to you | Rugged, shock-resistant design (MIL-STD 810G) with a handy built-in clip | Least-cost routing automatically uses Wi-Fi or mobile data when available to save satellite credits
Reasons to avoid: Relies heavily on a smartphone and the ZOLEO app for sending/reading custom messages | No built-in screen; status is indicated via four LED lights

The ZOLEO is a smart little messenger that bridges the gap between your mobile phone and the Iridium satellite network. I particularly like the “Check-in” button on the device itself; you can let your shore contact know you’re safe with a single press, which sends your GPS coordinates without needing to faff with your phone.

ACR Bivy Stick

Specifications: Dimensions: 113.5mm x 47mm x 21.1mm | Weight: 100g | Waterproofing: IPX7 | Battery Life: Up to 120 hours (standard operation) | Features: 24/7 SOS monitoring by Global Rescue, GroupTrack (track up to 12 users), 1/4-20 thread for mounting

Reasons to buy: Extremely lightweight and pocket-friendly | “Rollover” credits mean unused satellite messages carry over to the next month | Compatible with thousands of GoPro and camera mounts thanks to the threaded base
Reasons to avoid: Not as ruggedly protected as the ZOLEO; no rubberised outer casing | No on-device screen or interface beyond status LEDs

The Bivy Stick effectively transforms your smartphone into a global satellite communication hub. It’s one of the lightest trackers on the market, and the app interface is one of the cleanest I’ve used, providing pace, altitude, and detailed offline maps. A standout feature is the “GroupTrack”, which allows you to see other Bivy users in your party on a shared map—brilliant for coordinated flotillas or multi-boat expeditions.

How to choose the right personal locator beacon for you and your boating activity

You have two choices: an AIS type beacon which when activated shows up as a circle with a cross on any AIS radar screen of nearby vessels (upto 5 mile range) and allows any vessel that can see this signal to home in on it locally. Some handheld AIS radio devices can also help target a MOB signal too. – Icom M94DE VHF Marine Radio
You could use a personal AIS beacon from a liferaft to assist in local SAR efforts where small craft are trying to locate you as part of a coordinated effort. This is how Kirsten Neufshafer found Tapio in his liferaft when his boat sank rapidly in the Golden Globe race 2022. Accidentally triggering an AIS beacon can be cancelled by simply switching off the unit and an all stations call by VHF to nearby vessels who may have seen the MOB signal appear.

There’s also the PLB which communicates with overhead satellites in the same was as a ships EPIRB (electronic position indicating radio beacon) and works on a  frequency picked up by satellites alerting search and rescue teams ashore. ( via a network of control centres). This type of device does NOT give a localised AIS signal that a small vessel could pick up.  The battery life is a little less than a ships EPIRB but essentially it does the same thing, just in a very small device. You might use a PLB of this type to signal a mayday situation, such as from a grab bag or life raft and you might not necessarily be a person overboard to use this, but it should only be used in case of grave and imminent danger to life. Accidental triggering of one of these requires a call to the coastguard to cancel the distress signal officially.

The post Best personal locator beacons and AIS units 2026: 16 top options for boating appeared first on Yachting World.

The European Yacht of the Year awards is the most thorough and impartial awards programme – the winners here are widely considered the best yachts of the year. As such the boats nominated by the jury in the best performance yacht category can be considered the best of the best and 2026’s shortlist saw a very impressive lineup indeed.

Some very different yet utterly brilliant designs recently launched in the performance sector – those with a need for speed (and the means) are living in fortunate times! This collection of go-faster yachts proved particularly difficult to agree categories for and whether to make them race-focussed or not.

The Pogo RC was unable to make our sea trials, and as that is an imperative part of the awards, it is excluded. The JPK and XR 41
are similar in that they’re true modern cruiser-racers, which have already proved what they were conceived to do in the best possible way.

Best performance multihull – 2026 Dragonfly 36

This is the jewel in the crown of this family yard’s three generations and six decades of building. Despite the complexities of physics involved in such a fast, folding trimaran, this was the boat that ventured out in a gale to prove its build quality. A feat of design and engineering that is without compare in the production yacht world, the Dragonfly offers a new level of stable speed sailing, all contained in 4.5 tonnes of pure, unadulterated fun.

What an impressive lineup. Some very different yet utterly brilliant designs recently launched in the performance sector – those with a need for speed (and the means) are living in fortunate times! This collection of go-faster yachts proved particularly difficult to agree categories for and whether to make them race-focussed or not.

The Pogo RC was unable to make our sea trials, and as that is an imperative part of the awards, it is excluded. The JPK and XR 41 are similar in that they’re true modern cruiser-racers, which have already proved what they were conceived to do in the best possible way.

Best performance monohull 2026 – Beneteau First 30

The First offers fast, easy, planing fun, pure and simple – and that’s not as easy to achieve as it sounds. But Beneteau and Seascape have managed it, providing genuine planing performance on a yacht that’s easy to cruise and all within their targeted €100,000 price. Sadly, very few new boats are built today with this sort of budget cap in mind. The First offers so much while still respecting that price, and hopefully other yards will follow suit.

XR 41

The XR 41 was designed to win the ORC worlds, for example, and achieved that comprehensively in its first season. However, the way the yacht we trialled has been used and sailed is the part I found even more impressive. The owners, a couple, cruised it double-handed to the UK, removed the mattress and cushions, entered the Rolex Fastnet Race double-handed, then continued cruising. That’s the real proof of concept and the crux of a true and increasingly rare modern cruiser-racer (where the bare interiors of the Pogo or JPK would prevent any such appeal).

The XR 41s can be tailored to suit individual programmes, including adding the number of systems you may want hydraulic power for – from main and jib Cunninghams, vang, backstay and outhaul, to jib inhaul and mast jack. The ability to strip weight is also well considered – Formula X removed 350kg of furniture for the ORC worlds, for example. So racers can spend money on deck systems, cruisers on interior kit.

The foam-cored interior has an intelligent layout, including forward galley which helps when dropping sails through the companionway and allows more working space when using a retrieval system.

The X is a powerful beast at sea. I like the control and feedback the single rudder gives (it’s mounted quite far forward), while all these control systems make it a very tweakable yacht for a race crew. Equally, the beamy cockpit allows them space to work, but does make it a handful for shorter-handed cruising. The test boat had a simplified set-up, minimising hydraulics, with no halyard locks and two reefable headsails. The versatility of this design cements its appeal.

JPK 1050

The JPK 1050 gave most jury members one of the best sails of their lives. It is simply exceptional on the water. And in the right hands, notably those of Mr JPK (Jean-Pierre Kelbert), it’s unbeatable. Kelbert and Alexis Loison winning the Rolex Fastnet Race overall on a new 1050 is the biggest prize there is offshore. In fact, with the recent Sydney-Hobart victory (and a double-handed JPK one-two at that), Jacques Valer’s current JPK IRC range has now won all three of the major Rolex offshore races overall, a feat which cannot be overstated.

The 1050 is a new-age IRC racer with a difference, utilising a scow and Class 40-inspired hull, combined with square-top mainsail firepower and super light displacement. The handicap friendly design relies on the short static waterline lengthening quickly at heel – but keeping it light is key, admits Kelbert.

So Valer and Kelbert worked hard on weight optimisation, resulting in 200kg less displacement than the 1030, with speeds and polars averaging around 1.5 knots faster. The result is you can start planing as the breeze hits double figures.

The 1050 feels like a perfectly tuned instrument, one that can be plugged into an amp and electrified instantly. It feels so dragless, slippery and efficient. The transom-hung JP3 rudders not only give instant control but they pivot, so you can lift the windward one clear to reduce drag. And the ergonomics are spot on. From the ideal tiller placement and feel, to having all the control lines perfectly routed and purchased to tweak and trim to the nth degree – and all from the helm/a short-handed position.

The interior is all function, no comfort, too minimalist to imagine any form of cruising aboard other than nautical camping. The only niggles are that the reclined twin chart table seats are too high, preventing a comfortable position below the side decks (they are being lowered). Also, you probably need a skilled sailor to get the best out of the boat.

With the Dragonfly 36 and First 30 launching in the same year, the performance sector is on fire, with both deserved winners for very different reasons – and yet they share the commendable trait of putting the joy back into sailing.

Best performance yacht 2025

Winner – J/40

One of the most rewarding yachts I’ve sailed in light winds, the J won the jury’s plaudits for its looks and handling. Offering something more timeless than the current voluminous trend, J’s American design and French build collaboration spanning 30 years has resulted in refined evolution.

On the helm the J/40 provides fingertip control, with lovely, direct, engaging steering even when the wind is as low as 3-knot zephyrs. Such light winds can often expose a design – where other nominees/current yachts need a Code sail in such conditions, the J was a delight upwind and could still tack through 80°.

Equally, when the breeze picked up there was substantial grip from the 1.9m rudder. It uses a full infusion build, including bulkheads, structural grid, hull, deck and even bathing platform. It shares similar design traits to the J/45, with the volume available used intelligently.

The exception to this is that the three-cabin version only has a compact heads to share forward – however the two cabin, two heads format gives you a proper size heads with separate shower compartment. The huge saloon includes a chart table and good wet hanging locker.

ClubSwan 43

Ask me for the coolest design of the year and I’d likely say the ClubSwan 43. Those muscular, flared lines are something else. Swan’s contemporary new multi-mode beast is a one-design and handicap racer or a fast cruiser.

To allow for this, as much as the interior as possible was designed to be removable, the keel has a pocket in the top of the bulb to adjust the ballast without changing the whole keel, and the masthead crane can be swapped out easily to use a more practical pinhead mainsail.

But the project has had its issues.

It went from 41ft to 43ft to fit a different ORC Class, moved from a UK build to Finland, and since our trial of the first to launch last June, has undergone improvements and weight changes. Now 7,800kg light, Swan was still evaluating how much furniture to remove for one-design racing (around 200kg is possible, but keeping the nice Micheletti interior is key for the cruising element and aftersales value). The wide aft beam shape helps provide large volumes below decks in a three-cabin format. 

We sailed with a pinhead mainsail, 6m² smaller than the square-top, in a light breeze on a beautiful early Mallorcan morning. Upwind it felt totally balanced making 6-8 knots, while offwind with the A2 up we matched the 5-9.5 knot wind numbers. It then starts planing when reaching in around 12 knots true wind. In particular, I found the deck design, ergonomics and winch layout superb. 

This wonderfully expensive supercar of the sea offers a sparkling ride, especially for those on the wheel. In the end the jury felt the more subtle evolutions of the J/40 tipped the balance in its favour – not to mention the CS43 is more than double the price!

Best performance yacht 2023 winner – Beneteau First 36

Where once we could assume a cruiser-racer was a fairly standard format design, over the last decade it’s been much more the sexy, perormance yachts the Italian yards specialise in. But as French yards like Pogo and JPK have proven, there’s growing enthusiasm for lightweight planing yachts – and the First 36 is the first real production yacht in that spirit.

Here’s a yacht that puts the focus firmly back into sailing. The First 36 has been kept inviting and approachable – unlike many yachts that can plane, the look is modest, not aggressive. It’s uncomplicated, unfussy and the result is a pleasure for all to sail. It’s more about what you can’t see, the design and engineering, which should ensure longterm demand.

The small, fiddly heads compartment and lack of tiller options are perhaps the only real detraction from an otherwise brilliant collaboration by Seascape and Beneteau, from concept to build quality.

It was their goal to keep this area of the market relevant and prove a mainstream brand can do it, rather than only niche specialist yards. To create a mass produced yacht at this weight and to this foam-cored quality and one that can bring so much fun is a feather in the cap of the First brand.

Grand Soleil 40

The Grand Soleil 40 is an archetypal Med cruiser-racer, and an absolute delight to sail – a feature I’ve learned that Matteo Polli designs tend to share (he also drew the Ecoracer). We sailed the race set up with ORC keel (an IRC version is available too) and six winches, an extended bowsprit and a taller mast. It was one of my most memorable trials of the season in 10-12 knots, with the deep and forward positioned rudder giving plenty of control and lovely direct steering.

The three cabin interior can have one or two heads and different galley options, the cabins are a good size with modest stowage, and it’s all tastefully styled by masters Nauta.

Italia yachts 12.98

At 5ft longer and from the board of Cossutti (who Polli once worked under), the Italia Yachts 12.98 is another cruiser-racer in the same grain as the GS40, but with a markedly different looking white interior. We sailed the ‘Bellissima’ cruising version, which 80% of customers have opted for.

Italia’s yard is now in Fano and its one-shot infused vinylester build looks impressive. However, the deck lacks some refinement and practical stowage, while the three cabin interior isn’t voluminous by today’s standards.

This is a slippery yacht that has a lovely, light feel on the single rudder – the interior styling will be the deal breaker for most.

Solaris 50

Solaris Yachts on the other hand has perfected its recipe, tripling its yard size to cater to demand for its sexy Acebal-designed performance yachts.

The Solaris 50 we tested in 2015 and which won this award was arguably the turning point that propelled the brand’s popularity. The owner of the new 50 we tested previously had the original 50 and a 58 and confirms this replacement has nearly the same space as the 58, yet is faster, more powerful and stable than its predecessor (we easily matched 7-8 knot winds under gennaker).

It heels onto its chine and accelerates well, while twin rudders provide ample control. The design prioritises helming experience but the yard needs to come up with a better helm seat option. The interior is well executed, especially the spacious forward owner’s cabin.

Elan E6

The Elan E6 is a big 47-footer, high and beamy and one that leans more towards spirited cruising with generous accommodation over racing. That said, extensive options allow you to tailor it either way, including foam cored furniture and a taller carbon mast for those looking for extra oomph.

It’s a fine collaboration between Humphreys Yacht Design, Gurit, Pininfarina and Elan, while an impressive standard spec includes a carbon sprit and six winches.

The E6 is fun to sail at various angles and gives a nice, sporty feel on the helm – it likes to heel but has plenty of grip and tracks well.

The cockpit is deep and comfortable, with good optional protection and there’s ample deck stowage. A really smart three (or four) cabin interior shows a high standard of construction, finish and styling. It is bulky and you pay for the size in weight, but it looks good and Elan knows how to build a great boat for the price.

Best performance yachts 2022

Winner best performance yachts 2022 – JPK 39FC

Along with fellow Brittany yard Pogo, JPK has redefined the modern performance cruiser: stiff, stable and efficient to the max. For the keen sailor who wants to get the utmost enjoyment out of hands-on cruising, the JPK 39 is a superb design (and to my eye, an appealing one too), while the yard has done a nice job with the vacuum-infused construction and interior fit-out. The two-cabin version we sailed had plenty of stowage too.

It looks different, behaves beautifully and stands up to its canvas, is designed to sail efficiently with a loaded displacement, and has a deck set-up to encourage you to trim it to your heart’s content. My only slight negative is the unnerving mess the cockpit can become as there are so many control lines.

This lightweight blast will best suit experienced sailors and those comfortable with short-handed sailing. And it guarantees smiles.

Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/European Yacht of the Year

IC36

One such sports catamaran is the IC36, an exciting first offering from a new Czech brand that’s packed with fresh thinking. The first turbo version of this cruising catamaran (Independence) is built using a carbon fibre crossbeam, bowsprit, boards and rudders, epoxy hulls, plus a custom Pauger rotating mast, which all serve to keep weight below three tonnes.

It provided some spirited sailing, particularly when fetching at a measured pace of 10-13.5 knots with the code 0. The direct feel of tiller steering while seated in the low rotating bucket seats was a highlight.

The finish quality in the hulls is first class and there is somehow space for up to eight berths. The coachroof features a retractable bimini and removable vinyl side panels and solar panels, while the cockpit table, which includes an exterior galley, is also removable.

In fact the IC36 can be dismantled to 2.55m beam to make it legally trailable. It has so many options and ideas – too many perhaps – all reflected in the price.

J/45

Monohull enthusiasts will share our congratulations to J-Boats for its elegant new flagship. The J/45 won the hearts of the jury and made for a long drawn out decision against the JPK. In the end the two yachts will appeal to different sailors and tastes.

J has stayed true to its roots, yet still managed to bring a current, classy new offering. The unmistakable Alan Johnstone lines have been paired with a contemporary, warm European interior designed by Isabelle Racopeau, while much focus has been paid to the joinerwork and the invisible quality. We saw the two cabin version, which has an excellent technical cabin in place of the second aft cabin.

The J/45 is designed to still perform when loaded with cruising gear. True to J’s reputation, it was a witch upwind and could outpoint anything else during our trials. The compromise is that it won’t plane easily like a JPK or Pogo.

Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/European Yacht of the Year

Solaris 40

The Solaris 40 is another looker from Soto Acebal and the blue steel metallic hull colour of the test boat made the powerful hull shape really stand out.

We liked the recessed traveller, direct steering to the twin rudders, neat folding helm seats, clutches integrated into the coamings and the easy access to the side decks. However, the jury found the cockpit with its short benches and deck design a little too flat and minimalist.

The interior is smart and contemporary, again offered with two or three cabins with two heads it makes good use of the space.

Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/European Yacht of the Year

Pogo 44

One of the yachts I was looking forward to sailing most was the Pogo 44, and the only one shortlisted that I didn’t manage to! A collision with the photographer’s RIB shortly before my scheduled trial put it out of action.

However, my colleague Rupert Holmes did a full Pogo 44 test and report on it for Yachting World and describes the 44 as designed to thrill and unlike any other pure cruising yacht of its size. The stability from the beamy hull and deep lifting keel combines brilliantly with the ability to sail fast easily and in comfort. However some jury members didn’t like having to rely on an autopilot to use winches.

The interior is like a loft apartment, with so much natural light – it’s minimalist yet comfortable, spacious and practical for cruising.

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What do you do when you have yachts that are as diverse as innovative daysailers, a lake sportsboat, a recyclable one-design and an elite high-end carbon weapon? Well at the European Yacht of the Year Awards, we define them as specialist yachts. And this year’s eclectic bunch of nominess for the best special yacht really were full of interesting new ideas.

Where other categories in the awards such as the best family cruisers, best bluewater yachts, or best luxury yachts are made up of boats that are similar in terms of their usage the best specialist yachts category has a plethora of options, all of which have found a new, interesting or otherwise noteworthy design direction.

This year’s eclectic bunch of nominess for the best special yacht really were full of interesting new ideas.

Best specialist yachts 2026

WOY 26

This stunning design could only be born from a sailor’s passion – in this case, Jan Brügge and his desire to show wood still has its place in modern boatbuilding. The Woy 26 proves you can blend timber with the latest materials and techniques to create not only a sustainable product, but the most striking new yacht afloat.

I actually caught my breath just looking at the Woy in the marina, as the early morning sun reflected off the metallic coloured, rocket-like hull. It’s a new level of definitive sailboat cool – kudos to Martin Menzner of Berckemeyer Yacht Design. It’s contemporary yet timeless, with a flat run, planing hull with reverse stem, open transom and lifting T-keel.

Looks aside, the construction is a story in itself. Built by Jan Brügge Bootsbau on Germany’s Baltic coast, the lightweight hull uses vacuum-glued, locally selected softwood veneers. Brügge has taken a cold-moulded-type technique and added new infusion methods to demonstrate that tropical hardwoods aren’t necessary. Pine, larch and silver fir are used along with some composite parts, such as the rudder and engine box for the electric propulsion.

Exquisite detail and craftsmanship of course comes with a handsome price tag. But the Woy is not just a lake sailer or racer. During test week it won the jury’s hearts on the water. Even the big stormy day didn’t deter them from sustained (wet) joy rides. As luck would have it, I was given a breathless morning trial – so we’ll feature more on this boat soon.

My verdict

A sublime, sporty yet manageable daysailer or racer, the Woy 26 shows that wood rules – it’s both the past and the future!

Tortue 147

What else could you call a category comprising the most extraordinary yacht I’ve ever boarded and a sublime wooden art form in the shape of a daysailing/racing weapon? Special indeed.

That truly extraordinary yacht is the Tortue 147, an aluminium cat we asked to come to the trials, thinking it could be in line for an innovation prize – and because the jury were so curious to see such a different design in person.

Unfortunately, very few of us could ascertain what it is like to sail, as it spent the majority of the trials tied to the dock, awaiting a spare part for an engine. However, we did feature this Tunisian-built alloy cat in our December 2025 issue, after François Tregouet sailed her in light winds last summer.

Personally, just spending time on the Tortue was an unforgettable experience. Having toured hundreds of new boats, if not thousands, during the last three decades, this stands out for its quirkiness, yes, but also how crammed it is with original thinking.

Without repeating François’ detailed article, my highlights include the layout and blend of arty architecture, which is framed with sustainable timber and makes the cabins feel like you’re in a fairy tale treehouse; the awesome hanging chair of the navstation; and the aft cockpit saloon which appears to float above the water.

For those in a hurry, the turtle boat may not go anywhere particularly quickly or efficiently. But the fact that it hosted drinks for 20+ people yet didn’t feel remotely crowded shows just what a social platform this presents at rest.

It is more prototype than production though, like a mad professor’s sketchbook of ideas. But for those who may choose to scoff at the design, consider this: for anyone who boards La Tortue, it instantly puts a big grin on your face, which stays with you. And that’s worth celebrating!

Best specialist yacht 2025 – Bay cruiser 21

There is an increasingly small choice of new entry-level yachts, but Swallow Yachts has produced a multifaceted beauty here. Attractive and seaworthy, with space to host friends or for a couple to weekend aboard, the Bay Cruiser 21 also offers engaging performance, shoal draught and easy towing ability.

The generous cockpit has deep coamings and a protective coachroof without impairing vision from the helm. A lightweight carbon mast and boom, Dyneema standing rigging and halyards and water ballast all come as standard to help with weight, power, stability and speed of rigging. At just 600kg the Bay Cruiser 21 is light enough to tow easily behind a normal car and can be rigged in minutes. In fact, we timed designer Matt Newland doing it alone – 31 minutes from arriving under sail to driving home!

We sailed it empty in light winds, relying on just the 25kg of lead ballast in the swing keel. An electric or hand pump is used to add the water ballast when in more breeze, flooding the single tank in the bilges to provide 400kg extra stability.

It then offered dry, double-digit surfs the following day in strong winds (extra purchase for the mainsheet would help though).

We liked the focus on balance and stability. The 6hp outboard is mounted forward in the cocckpit to help centralise weight, which also means the prop thrust is directed over the rudder blade. The swing keel and kick-up rudder setup also means you can dry out easily too.

The interior is compact compared to the cockpit, yet provides a comfortable seated area, enough room to sleep two and a dedicated space for a chemical heads.

In an age where new entry-level yachts are almost obsolete (and all cost six figures), this is a proper little cruiser which offers so much for the price: light weight, easy sailing performance, in a classic shape with a generous, protected cockpit and a weekendable interior. And you can tow it anywhere and rig it in minutes. For those who worry about the future of sailing, check out this Welsh yard. A unanimous hit among the jury and a standout yacht of the year.

Tofinou 7.9

Tofinou, a long term specialist in daysailing, has continued its spirit and neoclassic style of the 9.7 with this 7.9. Now the smallest in its range, it’s very much a pure design with modern lines designed for the pleasure of a few hours warm weather sailing.

The standard boat comes engineless. You can choose a 20hp diesel, or ours had a Temo 3kW electric drive with 1.7kW batteries (€13,000 extra). My favourite feature is the iroko tiller with the throttle neatly integrated into its end.

