ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Oct. 12, 2022) – Cruising World magazine today announced its roster of nominees for the 2023 Boat of the Year awards. Testing for the awards is taking place during and after the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, which begins today along the shores of Chesapeake Bay.

Sixteen boats – 11 monohulls, and 5 multihulls – have been nominated for the 2023 Boat of the Year prizes. The annual awards, selected by an independent judging team, recognize the best new production cruising boats and multihulls laid out and equipped for coastal and offshore sailing and voyaging. This year’s judging panel is comprised of systems expert Ed Sherman of the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC), and longtime sailors, editors and award-winning marine journalists Mark Pillsbury and Herb McCormick.

“Once again, sailboat builders have raised the bar, putting up a worthy fleet of contenders ranging from comfortable cruisers to wave-piercing performance models,” said Herb McCormick, Cruising World Boat of the Year director. “We have one of the most well-rounded fleets in years, and we can’t wait to get out and put these new boats through their paces.”

The 2023 Boat of the Year awards will be announced in the January issue of Cruising World. The full list of nominees is below. For more information, contact Herb McCormick (boty@bonniercorp.com) or visit cruisingworld.com.

Cruising World’s 2023 Boat of the Year nominees include: Balance Catamarans 442, Beneteau First 36, Beneteau Oceanis 34.1, Dufour 37, Elan 50.1, Hallberg-Rassy 400, Hanse 460, J/Boats J/45, Lagoon 55, Lyman Morse LM46, Moody DS41, Nautitech 44 Open, Neel Trimaran 43, Fountaine-Pajot Tanna 47, Tartan 365, and X-Yachts X4.3.

Running parallel to Cruising World’s tests in Annapolis this week, the Sailing World magazine Boat of the Year program has narrowed its list of nominees to 11 boats, including four dinghies, five offshore-oriented raceboats, two performance cruising multihulls, and four recreational dinghies. Sailing World’s independent judges—Chuck Allen, Greg Stewart and David Powlison—will be tasked with selecting one overall Boat of the Year from the field following thorough inspections and sailing tests on the Chesapeake next week.

“Our Boat of the Year Awards are so well respected in the industry because the builders see firsthand how in-depth the judges go when reviewing each and every boat, on land and on the water,” said Dave Reed, Sailing World’s editor and Boat of the Year director. “One exciting element this year is the number of recreational dinghies, which is essential for the continued growth of the sport—boats that are relatively inexpensive and provide easy access to the water.”

The nominees or Sailing World’s 2023 Boat of the Year Award are: Beneteau First 36, Lyman Morse 46, X-Yachts X4.3, J/45, L30, MiniCat 310, Tiwal 3R, Nacra 500 MKII, SOL, Balance 442 and Neel 43.

About Cruising World: Cruising World is sailing enthusiasts’ passport to exploring the world’s coastlines and oceans while voyaging under sail. Its contributors inspire and entertain through stories, pictures and videos that underscore the beauty and adventure of sailing, while providing instruction on the disciplines of seamanship, navigation and boat handling. The Cruising World community is made up of experienced, committed sailors and boatowners. Cruising World’s mission is to nurture their dreams with practical how-to information and stirring real-life adventure features. For more information, visit cruisingworld.com.

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Cruising World’s own Sally Helme was awarded one of the highest honors in the sailing industry on the opening day of the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD. Sally, Cruising World’s Publisher Emeritus, was awarded the Sailing Industry Distinguished Service Award. The Cruising World Team and the Bonnier Corporation are thrilled to see Sally honored by the industry for the leadership, vision, selflessness, and integrity that those of us fortunate to work with her see every day. The award was announced Friday morning, October 15, at the annual Sailing Industry breakfast

“Sally has been involved with the sailing industry since she graduated from Princeton University,” said Bonnier Corporation Associate Publisher Ted Ruegg. “Her tireless work has produced the annual Sailing Industry Study which she started at International Marine in order to provide data on the sailing industry that did not exist at the time.”

A strong supporter of US SAILING, past president of Sail America, and a leader for the National Sailing Hall of Fame, Sally’s “commitment to sailors and those who work in the industry is without question,” said Cruising World Editor Mark Pillsbury. “She has helped welcome countless newcomers to the sport, and worked to ensure that sailing companies thrive.”

