I wonder if any of you may be interested in my 7.5 m foiling trailer sailer project. I know strictly speaking it is not a sport boat but it does have twin trapezes!! And headroom for short people! And I could use some help sourcing a 150-175 kg keel bulb and a 9.5 m carbon mast.

7.5 m long plus 350 mm boarding platform 2.5 m wide, draft 2.0  headroom 1.75m sleeps 4 nominally light displacement 850 kg sailing 1100 with 2 crew 115 kg !!!  2 Invert T hydrofoils with 35% flaps and 2 t rudders with variable AoA like a moth or maybe like an A class.  Sail area main 20 m2 jib 13.2 m2  Fro and kite to be determined.

Construction is 6 and 9 mm ply over stringers with 100 gm carbon biaxial inside and 300 gm carbon biaxial outside with 100 gm glass cloth on the outside. Plywood 1.5 to 4 mm with high-density styrofoam 60 psi and carbon for the bulkheads and berth tops and sides. galley and loo similar construction .cabin top is carbon styrofoam 60 psi carbon with   Foam replaced with shear webs and uni carbon caps.I only wish  Julian B had started his 89er sooner and I would have reduced a lot of my laminates and used more Basalt and pet foam. However, I got the carbon really cheaply. Currently weighs 520 kg with all interior in place and most of the fairing done.

I have been working on this for 2.3 yrs so this is slow going for me after building the NZ tris Dragon and Timber Wolf much faster . Guess I am getting old, but it is taking longer than building Free Radical  10.5 m cat .

Jump in the thread!

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We’ve known Tom Hirsch for quite a few years, mostly through Flying Tigers. We wish him well.

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Features include: • Daggerboards for upwind performance • Option for Integrel power generation • Versa-Helm serving upper and protected lower helm

When you do multiple boat tests in a short period of time the experiences can blur, so when a design sticks out, you know it’s notable. And the robust little sister to last year’s Balance 482—the newly launched 442—stands out for a multitude of reasons, not least because sailing her on a breezy autumn Chesapeake Bay day left me fantasizing about taking one to the horizon and back, lacking for nothing, and having a helluva lot of fun.

The smallest sibling in the Balance Catamarans family, this 44-footer is the work of designer Anton du Toit, built in Cape Town, South Africa. The design borrows heavily from her bigger sisters (the 482 and the 526) with features like a sleek cabintop and slightly reversed bows. The hulls, deck, and coachroof are a foam-cored, vacuum-bagged construction with polyester inner and vinylester outer skins. E-Glass and carbon fiber reinforcement are used in high-load and structural areas, and crash boxes are in the bows. The model is available with fixed keels as well as with tapered daggerboards. Most owners spec the boards for better upwind performance…

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Phil Sharp (remember him?) has a cool new project and with it, he finally gets a chance to have a competitive IMOCA boat to race all the big events. This boat will be sailed using zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell technology. More here.

Title inspiration thanks to Gexa X.

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Launched at the start of 2023, the Sailart 17.5 is tackling the 5m sports-boat market (we didn’t know there was one – ed). With modern shapes, this keelboat is aimed at a sporty crew who wants to go beyond a dinghy. More here.

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We expect everyone has heard stories from sailors who, after having enjoyed beautiful sailing in Mexico, make their way back up the West Coast in the conditions that lead to the northbound trip’s being rightly dubbed the Baja Bash. In the January issue we share the story of one crew’s unexpectedly calm return from Mexico.

Vanadium, a 2019 Beneteau 41.1 sloop, had just completed the 2022 Baja Ha-Ha, captained by owner Mike Brost and crewed by his wife Kitti Brown, friend Steve Cauffman, and Crew Lister Jim Immer. The journey was a test for Mike and Kitti to see if they’d enjoy an extended voyage before investing in a cruising catamaran.

The southward Ha-Ha trip was a resounding success, with lots of fleet camaraderie and daily natural spectacles including sublime sunsets and performances by whales, dolphins and rays. But after three nights in Cabo San Lucas, it was time to return Vanadium to her responsibilities with the Sailtime fleet in Newport Beach. Steve had already flown home to his microwave physicist job, so the return crew would consist only of Mike, Kitti and Jim.

The northward Baja Bash has a notorious reputation for testing boats and crew morale, especially during the typical May/June time frame, when insurers coax cruisers clear of potential hurricanes. However, Captain Jim Elfer’s Baja Bash II book includes the surprising revelation that November and July northward deliveries can be an easier experience, as long as weather systems are avoided.