The forward benches are convertible to allow four to sit around a table, while below decks is simply a V-berth. An infused hull with PVC foam keeps weight to 1,200kg and it uses 1.7m fixed or 1.9m retractable keels with twin rudders.

The backstay-less square top main provides grunt and the 7.9 heels easily, but the helm felt relatively heavy during our trials, a bit neutral and lacking the sporty feel its looks suggest.

Sunbeam 29.1

Meanwhile Austrian yard Sunbeam has brought out another bold design in the 29.1. It calls it a ‘daysailer+’ thanks to its generous and practical interior. A swing keel (0.85-1.85m) allows for sailing on shallower lakes, while its 2.5m beam and 2.3 tonne weight enables trailering.

The heads compartment and pantry area are optional extras, built in modules to reduce the standard price. The electric 4kW drive is standard however.

Perhaps it is best suited to lakes though, as I found it tender and uncomfortable to sail in the testing conditions we had off Kiel. In sharp waves and a Force 4-5 it heeled steeply even with two reefs. The benches are too far apart for the helmsman to brace to windward and the open transom felt unnerving. In short, it’s a clever-looking design but for calmer waters (I noted as the Bay Cruiser was having a blast nearby!)

Best specialist yacht 2024 – Saffier SE 24 Lite

Surely the hardest task is to exemplify the very best of what you do within the smallest model you can? Yet that is what today’s king of daysailers Saffier has achieved with its Se 24 Lite. And it’s enough to secure a fifth EYOTY award for this Dutch yard.

Modern hull shape, with flat underwater sections (particularly aft) combines with high form stability for a fast ride. A reverse bow brings more volume (and waterline length), while chines provide the rigidity for less weight. The result is easy speeds and addictive sailing, whether harnessing the lightest puffs or in full double digit planing mode in the stronger stuff. The distinctly low freeboard may mean there’s little in terms of ‘what’s below’, but it’s worth it for the dinghy-like sailing experience.

A simple boat to manage, whether rigging, sailing, or maintaining, the Se 24 is also very smart – including being an electrically driven boat which uses a single 24V system, charged via solar integrated into the deck. The instruments are all wireless, while a single point lift makes launching easy.

Like the very best yachts, the Saffier Se 24 Lite looks good, is a joy to sail and puts a grin on your face.

Cape Cod 767

The Cape Cod 767 is just the kind of delightful niche French daysailer the EYOTY programme helps uncover. It’s a 25ft modern trailable dayboat packed with fresh thinking, yet from a traditional Bordeaux yard which builds classic style craft.

Innovative features include the kick up rudder, a retractable mechanism for the electric drive, a pop up cockpit table, and folding backrests – it’s like something from a Transformers movie. And there are neat details such as removable Seasmart deck fittings for attaching fenders etc, even a cup holder in the tiller. It can also beach easily thanks to a 350kg hydraulic lift keel, which raises up from 1.8m in 20 seconds.

Beneath the sun bed on the flush foredeck is a V-berth for two, which helps explain the full sections forward. But the reverse bow also helps provide enjoyable sailing, whether short-tacking or gennaker reaching. Reactive and sporty, it lacks some security under sail and on deck, but the Cape Cod is a fun dayboat which offers space and comfort at anchor.

Pointer 30

The Pointer 30 is a more authentic-style daysailer from a specialist Dutch yard which has built over 2,000 open dayboats in its 70 years. It wanted a high quality, attractive yacht with a large cockpit and good sailing capabilities. This is achieved in a shape which goes well to weather, while there’s also space below decks for a proper toilet, a V-berth and quarter berths for overnighting. This interior, with its wonderful revolving chairs, fridge and chart table, helps give it a small yacht feel.

The Pointer sails as it looks – modest and handsome – and is easily managed from the deep, sheltered, long cockpit. The standard boat comes with tiller, an L-shape keel and double rudder for shoal draught. Two large 48V lithium batteries can give four hours motoring at 4.5 knots with an optional Torqeedo, or a Yanmar diesel can be chosen.

Flaar 24

Two interesting new specialist small race boats, aimed at totally different markets and waters, include the Sun Fast and the Flaar 24. The Flaar 24 is a lightweight carbon composite one-design sportsboat (750kg), with a bulb-less lift keel for lake sailing and racing. There are four berths within a bright interior with seated headroom and a chemical toilet.

Easy to launch and trailable, it’s a high-powered, slippery design with plenty of sail area. A carbon mast rigged with diamond shrouds, a large genoa and long extendable bowsprit all help boost performance.

Quick to plane, it’ll be a blast on flat water. That said, we found it quite tender and easy to overpower at sea, with a slightly cramped cockpit. Reasonable value for its carbon build, it includes a smart electric actuator which raises the keel at the push of a button, while the transom-hung rudders can be raised and locked at the height of the lifted keel.

Sun Fast 30

Much has already been said about the Sun Fast 30 (YW December), an ambitious project which aims to make offshore sailing more fun, accessible and sustainable. Of those key targets it’s the latter I found most interesting.

The Beneteau Group did impressive research into the use of Arkema’s thermoplastic resin (which has similar properties to polyester) as a more sustainable material because it can be separated from the fibre after use and reused. The result is the first production yacht built from recyclable composite materials. The hull is monolithic, the deck infused sandwich using PET foam.

The group’s strong knowledge of Figaro one-design builds and weight management, together with that of builder Multiplast, is telling. On the water this is a super playful, reactive lightweight racer, which goes surprisingly well upwind (for its scow shape) and is, naturally, very well set up for short-handing. The mainsheet and traveller are to hand of the tiller, you can clutch off the runners, cleat off the sheets and cross-sheet most lines.

The offset companionway creates space for a pit winch (note singular winch though) and there’s plenty of grip in the cockpit and on the foredeck. The minimalist interior simply includes pipe cots, a head, small sink and large chart table. It’s also spacious with 1.9m headroom.

A strict one design rule helps cap spending, banning the likes of laminate/3Di sails. However, typically this will cost €200,000 ready to sail – and while not what we might consider affordable, it’s an enticing offshore-ready one-design package (that’s around €100,000 less than the SF3300 for example).

Shogun 43

Conversely, affordability is not what the Shogun 43 is about, but what a fascinating and cool project this is nonetheless! The young Oscar Södergren’s design is a fast cruiser created for short-handed sailing but that can race fully crewed. Built by Linjett, the long established family yard which won an EYOTY award last year for its own cruising yacht, it is ‘free of rules and budget constraints’ – which translates to high-end spicy fun.

It is deliberately sleek, narrow and lightweight for short-handing, and feels it below decks, despite the three-cabin layout. But the open plan design is inviting and clever, made possible by a very stiff hull structure, with deck join at the coachroof line. This results in a rigid shell, with less dependency on bulkheads, and no unnecessary weight.

The timber clad flax fibre interior has a Divinycell core, with carbon used for structural parts (the interior only weighs around 350kg of the yacht’s 6.5 tonnes). The hull, deck, rudders and even keel blade are also all carbon – the latter you could lift by hand, even though it’s 2.7m and carries a 3-tonne bulb!

The mast is stepped far aft, behind the keel, allowing for a large self tacking jib and staysails. The test boat had the full hydraulic package, including mast deflector. On the water it proved really sporty. I like the deck layout, in particular the Karver winches for grinding in sheets and backstays, while a 2-speed high powered Seldén prototype winch on the coachroof manages the halyards. Definitely one to view… look out for more on the Shogun soon.

Best specialist yachts 2023

Best specialist yacht 2023 – Ecoracer 25

Behold a reusable, recyclable competitive sportsboat. If a ‘garage project’ such as this can successfully prove the use of more sustainable materials, such as thermoplastic resins, linen fibre, basalt and recyclable carbon are a viable solution for boatbuilding, there’s no excuse why mainstream production yards shouldn’t already be employing them! 

While most fibre-reinforced boats are destined for landfill, here the composites can be separated from the resin after immersion in a solvent, to make reusable composite products. Even the 4T Forte OneSails are recyclable. 

It’s the product of a group of friends who trialled the techniques and materials by first building an Optimist. Matteo Polli drew these sportsboat lines for them and a year later they were exhibiting at the Genoa Boat Show. 

This is an on-trend one-off racer, which at 1.1 tonnes and 2.7m beam can be towed when tilted and takes one hour from crane to sailing. It’s so much fun to sail, even in the lightest puffs, and won the ORC sportsboat class on Lake Garda on its debut season. A shame it’s only a prototype, but the future looks bigger and brighter for this startup brand Northern Light Composites, with a 30ft version going into production.

Ace 30 plywood IRC racer

The Ace 30 may look a little uneasy on the eye to many, however others (including Fireball sailors perhaps) will be drawn to its purposeful lines, stiff construction and innovation. This is the first scow for IRC racing and short-handed events. It’s also a blast to sail, a 2.7 tonne lightweight flyer, which boasts rapid acceleration. 

Curves and contours are worked into the scow bow to help reduce slamming and provide rigidity to the bow sections. It has a very stable hull shape powered by a raked carbon rig, which, when in 15+ knots wind (cue full planing), is faster than its competitors, says designer and La Rochelle builder Antoine Mainfray. We found the trick is not to pinch upwind and sacrifice a bit of angle, where it maintains high average speeds. 

The Ace has a low IRC rating and is really well set up for trimming. A neat feature is the canting chart plotter screen, mounted on a long arm so it can be swung to comfortable angled seats either side. We also appreciate the eco-focussed construction, which involves a plywood epoxy shell, foam core from recycled PET and laminations in bio-sourced resin. It’s all wonderfully French but not cheap (see our January issue for more). 

Astus 22.5 trailerable trimaran

For those after easy sailing and easy speeds, a trailable trimaran can be a cost effective solution for daysailing and weekend cruising. VPLP has given the Astus 22.5 a modern look with go-faster wave-piercing floats. An infusion hull and lightweight manual centreboard makes for a light boat at 800kg including engine, while two people can rig and launch it in two hours. 

The Astus is sporty yet simple, offering easy planing. It has a double berth, camping stove and chemical toilet, but it’s a little cramped and basic with no real comfort for the price.

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The VO70 Mar Mostro / Puma was designed by Juan K and originally took part in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race, before being widely campaigned in other offshore races as SFS II, skippered by Lionel Péan.

“We bought it after the loss of the former Abu Dhabi in a fire,” recalls Schwartz. “This boat is one of the first ‘big’ boats I had the chance to sail on.

Photo: Dan Armstrong/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race/Getty

“First, I think it had one of the most impressive decorations ever, with that octopus and puma embracing the boat. But also she was so powerful that helming this boat, I was feeling that nothing wrong could happen, we were never broaching.

“We did some nice races with SFS – one of my best memories is sailing the VO70 in front of Sainte-Sophie [grand mosque] on the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Insane! It was also the project where I started to work with François Duguet, and I’m happy to be working with him again, as he is now the boat captain of Sodebo Ultim 3.”

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VO70 Mar Mostro / Puma Specifications:

Top speed: 35+ knots
LOA: 21.5m/70ft 60in
Launched: 2011
Berths: 6
Price (used): €150-300,000
Adrenalin factor: 85%

Benjamin Schwartz was co-skipper and navigator on the Jules Verne-winning Sodebo. Photo: Sailing Energy/The Ocean Race

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There are many categories in the European Yacht of the Year awards, from the best luxury yachts to performance yachts. But some of the most hotly-anticipated options come when it is time to choose the nominees and winner in the best family yacht category.

The European Yacht of the Year awards are selected by a broad panel of expert judges from across the globe. These are people who spend their professional lives sailing and comparing yachts, so you can be certain that the yachts which stand out in this field are truly the best of the best on the market for those looking to set out with the whole family in tow.

The race for space and value continues to override all else, and while there were features and ideas to champion, we were disappointed in how much some of these yachts cost for the quality they’re offering.

In some cases, particularly catamarans and larger monohulls, they are priced at nearly twice the ‘standard’ boat by the time you add up the options they include (options designed to give the impression of design and quality or sailing performance).

Best Family Yachts

Winner of the best family yacht 2026 – Excess 13

With sailing ability being near the top of the list of key criteria for the best family yachts, you’d presume we gave the award to the Excess for this factor alone. And in terms of connection to sailing and enjoyment, that’s correct, the Excess is in a different league (barring other nominee the Sun Odyssey). But there’s lots more to it than that!

This Lombard design is more responsive than past models, and the yard’s attention to weight, structure and stiffness ensures it not only sails well but has a good motion through waves. As our EYOTY chairman Jochen Rieker says, this stiffened structure “translates into a much more responsive feel on the helm, better acceleration in gusts and much less squeaking and rattling from the furniture down below”.

Excess has also ensured it is easy and encouraging to sail short-handed, which is another crucial aspect for family sailing.

My verdict

Engineered to a designed weight to ensure the agility to perform, it’s rewarding to sail even through big waves, all while offering more space than others in its category. It blends performance with voluminous accommodation, making it attractive for manageable family cruising.

Beneteau Oceanis 52

On the monohull side, Beneteau presented an appealing new 8th-generation Oceanis 52, a model which celebrates the line’s 40th anniversary. This powerful new Biscontini hull extends max beam aft, helping buy 30% more cockpit than the similar 51 before, and includes some stylish interior and cockpit ideas.

Some, however, such as the cramped winch positions aft, are a little flawed. We like the proper work desk adjoining the saloon and home-from-home galley, while the notable effort to improve perceived quality, using warmer trims, solid wood edges, and thicker cushions, helps make an inviting interior.

But ‘value’ becomes debatable when you consider the test boat costs €300,000 (63%) more than the standard model.

Dufour 48

Dufour continues to chase max volume with its Dufour 48 and leads the way with deck and cockpit real estate and multiple layout options. Arguably, however, this can come at the price of comfort, enjoyment and cockpit protection while sailing. It is offered with 16 layout options, including the ability to choose different galley positions, and modules which can be heads compartments, workshops or offices.

The drawback of this volume and all the added extras is the penalty in weight (13.5 tonnes light). The test boat had the heaviest configuration with hybrid drive, hard top and davits. This solid bimini makes sense if you take the hybrid, for the 1.1kW solar benefits it brings.

The result on the water is that, like its smaller siblings in this range, the Dufour 48 prefers a breeze over 12 knots or so to come to life under sail – and yet, the tall mast needed to help encourage this, means Dufour recommends a first reef in just 15 knots true. Sure enough, when a 20-knot gust came, we were overpowered reaching with Code 0. Once up to speed, it offers good averages while white sail fetching, but remains a design more focused on volume.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 415

Conversely, Jeanneau’s Sun Odyssey 415 is a blast to sail and stood out among all nominees in this regard – offering the most enjoyable sailing experience in this sector.

During my trial we scorched away from Spain, an unexpectedly thrilling sleigh ride under asymmetric kite, clocking speeds in the early double figures the whole time in complete control. The 415 offers a really engaging, sporty feel, especially for a 40ft production family cruiser, with good balance, which meant I could confidently throw it into surfs. Meanwhile, the ease, grip and control the twin rudders provide even made the long haul back upwind and into waves a pleasure.

Jeanneau had a popular platform to work with in the 410, of course, tweaking this Lombard shape, while reducing the price by 10%. Weight was removed from the layup and ‘carcass’, stowage improved, while 14cm more transom beam helped maintain the walkaround deck feature and much improved the interior layout and flow. Some areas look a bit cheap and the steering position is a little cramped.

However, if it weren’t for the fact that the jury felt it was only modifying an already very good and popular hull in the 410 rather than presenting something new, it may have merited an award.
What has been said about the monohulls here is emphasised further by the catamarans.

The majority of today’s cruising sailors are obviously continuing to seek ever more volume, whether for private use or to put into the charter market, which makes for a very competitive area for the likes of Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot and Leopard. In this space chase, however, these designs seem ungainly and high, pushing the boom up very high and creating awkward vessels in a seaway.

Leopard 46

That said, designer Simonis Voogd has done a good job of balancing all this volume in the Leopard 46, with its comparatively narrow bows and hulls which flare out to create lots of different social areas. And we like Leopard’s robust approach for ensuring its cats and their systems will survive the challenge of charter life (it proudly sells half its production run into the Sunsail/Moorings fleet). The target with this model was to get more performance than the 45 (380 built), hence a taller mast with 15% more sail area (albeit for more weight). Also improved is the interior layout, and the increased natural light through real glass windows.

Armed with options such as square-top main and aramid sails, a bowsprit and Code sail, the Leopard 46 can start sailing in 6-7 knots breeze. The steering felt unnecessarily stiff, but we could easily hit 8 knots with the Code or 6.5-7 knots with white sails fetching in 11-15 knots of apparent breeze.

Once again, the extensive options paint a very different picture in weight and cost to a standard boat, including the electric bathing platform (€45,000), and the €200,000 worth of 2x25kW hybrid Joool system, which pushes the cost of the test boat into seven figures.

Fountaine Pajot 41

The Fountaine Pajot 41 arguably has the most inviting cockpit and interior, with its island galley, stylish furnishings and huge cabins, but the jury found the experience at sea less appealing.

The helm station, with its large bench set back away from the winches, is designed to promote family circulation and crew connectivity. It’s a position that assumes you’ll engage autopilot to trim sails and, unfortunately, the decision to move to hydraulic steering cements this, offering little connection to the sport of steering, even in the ideal 17-22 knot flat water conditions we had.

The test boat also rounded up into the wind when the regen feature of the hybrid system was engaged under sail.

Lagoon 38

In this respect, the Lagoon 38 proved super easy to handle. I took it through some big wind and waves, including beating into them, the most challenging conditions for a voluminous cat. And while there was no masking the noises, creaking and slamming coming from the interior, it kept its way on well, making 5.5-6 knots to windward through 2.5m short period waves.

I also felt confident to solo sail the Lagoon thanks to a self-tacking jib and control lines all led to one winch by the helm – you just have to be methodical in how you use that winch. The result is that I felt completely content handling it under sail and power, including taking it back through the building surf when returning to the marina.

A smaller, simpler version of the 43 (and previous 40), the 38 suits those seeking more entry-level pricing. There’s no hard top bimini or lounge on the coachroof fly, but it does offer four same-size double berths.

Winner of the best family yacht 2025 – Hanse 360

The collaboration between the German shipyard and French design studio Berret-Racoupeau has filtered down the new range to this 360, which inherits the best of its larger sisters. Probably the largest 36-footer on the market, it’s more relatable to think of the Hanse as a short 40-footer.

Key to making it as versatile as possible in this competitive family cruiser sector is to allow owners to adapt it to suit. So plenty of options are offered, which include two or three cabins, one or two heads, diesel or electric propulsion and multiple sail, rig and keel choices.

And yet despite all that beam and volume the 360 still proved to be a pleasure under sail: easy and enjoyable, with no real concentration needed. It’s responsive and offers good communication from the
single rudder.

Granted, the upgraded Epex sails and furling Code sail made the most of the light breeze on my trial, but fellow jury members reported it continues to impress as conditions build, especially when freed-off the breeze a little, and responds well to trim.

The cockpit is generous with good coamings, while the sprayhood provided good protection during a torrential rain storm. The helming positions work and there are tailbags for sheets to keep things tidy. Below decks, there’s so much space in a clever two or three-cabin layout. The test boat had the latter, with a second heads compartment too. To facilitate this, the forward cabin has a compact double, which – although still 1.4m wide – is on a diagonal to help create space for this en-suite. It’s clever and shows how much volume there is throughout (indeed it feels so much larger than the SO350).

Elsewhere, the aft heads is a really good size, including a large separate shower compartment, and the galley can extend in the two-cabin version to include larger refrigeration.

I found it light and voluminous, particularly with the light oak Alpi trim, and a good build and finish quality for the price.

Dufour 44

The Dufour 44 is very similar to its smaller 41ft sister, which launched the year before, but with more space felt throughout. Again it uses Felci’s very voluminous hull shape, particularly in the forward sections. This helps create a vast master cabin which can boast a separate shower and heads, plus the addition of a valuable sail locker. The 44 also provides the option for a utility cabin or home office.

The result is a lot of hull to push through the water, but while testing we saw how this narrow waterline, single rudder design comes to life once the breeze reaches the teens where we enjoyed 8.5 knots under gennaker.
It’s a little cramped in the quarters but this helps buy a huge cockpit in what is a massive boat for its length.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 350

The SO 350, meanwhile, is the last in the line to benefit from Jeanneau’s eighth generation upgrades, a Lombard and Piaton design which sees some tweaks over the enormously popular SO 349 (1,200 sold). It’s still available with the swing keel option and is the same length, but extra beam carried aft allowed the designers to incorporate Jeanneau’s popular walkaround side decks. Still offered in the same two or three-cabin layout, the SO 350 is more feature-rich as standard, including folding prop, Corian work surfaces, more wood trim and more opening portlights.

Lombard’s design includes an inverse bow and does away with a backstay to free-up the helms.

Our test boat had the performance pack, with laminate sails, square-top main and flat deck furler. It helped produce enjoyable sailing – nothing electric, rather easy and fun. I particularly enjoyed the leeward helm position with legs extended forward and being able to stand to trim from the side deck inside the high bulwark. A fun, manageable, versatile entry-level cruiser.

Winner of the best family yacht 2024 – Bavaria C46

The Bavaria and Cossutti Yacht Design relationship continues to flourish and produce standout results in its second generation. The C46’s modern, full shape brings vast deck and accommodation space yet manages to do so on a hull which really performs for its size, and rewards the helmsman with direct feedback.

During my trial we had a good mix of conditions and were able to push the boat, a voluminous hull which becomes reactive once the breeze threatens double figures. We were able to press it during a rain squall, hitting 12 knots in 18 under gennaker, and maintained lengthy double digit spells during some enjoyable sporty sailing. Bear in mind this is a single-rudder boat, yet it still didn’t overpower or lose its grip. It’s impressive, especially given the exceptionally low ballast ratio (20%), which shows the reliance on form stability.

“The chine is a bit higher than the C42 and we tried to make the wetted surface as small as possible,” Maurizio Cossutti told me during our trial. The keel is also comparatively lighter, slimmer and deeper for a sporty feel.
It’s clear the German yard has really poured its engineering energy and might into this build – from design to engineering to finish quality, the perceived richness of the C46 stands out (although dressed with over €200,000 of options, this is still no mean feat in a mass production size and brand). So much so that other big yards may struggle to compete.

Dufour 41

You could argue the Dufour 41 does that to some extent, but here the emphasis is slightly more skewed towards volume, while it doesn’t quite match the Bavaria for the overall engineering and finish quality. Felci somehow managed to swell the forward sections enough to allow the Dufour to be the first 40-footer to offer four cabins, including two doubles forward. We then learned in September that Dufour had signed a new contract to supply Sunsail charter yachts, which helps explain the draw of all this extra accommodation space.

The price for this is extra weight. Although equipped with a tall rig, the 41 only becomes reactive once the breeze is up to the mid teens, where it can lean onto a chine and employ its generous form stability. But for those after volume, max deck lounging space and a bright spacious interior for multiple guests, it’s a hard model to compete with at this size (full report in YW September 2023 and online).

Hanse 410

On paper the Hanse 410 should perhaps have challenged the Bavaria more. It’s the latest in Hanse’s new collaboration with Berret-Racoupeau, follows on from the larger sister 460 which won this category in 2022, and shares that appealing modern hull shape. It showed respectable performance and figures, and proved easy to manage short-handed, thanks to the self-tacking jib and winches positioned to hand.