RELATED: Helme Honored with Sailing Award

Created by the Annapolis Boat Shows in 2014, the Distinguished Service Award is an annual honor that is bestowed on a sailor who has distinguished him or herself through outstanding and unselfish service to the overall advancement of the sailing industry. Weems & Plath graciously donated the inscribed Anniversary 8-Day Ship Bell Clock that was awarded to Sally. With a beautiful mahogany base, the award is a limited-edition precision timepiece that exudes the same excellence the award winner embodies.

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Choosing a cruising sailboat, no matter the size, is a big decision. And it helps to have a trusted list of boats to get started. Here, then, is a look at 10 of the best daysailers, weekenders and coastal cruising sailboats under 35 feet that are all in production and can be purchased new.

Alerion Sport 30

A quarter-century ago, Garry Hoyt launched what would come to be known as the daysailer genre with the introduction of the Alerion Express 28, a boat designed by the late Carl Schumacher that featured a minimal interior and a large cockpit where an owner and guests could enjoy the simple joy of sailing. Traditional and lovely looking—but with a quite modern underbody and a powerful sail plan—Hoyt, ever the marketer, proclaimed the boat to be “the prettiest girl at the dance.”

Since then, a number of siblings ranging from 20 to 41 feet have been added to the Alerion family, including the Alerion Sport 30, which retains the graceful sheer line, oval ports and stylish overhangs of the original Schumacher design. Yet with input from naval architect Langan Design Partners, it also embraces a solid measure of performance-oriented DNA.

Read more about the Alerion Sport 30 »

Bavaria Cruiser 34

In every Boat of the Year contest, it seems, a boat rises up after sea trials to make a lasting impression on the judges. For 2018, that boat was the Bavaria Cruiser 34.

Says Boat of the Year Judge Tim Murphy, “The Bavaria was a lovely boat to sail. It has a single rudder, and she answered her helm just beautifully in the conditions we had today. We started off with around 10 knots of breeze that built to 13 to 15 knots. As a sailboat, it was just a pleasurable sailing experience, among the best we had during our judging. It was among the boats that felt like a really happy sailing experience.

Read more about the Bavaria Cruiser 34 »

Beneteau Oceanis 30.1

Sailed as part of the 2020 Boat of the Year sea trials, the 31-foot-3-inch Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 was the compact yacht best-equipped and spec’d out as a dedicated cruising boat, and not coincidentally, it was also awarded the title of Best Performance Cruiser for 2020. But don’t let her cozy interior accommodations fool you; this is also one peppy little vessel.

Read more about the Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 »

Dehler 34

The 2017 Boat of the Year (BOTY) contest featured a stellar crop of crossover cruiser/racers; however, when all the testing was said and done, our independent panel of judges was sold on the Dehler 34, naming it the year’s Best Performance Cruiser. Designed by the highly regarded Judel/Vrolijk naval-architecture consortium, whose reputation was fostered by longtime success in international yacht-racing circles, the 34-footer combined contemporary good looks and a sweet turn of speed with better-than-average comfort and accommodations below. It didn’t hurt that the boat, nicely equipped at $215,000, was the least-expensive entry in the entire 2017 fleet. All in all, it proved to be a winning formula.

Read more about the Dehler 34 »

Dufour Grand Large 360

Dufour Yachts introduced its new 360 Grand Large model to CW’s Boat of the Year team in 2018 as a coastal cruiser intended for a couple or perhaps a small family. With that in mind, judge Alvah Simon found numerous clever elements to praise within the boat’s 35-foot-2-inch hull—a relatively modest LOA compared to the many 40-, 50- and 60-footers on display at the U.S. Sailboat show in Annapolis, Maryland.

Read more about the Dufour Grand Large 360 »

Elan E4

After a roughly 10-year hiatus from the U.S. marketplace, the Slovenian builder Elan is back in a big way. For the 2017 Boat of the Year contest, the company launched a pair of new boats in the States, including the Elan E4, a 34-foot-9-inch performance cruiser with an emphasis on performing, designed by renowned British naval architect Rob Humphreys. The brand has been in business for seven decades and lately is perhaps even better known in America for its skis. Not surprisingly, given its complementary product lines—lots of sailors are fine skiers—its boats are as sleek and sporty as its boards.