We had refilled the water and diesel tanks upon arrival in Cabo. A Walmart provisioning run provided all the goods needed to continue our gourmet cruise, facilitated by a freestanding 80-quart AC/DC Bodega freezer strapped into the aft cockpit to augment Vanadium‘s built-in refrigerator.

On the morning of Sunday, November 13, Vanadium raised anchor, exiting the pleasantly noisy Cabo beachside anchorage just as the massive Disney Wonder loomed into view.

Vanadium (named for the 23rd element in the periodic table and a key catalyst for the evolution of oceanic life) motored in flat seas with almost no wind around the oft-feared headland of Cabo Falso. It was a cakewalk in shorts and tank tops rather than foulies. We had easy motoring until evening, when the wind filled in at 10 knots on the beam for some fine, warm sailing. With three crew, we rotated through two three-hour watch cycles at night and morning, and then used a two-hour evening watch, which gave everyone plenty of sleep and a social time at dinner.

We bypassed the Ha-Ha stop at Bahia Santa Maria on the way north, since we were anxious to spend the Thanksgiving holiday week with our families. Though the common salutation is “fair winds and following seas,” we were instead blessed with fair seas and following winds due to glassy seas and often light wind, good for fast motoring. Though itching to sail, we were happy to be spared the typical headwinds and swells that make the Bash infamous.

Read the rest of the story in the January issue of Latitude 38.

The post When the Baja-Bash Is the ‘Baja Barely-a-Bash’ appeared first on Latitude38.

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The fifth annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge will begin in just over a month with a record number of boats on the start line. “From a high of 18 boats in 2022, we hope to come closer to the high 20s for this coming event,” says Stephen Burzon, the event’s volunteer director of marketing.

The three-leg racecourse combines a 60-mile sprint around St. Barth, a 52-mile dash around Saba, and a 27-mile circumnavigation of the island. “The combined winner of all three [will receive] a gorgeous and practical Oris Aquis Diving Watch provided by longtime sponsor Oris.” says CMC Steering Committee Chair Petro Jonker.

The event will also be adding a rally component for the first time to give less competitive sailors a chance to join the fun. The rally, officially titled the Caribbean Multihull Challenge Rally, is a three-day cruising event beginning and ending in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten, with overnights at Anse Marcel and Sandy Ground in Road Bay, Anguilla.

This year’s increase in participation is also thanks in part to a partnership with Balance Catamarans, which is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. According to Phillip Berman, president and founder of Balance Catamarans, the rally is a perfect way to cap off the festivities, as “joining up with the CMC rally as a way to wind up our celebration fits in perfectly with our plans.”

For more information about the event, visit CaribbeanMultihullChallenge.com. To enter the race or the rally, go to YachtScoring.com.

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Every year, sailboat manufacturers around the world launch their latest models, and every year, SAIL magazine’s experienced boat reviewers spend days and weeks learning what’s new, talking with boatbuilders, examining the boats top to bottom dockside, and finally taking them sailing. This culminates at the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, where our review team gets together and makes its final assessments on which boats earn top honors. Results are announced in our January/February issue, and full reviews of the winning boats will be published throughout the year.

For almost 20 years, we’ve called this awards program SAIL Best Boats, but this year, we’re refining and renaming this program to better and more fairly represent the boats we’ve selected. Restricting boats to categories and labels—such as Best Cruising Monohull 30-40 feet and Best Performance Monohull 40-50 feet—doesn’t bring our readers the full picture. Too often, defining these boats by categories results in unfairly comparing apples to oranges, sorting boats with very different purposes and design briefs into the same bracket just because of their LOA, and inevitably kicking out some really terrific boats. So, starting this year, we’re honoring the Top 10 boats, period. By eliminating the artificial straitjacket of size categories and focusing on what are simply the Top 10, SAIL will present readers a more complete and equitable assessment.

So, without further ado, here’s the SAIL Top 10 Best Boats for 2023. After exploring a mix of bluewater boats, racer/cruisers, speedsters, dinghies, and multihulls, we’ve settled on the very best the industry has to offer. We were excited to see that designers and builders are steadily pushing the envelope in propulsion, electrical generation, and more sustainable options for getting out on the water. And as always, we admire the ever-evolving innovations and tenacity of the sailboat industry that makes what we do possible…

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