A halyard issue with the mainsail and a tangled sock for the kite curtailed my sail trials somewhat. We also found the cockpit quite busy, particularly the winch layout, although it is nice and deep for protecting its crew. It makes you query why you need two tables on a 40-footer – until you see them lowered to create sun beds, that is!

Stand out features from the interior were the number of stowage solutions, particularly on the two-cabin test boat. Offered as two or three cabins with one or two heads, the former provides a huge amount of stowage accessible from the cockpit or interior. There’s more in the galley and a multifunction space in the saloon, which can be a full length sofa berth, a proper chart table, or a standing desk with storage below.

Beneteau Oceanis 37.1

The Beneteau Oceanis 37.1 is also all about easy sailing and handling, and proved to be a fun, manageable sized cruiser, particularly the First Line option we tried, which increases sail area with a square-top main and flat deck furler. While certainly an accessible yacht, it perhaps comes across as a little basic. This is the last Oceanis in the new generation eight-boat range between 30ft and 60ft, so the focus is more on evolution than the revolution of its early predecessors. Hence the two- or three-cabin interior seemed a little unremarkable when viewed against the opposition.

RM 1380

The same could not be said for the RM 1380, particularly when you step down the companionway – which doesn’t really feel like going below decks on a conventional monohull as it’s so naturally bright in the raised saloon and helps you appreciate your surroundings. So much so it’s more like being on a multihull. The doorways are a little tight, but the double cabins are of good size thanks in part to the generous beam. The standard two-cabin layout has a practical utility space in place of the optional third cabin.

I’ve long appreciated the plywood epoxy technique RM uses for its hulls, together with the powerful form stability Lombard’s design brings. This comes with the choice of keels, including the shoal draught options of a lifting centreboard or efficient twin keels. We tried the latter and the result on the water is in keeping with the sporty looks: it’s an enjoyable mid-displacement cruiser to sail from the aft quarters. Then there’s the superb winch layout, which sees the primaries positioned inboard for use standing under the protection of the coachoof and sprayhood. For offshore sailing the open transom can be closed off with a platform. It’s not perfect, but the RM is intriguing and versatile.

Elan Impression 43

Another memorable interior is to be found on the Elan Impression 43. The rustic knotted oak finish is unique, the only option Elan offers and something the Slovenian yard wanted style gurus Pininfarina to maintain to identify it from the sportier ranges. Personally, I like the strong focus on timber as it helps showcase Elan’s heritage, but appreciate it won’t suit all tastes.

These mid size Impressions are the mainstay of Elan’s sailing range, the family and charter staples for the Med. This Humphreys-designed update has a modernised shape, but retains the older style and the hull rocker to keep a soft, smooth sailing experience. It’s rigged with a genoa or self tacker and two to four winches. Although somewhat unremarkable in terms of sailing performance, it fits its purpose, while the increased aft beam allows for larger aft cabins and a service tunnel between them.

Maxus 35

In an age where we need to focus on making things last, my preconceptions of the Maxus 35 revolved around questioning the need for a lower budget Polish build. Why not just buy a proven second-hand yacht? That said, the Northman shipyard has done a respectable job on this, the largest Maxus yet, in terms of the build and finish for the price. It feels solid throughout, the interior is light and inviting and it is worth consideration as an entry level yacht with reasonable accommodation.

I can also see some appeal of the centreboard design for lake sailing. However there was little to take home with regards to the design or sailing experience, so my conclusions mirror my first thoughts.Best family yacht 2023

Best family yacht winner 2023 – Linjett 39

This is quite possibly the best boat you haven’t heard of. The 39 offers easy, fast family cruising and occasional racing in luxurious comfort and proves that classic needn’t be old fashioned.

Linjett exudes Scandi heritage: a third generation 50-year-old brand, it’s run by three brothers and has built 900 yachts from its Rosättra yard in Sweden, which dates from to the 19th Century. Its business model is based on long production runs – think evergreen rather than trendy. Linjett not only designs, engineers and builds its own boats, but services and maintains them too, with 220 in winter storage. It also now produces the high performance Shogun Yachts in carbon epoxy, which hints at the skill levels of its infusion techniques.

A telling result at sea is how quiet the yacht is. Sturdy and stable, it instils instant confidence and proved a delight to sail. We had some very pleasant upwind beats, pointing high, and some lively reaching, hitting double figures a few times while pushing it under 150m2 gennaker in waves. The Linjett is set up to easily short-hand it too, with two winches and a bank of clutches each side positioned aft in reach of the helm.

The interior is offered with two or three cabins and the latter we saw had an excellent layout, including separate shower/wet hanging compartment aft. Joiner work is first class, with traditional mahogany used as standard, or the more contemporary European Oak on the test boat.

This is a premium yacht, but you get what you pay for. It will surprise most and ensure everyone steps ashore smiling. See our full review next month.

Dufour 37

The Dufour 37 may be shorter than the old 360, but Dufour was reluctant to brand this 37 as smaller because its modern, broadened hull shape has resulted in an enlarged deck space, cockpit and owner’s cabin. Felci has designed a clever hull that sails well with good performance for its (34ft) size. The aft quarters behind the helms feel compact to maximise cockpit size, but proved comfortable enough to sail from. The primaries are in reach of the helm and we liked the lightweight, low friction jib sheet adjusters.

The 37 is offered in Easy (two winch), Ocean (cruising), or Performance versions and with a two- or three- cabin layout. The test boat was the most popular Ocean model, although it had €100,000 worth of optional extras including sails, engine and bow thruster, resulting in an expensive yacht for its length.

Bente 28

For those who recognise the Bente name, we previously featured it in detail in 2015 when it burst onto the scene with an innovative and affordable new 24-footer (around 150 of which have been built in Poland). We then tested its 39 in 2019, a year before the yard then filed for bankruptcy. But it’s now back under new ownership with this really impressive and more refined Bente 28, again by Judel/Vrolijk.

It’s a fun yacht to sail, easy to short-hand, with sprightly performance, especially when reaching. The coachroof is part of the deck structure and proves crucial in providing light, space and headroom below in an ergonomic interior that has been very well thought out.

All in all it’s a great compact, entry-level cruiser, with a practical, well protected cockpit.

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The definition of the best luxury yacht will differ according to personal opinion and from boat to boat. This year’s nominees in the luxury yacht category of the European Yacht of the Year Awards proved that perfectly.

The European Yacht of the Year awards are selected by a broad panel of expert judges from across the globe. These are people who spend their professional lives sailing and comparing yachts, so you can be certain that the yachts which stand out in this field are truly the best of the best on the market.

Best luxury yacht 2026

The 2026 nominations for the best luxury yacht saw a wide array of entrants, featuring: examples of pure refinement of proven designs; bold new takes on push-button ease and fast cruising luxury from leading daysailer specialists; a smorgasbord of design ideas for a pilothouse centre cockpit yacht; and a catamaran made from recycled street signs.

So how to pick a winner? Readers should know the CNB, Saffier and Vaan well, as we have featured reviews of them in Yachting World, but not even the jury knew what to expect of the Wauquiez on the water, only that it was a very different new design.

Best luxury yacht 2026 winner – Wauquiez 55

A novel, even daring design, this is one of the most talked about new yachts since we filmed a walkthrough from its Düsseldorf premiere last year. The Lombard design melds some old ideas with so many new ones, incorporating reverse sheer, tumblehome, a dry reverse stem, near full-length portholes, and a glazed pilothouse fully protecting the centre cockpit. The result is a unique blend of North Sea centre cockpit protection with a Med-style deck and interior.

Despite many dubious predictions, I can now confirm it’s also definitely a sailing yacht, without the disconnect typically felt when sailing a covered centre cockpit design. This is a powerful performer with the highest sailing area: displacement ratio in class.

The significant 5.25m beam, which helps buy this power, also creates formidable accommodation, including a sensational aft owner suite with private access to the aft deck – something only previously seen on much larger craft.

Cable steering helps provide helm sensitivity, which you want for a powerfully rigged yacht. It’s easy to make 7 knots upwind and comes alive reaching, where we averaged 10 knots under Code 0 in 20 knots (the optional carbon mast, sails, and deep swing keel also aid this performance).

Open the sliding window to the side of the helm and you can stick your head out for some extra fresh air and to see the telltales. Meanwhile, this covered cockpit means you can chat at normal volume to crew mates – with 25 knots+ blowing over the deck, you quickly realise how much you’d otherwise have to shout!

The test boat had push-button control of all winches from the helm, allowing one person to single-hand it from the dock to sailing.

Downsides largely boil down to just how dependent it is on a myriad of systems, and therefore the amount to go wrong. We were also concerned by the placement of the two large powered winches with the heaviest loads in the crew cockpit area, and where best to store a tender.

Twin engines are heavier and more expensive, but create redundancy and make sense with the swing keel option we had. The deck lounging and stowage space is phenomenal and more comparable to a catamaran, including the wide aft deck for sitting out of the wind. The accommodation is well finished, including two massive en suite cabins and an ideal Pullman cabin for when on passage and not wanting to spill out of the luxury doubles.

My verdict

A melting pot of both new and proven ideas, with a liberal sprinkling of Lombard genius, the Wauquiez is a thing of wonder to marvel at, as is the space and layout on deck and below it offers. Yet most people, including us, scratch their heads and wonder how it can possibly perform at sea.
But perform it does. And all with the ability of doing so short-handed and from complete protection.

Saffier SL 46 Med

I was the first to do a full test on the Saffier SL 46 Med in the spring of 2025, which we ran on the cover in June. And despite seeing how just how well this Dutch yard put its yachts together in IJmuiden and enjoying a long day at sea proving how easy a 46ft performance yacht can be to sail solo thanks to push-button trim, something was missing – that performance X-factor. Saffier knew it. That first owner had wanted a 2.2m shoal keel. Although that same hull was brought to the EYOTY trials in Spain, it was armed with a new keel, a full 980kg lighter.

Wow, it felt like a different yacht! It now offers an absolutely sublime sailing experience, more reactive, easier to plane, with a spot-on feel. So even if it is very rare for a Saffier not to win an EYOTY award, this upgrade still helps make the SL 46 a winner in my books.

The jury struggled to fully understand the concept and therefore how to categorise it – a luxuriously finished and priced performance yacht from a daysailing specialist. It’s niche, but what a finely tuned machine this is, a scaled-down superyacht offering so much interactive pleasure.

CNB 62

More superyacht vibes are to be found on the CNB 62. This is a yacht I felt I knew well already, having tested its highly successful predecessor, the Bordeaux 60 back in 2008, as well as the larger siblings from this new Solaris-owned range, which share the same Briand/Piaton designers. It all helped make this model a shoo-in for me to nominate, and lent this luxury sector some gravitas.

CNB has placed additional focus on ease and safety over the Bordeaux 60, notably with the cockpit layout, forward wheels, and mainsheet arch. This carbon arch keeps the mainsheet out of harm’s way, while providing a secure attachment point to link bimini to the sprayhood and cover the guest cockpit.

During the ideal 15-20 knot conditions of my second leg aboard, the 62 responded with a superb feeling on the wheel. Like its larger sisters, it again demonstrates how a larger volume and displacement (30t) centre cockpit-style yacht can still offer very rewarding sailing. Once up to speed, the 62 goes like a train. Good sails and trim help, but that Briand balance adds the magic. Combined with a comfortable helm seat and ideal views to windward, it encourages you to spend long periods hands-on helming.

The position of the mainsail and primary winches behind the helm stations is a little unnatural, but you can reach the forward one if short-handing.

The real luxury comes from the deck and cockpit lounging space, the easily-launched jet tender, a comfortable, raised saloon to enjoy the views,, and the best-in-class forward owner suite.

Vaan R5

The Vaan R5 is another yacht that channels superyacht influences and quality. I first heard about the brand’s concept while in the germination phase after meeting founder Igor Kluin nearly a decade ago, and I support the methodology behind it. Having featured its various models since the R4 launched in 2019, I promoted the R5 for inclusion this year after it couldn’t make the 2024 trials due to engine teething troubles.

Vaan specialises in crafting luxury catamarans with a genuine focus on greener building, using recycled and fully recyclable aluminium for its electric-powered yachts.

The aft helm setup makes for direct steering, albeit with blind spots. The R5 proved respectable on the wind, if a little underpowered when off it. It’s a beamy design with open space and a highly customisable layout. The stiff structure allows for huge glass windows, which give astonishing light and views.

Vaan has, commendably, explored options to offer electric propulsion pods that would enable 360º steering from retractable motors.

However, the swell and wind off Catalonia in October highlighted the lack of power from these pods, so conventional electric sail drive motors are fitted to the R5 as standard. Kluin says they will fit diesels if really desired, even if it doesn’t align with Vaan’s ethos, which centres on materials.

The R5 is comprised of at least 60% recycled alloy, while cork decking and the use of recycled fabrics help make as much of the boat as possible circular (to reform into another yacht). Just before the trials, a docking line parted during high wind, and the stern of the R5 spent the night banging into the concrete dock.

The latter came off much worse, with only a small dent in the transom of the Vaan. There’s a lot to be said for using metal!

Best Luxury Yacht 2025

Best luxury yacht 2025 winner – Contest 63CS

This is a class act, a premium, modern-day cruising yacht which concentrates this family-run Dutch yard’s decades of experience into a contemporary, beautifully finished design.

Our test boat also provided memorable, enriching sailing performance. The test boat had many expensive optional extras, including a full selection of performance sails, a taller rig and a deeper keel, because its experienced Italian owner wants to do some offshore races. When the mainsail seemed to endlessly exit the in-boom furler, a push-button operation from the skipper, it made me appreciate how big a yacht this is to handle.

It’s right on the limit of owner operation – it’s possible, but more feasible with a standard rig and sail area. The experienced crew we had aboard gave us the reassurance to help get the most out of it. Just 8-10 knots breeze was enough to induce heel and really power her up, revealing an impressively potent machine. I was also impressed with how quickly you can get from marina to active sailing.

The test talks about performance and ease of trimming using intelligent push-button controls.

The hydraulic Code furler douses 225m2/2,422ft2 of sail in only seven seconds, for example. There is good visibility from the raised helms, however the payoff is that these are exposed if spending long periods on the wheel when cruising.

The interior is stunning and we particularly liked the optional ribbed timber finish on the bulkheads. Top features include the tall hanging locker on one side of the companionway and fuel filters easily accessed on the other, the large, long deep galley, useful sail locker-cum-crew cabin and, of course, the views from the owner’s suite aft.

As close to a superyacht as it gets at this size, the 63CS exudes serious quality. Despite its size and displacement, the Contest’s rewarding sailing stands out (particularly on the performance-enhanced test boat). It’s the definitive luxury cruiser for 2025.

Heyman 42PPH

If the Moody 48DS could have made it to the trials we’d have had an interesting duel of modern pilot saloon cruisers.

As it was, the Heyman 42PPH (‘pocket pilothouse’) shone, a design I have followed for years. Gabriel Heyman poured his vast experience and passion into it, creating a couple’s cruiser (with the largest cockpit you’ll find at this size), teeming with original ideas. Most of these concepts impressed our jury, some still need tweaking.

This two-cabin yacht is designed for two to live aboard in supreme comfort by fluently combining monohull and multihull features. In my full report in YW December 2024, I noted how it brings a lot of fresh thinking, including beach-house style inside-outside living, in what Heyman promotes as “a level of comfort offered by few, if any, boats under 55ft”.

It performs as both a shoal draught coastal yacht and a bluewater cruiser which feels dependable under sail and provides excellent protection in its vast and deep cockpit.

In the end, though, we felt a few areas of this niche design could still be improved, such as engine and mechanical access. So it was only eclipsed for the award by another North European design, which is the very definition of this category.

Best luxury yacht winner 2024 – Arcona 50

When you enter the fiercely competitive 50ft luxury performance yacht market you better get it right. And the jury felt Arcona managed that. This watershed design for the traditional Swedish brand, by X-Yachts co-founder and former designer Niels Jeppesen, is a big, contemporary new Arcona, one that sees it move away from its cruiser-racer heritage and classic interiors.

The on trend styling inside and out is backed up by a premium level of build and finish quality and sailing performance – particularly if you have the performance sails, traveller and deep (2.95m) keel options the test boat carried, although the latter does limit your berthing and anchoring options.

While I doubt it’ll be raced or will suit typical bluewater use, it offers a purity of performance push-button sailing: a handsome prospect upwind in a light breeze, it transforms into a powerful reaching machine with stacks of control.

As chairman of our jury, Jochen Rieker, puts it: “The boat certainly did not win for her somewhat borrowed looks. She wins by checking all the boxes in all other respects. Slipping along gracefully in the lightest of airs, holding her stride and her balance in more demanding conditions, offering warmth, light and this reassuring feeling of utter quality down below – there simply isn’t anything to fault.”

Contest 50CS

The Contest 50CS, for example, is an archetype luxury cruising yacht, one built to the highest standards and that could take you to most waters in impeccable comfort. This model is, uniquely, available in two versions: this more conventional 50CS with aft master cabin, or the forward owner’s suite version on the aft cockpit Contest 49CS. We ran a full test on the latter after spending two days aboard in the North Sea, where that noticeably high freeboard, which may not aid boarding nor windage, helped keep us dry on deck in a steady Force 6 gusting 7.

As the 50CS proved, this Judel/Vrolijk design keeps slipping along in the light stuff too, providing enjoyable sailing in 6 knots breeze under a code sail. The centre cockpit offers a deep protected guest area, but also links well to the spacious aft deck.

And the Wetzels-Brown-designed interiors of Contests today are stunning and hard to match. The engineering, access to usable stowage, details and finish on the 50CS is first class and to get this level of quality at this size is special.

XC 47

Both Contest and X-Yachts are early adopters of hybrid power, offering their bluewater cruisers with optional electric drives. For the XC 47 this was designed-in from the start to offer Oceanvolt’s award-winning new 25kW regenerative drive.

The XC 47 is another wonderfully engineered and thought out yacht for distance cruising, in particular for those who also enjoy hands-on helming pleasure. That should come as no surprise to any X aficionados, but what really struck me most about this yacht was the stowage, and the forethought needed to create that, together with how practical it has been made.

That may sound slightly anticlimactic but ask any long-term cruiser and stowage is always a priority. On deck, this constitutes a huge lazarette and sail locker, plus clever systems for launching a dinghy via davits and a liferaft canister, while below decks every square inch of space has been used effectively, with lockers hinged with gas struts.

It’s clear the Danish yard went to considerable time and effort, even building a full mock up of the interior that could be canted 20° each way.

If the deck saloon style looks didn’t sell this model to all – this is the first full non-Jeppesen designed X – the jury were converted once they’d taken the helm. ‘Quirky’ became ‘muscular and bold’. The ease with which it can be sailed from the cockpit was also appreciated.

While I understand many offshore cruisers like a protected centre cockpit and more sun protection, the attention to detail, stowage and practicalities, combined with the direct steering, motion and enjoyable sailing this X offers make it a standout new offering.

Jeanneau Yachts 55

Meanwhile the Jeanneau Yachts 55 stands out for different, unique reasons in this category, offering a completely new concept in comfort on deck while at anchor and a novel accommodation layout. Its focus is on outdoor living space.

What helps place this in a luxury bracket is not simply the price or the creative input of superyacht specialist design duo Philppe Briand and Andrew Winch, rather that its layout creates a palatial amount of private space for the owner’s suite. Guest cabins have their own direct access from the extensive cockpit via gullwing doors.

It certainly makes sense for solo owners or couples using it as a warm water apartment. How many people this will suit is another question, as it segregates any guests, crew or children from the galley and saloon.

I used the term monocat when I first viewed it, as the 55 really does attempt to mix the two worlds, particularly in terms of providing owner privacy and lounging space. Choose the rigid hard top and windshield and there’s a vast amount of covered area including a dinette and chart table – plus a bimini can shade all that extensive aft deck too.

The penalty comes in additional weight and wetted surface, and is felt in the handling and performance, the latter particularly in lighter breeze with the optional in-mast furling, self tacking headsail and shallow draught package we had. However, it’s set up to be easily managed from the mid cockpit with good visibility from the twin helms and easy circulation thanks to the ramped side decks. Full report in YW February 2024.

Best luxury yacht 2023

Best luxury yacht winner – Oyster 495

It is hard to imagine that the decor of a yacht can change its look and feel quite this much, yet the layout of this second 495, Eddie Jordan’s dramatic looking Tuga, is in fact identical to the first boat that I spent several days aboard last summer.

At its heart is a wonderfully (Humphreys) designed and engineered luxury bluewater cruiser conceived from the ground up, built in a new dedicated facility to a repeatable quality very few yards are capable of.

The 495 offers consistent passage making speeds in real voluminous comfort – whether enjoyed from the deep cockpit or the best-in-class aft cabin. Deck stowage and mechanical space is also superb.

Then factor in the family appeal of Oyster’s after sales and world rally programme and you start to appreciate the premium world this sub 50-footer gives access to.

The first yacht fully conceived under CEO Richard Hadida’s reign, this is also the smallest completely new Oyster 495 since 2005 – and it’s a triumph. It was our September 2022 cover star in which we featured the full review from our Oyster 495 three day test.

Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 60

The Oceanis Yacht 60 is a very different beast indeed to the 62 it replaces as flagship for the Beneteau range. The yard has learned plenty from the success of the First 53/OY 54 and wanted to create a 60 in this style and with the same deck layout (albeit larger and wider) and ease of circulation.

The construction experience of the smaller model clearly helped too, as this is a whopping five tonnes lighter than the bulky OY62 and with a deeper (2.6m) keel. The telling result is on the water. It feels sporty to helm and we averaged a knot slower than the single figure 6-8 knot windspeeds upwind and matched them reaching with Code 0 and a slight swell.

The vast cockpit works well, sheltered below the semi rigid bimini, it has plentiful lounging space with sailing systems led aft to the twin helms. The interior sees a 3+3 layout, where Beneteau wanted to get rid of the corridor effect of the OY62. The galley is forward to help open out space, while the forward suite with offset berth and headboard aft works well to give space with privacy.

This is an attractive, voluminous yacht that leaves a good overall impression whether under sail, on or below decks.

Ice 62 Targa

It all looks pretty funky below decks on the Ice 62 Targa too, especially if you’re watching the masthead fore and aft cameras (plus bow and prop cam) on central displays mounted in the saloon while you slip out of the dock! The Ice is a seriously impressive, contemporary yacht, one that in looks, performance and execution, won over many of the judges.

The first to launch is a highly customised project for a passionate sailing owner who covers long distances solo – he’d already sailed it 3,000 miles around the Med that autumn. It’s impressively stiff, sails handsomely and, thanks to a telescopic keel, points well. We matched single figure windspeeds, and clocked up to the high 9s in 12 knots wind.

Umberto Felci’s team spent 4,000 hours on the design, providing lots of space and light to the interior and a chillout zone in the semi raised saloon. This was easily the coolest looking yacht, with its aggressive reverse bow, chamfered gunwales and carbon T-top bimini, and all engineered and built to a high standard.

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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Every spring for the last two years West Marine has offered this absolutely bonkers winches deal and they are back once again in 2026 with a Buy One Get One Free deal on a huge range of Lewmar winches.

Before you read on, a note to UK readers; this deal is only available in the US (and yes I’m as annoyed about that as you are!)