Read more about the Elan E4 »

Grand Soleil 34

Way back in the 1970s, when the well-known Italian boatyard Grand Soleil was just getting started, its first model was a Finot-designed 34-footer. With over 300 units sold, it was an instant success, and launched the company on an upward trajectory that spanned the intervening decades, mostly with an ongoing series of much larger, more complex racer/cruisers. For 2020, the builder decided to return to its roots with a completely revamped Grand Soleil 34, and it’s a terrific boat.

Read more about the Grand Soleil 34 »

Hanse 348

Value. How does one determine it? Price is most certainly a factor. In the case of new boats, and our Boat of the Year competition, it means something more. As sailors, we wish to recognize good boats that not only are affordable but offer other, tangible rewards. The ability to get couples and families out on the water, to have a weekend escape, to take them on coastal vacations and even maybe a sabbatical to the islands, all without breaking the bank. For 2019, the judging panel determined that one boat had the potential to do these things better than the rest, which is why they awarded the Best Value prize to the Hanse 348.

With a price tag under $200,000, during sea trials the Hanse 348 wowed the judging team from the get-go. “In only about 8 knots of breeze, we were seeing 5.7 knots upwind and pointing very nicely, and even registered 6.5 knots once we cracked off,” said Tim Murphy. “It’s a pretty sweet little boat.”

Read more about the Hanse 348 »

Italia 9.98

Of the performance cruisers that made their North American debut in 2020, in terms of sheer appearance, the futuristic 34-foot Italia 9.98 was easily the most distinctive. There are actually two versions of the boat: the 34 Club—which is the cruising alternative, the primary features of which are its twin wheels—and the 34 Fuoriserie—the racing model, and the one we tested, with its tiller steering being the identifying characteristic.

Read more about the Italia 9.98 »

J/99

Beginning with the popular little J/24 way back in 1977, J/Boats has become famous for its steady introduction of terrific racing and cruising boats, almost all of which shared one main characteristic: They sailed like a witch. More than four decades later, having built more than 50 separate, mind-boggling models, the Johnstone family that designs, markets and sells the brand shows no signs of slowing down. Their latest offering, for 2020, was another fast and fun racer/cruiser: the 32-foot-7-inch J/99.

Read more about the J/99 »

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A freshening breeze, ­building from near calm to the midteens, brought perfect conditions for a morning sail on the new Beneteau First Yacht 53. With sails up, our speed over the ground effortlessly matched that of the light breeze, and when things got puffy out on Chesapeake Bay a bit later, well, we went soaring.

Standing atop an angled fold-up helmsmen perch at the starboard wheel, with the lee rail close to buried and the windward rudder completely out of the water, I had the otherworldly feeling of flying across the water, and it was absolutely a thrill. Think high-end sports car winding through the gears on a twisting mountain road, and, well, you get the idea: Power on and knuckles white, but it was a ride you’d not want to miss.

Beneteau introduced the First range in 1977, with racing sailors in mind. Most recently, the French builder refreshed the line with several smaller, sporty models it acquired when it bought Seascape Yachts. The 53, though, is a whole new concept entirely. Luxury ­performance is how it’s put in the marketing material, and, in all honesty, that’s a pretty apt description.

Walking the docks at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, this past fall, the First 53’s plumb bow, slight reverse sheer, dark metallic hull, and broad deck and coach roof all covered in teak made it instantly stand out from the sea of white production cruisers. Even tied up, the boat looked ready to rip.

The First’s performance potential comes thanks to Biscontini Yacht Design and Roberto Biscontini, who earned his drawing creds over the course of two decades of America’s Cup campaigns. And the luxury? Well, Beneteau turned to Lorenzo Argento for deck and interior styling. Argento has been involved with a number of high-end projects, including Wally Yachts. Together, the pair created a vessel that’s easy to look at and riveting to sail.

A quick peak at the 53’s ­performance ratios, as well as a few other numbers, begins to tell the story. Its displacement-length ratio is a very sporty 118 (a fast-cruising X-Yacht clocks in at 161), while its sail area-displacement is a whopping 27.1—right on par with an all-out racer such as the Jeanneau Sunfast 3300’s SA/D of 27.6. And that’s for the standard First 53, which comes with an 8-foot-2-inch cast-iron T-keel and 85-foot aluminum mast. You can up the muscle power further by ordering the boat with a carbon-fiber rig that’s a full meter taller, and a 9-foot-10-inch performance T-keel with a lead bulb down deep, where it counts. Owners can choose sails of their liking, but Beneteau offers the 53 with a set from North Sails that includes North Panel Laminate main, 105 percent genoa and a code zero, so right out of the box, the boat’s regatta-ready.