I’m ridiculously excited to bring you the West Marine buy one get one free winch deals. I’ve picked a few out, and while I have gone through all the options and offered a range of the best deals below, realistically only you know what size winches you need for your boat so just head over to West Marine and grab the right size via this direct link.

There’s over $4000 dollars to save from the largest 55 winches and winch sizes available right through to the dinky size 6s and 7s.

If you are in the market for new winches for the season ahead now really is the time to buy. This sale usually only lasts a few weeks and while it has usually returned each spring, West Marine may not continue with this great deal forever…

Buy One Get One Free Lewmar Winch deals

Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 55
LEWMAR EVO #55 Two-Speed Self-Tailing Winch, Chrome Bronze
$3,599.99
What a ridiculously brilliant deal! Save  $4,299.99. If you’re in the market for a pair of new 55s, then what are you waiting for!

View Deal

Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 50
LEWMAR Ocean #50 Chrome Self-Tailing 2-Speed Winch
$3,599.99
A massive, all-bronze, one-piece center stem supports stainless steel main shafts and gear spindles that lend exceptional strength. Bronze gear trains deliver smooth power; high-tensile bronze gears are machine-cut to very high tolerances.
The rigid, one-piece nylon cage with snap-in stainless steel bearings and integral grease pocket for permanent lubrication and free-running bearings assure you the winch will not seize up under any operating load.

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Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 40
LEWMAR EVO #40 Two-Speed Aluminum Self-Tailing Winch Grey
$1,353.99
Simple servicing: No tools are required to service an EVO winch. Simply unscrew the top cap with your fingers to remove the drum and provide access to the proven gear train. Each internal component is unique to avoid re-assembling the winch incorrectly; it only goes back together one way.

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Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 46
LEWMAR Ocean #46 Chrome Self-Tailing 2-Speed Winch
$2,086.99
Please West Marine, please can I have one of these? My boat only has a single central winch. But I’d make a  friend for life if I was able to share the cost with a fellow boat owner from the same Dehler Owners club.

View Deal

Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 16
LEWMAR Ocean #16 Chrome Self-Tailing 1-Speed Winch
$889.99
It’s not just the big boat owners that can save BIG, there’s winch sizes for everyone.

View Deal

Buy One Get One FREE Sale SIZE 8
LEWMAR #8 One-Speed Aluminum Non-Self-Tailing Winch
$307.99
Isn’t this the cutest winch? yes, well, it has a twin and for just  $307.99 you can have two of these.

View Deal

 

 

 

 

 

The post Cheapest winches you can buy! West Marine’s ludicrous BUY ONE GET ONE FREE DEAL returns appeared first on Yachting World.

The marine industry continues to prove that even the most standard piece of equipment is ripe for a revolution. And during the tail end of the 2025 season many innovated new products where launched across various boat shows.

In this guide, we dive into the standout winners and nominees from the DAME Awards and beyond, highlighting the essential gear – from high-performance sails to heated helm seats – that is set to redefine your time on the water for the season ahead.

From the integration of automotive-style interfaces to sustainable breakthroughs in hull construction materials, this year’s crop of kit focuses heavily on making life at sea more intuitive, comfortable, and eco-conscious. Whether it’s through award-winning electronics or safety gear that thinks faster than a human operator, the boundary between ‘smart’ technology and traditional seamanship is blurring in favour of the sailor.

At the heart of this year’s innovations is a clear trend toward integration. We are seeing a move away from isolated gadgets toward cohesive ecosystems where your chartplotter, bilge pump, and even your AC distribution panel speak the same language.

E360 Round Chartplotter

Circular instruments have long been commonplace on car dashboards and in aircraft, so why not use that format for marine chartplotters?

‘The world’s first round chartplotter’ was seen as a novel and logical enough approach by the jury to scoop the overall DAME award, albeit a surprise to many. Seen up close, the E360 is undoubtedly a neat unit, intuitive to use with a very responsive screen for its 4in size. The touchscreen MFD (multifunction display) has integrated charts and the ability to show most instrument and engine data.

Yet, for those who are slightly puzzled about who it’s for, its Slovenian developers LXNAV Marine tell me that it should suit all sizes of boats, but particularly as an all-in-one solution for small consoles. So it is more applicable to smaller powerboats and RIBs, and the classic design will also suit high-end retrofits to classic designs.

The E360 comes preloaded with OpenSeaMap charts and can display NMEA 2000 data from modern marine instruments. It can also display Navionics charts via SD Card and has Fusion music control.

A neat optional extra for €300 is a jog wheel controller, as used in cars, to provide easy one-handed use while bouncing around at sea.

Slovenia continually sets a high bar in the marine sector for the country’s small size, whether in yacht manufacturing (Pegasus, Elan, Seascape, Ocean tec), or electronics systems (see SiMarine, page 84).

LXNAV is a world leader in glider instrumentation and, having tried an aviation-inspired round gauge in a Sunseeker, it decided to develop the E360 into a more multifunctional touchscreen device. The DAME Jury praised the “easily integrated compact, cohesive design, matched by an intuitive user interface, broad range of functions and responsive screen” at a market realistic price.

The E360 is waterproof to IPX6 and includes built-in wifi and GPS.

Find out more about the E360 Chartplotter

Ocean Scout Pro

While it wasn’t quite like the view from a pitching cockpit, watching the crisp thermal outlines of bodies walking towards me in the darkened superyacht halls of the Metstrade show in the RAI Exhibition centre did serve to show both how clear this tech now is and how easy this little monocular is to use.

It sees heat rather than light, and provides an affordable aid to day and night time navigation. It’s also ready to use in seconds: pick it up one-handed, power it up, and you have a 32° field of view to identify a navigation aid or MOB in the water.

The Ocean Scout Pro can detect human or pet heat in the water up to 500m away. It’s also durable, with a 2m drop rating and IP67 water resistance.

Find out more about the Ocean Scout Pro

Garmin OnBoard

We wrote about this new MOB and safety tag system in our December issue, and it has since gone on to win a DAME in the Safety & Security Aboard sector. It allows you to identify who’s on board – and, crucially, who’s not – by using wireless MOB tags, which are worn on the wrist or via a carabiner.

These link to a Garmin chartplotter, so when a MOB is detected, it will sound an alarm and save the waypoint. The OnBoard system can also replace an outboard’s traditional kill switch, cutting the engine if the operator falls overboard. Tags can be used on crew and pets, with up to eight per vessel.

Find out more about the Garmin OnBoard

OneSails Softstep

Have you ever wanted to climb your mast, even just the lower portion, solo, without needing someone to man a halyard? I’m sure most sailors will have. When a Golden Globe Race competitor put this challenge to OneSails, its product designer, David Chevalier Herrero, developed this high-strength, zero-maintenance SoftStep.

The SoftStep is described as a mast workstation or safety system, allowing for the inspection, maintenance, repairs and cleaning up a mast in comfort. It combines mountaineering/climbing techniques with traditional mast steps to solve an age-old problem. By incorporating an eye on the underside of the step, which can take 150kg load, you can clip on a carabiner, clipping on to each step as you climb.

The ‘soft’ part is because OneSails also wanted to ensure you could climb barefoot, and that you could comfortably bear your weight on these steps for 10 minutes (traditional narrow mast steps with metal or plastic teeth are notoriously uncomfortable). So the wide, top part of the step incorporates soft-touch padded foam. It’s a neat, functional design, with a magnetic opening/closing system.

The steps are 3D printed from various materials, including titanium (for anti-corrosion), while other materials, such as carbon, and potentially the pellets from OneSails recycled sails, could be used.

Find out more about the SoftStep

Smartdeck HEAT

Yachting World readers will know that one of my favourite sail trials in recent years was on the Dragonfly 36 last June. And when I first sat at the helm station of this tri sensation at its Düsseldorf boat show premiere, the idea of a heated helm seat seemed a bit gimmicky. Then we tried it in earnest, short-tacking up the confines of a narrow fjord late in the evening. Trust me, a warm derriere makes for a happy sailor!

Smartdeck manufactures soft decking, an anti-slip teak alternative that’s lightweight, comfy underfoot and heat-resistant. It’s made from PE Polyethylene, which is harder density and more durable than EVA foam decking, and it’s recyclable, says SmartDeck, who offers a five year warranty. The closed-cell structure encourages water to bead off so it’s easy to keep clean.

Its ‘HEAT’ product adds a 12/24V powered heating element sandwiched into the decking. The company manufacturers signs and logos too, so offers plenty of customisation.

Find out more about Smartdeck

Bilge IQ

Is your bilge pump mounted in an obscure location and hooked up for auto activation? How do you know how much it is operating, or indeed if it still works?

It can be a real cause for concern if you don’t know how much water might be leaking into your bilges. Here’s an intelligent solution from British brand Digital Yacht, which uses the NMEA 2000 protocol to link your pump to your main plotter/MFD. So you can see how much current your pump is using, if it’s running dry, or even how much water is running through filters so you know when to renew them.

The wireless interface allows for remote monitoring, so you can even keep a check on bilge levels from your phone while away and set customisable alerts. Bilge IQ is compatible with any 12/24V pump up to 10A with or without a float switch.

Find out more about Bilge IQ

CSX Refrigeration System

At a time when many will be looking to make upgrades, to improve or even retrofit their yachts, one thing most sailors like to have more of is cold storage. But where to put that extra fridge/freezer? What if you can use a redundant locker? That’s the premise Dometic has taken with this new CSX system, which turns any compartment (from 60-400lt) into an efficient, energy-smart fridge or freezer.

Ideal for galleys short of space, it combines compressor, fan-cooled evaporator, LED lighting, and digital temperature control in one space-saving unit.

Find out more about the Dometic CSX Refrigeration System

Seldén Ratchet for CXr Code furler

Watching a Code sail unwind and disappear again in the spin of a furling drum is art in motion – when it works. When it doesn’t, it can lead to a lot of flapping sail, breakages and heightened stress levels.

Designed for improved handling on its new generation CXr Code sail furlers, this ratchet works in both directions to help prevent such accidents. The drum is unlocked with a distinct pull of the furling line in the same direction you want it to turn, and the ratchet is strong enough to pause the furl and hold the load and torque from the sail without it unwinding further, Seldén claims.

Find out more about the Seldén Ratchet

Supersede Marine Board

A sustainable replacement for plywood? We featured Supersede’s plywood alternative at length in our December 2024 issue – it’s billed as the world’s first modern, scalable, and cost-effective like-for-like replacement for marine-grade plywood. Where marine plywood has been considered a wonder material for boatbuilding for the last eight decades, and most yachts built today still incorporate a high amount of it, Supersede offers a rot-free, non-hazardous replacement at a similar cost.

Marine Board is an engineered extruded sheet crafted from plastic waste, is 100% recyclable, waterproof, and rot-proof, and does not splinter, split or warp. At its end of life, the material can be returned to pellet form and recycled into other products.

The Supersede Board is the same price as commodity marine plywood.

Find out more about Supersede Marine Board

Zhik X Range Hiking Boots and Carbon insole

Dinghy sailors who spend long periods hiking or on the wire can typically experience ankle and shin pain, which encouraged Australian dinghy and performance sailing experts Zhik to develop its hiking boots with these carbon insoles. The unidirectional carbon sole gives support and stiffness in one direction to take the load off the ankles, but allows bending the other way. Grip is also vital for hiking and trapezing, hence these neoprene boots also have the benefits of Michelin tread.

Available from end of February.

Find out more about the Zhik X Hiking Boot

IFS Multi Tradewind Sail

We ran a full article on this potentially brilliant new ‘Batman sail’ last issue. It uses twin gennakers joined with structured luffs and furling technology, which means it can be used for running or reaching and is easily furled or dropped as it doesn’t require a heavy anti-torsional cable.

While not in the least surprised to see it pick up DAME award, the ‘Environmental Design’ aspect had us intrigued. OneSails Palma’s CEO Peter Bresnan describes it as one sail doing three sails’ work. Nylon is not a big producer of CO2, unlike laminate sails, he maintains, it’s inexpensive to source and easily repairable. He also explained how the jury considered the company’s intelligent use of materials to reduce waste and cost.

Find out more about the IFS Multi Tradewind sail

Ropeye stick-on K

Okay, admittedly, this one didn’t win a DAME or special mention award, but it was nominated and caught our eye. If you haven’t come across Ropeye products before, they offer the easiest and lightest means to add an eye, block or attachment point to your deck or interior fittings without needing to drill any holes.

The Stick-On K adapts this technology for pop studs, if you are adding or organising cushions, awnings and canvaswork, without the pesky holes or repairs associated with traditional studs.

Find out more about Ropeye

Henri-Lloyd Ocean Pro

Henri-Lloyd spent three years developing new design features and materials for its Ocean Pro range. It says it used the world’s first four-layer Hybrid Membrane Stretch fabric, to provide a breakthrough in waterproof, breathable, and minimalist flexible protection. This means ‘survival-grade’ levels of waterproofing at a reduced weight compared to traditional offshore gear. Henri-Lloyd used feedback from from cruisers to British Vendée Globe star Sam Goodchild, who was at METS to help unveil Ocean Pro.

The range includes a Jacket, Smock and Salopettes, and when you get shown through all the details incorporated – notably the removable parts only needed infrequently in extreme weather – it’s impressive. The female fit range includes a new horizontal waistband opening deemed quicker and more comfortable to use. Available from March.

Find out more about the Ocean Pro range

Smart AC Distribution Unit

While it may not look (or sound) like the sexiest piece of kit, this SAC15R is a clever AC distribution panel as it integrates NMEA 2000, facilitating the control and monitoring of 115/240V AC breakers via a plotter/MFD touchscreen. This, in turn, allows manufacturers and those retrofitting to place AC breakers in more practical positions – rather than having to run all the high voltage wiring through the living area to the chart table where the breakers are typically installed.

Contained in a splashproof box, it features five independent channels with neat motorised reclosers – and yes, it has a manual override circuit in case of system failure.

Integrate it with Simarine’s digital system Nereide instrument panel (an elegant solution we see fitted on various new production yachts), and you could have control and monitoring of AC and DC systems from one interface.

Find out more at Simarine

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post The best new sailing gear innovations for 2026 appeared first on Yachting World.

“The Superfoiler was one of the coolest boats of all time,” says Luke Parkinson, who’s sailed everything from F50s to offshore 100-footers. “It was a boat like no other. It always kept you on your toes. It was really hard to sail, but very rewarding when you got it right.”

The Superfoiler took elements of Sydney’s 18ft Skiff class and turbo-charged them on foils. An Australian roadshow-style circuit was launched in 2017 with fan zones, drone coverage, and live streaming, and attracted big names like Nathan Outteridge and Glenn Ashby, before the circuit was wound down in 2019.

“It was a three-person, fast foiling boat that you could reach pretty much 40 knots, and it had electronic rake control,” recalls Parkinson.

“You could have three people on trapezes. You had configurable tack and gybe functionality, and it was just really ahead of its time. The boat had a heavy weather main and an all-purpose main and two jibs as well – it was very versatile. It was just a boat to remember, a very special boat.”

Make sure you check out our full list of Coolest boats.

‘The Superfoiler was really ahead of its time’. Photo: Andrea Francolini

Superfoiler stats rating

Top speed: 35+ knots
LOA: 7.97m/26ft 2in
Launched: 2017
Berths: 0
Price (New): €220,000
Adrenalin factor: 95%

Luke Parkinson

Luke Parkinson is flight controller for SailGP series champions Emirates GBR. After sailing a 49er, the Australian began offshore racing with ScallyWag. He won his first Volvo Ocean Race in 2015, and has done three America’s Cup campaigns – one with Artemis and two with Ben Ainslie’s INEOS crew, and was a cyclor-sailor in Barcelona.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post World’s coolest boats: The Superfoiler appeared first on Yachting World.

When activity levels drop, assumptions tend to fill the space. A softer economy should mean softer prices; fewer listings but perhaps more negotiating room. But for yachts in the 40-60ft bracket, the reverse is true. Supply is slimmer, values have held and, in many cases, strengthened.

Owners are hesitating to sell because replacing what they have is no longer straightforward, and many who might once have traded up or down are choosing instead to sit tight. The result is a quieter market that still behaves as a healthy one. Buyers are looking, brokers are fielding enquiries, but the flow of stock is slower and more selective.

In this environment, expectations need to adjust. This is not a distressed market and not an opportunistic one either. It is a narrower channel where clarity and preparation count for more than confidence.

No silly offers

“The myth dangerous to the buyer today is that we’re in some kind of buyers’ market brought on by an economic downturn,” says broker Alex Grabau. “We’re not, and most brokers will tell you stories of someone really wanting a boat, putting in a silly low offer, and it not working out well for them.”

That mismatch often spills into seller behaviour too. “The owner gets annoyed, gives an obvious ‘no’ at best, or just takes the boat off the market and keeps the boat,” he says. “People forget that sellers are often buyers. If they don’t see anything they want to move to, then why would they let go of the boat they’ve already got?”

Rising new boat prices have reinforced this. Many owners now see little sense in stepping sideways for a higher cost. The usual chain of upgrades has slowed, reducing the supply of well-kept yachts entering the market. Even owners who were previously quite active in the market are taking longer to decide, which contributes to the feeling of contraction from both sides.

A weak Swedish Kroner has made Swedish yachts, such as this Arcona 50, attractive to buyers with stronger currencies. Photo: Arcona Yachts

Pace, not price

Despite fewer listings, good yachts are still selling promptly. “We’re achieving pretty good prices,” Grabau says. “Even above asking, in some cases. The market is quieter, but good boats at the right money aren’t sitting.”

The ‘right money’ reflects a shift in how buyers approach the process. Expectations of distressed discounts generally come to nothing. Sellers of clean, properly documented yachts know that their boats are competing in a thin field, and buyers who turn up prepared are often the ones who secure the boat.

The quieter pace gives buyers more time to think but doesn’t translate into cheaper deals.

In an update on the state of the market as 2025 drew to a close, Sue Grant of Berthon commented: “In most cases in this market, yachts are selling on price – additional equipment makes a yacht easier to sell – but not worth more.”
She also noted that: “Badly presented yachts are sticking. There is choice in the marketplace and buyers are currently ‘project’ averse.”

Some of the most straightforward sales now happen before a yacht reaches the open market. This is simply timing: photography, paperwork checks and listing preparation can all take days or weeks. In that period, a broker with a clear brief from a buyer can match the yacht before it appears online.

Article continues below…

Relying solely on listing alerts puts buyers at the back of the queue. Buyers who keep in contact tend to join the process earlier and more realistically.

“Some of the best boats never even make it online,” Grabau says. “If we know exactly what you want, your timeline and your expectations, we can move quickly.”

Cross-border sales may have become more administrative since Brexit, but they haven’t stopped. “If it’s the right boat at the right price, paying VAT doesn’t automatically make it the wrong decision,” Grabau adds.

“We’ve sold UK VAT-paid boats to Europeans who’ve paid VAT again.

“Sometimes it still makes sense, and the boat ends up with dual VAT status, which can help later.”

More often, delays stem from missing documentation. Evidence of VAT status, CE compliance and a yacht’s location at the end of the transition period remain fundamental. These elements, not sentiment, are what derail sales.

Rising new yacht prices and new build times continue to make well spec’d recent models such as this Fountaine-Pajot Isla 40 appealing on the second-hand market. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

Prep for success

For sellers, the basic principles remain unchanged. Yachts with clear information, good photographs and transparent history attract more interest. A buyer should be able to form an initial judgement from the listing alone. Anything less reduces enquiries. Proper preparation at the start – checking paperwork, gathering invoices, confirming VAT evidence – remains the single best way to avoid issues later on.

Grabau is clear on this: “Price on Application is something we push against. It puts buyers off.”

For buyers, the current environment rewards organisation rather than opportunism. Decisions on layout, length, displacement, VAT requirements and budget need to be made early. The more focused the brief, the more likely a broker can place the right boat before it reaches the market. Buyers who arrive with a realistic view of the market also usually have a much smoother experience, as there is less friction between expectation and reality.

The pace may feel slower, but when both sides are well prepared, transactions can move quickly. Buyers take more time to research; sellers take more time to compare. The resulting deals tend to be cleaner and more deliberate.
“Don’t assume the market is something it isn’t,” Grabau advises. “If you’re clear and sensible, you can still get exactly the boat you want.”

After two years of searching Julia Michard settled on a Hylas 54. Photo: Julia Michard

Case study – ‘We found our boat after a two year search’

Julia Michard and her husband spent two years travelling across Europe in search of a capable bluewater cruiser. Their search took them to Amsterdam, Palma, Italy, Dublin and northern Spain, and over time they viewed more than 25 yachts. Many of those looked competent in their listings but felt noticeably different once aboard.

“Some had leaks, some had heads that didn’t work, and a few had clearly been sitting untouched for a long time,” she says. “You stop taking photographs too seriously.”

VAT documentation became a repeated problem. Several yachts advertised as VAT-paid had no paperwork to support the status.

“People often believe what they’ve been told by a previous owner. But if the documents aren’t there, they aren’t there. You learn that quite quickly.”

As the search progressed, their real priorities emerged. Proper headroom for her taller husband, good interior light and a layout they could live with for years carried more weight than any item in a specification list.

The Michards’ long-term plan also shaped their thinking: seven years of extended cruising, beginning in the Mediterranean and crossing to the Caribbean the following year.

“We weren’t buying something for weekends. We needed a boat we could actually live on.”

Photo: Julia Michard

After countless viewings and a few encouraging near-misses, a 2005 Hylas 54 came into budget. They hadn’t considered Hylas models early on, assuming they were out of reach, but by this stage they had seen enough comparable yachts to recognise its condition and specification immediately.

A viewing and survey followed quickly.

“It actually moved faster than we expected after two years of looking,” Julia says. “But when the boat is right, it’s right.”

The long search made the decision straightforward rather than difficult. Each rejected yacht had clarified something, and by the time they found the right one, they understood exactly why it suited them – and exactly what they were buying it for.

What we learned

What two years searching for the right yacht teaches you…

• Photographs only ever tell part of the story. Wide-angle interiors and bright deck shots often disguise long periods of inactivity, while a plain listing can hide a well-kept yacht.
• VAT status must be evidenced, not assumed. Several yachts described as VAT-paid produced no documents at all. Asking early avoids wasted travel.
• A viewing that rules a yacht out is still useful. Travelling long distances only to reject a boat isn’t failure; each visit clarifies expectations about layout, condition and what ‘well maintained’ actually means.
• The feel of the interior matters more than specifications. Headroom, natural light and a layout that works day-to-day consistently proved more important than equipment lists.
• Yachts left standing for years usually cost more than they appear to. Two seasons ashore or green dust in the cockpit often indicate deeper issues.
• Priorities emerge over time. What seemed flexible or subjective at the start of the search – stowage, brightness below, simple practicality – became non-negotiable after a dozen viewings.
• When the right yacht appears, momentum helps. We knew what good looked like, so the viewing, survey and purchase moved quickly.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post Is now a good time to buy (or sell) a used boat? appeared first on Yachting World.

Lorient is the Hollywood of ocean racing. Like the movie factory of Los Angeles, the Brittany port is a seemingly single-purpose town that draws dreamers. And just as Hollywood is La La Land, so Lorient attracts some of the most outlandish projects in sailing.

The La Ter river is dotted with small yachts bobbing on moorings, awaiting gentle adventures in the tiny creeks and sandy beaches of southern Morbihan. But the estuary’s north shore is different. This is home to the concrete wonderland of La Base, a former U-boat submarine base that is today’s epicentre of ocean racing. A walk around the pontoons here is a chance to window-shop the most extreme offshore technology.

Gitana’s team base is in prime position, a nearly 2,000m2 boat shed with Bond-lair-esque rolling walls to shutter its secrets. Since 2022 the work inside has been kept closed and confidential, but in early December the base was thrown open to unveil Gitana 18, the newest 100ft foiling trimaran.

The Y-foils cant on giant swinging arms

A passion for sailing

Gitana is the racing stable of the Rothschild family, a banking dynasty synonymous with generational wealth on an epic scale. Their passion for sailing has equally been handed down, and Gitana 18 marks 150 years of the family’s deep involvement in yachting, currently spearheaded by matriarch Ariane de Rothschild.

This history shapes the fundamental reason for building a new boat. Unlike most corporate sponsorships, Gitana 18 is not built to score column inches. She is not even entirely built to win. Gitana 17, the previous Ultim launched in 2017 and the first giant tri to take flight, has basically already won most things.

“What we’re doing here is really on another level, but it’s also going to be a risk,” explains project manager Sébastien Sainson. “If we had wanted to be 100% sure that we’re going to win the next Route du Rhum in 2026 we would have gone safer. It would have just been a bit of an evolution. But we know that’s not the future.”

It was the opportunity to do something extraordinary that drove the project. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have had the chance to build a new boat.

The Y-foils also have two adjustable flaps

“Ariane de Rothschild was quite clear about it: if they invest, and if we are to do a new boat, it has to be disruptive. It has to be another level up,” recalls Sainson.

“So it was part of the scope of work, to say ‘Okay, do a new boat, but show me you can do something really crazy.’ Obviously for a naval architect or an engineer, it’s always nice to hear! But we couldn’t have known at the beginning what we would have ended up with.”

So Gitana 18 isn’t just about collecting trophies. It’s about the creation of an epic. In pursuit of the two great achievements that eluded her predecessor – solo and crewed non-stop around the world records – it’s a boat built for experimentation on a grand scale. And that is why it looks quite so mad.

The 121ft mast can be bent underway using hydraulic rams around the spreaders

Full flight

The most obviously extraordinary things about Gitana 18 are the appendages. The goal of this boat is 100% air-time, flying across oceans at 40+ knots, and the resultant foils are phenomenal in both scale and shape.

While the previous generation Ultims have L-foils that plunge through their outer hulls before curving inwards, Gitana 18 sports giant T- or Y-foils on swinging arms that lift up between the crossbeams. Beneath the central hull is a huge ‘skate wing’ T-board. And most baffling of all are the rudders, which are like no other rudders seen before. They have a ‘U’ or A-frame shape with twin chords and a horizontal base plate.

The foils, which the team refer to as Y-foils, show a clear lineage from those on the AC75s, though Gitana’s will lift inwards to meet the Ultim maximum beam rule. Their wings span more than 5m, the bulb 2m long.

One key target is to enable the boat to take off earlier. Skipper Charles Caudrelier explained that the old Gitana needed to be sailing at around 22-24 knots to accelerate and take flight. These new foils could reduce that to less than 20 knots of boatspeed, in potentially as little as 10 knots of windspeed.

At the upper end of the range, cavitation is another problem they’ve worked to address. “When I reached 37 knots on Gitana 17, all the appendages started to cavitate. So that means lots of drag, and also lots of damage on the foils. They degrade very quickly. It’s a nightmare,” Caudrelier explained.

The radical A-frame rudders are deeper, thinner, but theoretically more resistant to deformation

“We pushed the limit with a second generation of foils up to 40-42 knots. But in surfing conditions sometimes you can’t stop the boat. You have a big wave, plus a gust, and you go to 45, 47 knots – and then all the boat vibrates, and you know you’re damaging them.

“You know that at the end of the race, you’ll have lost 10%, 20%, even 30% of the performance of the boat because of degradation. It starts to impact the paint. Then it goes through to the carbon. In the end, you can break the foil because you’ve lost skin on skin. At the end of the race around the planet, I was sailing at 70% of my performance in perfect conditions because the foil was completely destroyed.

“That’s also why we like canting foils because another problem before was that my windward foil was up, but it was hitting the water and damaged a lot in the elbow. By canting them, we can pull it up off the water and they’ll have no contact.

“We expect these foils to degrade much less. Then at the end of the race, we’ll still be at 100% – if we don’t meet a rock or a piece of wood. That’s a game changer.”

The in-house simulator was used to process vast amounts of data and help sailors visualise the boat’s behaviour

Minutely trimmed

The ‘skate wing’ T-board beneath the boat is now a massive, sculptural piece of metal (the team won’t disclose which one) which will be more resistant to this degradation. It is 30% bigger than the previous boat’s. The switch from carbon to metal is because, while metal is a little less efficient, it offers a better overall balance of stiffness against both torsion and bending.

The T-board version we were allowed to see (but not photograph) had a tattoo etched in the surface which will carry fibre optic sensors to measure how much this metal is contorting under the sea – just some of the 500 sensors Gitana 18 will carry (double the number on 17). Designer Guillaume Verdier described the boat as like a creature capable of telling its crew when it is in pain.

Cyril Dardashti, team manager; owner Ariane de Rothschild; and skipper Charles Caudrelier at Gitana 18’s grand unveiling. Photo: Marie Rouge/Gitana SA

The metal skate wing should also be more robust in case of collisions. The central bulb contains pinger technology to warn marine mammals of its approach.

The physics driving these foil shapes will require whoever is piloting to trim complex underwater interactions over multiple planes, often while sailing solo. This a very different prospect to a full-time flight controller minutely trimming the foils of an AC75 over a windward-leeward Cup course. The Y-foils alone can be canted, raked, and each wing has independently adjustable flaps on the trailing edges.

“You have to change the trim of the [foil] depending on sea state, because the sea state makes a big difference in speed,” explains Caudrelier. “So if the sea state is flat, the wing is horizontal. If the sea state is larger, we have to put it more vertical because it helps when the boat accelerates. The boat starts to fly higher because the foils lift more. Then part of the wing goes in the air, so the foils lift less.

“That is the game, which is very complicated.”

The grand unveiling. Photo: Marie Rouge/Gitana SA

The flexi-rig

Another tool at Caudrelier’s disposal will be the rig, shipped over from Southern Spars – the first the New Zealand builders have made for the Ultim class.

The 121ft spar is capable of impressive levels of flex. The problem, Caudrelier explains, is that when you are building speed and power to take off, particularly in lighter airs, you need camber in your rig. But when in flight mode you need it flattened off to depower.

The solution is a mast which can be bent, with the spreader angles flexing by up to 35° to create camber in the middle of the section. Rams control the power – one on each spreader – in a system which can be handled by a solo sailor, rather like cranking on the Cunningham on a dinghy or windsurfer rig.

Article continues below…

The ability to depower should also reduce the number of headsail changes or reefs required. “I can very quickly change the angle of the spreaders, then I can adapt my power to the wing and to the speed of the boat. That’s very, very fast,” notes Caudrelier.

Despite the intimidating forces involved, he says the rig is actually simple to handle. “But to do it on a canting wing mast, and such a big mast – that has never been done before. And how to manage it with only one guy on board? That took a lot of brain hours!”

Gitana 18 was moved under cover of darkness. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Radical Rudders

Control is what led to the creation of the outlandish rudders, the most unique feature of Gitana 18. To improve steerage when flying at faster speeds, high above the waves, the team wanted to lengthen the rudders. The problem is that the huge loads they are subjected to, means they can deform, twist and shear, leading to sudden loss of control.

The new U-shaped rudders do not rotate – instead they have trailing edge flaps on each vertical chord, which provide steerage like an aeroplane wing. Each rudder also has a horizontal elevator, which in turn has an adjustable flap to control trim. This rigid structure enables the rudders to be much deeper – at over 4m they are a metre longer than on Gitana 17 – and resistant to cavitation. They are also thinner hence, somewhat counterintuitively given their shape, there is no drag penalty.

But they’ve never been made before. There has been no tank testing and no scale models built – just a lot of CFD and data analysis, and enormous trust in the process.

The problem, Sainson explains, is that when you are designing something that has never been done, there is no data to work from. “When we started designing those rudders, the software for designing them didn’t exist. The simulator didn’t understand them and physically couldn’t calculate them. So in the same time as we’ve invented those rudders, we had to invent a new code for the simulator. We had to invent a new programme to calculate the structure. Obviously, those programmes are not as well proven as the one for the foils. So that brings another little level of stress.”

Caudrelier is confident. “On a car, you can have a super engine, but in Formula 1 today sometimes you lose a race because of your tyres. You can have the best car, but if your tyres are not good, you cannot be very accurate and you have to reduce your speed. It was exactly the same on Gitana 17. Sometimes we felt the rudders were overloaded. We knew that if we didn’t reduce the load, we were going to damage them, or it’s going to twist and we’d lose control. More control means you can push harder.”

The boat was precision built at CDK Technoloiges in Lorient, with up to 80% made in an autoclave. Photo: G Le Corre/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Visualisation

Because this rudder shape had never been tried before, even the most high-tech autopilots weren’t suitable. So, in an ambitious side quest, Gitana developed its own. This also helped keep a project of such complexity top secret, in a town where everybody works in the same industry.

One key weapon was their in-house simulator. Derived from the Team New Zealand America’s Cup sim, Gitana has now developed an offshore foiling simulator tool like no other. Over three years Caudrelier says they ‘sailed’ for thousands of hours on it, initially verifying the vast data accumulated from eight years of optimising Gitana 17, and focussing on improving how the simulator handled variances of sea state.

Caudrelier explained: “Over the last three years, the improvement in the sim has been huge – because we’ve had no boat, we’ve spent hours and hours ‘sailing’ the simulator and developing it. Now it’s really accurate.

“Before it was just numbers and no sensation, no feeling. Now we can really test the foils, rudder, everything, and give our feedback to the designer. It’s completely changed the way we work.”

200,000 man hours have gone into Gitana 18’s construction. Photo: G Le Corre/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

The autopilot was subject to some eight months of daily testing. “It works like a helmsman,” Caudrelier enthuses. “It understands how the boat works, can adjust the height of the flight, can visualise the boat in 3D and anticipate its movements. In terms of performance, it’s amazing what we can achieve with it.” The major limitations will be what the class rules permit in terms of automation.

The cockpit of this 100ft goliath share some features with the latest IMOCAs, particularly Charlie Dalin’s Vendée Globe winning Macif. Like Dalin, Caudrelier requested his living space be behind the working cockpit area. The cockpit is also fully enclosed. But once inside, what strikes you most are the irregular-shaped portholes punched through the roof and sidewalls. Gitana 18 is the first new trimaran built to meet the latest Ultim rule on visibility, and their positioning was created with Caudrelier to enable him to maintain a lookout, and view sail trim.

Sébastien Sainson (left), Caudrelier (seated) and team discuss the finer details of construction mid-build. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut/polaRYSE/Gitana SA

Anything goes

Gitana 18 was a year in conceptual development before build even began. The team adopted a ‘try anything’ approach, working with the most innovative and free-thinking designer of a generation in Guillaume Verdier. “The whole idea of the boat – and Guillaume loves working like that – is to say, don’t think about the problems now. Think about what would be the most crazy thing,” explains Sainson. “The rudders are one example. If you say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be super complicated. How are we going to attach them to the boat?’ If you start thinking like that, you don’t do it.”

Verdier himself commented: “being so lucky to create such a work of art in a career is rare.”

While the project’s ambition was unlimited, that doesn’t mean the budget was, as Ariane de Rothschild explained: “When we work under tension and pressure is when we work better. So it’s very important to put in budget caps that are reasonable.”

Caudrelier (left) working in VR goggles to visualise the cockpit layout, sight lines etc.

But reasonable is relative. They will likely never disclose exactly how much this extraordinary project cost, but one team member did emphasise that their 30-person operation runs at quite a bit less than an America’s Cup campaign. Meanwhile the previous boat was listed for sale at €15million, so the answer likely lies somewhere in the very big space between €15million and €50million.

Far more important is what it can do. “The top speed, I think we’ll manage above 55 knots, which is a lot for a big boat. But that’s not what we’re looking for,” explains Sainson. “What we’d like is to have average speeds above of 40 knots all the time.

“The around the world time is very hard to say because already on the previous boat, it was [theoretically] 35, 38 days. If you had perfect routing, I’m sure that the times would be just about 30 days now, but it’s never going to happen because of the weather. But if you can go at 40 knots average around the world, it would be 32 or 33 days.”

And that would be something truly extraordinary.

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As the doors swung open at boot Düsseldorf 2026, the sailing halls were buzzing with a clear message: performance is back at the forefront of yacht design. This year’s premieres showcased a sophisticated shift toward dynamic sailing, blending high-speed hull forms with the luxury and ease of use demanded by modern cruisers.

From the world debut of Beneteau’s most ambitious First model to date, to the award-winning grit of German-built aluminium explorers and the refined agility of Dutch daysailers, the 2026 lineup offered something for everyone.

Beneteau First 60

After nearly half a century of First, this performance line of Beneteau continues to gather renewed momentum in its seventh generation with the launch of its largest model to date.

Seascape, the Slovenian sportsboat specialists that Beneteau acquired in 2018, has helped to transform the First brand.

It took the fun, fast and easy-to-sail qualities found in Seascape’s original 18-27ft Sam Manuard-designed range and applied them to the larger Firsts – readers will know just how impressed we were with the First 30 during our summer 2025 test.
Such is the transformation, co-founder Andraz Mihelin now heads up the entire First range. He sums up First as ‘the joy of dynamic sailing’ and says they are taking Beneteau into a new area of putting this enjoyment of sailing first.

This 60 is a big new launch in a tricky time for the production yacht market, the largest sailing yacht premiere due to be at boot Düsseldorf.

As well as the Slovenian influence, it sees the French giants once again using all-Italian design in Roberto Biscontini and Lorenzo Argento, who have worked on a number of Beneteau models in recent years. Biscontini brings his renowned wide, powerful hull shape, which will be styled inside and out by talented former Brenta designer Argento.

Few details had been released as we went to press – indeed these images were released under embargo at the time – so we will report back with more from the show in January. From what we have gleaned, however, the First 60 will have a performance cruising focus (as opposed to handicap racing ambitions).

The cockpit is divided into sailing, relaxing and dining zones, and it will sport a captive mainsheet to provide push-button control of the powerful mainsail. A performance version of this mainsail is available, which adds an extra 7m2 sail area if you take the taller carbon rig.

First 60 specifications

LOA: 18.95m 62ft 2in
Hull length: 17.60m 57ft 9in
LWL: 17.00m 55ft 9in
Beam: 5.30m 17ft 5in
Draught: 2.63m or 2.88m 8ft 8in or 9ft 5in
Displacement: 22,280kg 49,105lb

Pure 42

Aluminium explorer yachts continue to be more popular than ever – but also tend to be comprised of custom yachts for high latitudes, luxury yachts, or slower centreboard cruisers. So what about those seeking sailing performance in that mix too?
This time last year I was intrigued by a German startup brand at the Düsseldorf boat show, which promised much of this blend in a new and exciting niche of performance cruising, semi-custom, aluminium explorers. Since then I’ve been able to sail the first boat, and can confirm it is an exceptional design and build.

It offers spirited sailing, managed from the aft helms short-handed, combined with a very deep and protected cockpit and raised saloon. This is a yacht for all waters and particularly couples seeking enjoyable sailing and long periods aboard in comfort.

The Berckemeyer design is eye-catching and clever, featuring a hydraulically lifting keel for maximum shoal and deep draught benefits.

The layout reserves the entire aft section for stowage and machinery, but the accommodation doesn’t feel compromised. It includes a midships cabin, with berth below the raised saloon, and a customisable stowage or workbench area.

Pure 42 specifications

LOA: 13.80m 45ft 3in
Hull length: 12.90m 42ft 3in
LWL: 12.30m 40ft 4in
Beam: 4.20m 13ft 8in
Draught: 1.20 to 3.00m 4ft 0in to 9ft 9in
Displacement: 9,800kg 21,600lb

Saffier SE 28 Leopard

Here, kitty kitty! This new SE 28 from ever-busy Dutch builder Saffier looks both wild and inviting, and is boldly christened with a name that suggests it will offer a feisty experience afloat. In a year when the IJmuiden yard released its largest model to date – a SL 46 that sees it now offer a luxury cruising range –it’s also developed this new Leopard, which sits in the heart of the daysailers it’s renowned for.

It comes just five years after Saffier’s SE 27 Leisure launched and scooped a European Yacht of the Year award, proving how quickly hull shapes and ideas move forward. While the SE 27 will remain in Saffier’s range, this SE 28 presents a lot more yacht, thanks to its wider beam, higher freeboard and increased interior space. It’s also an evolution of what Saffier does best, including the ability for one person to sail it fuss-free from a large, ergonomic cockpit. Where Saffier found success with its two-year-old SE 24, thanks to flatter underwater sections that make it a blast to sail, you can see those lines now exaggerated further on this SE 28.

The yard also says this is its most versatile daysailer, as it offers plenty of choice to suit solo cruising to racing. Options include double wheels or tillers, electric or diesel propulsion, and a solar panel or foredeck hatch. It is also offered with Seldén’s latest performance hardware, including its new rewind winches. The prototype of this was demonstrated to us at the Saffier yard and seemed very intuitive, especially when easing a loaded sheet line.

Designed by Kees van de Stadt and Saffier founder Dennis Hennevanger, the SE 28 weighs 2,200kg and is trailable. Below decks is seated headroom only in a bright, smart space, which includes a double berth, settee berths, a fridge and an optional chemical toilet.

Saffier always has a stand-out stand at boot, and alongside the Leopard, it will also be presenting the SE 24 Lite, SE 33 Life, SC 8m Cabin and SC 6.5 Cruise.

Saffier SE 28 Leopard specifications

LOA: 9.20m 30ft 2in
Hull length: 8.40m 27ft 7in
Beam: 2.70m 8ft 10in
Draught: 1.30m or 1.07m; 4ft 2in or 5ft 7in
Displacement: 2,200kg 4,850lb
Price: €114.500 ex VAT. saffieryachts.com

Hallberg-Rassy 370

Düsseldorf will once again feature a world premiere for this renowned Swedish yard, this time of its 370. Now the second smallest model in its range, this is a size which the yard knows works, following its long production runs of the 372, the 37 and the 36 before that.

The modern Frers hull shape of the HR370, with its straight stem and wide stern sections, brings enhanced volume and powerful sailing. With twin wheels, two thrusters, two cabins, twin armchairs even, it packs the features in.

Hallberg-Rassy 370 specifications

LOA: 12.13m 39ft 10in
LWL: 10.59m 34ft 9in
Beam: 3.75m 12ft 4in
Draught: 2.00m 6ft 7in

J/7 daysailer

An easy-to-sail family dayboat is J-Boat’s promise with this attractive new 23ft J/7. For that you need simplicity in operation, cockpit space and stability, all of which this design seems to offer in abundance. It’s also light enough to trailer and has a single-point lift to aid launching. Tiller-steered with all controls kept easy and to hand of the helmsman, it features an end-boom mainsheet system.

Four adults can sit on one side of the long cockpit, while a swim platform extends space to the narrow hull when at rest.

J/7 daysailer specifications

LOA: 7.04m 23ft 11in
LWL: 6.35m 20ft 8in
Beam: 2.47m 8ft 11in
Draught: 1.16m 3ft 8in

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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What would be your ideal tradewind sail setup? Keep things simple with a poled-out genoa, go more specialist with a Parasailor, or fly a combination of options?

We have just seen the conclusion of the annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), where hundreds of yachts set off across the pond, so it seems a good time to have learned of this promising new, versatile solution from OneSails. Its IFS Multi Tradewind Sail is based on the age-old ‘wing on/and wing’ or ‘twins’ headsail setup, but using modern asymmetric spinnaker technology rather than headsails/genoas to make it potentially easier to handle, more versatile and performance oriented.

It uses two gennakers connected at the centre, offering two sails in one piece of cloth with multiple functionality. Where it differs from previous designs like this, such as Elvstrom’s Blue Water Runner or North Sails’ TradeWind, is that OneSails has incorporated modern structured luff technology, or IFS (Integrated Furling Structure), which means it doesn’t need a heavy anti-torsion cable sewn in.

Nominated for a DAME award (full report on that next month), the IFS Multi Tradewind was developed by OneSails Palma, and we spoke with CEO Peter Bresnan following their successful first trials. Their new system was nicknamed the ‘Batman sail’ after the noticeably large black prototype was tested on a Privilege 510 and the video was shared on YouTube.

The clews can join and the sails set on the same side for reaching angles

The potential advantages look far-reaching. Principally, by incorporating two structured luff gennakers on a single furling unit, this setup offers the benefits of a reaching gennaker and a large downwind spinnaker, both of which can quickly be doused fuss-free (in theory) using a furler.

For reaching/sailing higher angles, the sails can be set on the same side by connecting both clews to the same sheet. This allows them to function as a gennaker for reaching angles up to 90° to the true wind. The IFS Multi Tradewind is also suitable for use on both monohulls and multihulls, and with or without spinnaker poles.

Structured luff benefits

The use of structured luff sails means heavy anti-torsion cables are not required, saving weight aloft. It also means the luff is soft and easy to manage, so the sails can be quickly dropped and stowed in a spinnaker bag when not in use.

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Bresnan explains there are more advantages to using IFS, and its high modulus lens, “which has such good shapeholding when using the sail at tighter reaching angles”.

The positive curvature of this luff creates a good entry angle for reaching. These fibres also resist deformation and stretch incredibly well, making the sail “very efficient at tighter reaching angles because the driving force is improved through better shapeholding of the luff.”

“The flying shape of the sail resembles more a genoa than a spinnaker on reaching angles,” adds Bresnan.

For those more intent on downwinding, there are additional benefits of the wing-on-wing Batman mode too, which include the larger, more powerful sail area it provides compared to twin headsails or a spinnaker. Indeed, this surface area is up to 35% larger than a symmetrical kite, says OneSails, and because the majority of this sail area is concentrated low down, it results in less rolling motion.

Large black prototype of the OneSail IFS Multi Tradewind Sail earned the nickname ‘Batman sail’

“It delivers greater thrust, improved stability, and reduced overall load on the upper section of the mast,” Bresnan adds.

During the Privilege trials they sailed at 7 knots in 15 knots dead downwind in Batman configuration (and 11 knots in 18-22 knots).

“One sail for all downwind angles – for an Atlantic crossing, I don’t think you can beat it,” Arnas Eimutis from One Sails Palma reported.

The P510 sail is 193m2 and costs €13,500 ex VAT. Contact: onesails.com/multi-trade-wind-sail

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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Slovenian boatbuilder Elan has stunned many by announcing the development of ‘the ultimate bluewater cruiser’, designed by J&J and Guillaume Verdier. Starting with this new high-performance carbon epoxy 65-footer, the range includes a 73 and 80, and shows Elan now focusing on the premium sector.

The novel carbon fibre invitation we received was a clue, yet few were expecting such a markedly bold tack, and one that comes after a turbulent year for Elan. It’s a step change for a brand known for its family cruisers, made during a year when it ceased yacht production altogether.