On deck, the layout is at once simple, elegant and purposeful. All lines, including the double-ended mainsheet, run under panels back to twin helms, where controls for the electric below-deck jib furler, fold-down bow thruster, swim platform, house- and ­navigation-lighting systems, and matching sets of engine controls are mounted on pedestals, along with B&G plotters and instrument displays. Just forward of each wheel, a pair of Harken Performa electric winches sit adjacent to banks of line clutches.

The open transom is ­enclosed by lifelines, with a sturdy handhold on the centerline and solid stanchions and rails that curve around each quarter. With the boat heeling, these provide places for the crew to brace themselves if standing, or act as handholds when navigating the boat’s 16-plus-foot beam—a formidable amount of open space between steering stations.

Forward of the wheels, long cockpit seats await the crew. Each has its own teak table that does double duty as a sturdy place to grab if moving about. Beneteau has introduced a neat feature on this boat: The cockpit coamings drop to pass under the winches and past the wheels, giving crewmembers a place to sit when trimming, and the skipper a seat while steering. They don’t run all the way to the transom, though, which allows crew to pass behind either wheel and take an easy step up onto the deck when going forward. It was a detail I liked quite a bit, along with the 25-inch lifelines set atop 3-inch bulwarks all around.

Underway, I found that I had just about everything to maneuver the boat at my fingertips. As I said at the outset, conditions were light at first. In just under 5 knots of wind, we cranked along closehauled at nearly 6 knots. Later, with the breeze up to 15 or a little higher, the speedo hovered in the 8-to-9-knot range, and I saw 10 and a little more when we cracked off to a reach and unrolled the code zero.

My Beneteau-dealer shipmates suggested reefing the main at 13 to 14 knots. We didn’t, of course, and though we were overpowered a bit, judging by the angle of heel, the boat seemed to like it just fine, and so did we. And when it came time to tack, feathering up even a little quickly tamed things. There is no traveler available for the 53. Instead, the mainsheet runs through a centerline block mounted just forward of the wheels, the theory being that anyone paying in the $1.2 million ballpark for this size boat likely will spend more time cruising than racing.

Down below, Argento and Team Beneteau came up a refreshingly new approach to accommodations. White lacquered bulkheads and panels, coupled with a teak sole and molded wood furniture, kept the interior quite bright. In place of the traditional large dining area found in most boats these days, a well-equipped galley, complete with a home-size fridge, and a small dinette (expandable to seat six or so) took up the port side of the saloon. Opposite was a large L-shaped couch and small table for entertaining. Fiddles on counters and handholds were plentiful. And throughout the boat, lights and other electrical equipment were controlled by Beneteau’s proprietary Ship Control electrical system, which can be accessed using a smartphone.

The owner’s cabin was ­forward, and featured a split head and shower. Two more cabins were aft, with a shared head to starboard at the foot of the companionway. A three-cabin, three-head layout is also available, but it would cost you space in the galley.

The First 53’s hull and deck are cored and infused, with solid glass wherever hardware is mounted. An inner hull liner takes up loads from the mast, chainplates and engine. An 80 hp Yanmar diesel and saildrive come standard; the boat we tested was powered by the optional 110 Yanmar with shaft drive. Beneteau offers several other electronics and equipment packages as well.

If a boat is to be judged by how well it meets its design brief, the First Yacht 53 is already a winner. And did I mention? The sailing was out of this world.

Mark Pillsbury is CW’s editor.

SPECIFICATIONS – Beneteau First Yacht 53

Beneteau

410-990-0270

beneteau.com

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With five dedicated, dual-purpose racer/cruisers measuring in at under 37 feet, the Performance Cruiser class was not only the largest and most competitive division in the 2020 Boat of the Year contest, but it was also the most fun. Putting this roster of compact, peppy sailboats through their paces was nothing short of a blast.

Judge Ralph Naranjo was perhaps the most performance-­oriented sailor in this year’s judging panel, and he had strong opinions on all of the nominees. Regarding the Italia 9.98—one of two boats in the class built in Italy—he said: “The Italia appealed to me. I’m really looking at these smaller boats that offer both performance as well as some cruising amenities to get people into the activity. From that vantage point, what I saw here was a boat that performed well. She’s not overburdened with go-fast technology, but she has a good sail area-to-displacement ratio (26.0), and the hull is designed to be more performance-­oriented. While I did find a certain elegance to her, I’d also say she has to go on what I’d call a ‘rigging-simplicity diet.’ There are so many twings and tweaking lines that the cruising fraternity won’t put to much use. But she also sailed very well. I liked this vessel.”

Judge Ed Sherman had strong thoughts on the construction of the other Italian entry, the Grand Soleil 34. “This is a boat I really wanted to love and had a lot of good feelings about,” he said. “It’s got a carbon grid that’s glued into the boat with Plexus, which is kind of intriguing because the floorboards were inlaid in small sections in between the grid work. So the grid is exposed, and it all makes for a very interesting cabin sole. I enjoyed sailing the boat. I think it would make a pretty effective club racer with the ability to take a small family for the occasional mini cruise. I liked it.”

All the panelists got a big kick out of sailing the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300, but all of them also came to the same conclusion: This pocket rocket has no real desire to be a cruising boat, even a part-time one. “Let’s put it this way,” Sherman said, “it’s a racing boat you can sleep on, not a cruiser. All that said, it sailed really well. I enjoyed that aspect of it very much, even though it would take me a week to figure out what all the freaking lines do. But I’d enjoy it.” As is turned out, the judges had the Sun Fast 3300 ­well-assessed; it was later named the overall Boat of the Year by our sister publication, boat-racing mag Sailing World.

So the deliberations came down to two boats: the J/99 and the Beneteau Oceanis 30.1. Naranjo made his feelings known unequivocally: “I’m a quirky guy, an old dude, but I love to sail. And I love the J/99. Sure, it’s more of a camper cruiser. But if you can put up with minimal ­accommodations—a ­comfortable bunk, a galley that works, a private toilet—she’s a great coastal cruiser/club racer. She’s truly the kind of boat I love sailing.”

When it came down to final deliberations, however, Naranjo was overruled by his fellow judges, whose votes enabled the Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 to be named the year’s Best Performance Cruiser. Ed Sherman offered up these observations:

“It’s a cool boat, a nice little starter boat for a family getting into the sport. At $160,000, it was also the least expensive boat in this group, so it represents good value. We sailed it in a pretty good breeze, and it absolutely sailed wonderfully. It has dual wheels, which might seem like overkill on a boat this size, but they actually worked well; they weren’t big, monstrous things—they were appropriately sized. I actually had a feeling of security driving it in the heavy air.

“It’s also a boat that can be configured in a multitude of ways,” he continued. “You’ve got four different keel options, as well as a centerboard option. You can get a tabernacle mast that you can raise or lower easily, so the idea there is you can use it to take a mini vacation, and it becomes a home away from home. You can just trailer it to a new waterway versus spending a whole bunch of time sailing it there. I’ve always liked boats that give you that kind of ­capability. I mean, you’re not going to sail to England on her. But the reality is, this is a very nice little coastal cruiser or one that would be right at home on a big lake. It’s perfect for that.”

“This 30-footer was a handful of pleasure,” Naranjo confirmed. “The twin wheels were linked to twin rudders, and underway she was just a stellar example of a well-­balanced boat. The dodger was sized correctly, and big enough to break the wind flow that was coming back at the person at the helm, which is a handy and very useful capability. The side decks were on the narrow side but still quite safe. What I was most taken by was that we put some punishing loads on her, and we didn’t hear squeaks or groans on deck. She’s small but solid.”

Amazingly enough, the class’s smallest boat came up very big.

See All Winners:

2020 Boats of the Year

Other Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

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Every year, the Boat of the Year contest is an evolutionary affair that’s conducted over a nearly two-week period, and there are always surprises as the judging panel gets more at ease with each nominee and begins to truly understand their individual characteristics. For 2020, at each step along the way, the judges seemed to become more and more comfortable with one particular nomi­nee. Still, when it came time to cast the ballots for “the best of the best,” collectively, it seemed that even they were somewhat astonished at the yacht that ultimately emerged atop the 22-boat fleet.