The SixtyFive marks Elan’s move away from smaller family cruisers into the domain of prestige, lightweight and high performance cruising yachts. Photo: Elan Yachts

“Earlier this year, we made the very tough call to pull the emergency brake on Elan Marine,” CEO Jeffrey Tirman explained at a special press presentation during European Yacht of the Year trials in October. “We’re not planning on building family cruisers any more – we can’t compete on price, labour is too expensive.” It’s hard news for the many who’ve been long-term Elan supporters.

The Elan SixtyFive has Composite Prowess

Tirman described how they used the following months to analyse and focus on what Elan does well, pointing to how they have built boats for 80 years, 65 of which have involved composite construction. While renowned for its alpine skis, Elan is an expert in composites today, with repeatable industrial processes in place for partners such as Siemens offshore wind.

The company now aims to create the ultimate bluewater cruiser. The commissioning of Verdier for the naval architecture, who is arguably the world’s leading performance designer, gives the SixtyFive serious gravitas, while J&J are behind the concept and styling. Known for his IMOCA work, Verdier’s hand can be seen in the powerful rig, with a raked mast stepped well aft, and very rounded forward sections.

Photo: Elan Yachts

So, will this be a racing-inspired machine for professional sailors?

“The goal is to make something really easy to handle,” Verdier told us. The fixed spray dodger is another design trait taken from IMOCAs, to help enable those standing a watch on the SixtyFive to do so from a protected position. To make the yacht manageable and safe for cruising, it will use digital load monitoring and, crucially, a custom IMOCA-style autopilot.

The design team predicts the 65-footer should sail faster than the wind up to 11 knots true and be able to plane in 14-knots.

The Elan SixtyFive also reunites the yard with fellow Slovenians J&J, over 40 years after they designed the Elan 31. Co-founder Japec Jakopin spoke at length about the new design’s development, its DNA and place in the market. He explained how they’re using the essential knowledge gained from building 55 Shipmans.

Twin wheels – but an IMOCA-style autopilot will be able to do a lot of the driving. Photo: Elan Yachts

Jakopin referenced how the 20-year-old Shipman 63 weighed only 18 tonnes and could cruise in the mid-teens, yet today the average bluewater cruiser this size weighs 32 tonnes. By using vacuum-infused carbon-epoxy construction, a light displacement of nearly half that figure is predicted for the new Elan. Beam is also kept to a modest 5m to ensure it planes.

Easy living

The designers are promoting a yacht that’ll be easy to sail and live aboard, with just 1m in height difference when moving from cockpit to saloon. The forward owner’s suite has an opulent amount of space and includes a walk-in wardrobe, while the three or four guest cabins are all en suite. The 65 can also accommodate three crew.

Photo: Elan Yachts

Elan will start building when it receives two firm orders, says Tirman, who envisages being able to produce three to six yachts a year.

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Elan SixtyFive Specifications:

LOA: 21.35m 70ft 1in
LWL: 19.41m 63ft 8in
Beam: 4.99m 16ft 4in • Draught 3.5m 11ft 6in
Displacement (light): 17,000kg 37,478lb
Price: circa €3m
Contact details: elan-yachts.com

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post First look: Elan SixtyFive – is Elan’s new dawn the ultimate bluewater cruiser? appeared first on Yachting World.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ‘cruise’ aboard an Ultim in comfort? This audacious new project, which is already being built for an owner, could be the closest thing yet.

While the odd maxi cat has previously been retrofitted for minimalist fast cruising, this 100ft trimaran is designed from scratch to set a new bar of luxury performance sailing. The tri platform is also a more powerful, stable and safer one than a cat, its development team argues.

Photo: Global Yacht Technology/VPLP Design

Anahita 100 is a project born in, and utilising the high-performance skills of, Brittany’s famed Sailing Valley. Designed by VPLP, it is being built at CDK in Lorient, led by Global Yacht Technology (GYT), a brand formed to help owners develop such projects. We were given a sneak peek of these renders by GYT’s co-founder Ulysse Harin, during the Cannes Yachting Festival in September.

“We wanted to create the fastest cruising multihull in the world,” Harin stated. To put that in context, imagine crossing the Atlantic in six days in comfort! Anahita will be 60% lighter than most yachts this size, and is predicted to sail at twice their speed. While capable of 40 knots, it is geared more for cruising at 20-25 knots. The central hull is designed not to lift, and it can’t capsize, we are told.

Today’s new age of reliable AI-enhanced pilots means an autopilot will be in control most of the time. The project team use Ultim (and IMOCA) solo racers as examples as they almost constantly rely on pilot control during circumnavigations.

Planned as a repeatable build, the Anahita 100 features superyacht quality interiors designed by Christophe Chedal Anglay

The Anahita 100 is race-inspired

“It’s not a racing boat, but it looks like one,” adds a man who really knows: Loïck Peyron. He also confirms CDK is the best yard for such a project, having built leading Ultims such as the Banque Populaires and SVR Lazartigue.

“This is a logical evolution of our work,” agrees Lucien Boyer, CDK Group’s CEO. He highlights their 40 years of winning ocean races, including producing six out of the top 10 IMOCAs in the last Vendée Globe.

“We know what it takes to make fast, reliable yachts. We believe this is a new approach, using a pro crew to provide owners with new adventures, those who want to go fast in a safe environment.”

Photo: Global Yacht Technology/VPLP Design

This particular environment can run independently of fossil fuels, can anchor in shallower water than most 50ft monohulls, and offers 160m2 of trampoline area (or ‘marine garden’) and over 120m2 of living space.

The Christophe Chedal Anglay-designed interior is superyacht style, with all accommodation in the main hull, centred around the area of least pitching. Three or four double cabins are offered on the main deck, the former with the option for a vast owner’s suite forward. This looks set to create a new definition of a room with a view at speed. Crew quarters for four are situated on the lower deck, while the outriggers are only used for stowage.

Photo: Global Yacht Technology/VPLP Design

A hybrid build of prepreg and infused carbon with some glassfibre will result in a weight of just 34 tonnes. The main hull for the first boat is already infused, the 34m mast is being built by Lorima, and the roof by MerConcept.

Launch is expected during 2027, while the project team envisions a small, select series of these 100ft beasts sailing. And yes, we have firmly volunteered for sea trials!

Article continues below…

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Anahita 100 Specifications:

LOA: 31m 101ft 9in
Beam: 21m 68ft 11in
Displacement: 34,000kg 74,956lb
Draught: 2.00m 6ft 7in
Price: €27m

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The best yachts of 2026, the European Yacht of the Year winners, were announced this evening, Saturday 17 January 2026. The awards have become the ideal way to kickstart the world’s largest indoor boatshow, with a flagship opening ceremony comprising the European Yacht of the Year awards held at boot Düsseldorf.

There is currently a bumper collection of interesting new yachts, 21 of which we shortlisted and trialled during the autumn to find the best yachts of 2026 for the European Yacht of the Year awards.

This is particularly positive given the post-Covid slump and murmurings of marine economic downturns. As we can see from the following collection of new production yachts, the reaction to that in design and build terms is overwhelmingly positive. The result is that we ended up with one of the largest shortlists of EYOTY potentials in nearly a quarter of a century of doing these European Yacht of the Year awards.

Every new production yacht is considered before we shortlist the most interesting and deserving models for testing. Each nominee is then tested by all 12 jury members, each an authority on boat testing from leading sailing titles across Europe. Out of the 21 nominees shortlisted and tested, five European Yacht of the Year award winners and one special mention were announced.

We will feature a full breakdown and review of all yachts in Yachting World March.

Best Family Cruising yacht 2026

Nominees: Beneteau Oceanis 52; Dufour 48; Excess 13; Fountaine Pajot 41; Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 415; Lagoon 38; Leopard 46

Winner: Excess 13

This is the Excess we’ve been waiting for since the brand launched, the one that fulfils its promise. And that starts with the Lombard design, which is more responsive than past models, but includes the yard’s attention to weight, structure and stiffness, which ensures it not only sails well but has a good motion through waves.

The Excess 13

The Excess 13 is rewarding to sail, even through big waves, all while offering more space than others in its category. It successfully blends performance with voluminous accommodation, making it attractive for manageable family cruising.

For a full report, see our February 2026 issue.

Jury comments

“Fulfils the brand promise better than any other model of the young French yard so far: good sailing characteristics and minimalist design with a high comfort factor,” Roland Regnemer, AUT.

“Finally, a cruising catamaran that brings some true excitement to an otherwise rather uninspired part of the market that measures progress in square meters of living and deck space rather than sail area… an obvious winner,” Jochen Rieker, GER.

The Boréal 56

Best Bluewater Cruiser 2026

Nominees: Boreal 56, Kraken 58, Pure 42, Stem 50

This is an exciting category of nominees and a true sign of the cruising times. These yachts are built to go further with more speed and comfort as more sailors look to explore the increasingly rare remote parts of our planet. It comprises three aluminium cruisers from three different nations showing different if modern design nous, and one glassfibre production yacht that is built robustly enough to rival a metal boat.

The Pure 42

Winner: Pure 42

What happens when you cross premium build quality, aluminium construction, and modern hull design? In Pure’s case, you arrive at a fascinating contemporary performance bluewater cruiser that’s right on cue. No thought nor expense is spared on this, a new German yards’ first production design. It’s a Pure fast cruising yacht complete with a lifting T-keel on which it can dry out – it also offers superb crew protection, light and views, stowage galore, comfort and formidable quality.

Not only has Pure developed its own niche, adding performance to the aluminium bluewater explorer sector, but it has designed and built this yacht brilliantly. The Pure 42 offers sailing enjoyment from a deep protected cockpit and saloon, together with shoal draught versatility and the stowage and mechanical access cruisers yearn for.
This is a Pure cruiser indeed.

Full report in Yachting World March and April 2026.

Jury comments

“Through big swells she is sturdy, with the soft movements expected from a true blue water cruiser. Both the watch and the crew will be safe and get the rest needed on a long voyage. When the wind is lighter, she offers performance and sailing sensation more inspiring than her rough looks promise,” Pasi Nuutinen, FIN.

“Great team, crazy attention to detail, unique boat. They have first revamped a somewhat rusty commercial shipyard North of Kiel into a glass-walled wonderland for artisans, complete with laser-cutter for sheet metal, bending bench, veneer press and a paint shop worthy of a high-end classic car clinic. This approach shows in the Pure 42, a meticulously engineered and built a boat that opens up an excitingly new niche in aluminium go-anywhere-yachts, adding quite some performance to the so far mainly sturdy blue water cruisers,” Jochen Rieker, GER. 

The XR-41

Best Performance Cruiser 2026

Nominees: Beneteau First 30, Dragonfly 36, JPK 1050, XR 41

What an impressive lineup! Some very different yet utterly brilliant designs recently launched in the performance sector –  those with a need for speed and the cash to splash are living in fortunate times! Again, this collection of go-faster yachts we nominated proved particularly difficult to agree a category for and whether to make that race-focussed or not.

The JPK 1050 and XR 41 are similar in that they are true modern cruiser-racers (the former more racer), which have already more than proved what they were designed and conceived to do.

And with the Dragonfly 36 and First 30 launching in the same year, the performance sector is on fire, with both deserved winners for very different reasons – and yet they share the commendable trait of putting the joy back into sailing.

Dragonfly 36

Winner (Performance Multihull): Dragonfly 36

This is the jewel in the crown of this family yard’s three generations and six decades of building. Despite the complexities of physics involved in a folding trimaran, this was the boat that ventured out in a gale to prove its build quality.

A feat of design and engineering that is without compare in the production yacht world, the Dragonfly offers a new level of stable speed sailing, all contained in 4.5 tonnes of pure, unadulterated fun.

Full report here and full video review here

Jury comments 

“The Wildest test of the year, the Dragonfly 36 is incredibly fast, solidly built, and well thought out. A rare example of speed and comfort combined,” Axel Nissen-Lie, NOR

“She combines the brand’s well-known trimaran performance with a new level of refinement, balance, and real-world usability. Under sail she delivers exhilarating speed without drama: reaching at 25 knots under Code 0 in full control, and upwind performance that feels almost unreal for a cruising multihull, consistently pushing 9–10 knots like a TGV on rails. What truly sets the Dragonfly 36 apart, however, is how convincingly she pairs that performance with comfort. This is not a compromise boat, but a synthesis of speed, safety, and liveability. This is a yacht that advances sailing,”  Morten Brandt-Rasmussen, DEN

Beneteau First 30

Winner (Performance Monohull): First 30

The First offers fast, easy, planing fun, pure and simple, albeit not as easy to achieve as it sounds. But Beneteau and Seascape managed it… providing genuine planing performance on a yacht that’s easy to cruise and all within their targeted €100,000 price.

That latter point should be stressed. Unfortunately, very few new boats are built today with this sort of budget cap in mind. The First offers so much while still respecting that price and hopefully other yards will follow suit.

Full review link here and video here

Jury comments 

“Accessible and fun. The new First 30 wins in the Performance Category but would also be perfect for a hypothetical Young Yachting Category. A small boat, easy to handle and with an excellent quality/price ratio. If we add the price/performance ratio, she is definitely on the top step of the podium,” Alberto Mariotti, ITA.

“She sails unbelievably smooth and fast, upwind through steep waves as well as downwind in big breeze. She handles and surfs like a dinghy, easily in the double digits. Both Beneteau and the building yard Seascape did some challenging product development and production in making such a value-for-money product available for a wide audience,” Marinus van Sijdenborgh de Jong, NED

The Saffier SL 46

Best Luxury Cruiser 2026

Nominees: CNB 62; Saffier SL 46; Wauquiez 55; Vaan R5

An example of pure refinement of a proven design, a new take on push button ease and performance from leading daysailer specialists, a smorgasbord of design ideas for a pilothouse centre cockpiter, and a catamaran made from recycled street signs – this category has it all!

So how to pick a winner? The CNB 62, Saffier SL 46 Med and Vaan R5 readers should already know well, as we have featured fuller reviews of them in Yachting World, but not even the jury knew what to expect of the Wauquiez on the water – only that it was a very different new design.

The Wauquiez 55

Winner: Wauquiez 55 

A novel, daring design, even, and one of the most talked about new yachts since we filmed a walkthrough from its Düsseldorf premiere last year. The Lombard shape melds some old ideas with so many new ones, featuring reverse sheer, tumblehome, a dry reverse stem, near full-length portholes, and a glazed pilothouse that protects the centre cockpit. The result is a unique blend of North Sea centre cockpit protection with a Med-style deck and interior.

And despite many people’s dubious predictions, I can now confirm it’s definitely a sailing yacht! With the space and layout on deck and below that only really compares to a catamaran, most people, including us, scratch their heads and wonder how it can possibly perform at sea. But perform it does. And all with the ability of doing so shorthanded and from complete protection.

See the video tour here

Jury Comments

“The build is surprisingly strong and doesn’t flex much even if you throw her against some steep 2.5 m waves upwind. Balance and rudder feedback proved quite good for a luxury yacht this size, and she did show significant temperament both in light and stronger breeze,” Jochen Rieker, GER.

“The sailing capabilities are unprecedented for a hardcore bluewater cruiser: the Wauquiez feels smaller than she is, has a subtleness in the way she responds, is a pleasure to helm and sails quite fast. A clear winner,” Marinus van Sijdenborgh de Jong, NED.

The Tortue 147

Best Specialist Yacht 2026

Nominees: Tortue 147; WOY 26

What else could you call a category that comprises the most extraordinary yacht I think I’ve ever boarded in the Tortue 147, and a sublime wooden art form in the shape of a daysailing/racing weapon?

The WOY 26

Special Mention: Woy 26

This stunning design could only be born from a sailor’s passion – in this case, Jan Brügge and his desire passion to show wood still has its place in modern boatbuilding. The Woy 26 proves you can blend timber with the latest materials and infusion techniques to create not only a more sustainable product, but quite simply the best looking new yacht afloat!

Kudos to Martin Menzner of Berckemeyer Yacht Design. It’s somehow contemporary yet timeless, with a flat run, planing hull with reverse stem, open transom and lifting T-keel.

Looks aside, the construction is a story in itself, and one we will tell. But in short, this is a sublime, sporty yet manageable daysailer or racer. The Woy 26 shows that wood rules – it’s the past and the future!  We could not fail to salute this design.

Jury Comments

“If Stradivari had built boats, the Woy 26 would probably have been the result. It also performed brilliantly during our tests in strong winds and waves,” Roland Regnemer, AUT.

“Sailing the Woy 26 is a dream as well, as you can hit 15 knots and more with the gennaker flying. Even with 20 to 25 knots of wind, you feel you would never lose control, thanks to the well-balanced design and the twin rudders,” Sébastien Mainguet, FRA.

“In a nutshell, Woy may have just presented the most enjoyable daysailer – ever” 

Jochen Rieker, GER

THE FULL EYOTY REPORT WILL FEATURE IN YACHTING WORLD MARCH 2026

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post Best Yachts of 2026: The European Yacht of the Year 2026 Winners appeared first on Yachting World.

Imagine you’ve just bought your dream yacht, but it’s floating thousands of miles away. Getting it delivered to its new berth often involves arranging taxes, registration and insurance, and possibly refitting. Hiring a delivery skipper can help you with all of these things, not just sailing it.

I was recently a delivery skipper for a new owner who needed a VAT-free bargain yacht in Finland sailed over to the Republic of Ireland, once a Jersey flag registration was obtained. There are well-trodden delivery paths, for example a thriving trade takes new or refitted Hallberg-Rassys from Ellos in Sweden to all points south, and Lagoon Catamarans out from their base in Bordeaux, France.

A newly-acquired yacht might not need anything retrofitted, but a delivery skipper will require some necessities for an ocean passage. The capacity of a yacht’s watermaker or solar power arrays will need to be assessed for ocean deliveries. A time-sensitive voyage may well tip the power equation heavily in favour of engine use, so delivery skippers will route in favour of refuelling stops and budget for both refilling tanks and adding fuel cans lashed on deck.

Finding a delivery skipper you can trust is key. Photo: Professional Yacht Delivieries

Who to use?

There are pros and cons to choosing an individual skipper or a yacht delivery company.  PYD (Professional Yacht Deliveries), one of the UK’s largest firms, has dozens of skippers on its books. Operations director Peter Kloezeman says that for a transatlantic crossing they’d allocate an experienced skipper who “will usually have completed the crossing several times.”

Falmouth-based firm Halcyon Yacht Delivery is another major UK operator. Managing director Peter Green acknowledges that one-man-band delivery outfits can be cheaper options, but cautions, “If the [freelancer] has to cancel the job you could be left in the lurch.”

He recalls one yacht that was stuck in Spain when its booked skipper failed to show up. “The big advantage of choosing an individual skipper is you know who will be delivering your boat,” says Mark Treacher, who leads his own delivery outfit. “You can check out their feedback,” he adds. “As well as their experience in the waters you need your boat moved in.”

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Treacher asserts that working with an individual can help develop a connection between a vessel’s owner and a delivery skipper. An owner, he says, “can feel more assured that [their] boat will be in safe hands if [they] know exactly who is delivering the boat.”

I asked Treacher what would happen on a delivery should the skipper become incapacitated for whatever reason? “Most skippers I know have a network of skipper’s friends they can call upon,” he explains. “As delivery skippers are generally freelance it would be possible to find [one] you could trust to complete the job.

“It’s often the case that a delivery skipper not attached to a company will develop a very small team of crew who work together very often… it’s common that the first mate is both qualified and experienced to complete the delivery,” he says, adding that is how he operates. By contrast skippers working for big companies may take on different crews for each trip, with varying levels of experience.

In fair weather delivery crews can get a move on, but if conditions deteriorate, it might delay the passage. Time estimates should take reasonable delays into account. Photo: Duncan McKenzie/PYD

Ocean knowledge

Logistically, transferring a larger vessel across an ocean is far more challenging than, say, hopping a 30-footer down the Channel. There’s more money at stake, and as delivery skipper Rollo Goodman notes: “If anything goes wrong then the repercussions are much higher. It calls for a certain professionalism and operational knowledge.”

Checking in and out with Customs, according to a specific flag registry, always requires up-to-the-minute intel. In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, my contacts in Brittany and good French helped smooth many deliveries.

As a delivery skipper, I’m confident about the Dover Strait – the world’s busiest waterway. But I’d be clueless about the world’s second busiest waterway, so don’t hire me to pilot the Strait of Malacca. But when it comes to big boat deliveries, the required ‘local knowledge’ can cover a vast area.

Eddie O’Malley, who runs Captain O’Malley Deliveries across the Indian Ocean, has world-class expertise on everything from the best pilots in the Suez Canal, to reefs in the Red Sea, to no-go areas like Eritrea and Yemen, as well as experience of weather patterns and paper charts that lack crucial details.

Team leader Rollo Goodman, whose outfit Ethos Captains is a flexible and highly reputable service, spoke to me while taking a 54ft yacht from Mallorca to Preveza. He said this trip was a good example of the complexities of the job.  Liftout slots in Greece for the yacht had needed to coincide with estimated times of arrival.

Peter Green of Halcyon Yachts. Photo: Halcyon Yachts

The delivery was delayed at first because Goodman arrived in Spain to discover the boat’s batteries were dead, so he initially had to spend the time in the marina recharging the batteries. Maintenance bookings need to be synchronised as much as possible with delivery schedules.

Goodman’s firm sets a different pay rate for maintenance and preparatory work. This reflects the fact that the demands for this work are different from the job of delivering a boat across an ocean.  While with a smaller yacht there might be a skipper and a single volunteer, for a longer ocean passage on a larger yacht the delivery skipper may recruit and be responsible for up to five paid crew, which brings its own complications.

“The balance is [on] not spending too much money but getting competent crew,” Goodman says. “You need leadership qualities to manage a team. You’ve got to be able to evaluate their skills when you hire them.” Flexibility in a delivery skipper’s schedule is vital, with many reasons such as weather windows or flight times for crew changeovers requiring a shift of plans.

A departure day may change as much as four times before a vessel finally slips her lines. A skipper’s experience will show through in making those decisions. “You’ve got to be able to think on the spot,” says Goodman. A big boat delivery skipper should not ‘wait to be told’.

A yacht delivery can provide a good opportunity for crew to learn from knowledgeable skippers. Photo: Professional Yacht Delivieries

What to have on board

Instruction manuals and full specification documents are most useful for brand new yachts – after all, no skipper can claim to have model-specific experience if the boat is fresh out of the yard. In addition to registration and VAT-paid documents, radio licenses and insurance for the passage, Mark Treacher says he insists on a letter of authorisation from the owner to confirm the appointment of the skipper.

Delivery skippers also require safety kit and spares. “A delivery should never be carried out without an in-date serviced liferaft applicable for the passage,” points out Treacher. “If the boat does not have one, they can be hired.” There is scope for misunderstanding, as I’ve discovered from my own experience.

For example, owners may tick the ‘autohelm’ box on an inventory, only for the skipper to discover their only backup is a disused tiller bar with corroded sockets. ‘Autohelm in good working condition’ would be a far better description on the checklist.

Making a plan

Rollo Goodman says having a plan for an ocean passage is not good enough: you’ve got to have five or six. For an autohelm, by way of example, Goodman will require a spare system with electronic parts that he would be able to install in its entirety while underway, or a hydrovane windvane gear with essential spare parts aboard.

Goodman goes through his plans meticulously. On one trip, he says: “We had plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D… and we actually got down to D.” Preparing these plans involves carefully thought-out sequences in case of different scenarios. Making procedural lists of step-by-step actions also prevents any panic that might otherwise spread among the crew when the situation is changing rapidly.