Their final decision? The Catalina 545, conceived and designed by longtime Catalina stalwart Gerry Douglas, is 2020′s Overall Boat of the Year. So, how did they get there?

“This boat represents a ­significant change from previous Catalinas,” judge Ed Sherman said. “It’s a major upgrade from anything they’ve ever built. I think it’s not only significantly bigger, but better than anything they’ve done.”

“The largest vessel of a ­midrange production builder is a tough gamble because they’re not accustomed to building larger vessels,” judge Ralph Naranjo said. “In my opinion, Catalina upsized, upgraded and did a more-than-tolerable job of breaking through that barrier of not creating their biggest model and then suffering midsize components on it. The vision was making an ‘ocean-easy’ boat, that people who buy it will get sea time. It’s not a yacht that’s going to perpetually cross oceans. But it most certainly is a bluewater boat.”

“I like this boat quite a bit,” judge Dan Spurr said. “I don’t mean this the wrong way, but I didn’t feel like I was on a Catalina when we were inspecting it, starting with the looks of it. The profile is contemporary. They’ve obviously picked up on some of the European themes. I thought it was a handsome boat.

“It’s also got a number of unusual features,” Spurr ­continued. “There were collision bulkheads fore and aft. The rudder stocks are inside enclosed boxes, so if there ever were a leak, the packing gland won’t find its way into the bilge or elsewhere. The shrouds were inboard so the base for the stays was a little narrower, but it really makes it easy to walk fore and aft without having to duck around the lowers. I like that.”

“On this boat, the ­forward stateroom is the owner’s cabin,” Sherman said. “It’s super comfortable, with a day lounge and kind of a Catalina trademark with the forward portion of the queen bed that lifts and retracts so you can read in bed or stretch out. It’s a really nice feature. And the aft stateroom also has a nifty one where you’ve got dual single berths that can slide together and create kind of a tight double. On the DC side, they’ve gone with a 24-volt system, which is a growing trend throughout the industry; we’re seeing it on many of the other full-size yachts. I’m glad to see it, because among other things, it saves a lot of weight in copper.

“Look,” Sherman ­concluded, “this boat is a totally new thing from Catalina—it really is. It’s not perfect yet; there’s still some refinement, perhaps. But ­ultimately, I think it will end up being pretty damn nice.”

And it has already earned ­substantial praise.

See All Winners:

2020 Boats of the Year

Other Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

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So here come the Big Boys: the four finalists in the BOTY Class of 2020 vying for the title of “Mightiest Monohull” of them all. It would not be a cut-and-dry choice, however, as all four contestants were so radically different from one another.

Unfortunately, due to the extreme and unusual weather during the sea-trials portion of the contest (see “A Little Bit of Everything,” page 67), the yacht with perhaps the greatest sailing potential—the Beneteau First Yacht 53—went untested on the water. The 53 is a departure for Beneteau, which is betting big on attracting the performance-cruising segment of the market. So the judges were left to ponder the boat’s fate based on their dockside inspections.

It received high marks. Judge Ed Sherman said: “This is a very interesting boat. It’s actually an outlier in terms of the electrical system in that it’s still using 12 volts, while almost everyone else seems to be evolving to 24 volts. There’s some real innovation happening here. They get kudos for the in-house digital-switching control system they’ve designed, which is pretty slick and enables the owner to control the system with their cellphone, or even remotely via the internet with the onboard Wi-Fi.”

Like the Beneteau, the year’s largest entry, the Hanse 675, comes with a price tag of over $1 million, a major topic of discussion in the final deliberations for the class. And while the judges did get aboard the boat for a test sail, the conditions were so calm that, again, decisions were based largely on the dockside visit. And it also generated positive reviews.

“Mechanically, the systems were very well-done,” judge Ralph Naranjo said. “The idea of using hydraulics for the anchor windlass was great, though I thought the capstan and chain size were quite small. Under sail, we didn’t have a fair evaluation because of lack of wind. But the sails, running rigging and so on were splendid. Under power she did very well, making better than 10 knots at the high end. And she backed down well either way.”