Skippers should make a checklist to ensure all necessary gear is present on board (or not), and note its general condition. Photo: Professional Yacht Delivieries

An ocean delivery also requires the owner to spend more money on backup equipment. “It is wiser to go out and buy an extra satphone, than to not have it and suffer the consequence,” Goodman points out. But unlike a cruising passage, deliveries do come with an element of time pressure. “If you can’t sail at over five knots, then the engine comes on,” he adds.

Typically, for a delivery from the Caribbean to the UK, if there’s not a need to stop in the Azores, the delivery crew will usually ‘crack on’. Having said that, both skipper and owner do have to be reasonable. Taking a boat from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, Goodman explains, “You will never not stop in Gibraltar.”

It’s an obvious pit-stop for all yacht crews. The pace is something to bear in mind if you’re considering going along. “Owners are welcome to join a delivery,” says PYD’s Pete Kloezeman, “although the delivery crew will routinely sail 24 hours a day with only brief stops as necessary.” Mark Treacher adds the skipper must ensure that if the owner does not have enough experience then other crewmembers are brought along as well.

A learning experience

Some delivery firms offer an RYA course to the owner if their delivery skipper is a qualified instructor, though balancing the need to complete a delivery to a certain time frame and the demands of training can be difficult. One good compromise is to recommend the owner joins the delivery at a later stage.

If it’s  an ocean crossing passage then that could be an island stopover. It’s also worth bearing in mind that weeks at sea may give you plenty of opportunity to practise with a sextant, but it’s no good for learning how to park in a tricky marina berth.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post How a the right delivery skipper protects your yacht (and how to choose one) appeared first on Yachting World.

Choosing the best sailing watch is hard enough, but when it comes to choosing the right marine smartwatch, it can feel like navigating a storm. With a sea of options and a constant stream of hardware updates – like the recent arrival of the Garmin Quatix 8 – how do you find the perfect fit for your helm?

Whether you’re a seasoned racer, a weekend cruiser, or an all-around watersports enthusiast, your wrist-worn tech needs to be as rugged and capable as your vessel. In this newly updated guide for 2026, we’ve overhauled our lineup to reflect the latest testing, including the voice-controlled Garmin Quatix 8 and specialised dive tools like the Descent MK3i.

Garmin remains the global leader in wearable technology, engineering gear that performs flawlessly in the toughest conditions. Below, we’ll show you which model delivers the most essential open-water features—from sail racing assistance and boat data streaming to the new frontier of hands-free voice commands—to ensure you’re always connected, safe, and on course.

Best Garmin sailing watches at a glance

• Best Garmin marine-specific smartwatch: Garmin Quatix 8
• Best Garmin watch for premium luxury design: Garmin MARQ Captain
• Best Garmin watch for robust multi-sport action: Garmin Fenix 7 Solar
• Best for professional diving and life on deck: Garmin Descent MK3i

What makes a good Garmin watch for the open water?

Garmin watches are renowned in the fitness world for being top-of-the-line wearables, but for sailors, the requirements are more specialised. Whether you leave port on a catamaran, cruiser, or racing dinghy, we believe the best Garmin watch must offer three things: reliable GPS navigation, extended battery life, and seamless marine integration.

While most smartwatches handle messages and heart rate, the models we’ve selected move into the realm of professional navigation. We look for features that matter when the wind picks up: multiple-start sequence options for racers, anchor drag alarms for cruisers, and, with the latest 2026 releases, the ability to control your chartplotter or autopilot without ever letting go of the helm.

Best Garmin Watch for sailing

Garmin Quatix 8 – Best Garmin Sailing Watch

Tested by Toby Hodges

Specifications: Facia sizes: 47mm (standard) | Display: 1.4-inch (35.56mm) sunlight-readable color AMOLED touchscreen with sapphire crystal lens | Battery Life: Up to 16 days in smartwatch mode | Health and Fitness Tracking: Advanced monitoring, heart rate, Pulse Ox, sleep scores, and activity tracking | Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo support, TopoActive maps, Bluechart compatibility, barometer, altimeter, and compass | Sports Modes: Preloaded profiles including rowing, surfing, wingfoiling, swimming, and golf (43,000+ courses) | Smartphone Integration: Smart notifications, Garmin Pay, music storage, and built-in microphone/speaker for phone calls | Marine Features: Remote plotter control, autopilot control, Fusion audio control, trolling motor integration, anchor alarm, and tides | Water Resistance: Up to 100 meters (10ATM) and dive-rated to 40 meters.

Reasons to buy: Hands-free marine functionality including voice commands and phone calls | Incredible versatility for both high-end sailing and multi-sport lifestyles | Robust, premium build with titanium bezel and sapphire glass | Dimmable LED torch is surprisingly useful for night sailing
Reasons to avoid: Significant financial investment at £950 | Substantial, chunky profile may feel too large for smaller wrists | Learning curve for menu navigation can be steep for new users

The latest generation of this marine smartwatch turns the “Knight Rider” dream into a reality by adding a built-in microphone and speaker. This allows you to answer calls directly from your wrist or use voice commands to control your Garmin plotters and send hands-free messages while on deck.

If you are a Garmin Quatix 7 user, the major changes for the Garmin Quatix 8 centre on hardware versatility and deeper integration. Beyond the voice features, the Quatix 8 is now dive-rated to 40 meters, making it a more viable tool for underwater exploration. It also expands its remote-control reach to include Garmin trolling motors, which is a game-changer for kayak anglers who need hands-free propulsion.

The Quatix 8 continues to use the crisp AMOLED display introduced in the previous generation, ensuring high visibility in bright sunlight. While the battery life remains impressive at 16 days, it is a vital tool for those who want to see their boat data, such as depth or wind speed, streamed directly to their wrist.

One of the best parts of the upgrade is the data education on offer. I found it pretty surprising to see that a session of sailing a Laser in big waves actually burned more calories than a hill run. However, be prepared for a bit of a learning curve; even after a year, I still occasionally hot the wrong button and return to the home screen by accident during critical race starts.

Garmin Quatix 7

Tested by Jayne Toyne

Specifications: Facia sizes: 47mm / 51mm | Display: 1.4-inch sunlight-readable color AMOLED display with touchscreen and sapphire glass | Battery Life: Up to 16 days in smartwatch powersave mode and up to 36 hours in GPS mode | Health and Fitness Tracking: Advanced health monitoring, heart rate monitoring, Pulse Ox, sleep tracking, and body battery | Navigation: Marine features including GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo support, barometer, altimeter, and compass | Sports Modes: Preloaded with various sports profiles including rowing, paddleboarding, and swimming | Smartphone Integration: Smart notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and compatibility with both Android and iOS devices | Marine Features: Boat data, sail racing assistance, anchor alarm, fishing calendar, tides, and more | Water Resistance: Up to 100 meters.

Reasons to buy: Large easy-to-read face | Incredible versatility for an array of lifestyle activity | Includes a dedicated MOB button
Reasons to avoid: The battery life isn’t as good as the Quatix 6 | Bright facia which can be distracting | Touchscreen is pointless without the additional kit it interfaces with

Debating on upgrading to the Garmin Quatix 7? The next-gen sailing smartwatch includes improvements to strengthen integration with onboard electronics. For instance, the touchscreen model on this watch can be used to control MFD displays, Fusion audio systems and Garmin autopilots.

But if you’re a Quatix 6 user, here are the major changes for the Quatix 7 over the Garmin Quatix 6. The main difference is the display it’s bigger and brighter and touchscreen.

If you found darkness or difficulty seeing the Quatix 6 screen, this has been addressed with a much brighter lit-up option. Whilst this might appease a large number of wearers, it can be harsh for some especially if you’re a frequent night sailor like me.  The obvious compromise to this is that the battery life takes a hit if you want an always on display. To eek out the battery life, then you’ll need to switch the display to on demand motion controlled.

The Quatix 7 has integrated more functionality into the Garmin app on the phone, so it’s easier to make changes to the user functionality of various apps within the watch, rather than having to fiddle about doing them on screen as with the earlier Quatix watches.

The Quatix 7 is undoubtedly one of the best watches for sailors and boaters currently on the market. I love mine and feel undressed without it.

Garmin Fenix 7

Specifications: Display: 1.4-inch sunlight-readable display | Battery Life: Up to 12 days in smartwatch mode | Health and Fitness Tracking: Comprehensive heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, Pulse Ox, and built-in GPS | Sports Modes: Over 120 preloaded sports profiles | Mapping: Full-color, preloaded topographic maps | Music Playback: Store and play music directly from the watch | Smartphone Integration: Smart notifications and Garmin Pay | Water Resistance: Up to 100 meters | Compatibility: Works with both Android and iOS devices

Reasons to Buy: Extensive Sports Tracking with a large selection of sports modes | Topographic Maps: Navigate with detailed maps | Offline Music Storage: Store and listen to music without needing your phone
Reasons to Avoid: The premium features come at a premium cost | It might be overwhelming for those not needing advanced features

The Garmin Fenix 7 is an absolute beast of a smartwatch, catering to adventurers, athletes, and those who demand the very best in terms of features, durability, and performance.

If you’re willing to invest, it’s absolutely a top-tier choice and one of the best waterproof Garmin Watches you can buy.

The Garmin Fenix 7 is a premium multisport GPS smartwatch that sets the bar high with its rugged build and a plethora of advanced features. Designed for outdoor enthusiasts and fitness fanatics, this smartwatch is a true powerhouse, though it comes at a premium price.

Though it isn’t marketed as a sailing watch, it will do the job almost as a well as the Quatix 7 but handle other sports really well too. So if you are into your fitness you might consider this over the Quatix models.

Garmin Descent MK3i

Tested by Katy Stickland

Specifications: Display: 1.4-inch AMOLED color display with sapphire crystal lens | Battery Life: Up to 25 days in smartwatch mode (Up to 66 hours in dive mode) | Health and Fitness Tracking: Comprehensive heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, Pulse Ox, Dive Readiness Tool, and built-in GPS | Sports Modes: Over 100 preloaded sports profiles (including dive modes: single-gas, multi-gas, gauge, Apnea, CCR) | Mapping: Full-color, preloaded topographic maps and DiveView color maps | Music Playback: Store and play music directly from the watch | Smartphone Integration: Smart notifications and Garmin Pay | Water Resistance: Up to 200 meters (20 ATM) | Compatibility: Works with both Android and iOS devices

Reasons to Buy: Very clear screen display (even underwater) | Exceptional battery life | Extensive dive functions which would suit most recreational divers’ needs, along with lifestyle and fitness smart watch functions
Reasons to Avoid: Expensive (especially if you are not a regular scuba diver, but a great buy for professional divers) | Initial set-up could be difficult for those who are not tech-savvy

For years, I scuba dived and taught diving all over the world with my trusty Suunto Mosquito dive computer and apart from a battery change, it never let me down, until it did when it sank into the deep when the watch clasp and lanyard it was attached to both failed at the same time (it does happen!).

So I was eager to try the new Garmin Descent MK3i which is not only a dive computer but also a smart watch too, with a huge array of lifestyle activity and healthy wellbeing customisable settings to suit individual needs.

There are so many options that the setup took a while for me, with a bit of headscratching and referring to the manual along the way, but that is to be expected with any new tech. The watch is not too bulky on the wrist and is comfortable to wear, even over a thickish wetsuit, and it is easy enough to attach a lanyard as backup in case the strap fails. I tested the watch while diving in the Red Sea in Egypt with two friends.

The Garmin Descent MK3i has everything you could possibly need as a recreational scuba diver – gas mix setting (nitrox and trimix) so you can set the mix you are diving with to get the right no decompression time, 3-AXIS compass, LED flashlight, which includes a strobe, which is useful for an emergency or attracting attention on the surface, as well as GPS to mark your entry and exit points and dive planner (no decompression limit and gas deco).

The numbers can be made bigger, so you can easily read your depth, no decompression time etc, and the sapphire crystal AMOLED screen is bright, crisp and clear underwater. The dive function button is more prominent than the rest of the watch buttons, so it is easy to locate.

Garmin MARQ Captain – Best Garmin watch for premium luxury design

Tested by Hugo Andreae

Specifications: Facia Size: 46mm | Display: 1.2-inch (30.4 mm) diameter, 240 x 240 pixels, sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display | Lens Material: Domed sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating | Case Material: Titanium with a ceramic or DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) coating | Bezel Material: Titanium, ceramic, or DLC-coated titanium | Water Resistance: Up to 100 meters (10 ATM) | Battery Life: Up to 12 days in smartwatch mode, up to 28 hours in GPS mode, and up to 48 hours in UltraTrac mode | Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, barometric altimeter, and compass | Health and Fitness Features: Heart rate monitoring, Pulse Ox, Body Battery, stress tracking, sleep tracking, and more | Sailing Features: SailAssist, tack assist, virtual starting line, and race countdown timer | Smart Notifications: Receive smart notifications from your connected smartphone | Music: Store and play music on the watch, and sync playlists from music streaming services | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ANT+ | Strap Material: Interchangeable, compatible with QuickFit bands

Reasons to buy: The watch has weather and tidal data | Good OB and GPS functions and streams boat data to your wrist
Reasons to avoid: The full extent of capabilities is governed by the onboard technology it’s connected to and it has a premium price

The MARQ Captain sailing watch comes packed with marine-relevant features that are ideal for the open water.

Functions include weather and tidal data for your home port, a regatta timer to pinpoint starting times, a ‘tack assist’ function to determine whether you’re on the lift or a header, a man overboard button and GPS.

If you’re searching for a top-quality Garmin watch and value luxury quality, don’t let the price tag put you off. The full extent of its capabilities is governed by the onboard technology it’s connected to. Still, possibilities include streaming boat data directly to your wrist wherever you are on the boat and controlling products from the Garmin-owned Fusion range of audio systems.

Essentially this lovely smart time piece packs all of the premium features possibly available from Garmin and encased it in a beautifully presented box, with premium quality wrist straps and a really smart watch body. If I had the money I’d buy this as a gift for my dad as I know he would love it (and he’d be able to keep track of his fitness and health monitoring too).

Garmin Instinct Solar – Best budget Garmin watch for multi sport action

Tested by Jayne Toyne

Specifications: Facia Size: 40mm / 45mm / 50mm | Display: 0.9 x 0.9 inches (23 x 23 mm), monochrome | Lens Material: Chemically strengthened glass | Bezel Material: Fiber-reinforced polymer with metal rear cover | Case Material: Fiber-reinforced polymer | Water Resistance: Rated to 100 meters (10 ATM), making it suitable for swimming | Battery Life: Up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and up to an additional week with solar models

Reasons to buy: GPS positioning on charts | Barometric pressure and compass | Smartphone connectivity | Single charge lasts 14 days
Reasons to avoid: We’ve classed as a budget option, but it might also been a bit pricey still for those on a tight budget

Back in February 2022, Garmin’s all-round time piece which is known as their ‘outdoors watch’ was released. Since then, Instinct 2 has continued to be a top choice for sailors across the world thanks to features like GPS positioning on charts, barometric pressure and a compass.

It has smartphone connectivity, receives emails and texts, and can control music via a phone. This watch also has an inbuilt thermometer, heart rate monitor, and is available in no fewer than 20 different styles and colours.

If you’re a racing sailor, pay close attention to the multiple start sequence options.

Garmin Epix

Specifications: Display: A 1.3-inch, sunlight-readable color touchscreen with a resolution of 260 x 260 pixels | Battery Life: Up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and up to 24 hours in GPS mode | Health and Fitness Tracking: Comprehensive health monitoring, including heart rate, sleep tracking, Pulse Ox, and a Body Battery feature | Navigation: Preloaded topographic maps, turn-by-turn navigation, and a barometric altimeter | Sports Modes: It offers over 41,000 preloaded golf courses, skiing maps, and a variety of other sports profiles | Music Playback: Store and play music directly from the watch or stream from music services | Smartphone Integration: Smart notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and compatibility with both Android and iOS devices | Water Resistance: Up to 100 meters

Reasons to Buy: Preloaded topographic maps and turn-by-turn navigation | Offers comprehensive health tracking, sleep analysis, and body battery insights, helping you maintain your well-being | Store and play music directly from the watch, eliminating the need for a smartphone during workouts or hikes
Reasons to Avoid: It’s on the higher end of the price spectrum, making it an investment | Its array of features might overwhelm those looking for a simpler, everyday smartwatch

If you’re confused about the differences between the top Garmin watches, Quatix, Fenix and Epix… then you’re not alone. I’ve compared the top three watches side by side to get a better understanding of what kind of person they are designed for.
Essentially the Fenix and Epix are virtually the same watch but with slightly different screen options. The Epix has a red screen option for better night vision preservation and the fenix 7 has memory in pixel screen meaning you have the option of an always on display without killing the battery.

Both have the same sports tracking and health and fitness features. The Quatix is very much geared towards the pure boating person with its dedicated man overboard button and marine first focus on onboard features.

If you see a great deal on either the Fenix 7 or Epix, then know you are getting pretty much the same watch with very tiny, subtle differences in the screen.

FAQ: Do I Need My Phone for My Watch to Acquire GPS?

No, all of the above Garmin watches have built in GPS. They do not require the internet to work, nor a phone. They can work independently, tracking your activities or personal metrics. They store this information onbaord until you upload to a suitable other deivce.
For best results you should sync your watch to a smart phone from time to time. Especially if you want to download your activities to other apps such as Strava.

The post The Best Garmin Watch for Sailing: 2026’s top options tested appeared first on Yachting World.

“I did my last Olympic campaign on the 49erFX in Rio, 2016. Actually, that was the first Olympic Games where the 49er was also a women’s class, so we were a bit the pioneers of that era,” recalls Clapcich, who finished fifth at Rio representing Italy with Giulia Conti.

The 49er was introduced as a women’s skiff class, with the FX rig giving lighter crews a shorter mast and reduced sail plan on the 49er platform.

“The boat is really amazing. It’s a double-handed boat with a double trapeze, and extremely physical. The physical preparation is a massive key to be able to sail the boat at the best of its performance,” says Clapcich.

“Overall, I really enjoyed that year sailing with Giulia in the 49er. I really enjoy pushing myself in the gym, and pushing the boat on the water, always trying to make perfect manoeuvres around the course.

“It’s never easy. The level of the class was really high. It’s a really special boat.”

Make sure you check out our full list of Coolest boats.

Photo: Sailing Energy

49er FX stats rating

Top speed: 25 knots
LOA: 4.99m/16ft 4½in
Launched: 2012
Berths: 0
Price: €30-35,000
Adrenalin factor: 85%

Francesca Clapcich

Francesca Clapcich is an Italian sailor who twice competed at the Olympic Games, in the Laser Radial in 2012, and 49erFX in 2016. She sailed for the US team American Magic in the Puig Women’s America’s Cup in 2024, and won the 2022/23 The Ocean Race with 11th Hour Racing. She is now campaigning for the 2028 Vendée Globe.

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Just how much yacht you get for a million pounds (or euros) is a more complex question than it first appears. Over the past five years manufacturers have faced rising costs across the board, particularly in raw materials. At the same time, demand has continued to increase for larger yachts with more internal volume, with many buyers going bigger earlier on their yacht ownership journey.

Where once seven figures was reserved for flagship models only, a surprising number of new higher spec cruisers now tip into that price bracket.

Production builders like Hanse and Bavaria have managed to build large for under the £1m mark, largely due to the economies of scale they build at, but more luxurious and slower-built yachts are now firmly north of £1m over 50ft LOA.

At the same time, the Multihull sector continues to grow, with performance orientated models starting to carve their own market.

Compounding all of this, the global economic climate has countered the post-Covid new build boom, making some of the best prospects above £1 million to be found on the used market. In many cases those £1m yachts that were bought in the boom, often lightly used, are those coming to market now.

The ARC multihull fleet has been growing year on year. Photo: James Mitchell/World Cruising Club

One hull or two?

A million-or-more budget puts buyers firmly into the 50ft-plus, lightly used, quality Monohull market, but it’s also a figure where many start to consider more than one hull. Whether mono- or multihull, yachts at such a price point tend to be more complex, with most owners seeking at least some expert advice.

Spike Abram founded Rapide Yacht Group as an independent brokerage specialising in performance yachts, with a focus on Multihulls. Having formerly worked as a Gunboat 68 captain and a project manager he recognised an emerging market with a new generation of performance Catamarans that were very well suited to cruising, along with those willing to pay over £1million for them.

“I spent some time as a broker for Gunboat, but was interested in the growing performance multihull market more widely. An increasing number of buyers were seeing performance multihulls for the cruising style that they offered, in a way that’s only really quite recent – very fast passage making combined with a very high level of comfort just not possible on a monohull until you are over 80ft, yet still being surprisingly accessible to sailors that aren’t super experienced.

Article continues below…

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“What was missing for them was a good level of advice; something we have made our number one priority. Gunboats developed a reputation for having friendly owners who wanted to sail fast, but often needed a professional skipper due to the level of performance. But one rung down from that, there’s a happy medium that most ‘owner drivers’ can handle with a little coaching,” explains Abram.

The idea of a broker as advisor isn’t new, but Abram wanted to think slightly differently about how that related to selling yachts. “Being a Gunboat fan and someone who was selling them was great, but being restricted to one brand I eventually found didn’t suit me.

“Clients now come to me and if I can point them in the direction of one of our great listings, that’s fantastic. But if we haven’t got a boat that’s suitable for them, I’ll explain that and happily point them somewhere else and help them with that process.

“Clients do come back, and you might make a great deal a few years down the line because you served them first and foremost with what was right for them at that time.”

Spike Abram set up Rapide brokerage after seeing a gap in the market for those looking for performance catamarans

Capital improvement

The investment to maintain the value of a yacht over £1m in price can be layered with complexity and constant decision making. Is it a smart idea to re-power? Put on a new deck? Upgrade the electrics?

When Abram has sold performance multihulls he has encouraged owners to think three years ahead about improvements, making a clear and realistic plan. “If you know what you are looking for you can tell a lot about a boat by its history.

“Are there structured maintenance records? If so, it’s likely maintenance has been a serious consideration for the previous owner, rather than an afterthought.

“Making an improvement plan for when you take ownership over years one, two and three will make the finances more predictable and ownership less fraught with surprises. With a high value performance yacht you really want to be planning ahead for the real world.”

Yachts from low volume boatyards – such as this Saare 47 – can have a seven figure price tag, but are likely to hold residual value well. Photo: Paul Wyeth/YM

Mission Critical

While buying over £1m is a lot of money, buying the right boat for the mission might be worth the extra cash; particularly when buying used. Those embarking on a bluewater cruising adventure like the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) are often taking a sabbatical where buying bigger can enable a more inclusive adventure with more crew.

“Resale values after initial depreciation on more expensive quality yachts can be better as yachts are produced in fewer numbers, so that can be factored into your search,” adds Abram.

The ARC last year saw more multihulls than ever before and a number of yachts over 70ft bought specifically to take on a bluewater sabbatical. “If you make a plan, ownership like this can be for a period of time to have your adventure, then the yacht is sold. When you’re on board it’s great value!” Abram says.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post What does seven figures buy you in today’s yacht market? appeared first on Yachting World.

‘RB3’ was the hull name of INEOS Britannia, the AC75 the British America’s Cup team sailed in the 37th America’s Cup Match against Emirates Team New Zealand after winning the Louis Vuitton Cup Challengers Series – the best British performance in over 90 years.

Dylan Fletcher shared America’s Cup helming duties with team boss Sir Ben Ainslie.

“My coolest yacht would have to be either Shamrock IV or RB3,” he explains, “The two most successful British challenges of the Cup.

“RB3 certainly means the most to me, given it was my first time sailing a Cup boat and it was such an epic experience.

“Sailing RB3 was breathtaking. A huge leap from the AC40 into an incredible piece of engineering that is very rewarding to sail, hugely technical, that requires finesse to maximise the performance. Finally fulfilling a dream to helm a British America’s Cup was something else.”

Make sure you check out our full list of Coolest Yachts.

AC75 ‘RB3’ stats rating

Top speed: 55.6 knots
LOA: 23m/75ft
Launched: 2024
Berths: 0
Price: €10+million (boat only)
Adrenalin factor: 98%

Dylan Fletcher

Dylan Fletcher was co-helmsman for the British America’s Cup team in AC37, taking the port wheel of the AC75 through the Challengers series and Cup Match. He currently helms the Emirates GBR SailGP team’s F50, and is a former Olympic gold medallist and world champion in the 49er and an International Moth world champion.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post World’s coolest yachts: AC75 ‘RB3’ appeared first on Yachting World.

The world of high-performance cruising catamarans is currently undergoing a radical evolution. For decades, the segment was strictly defined by speed and lightweight, minimalist construction. Now, technological advancement, and a new focus on sustainability is driving builders to reinterpret what a fast multihull can be.

From the legendary Gunboat launching a radical new ‘Gran Turismo’ line designed for comfort over ultimate pace, to the eco-conscious innovations of Windelo and the superyacht-quality ambition of the new Dutch builder Holld, the focus is shifting.

This year’s yachting festivals provided a clear snapshot of this dynamic new market, showcasing performance cats that put volume, lifestyle, and ecological efficiency squarely alongside speed. With new models like the voluminous Gunboat Fusion 80 and the versatile Leopard 52 offering owners more luxury, livability, and operational flexibility than ever before, the defining lines of the performance multihull are being redrawn. Get ready to explore the exciting new generation of cruising catamarans that are built not just to sail fast, but to live well.

Gunboat Fusion 80

First, a Gunboat with a flybridge, and now a new line of voluminous flybridge cruisers…

Gunboat was/is the reference point in performance cruising cats. It didn’t just set the bar, it invented it. As Gunboat models evolved and were increasingly turbocharged, they became more elite cruiser-racers.

To see the now french-owned brand move into a new high volume market sector will no doubt raise many eyebrows, but together with design partners including VPLP and Christophe Chedal-Anglais, Gunboat has done its homework.

“We’ve led the fast cruising market for 25 years, but now owners have been asking for more,” marketing director Rodolphe Cadoret announced at the unveiling of this Fusion line in Cannes. “It’s time to bring something else to the market.”

That something else is a ‘Gran Turismo’ range that puts an emphasis on the lifestyle experience – intriguing, especially as Gunboat already has a 72ft flybridge model (No.5 in build).

Managing partner Benoit Lebizay confirmed the 72 fly was a “shy move towards this area… and see that the market is not only ready to accept this, but now demands it.”

So Fusion extends Gunboat into the realm of more comfort. “We want to focus on sailing early [from 6 knots], but top speeds are not important. The 72 is already too fast for some owners for a flybridge cat. To get to double digits quickly is capturing that essence,” Lebizay continued.

The Gunboat Fusion 80 will not need to keep such an eye on paring down to save weight – but will still be around 20 tonnes lighter than big cats of a similar size

The development team picked a figure in the middle of the weight sector – meaning 50-55 tonnes fully loaded, rather than the 32 tonnes of the GB72, or the 75 tonnes loaded figure of other cruising cats this size.

Construction will be in infused composite rather than Gunboat’s typical super light pre-preg carbon cats. “We can afford to not use honeycomb furniture and can offer more perceived quality,” Lebizay added. As a comparison, the 10m2 master cabin on the 72 is 19m2 on the Fusion 80. As well as this vast suite with its direct sea access, other key features include the large flybridge and forward cockpit with steps that lower to the sea.

Sensing people’s loyalty to the original Gunboat ethos, Lebizay compared the move to the automotive sector, explaining how the example they used internally is Porsche’s Cayenne model (a crossover SUV introduced over 20 years ago) – the german manufacturer took on that brand risk, yet succeeded in extending it into a new segment.

The first Fusion is an 80, pitched at the biggest expected growth area. “Gunboat is always going to be in the crewed boat area of 70-80ft… the idea is to do a range of Fusion because we want to combine two things that have been antagonistic – performance at one end and comfort at the other. This brings them together at the next level.”

Gunboat Fusion 80 specifications

LOA: 24.00m 78ft 9in
LWL: 23.95m 78ft 6in
Beam: 11.07m 36ft 3in
Draught: 2.20m-4.06m 7ft 2in-13ft 3in
Sail area (upwind): 295m2 3,175ft2
Price from: €13.5m ex VAT

Windelo 58 & 62

Think back over the explosion of performance cruising Catamarans in recent years, and a brand that sticks out for good reasons is Windelo. This Canet-en-Roussillon startup yard formed in 2019 with a focus on innovation, particularly with regard to using more sustainable materials and systems.

As well as its thorough research into and use of basalt fibre, recycled foam, green energies and electric hydrogenerating drives, these Christophe Barreau designs are also refreshingly different. Not only do they use a garage-style door aft to promote a vast and seamless indoor/outdoor space with a formidable amount of glazing and surround views, the forward helm and cockpit layout help set them apart.

I really came to appreciate the benefits of handling the original Windelo 50 from this position, one of the least pitching by the mast base. Minimal leads are needed for the lines, which aids short-handing, and the cockpit and helms are in easy social connection to those you’re sailing with. Therefore, while Windelo is currently building sports versions of its 55, it makes sense to see it maintaining the majority of these design features and material choices for its new range of 60ft cruisers, the 58 and 62. Both are conceived for private ownership or for use with a skipper/small crew.

The greenest motive power is the wind, so the new Windelo models are designed to sail in very light breeze.

Although powered by green energy, the most ecological measure is to sail as much as possible, hence these new models are designed to sail in as little as four knots of wind, thanks to lightweight fine hulls, lifting boards, and powerful rigs. “We wanted boats that offer more space, more comfort, and more autonomy — without compromising performance or sustainability,” designer Christophe Barreau explains.

The interiors have received an uplift in quality, thanks to a new partnership with automotive design specialists Stellantis. Both models offer up to five cabins (four of which are en suite on the 58) and the option for crew cabin access direct from the cockpit.

Windelo 58 specifications

LOA: 17.68m 58ft 0in
Beam: 9.48m 31ft 1in
Draught: 1.35m-3.00m 4ft 5in-9ft 9in
Displacement: 18 tonnes
Price: €2,100,000

Windelo 62 specifciations

LOA: 18.88m 62ft 0in
Beam: 9.48m 31ft 1in
Draught: 1.35m-3.00m 4ft 5in-9ft 10in
Displacement: 22 tonnes
Price: €2,550,000

Holld 74

We introduced this new dutch brand in our October issue, and then had the chance to meet the team and designer behind it at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September. The founders of the Zwartsluis yard have known and worked together for many years doing specialist composite work for neighbouring superyacht builders such as Vitters, Royal Huisman and Feadship. They’ve set themselves up as the only dutch carbon Multihull manufacturers, specialising in superyacht quality. Holld offers performance cruising catamarans that can be sailed with small crews.

“We want to bring our superyacht quality into high-performance cruising catamarans that can be short-handed,” says Holld’s Anneke Harms. The 74 is an Elliot Thorne design being built on spec with an expected launch at the end of next year. Aimed at owners downsizing from superyachts who don’t want big crews, 74 is the maximum you can handle with a small crew, Holld argues.

Stub keels are preferred over daggerboards as they’re easier and more practical, without taking interior space, for a small trade-off in performance. That said, the design could accommodate boards if an owner so desired.

These semi-custom cats are highly advanced technical builds, hybrid-ready, and with modular interiors. They use one-shot infusion in negative moulds, with all parts in infusion too, and the yard has an ‘obsessive focus on precision’.

Holld 74 specifications

LOA: 22.50m 73ft 20in
LWL: 22.00m 72ft 2in
Beam: 10.20m 33ft 6in
Draught: 1.45m 4ft 9in
Displacement: 23.95 tonnes

Leopard 52

Cannes marked the world premiere for the Leopard 52, a three- to six-cabin model, with multiple layout options to offer the most versatile appeal, whether for the owner-operator liveaboard or as a dream charter boat.

Leopard, The Moorings and Sunsail, together with their long-term builders Robertson & Caine and designers Simonis Voogd, make for a team not lacking in experience and feedback, having built 246 of the previous 50ft model. Impressively, the base price of this new replacement remains the same.

This 52 is not only ‘bigger everywhere’ but is designed to also deliver improved sailing performance over its recent smaller sistership 46. And despite the vessel’s size, it’s already proved it can sail in just light single figure breezes. Fine bows, stepped hulls, deep keels and a tall mast with optional square-top main (17% extra upwind sail area) all help contribute to this performance.

New Leopard 52 is ‘bigger and better’ than ever – but is priced the same as the previous model

The show boat had the hybrid electric JOOOL power set up installed (€170,000 extra), which is capable of regenerating power under sail, while 57hp diesels come as standard.

The indoor/outdoor configuration will draw appeal, as will the number of different relaxation spaces, including Leopard’s trademark forward cockpit. The wide range of layout possibilities helps it suit private, bareboat or crewed charter use. The port hull in particular is clever as it can be chosen with a VIP or crew cabin with private aft entrance, or with a huge utility cabin fore, aft or both that liveaboards will cherish, while every cabin can have its own en suite.

Leopard 52 specifications

LOA: 15.75m 51ft 8in
LWL: 15.31m 50ft 3in
Beam: 8.16m 26ft 9in
Draught: 1.45m 4ft 9in
Displacement: 20.52 tonnes
Price: €899,000 ex VAT

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post Bigger and better? Meet the high-performance multihulls appeared first on Yachting World.

Every year when Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around I go on the hunt for good Cyber Monday stand up paddleboard deals. And every year I’m reminded of just how much tat there is on the market. These might not be the cheapest options out there, but they are made by companies I know and trust and are well built.

If none of these are for you, one of the key things to look out for in an inflatable board is recommended inflation pressures. 15PSI is the minimum I’d suggest and anything that can take up to 20PSI will perform better (as it’s more rigid) and also tends to denote a higher build quality.

Paddleboarding became huge during the covid pandemic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, technology had moved on such that inflatable paddleboards were suddenly almost as good as rigid boards (but much easer to store and transports). Secondly, everyone was looking for a way to get out the house but away from other people.

If, like me, you took up paddleboarding around that time you probably either have a board gathering dust in the garage (like many of my friends) or you’ve may have caught the bug and still be getting out on the water regularly. If you are in that second camp, then now is a great time to pick up a Cyber Monday paddleboard bargain – and maybe consider replacing that covid-purchased board because it’s now actually six years old!

There are relatively few good paddleboard options this year, though I’ve picked out a few of the best deals below. But in summary Bluefin are offering many deals on their boards and Red also have deals across a whole range of their boards.

Best Cyber Monday Paddleboard deals US

Red 13’2″ Voyager MSL Inflatable Paddle Board Package – Was $1,749.00, Now $1,349.00
The Voyager from Red is a really great bit of kit and is well worth considering if you are looking for an upgrade over a more standard board. The slight ‘v’ in the bow allows the board to cut through waves better, whole the length and relatively narrow width make it glide further for ever stroke.
If you’ve only ever paddled a standard board, having something like this will be a revelation (note, though that you will want some experience as it is harder to stand on and manoeuvre than a standard board.

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Red 10’8 Activ MSL Inflatable Yoga Paddle Board Package – Was $949.00, Now $849.00
I’ll be honest paddleboard yoga is not something I’m that into. But clearly there are enough people out there for it to be worth Red making a bespoke board for just such a purpose. It looks to be (as you’d imaging) very stable, but that probably comes at the cost of performance. But that’s rather the point…

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Best Cyber Monday Paddleboard deals UK

Red 9’4″ Snapper MSL Kids Inflatable Paddle Board – Was £749.00, Now £549.95
Red is the absolute market leader in the inflatable paddleboard world. Their products are consitently high quality and the have always delivered a top-notch performance (and customer service). This smaller board, designed for children is a great deal.

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Bluefin up to 50% off site-wide
Let’s not beat about the bush, Bluefin always have a Cyber Monday offer on and this year is no bigger than previous years, so you can probably argue that you should never buy a Bluefin board at any other time of the year.
But if you don’t want to pay Red paddle prices, Bluefin offers great board kits, with everything you need to start paddle boarding for sub-£500 about as you’ll find any quality board. I’ve had a Bluefin Cruise on test for years now and it’s still going strong (though I have upgraded components like the paddle and pump).

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If you’re after a specific Cyber Monday boating deal check out our guides to:Best Cyber Monday Musto deals
Best Cyber Monday Helly Hansen deals
Best Cyber Monday Garmin Deals
Best Cyber Monday REI deal (US only)

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post The best Cyber Monday stand up paddleboard deals (and how to find a quality board) appeared first on Yachting World.

If you’re a sailor, Cyber Monday often means diddly squat in terms of deals that relate directly to our sport. Sure, the latest Garmin Quatix deal is nice to have and is tangentially relevant, and there are often watersports and boat-adjacent deals that are worth grabbing. But in my five years of writing about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this is the first time I’ve seen a brand offering a discount on actual sails.

And the brand in question is not just some slightly random sail manufacturer, it’s one of the biggest sail makers in the world, North Sails. The loft is offering a range of deals and have anything from 10% to 30% off many of their One-Design sails.

If you’re a young 420 sailor, you can grab 10% off most of North Sails’ 420 stock, which is a pretty handy little saving. But bigger savings can be found elsewhere, with sails like the Melges 20 3Di Jib at 30% off (making it a c.$700 saving for US racers).

But there’s not really much point in me going through all the best or worst deals here. You’ll obviously only want to buy for your own class of boat.

So what are you still doing reading? Head over to North Sails and check if you class has a discount…

Quick links

If you’re not after sails this year or your class is not featured in the North Sails Cyber Monday discount there are other deals around for boat enthusiast – although, as mentioned these are rarely specific to sailing (other than the West Marine chandlery Deals in the US and the Gael Force chandlery deals in the UK.

But still, you may want to check out these other Cyber Monday boating deals options…

• Amazon: The home of Cyber Monday deals
• West Marine: Deals page
• Decathlon: Watersports deal page
• Bass Pro Shop: Boating deals page
• Walmart: Watersports page
• Gael Force Marine: UK Chandlery
• Helly Hansen: Outdoor clothing giant’s deals
  Musto: The British sailing clothing manufacturer’s deals

The post Cyber Monday sails deal: North Sails has just dropped an unprecedented up to 30% off many One-Design sails! appeared first on Yachting World.

Cyber Monday is here and we’re picking out the best Cyber Monday boating deals available from across the big brands and niche retailers once again this year as we sort the great deals from the… less great deals.

Let’s not beat about the bush here, Cyber Monday has gone from being a weekend of genuinely impressive offers, to several weeks of so-called sales where prices are artificially slashed, or companies offload old stock.

But even though this is the case, there are still plenty of genuinely good deals out there to grab – you just need to sort through a lot more rubbish to find them.

Our team spends the weeks building up to Cyber Monday, and the weekend itself, price checking and monitoring all deal pricing to make sure they’re genuine deals using a variety of tools.

We do a huge amount of gear testing ourselves, led by our experienced editorial teams, so we know a good Cyber Monday boating deal when we see one.

Major marine retailers such as Gael Force Marine, West Marine and Helly Hansen have been running some very attractive offers and have historically had the best Cyber Monday Deals for sailors that we could find. But we will also trawl through big brands like Amazon, Walmart and Decathlon to pick out some of the best Cyber Monday boating deals there too.

So far for Cyber Monday 2025 we’ve already found some genuinely good sailing specific deals from a range of big brands (see our lists below)

If you’re feeling a bit icky from Cyber Monday’s all out late-stage capitalism vibe, head over to Finistere who are running a ‘Blue Friday’ where $2.50 (or £2) from every purchase made in-store and online will go to ocean partners, Surfers Against Sewage and Surfrider Foundation.

If you’re after a specific Cyber Monday boating deal check out our guides to:

Best Cyber Monday Musto deals
Best Cyber Monday Helly Hansen deals
Best Cyber Monday Garmin Deals
Best Cyber Monday REI deal (US only)
Best Cyber Monday Paddleboard deals
Best Red equipment Cyber Monday deals
Best Cyber Monday chandlery deals from Gaelforce Marine

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Quick links

• Amazon: The home of Cyber Monday deals
• West Marine: Deals page
• Decathlon: Watersports deal page
• Bass Pro Shop: Boating deals page
• Walmart: Watersports page
• Gael Force Marine: UK Chandlery
• Helly Hansen: Outdoor clothing giant’s deals
  Musto: The British sailing clothing manufacturer’s deals

Best Cyber Monday boating deals US

North Sails One-Design Sails deals up to 30% off a range of one-design sails
If you’re a young 420 sailor, you can grab 10% off most of North Sails’ 420 stock, which is a pretty handy little saving. But bigger savings can be found elsewhere, with sails like the Melges 20 3Di Jib at 30% off (making it a c.$700 saving for US racers.
But there’s not really much point in me going through all the best or worst deals here. You’ll obviously only want to buy for your own class of boat. So what are you still doing reading, head over to North Sails and check if you class has a discount…

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Musto HPX PRO SERIES DRY SMOCK – 50% off – Was $1000,, Now $500
Volvo Ocean Race sailors were wearing this in the Southern Ocean– it’s pretty legit, and at a full 50% off, this Gore-Tex smock is a steal. Pro performance for (literally) half the price. Cyber Monday shopping for sailors doesn’t get much better than this.

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Red 13’2″ Voyager MSL Inflatable Paddle Board Package – Was $1,749.00, Now $1,349.00
The Voyager from Red is a really great bit of kit and is well worth considering if you are looking for an upgrade over a more standard board. The slight ‘v’ in the bow allows the board to cut through waves better, whole the length and relatively narrow width make it glide further for ever stroke.
If you’ve only ever paddled a standard board, having something like this will be a revelation (note, though that you will want some experience as it is harder to stand on and manoeuvre than a standard board.

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Garmin Fenix 7X Pro – Was $999 now $549.99 from Dick’s Sporting Goods
If you’re desperate to pick up a discounted Garmin Fenix then this is the best Cyber Monday Garmin Fenix 7 deal I’ve found so far.
For years, the Garmin Fenix has been the undisputed king of premium multisport GPS watches. It’s an absolute beast, known for its rugged build, huge feature set, and truly exceptional battery life, thanks in part to its transflective memory-in-pixel (MiP) display.

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Best Cyber Monday boating deals UK

Garmin Quatix 7 – Was £869 now £465, from First Class Watches
This is an incredible price for a premium marine and multisport smartwatch that our tester described as “utterly brilliant” and a piece of kit you “won’t want to take off.”
There is a clear reason this is being deeply discounted, it has now been superseded by the Garmin Quatix 8, but we have one of those on test at the moment and the differences are pretty small, so you’re getting almost the same watch for a lot less money!

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Garmin GPSMAP 1223xsv Chartplotter – Was £2800, Now £2500 
This higher-end chartplotter has a broad range of functions and will integrate seamlessly into your marine system. I’ve even seen this one for under £2300 from places like Marine Superstore– it’s a great one to make the most of Gael Force’s awesome price-match policy.

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North Sails One-Design Sails deals up to 30% off a range of one-design sails
If you’re a young 420 sailor, you can grab 10% off most of North Sails’ 420 stock, which is a pretty handy little saving. But bigger savings can be found elsewhere, with many sails as much as 30% off.
But there’s not really much point in me going through all the best or worst deals here. You’ll obviously only want to buy for your own class of boat. So what are you still doing reading, head over to North Sails and check if you class has a discount…

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Garmin Epix Gen 2 – Was £739.99 now £369.99, from H. Samuel
For years, the Garmin Fenix has been the undisputed king of premium multisport GPS watches. It’s an absolute beast, known for its rugged build, huge feature set, and truly exceptional battery life, thanks in part to its transflective memory-in-pixel (MiP) display.
But this Cyber Monday week, if you’re hunting for a deal on the Cyber Monday Garmin Fenix 7, you need to pause and look closely at the Garmin Epix Gen 2
For the vast majority of users who love high-end Garmin features but want a screen that pops with colour and clarity for daily use and detailed mapping, the Epix Gen 2 is the superior experience.

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Men’s Musto MPX Gore-Tex PRO Offshore Jacket 2.0 – Was £800, Now £600 
We’ve recommended this jacket before, even at full price. With a full third off the price, this Gore-Tex Pro offshore jacket is more worth it than ever. It’s also the very same one worn by British sailor Sam Davies during the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. Weighted to balance comfort and ultimate protection, this steal has loads of practical features to keep you not only safe, but comfortable. Three colour options, including black, a classic red, and a very elegant blue.

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Men’s Ægir Race Sailing Jacket 2.0 – Was £725, now £543.75
What a discount! This jacket is for sailors to wear while covering many miles at sea. Our tester, Rupert Holmes, tried out the first Race Sailing Jacket and wrote,
‘The Helly Hansen Ægir Race Jacket is the outcome of extensive work with professional racing teams who know what works best in extreme conditions, including Thomas Colville, Pip Hare and Joan Mulloy.
‘The result is a very high specification full-length offshore jacket that’s still surprisingly lightweight, streamlined and comfortable to wear.’
Notable details include chest-level hand-warmer pockets lined with thin fleece, which provide enough warmth. And they’re not so thick that they’ll absorb much water, meaning they won’t take ages to dry.

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Bluefin up to 50% off site-wide
Let’s not beat about the bush, Bluefin always have a Cyber Monday offer on and this year is no bigger than previous years, so you can probably argue that you should never buy a Bluefin board at any other time of the year.
But if you don’t want to pay Red paddle prices, Bluefin offers great board kits, with everything you need to start paddle boarding for sub-£500 about as you’ll find any quality board. I’ve had a Bluefin Cruise on test for years now and it’s still going strong (though I have upgraded components like the paddle and pump).

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When is Cyber Monday 2025?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are globally recognised as the retail calendar’s premier savings event, marking the moment merchants worldwide dramatically lower prices on gear, accessories, and electronics to kickstart the holiday shopping season. It’s the optimal time to secure those essential boating deals.

The event’s date shifts annually, yet it consistently docks on the Friday following the US Thanksgiving holiday. In 2025, be ready for the rush on Friday, November 28th, with Cyber Monday taking place Mopnday 1 December.

While it began as a traditional in-store frenzy across the United States, Cyber Monday has overwhelmingly charted a course online. Major global players like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target now fiercely compete with dedicated marine sites to offer deep discounts on everything from navigation electronics to sailing gear.

The UK, spotting the significant sales potential, joined the phenomenon around 2014, with retailers like John Lewis, Argos, and Currys embracing the spectacle. This discount day has since evolved into a true global fixture, eagerly anticipated by sailors and shoppers in countries across Asia, South America, Europe, and Australia.

The post The best Cyber Monday Sailing and Boating Deals in 2025: The best bargains we’ve found this year appeared first on Yachting World.