The second of two Bavarias to be introduced in the United States this year was the stout C57. “In terms of installations, the systems are very similar to the C50,” Sherman said. “I’d say Bavarias in general have achieved a point in their construction expertise where they’re on par with Groupe Beneteau boats—they’re all in the same league in terms of the craftsmanship it takes to install commonly requested marine systems.” Naranjo added, “They’ve done an interesting thing with the 57, as they have several different draft versions from which to choose, and the engineering is solid in that they change the ballast with the different draft options.”

That left the 56-plus-foot Catalina 545, which—spoiler alert—not only was named Best Full-Size Cruiser Over 55 Feet, it also was named the overall Boat of the Year.

“I liked it as soon as I got on it,” judge Dan Spurr said. “I like the looks of it. I like the cockpit layout. The designer and builder, Gerry Douglas, did an excellent job explaining how he put the boat together and the choices that he made. I was impressed by the overall layout abovedecks and below. We didn’t have a ton of wind when we sailed it, but it acquitted itself nicely. It seemed like a pretty straightforward rig that my wife and I could handle pretty comfortably. In other words, it wasn’t complicated. Pricewise, in this category, it was in the same range as the Bavaria but considerably less than the Beneteau or Hanse, which I think is important. It represents good value. It’s a simple boat but one that’s handsome and well-thought-out.”

“The little things did it for me,” Sherman said. “The rigid stainless-steel handrails and the great toe rail. Really chunky stuff. I love the drain down the side of the deck. It was slippery in pretty light air. I mean, we got it up to 5 or 6 knots without any effort at all. I really loved the interior layout too. That forward stateroom with the little daybed was great. And the furniture in the main saloon is solid wood, not laminated stuff. It’s seemingly a minor thing, but it’s actually pretty major in terms of maintaining the value of the boat down the line.”

Many decades ago, Catalina Yachts was launched with the name of the prominent island off the coast where the company was founded. Fittingly, the Catalina 545, the latest and perhaps greatest of all the models that came before it, is an island unto itself.

See All Winners:

2020 Boats of the Year

Other Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

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Excess. Or does it? That was the primary question to be answered when determining the top boat among this trio of nominees in the Midsize Cruising Catamaran division. The Excess 12 was the first highly anticipated model to debut in the United States from a new brand recently created by the French boatbuilding giant Groupe Beneteau. It was up against stiff competition from a pair of long-established, well-entrenched French cat builders: Fountaine Pajot, with its new Elba 45, and Lagoon Catamarans—also part of the Groupe Beneteau colossus—with a fresh 46-footer. Who would emerge victorious in this rousing cat fight?

Judge Ed Sherman was impressed with the Elba 45 right from the get-go. “During our motoring test, it was immediately evident that this was one of the quietest boats in the fleet,” he said. “At 70 decibels in cruising mode, that was extremely low. And even when we kicked it up to high speed, at 2,800 rpm, it was still recording just 72 dB in the main cabin area while doing 9.2 knots, which is excellent. And the entire boat—the ­deckhouse, the interior layout—the way it was ­s­­tructurally engineered, was solid. It indicated to me that this was a strong boat that’s going to last for a while.”

As it turned out, the judges weren’t finished grading or ­discussing the Elba 45.

The panelists then turned their attention to the two Groupe Beneteau contenders, which perhaps significantly, were sea-trialed in some of the most extreme conditions in the long history of Boat of the Year.

The Lagoon 46 is laid out with the steering station and sail controls situated well aloft in a raised, flybridge-type configuration, which for judge Ralph Naranjo, took a little getting used to. “If you’re down below and the boat’s on ­autopilot, and something ­happens where you need to blow the traveler because a thunderstorm’s coming, you’re going to have to hurry,” he said. But Naranjo’s opinion of the boat also changed for the better during the stiff sail tests, which the 46 handled with aplomb. “I came away liking the boat more after sailing and motoring it than I did during the dockside inspections,” Naranjo said. “Under power, she was lovely to maneuver. Even in the big breeze, you could hold station using ­forward and reverse.”

Of course, both the Lagoon and the Fountaine Pajot will be used both by private owners and in charter fleets, and needs to satisfy the requirements of each. Whereas the judges considered the 38-foot-6-inch Excess 12 a purer sailboat, one that could be operated by a couple and serve as a fine, fast cruiser, which is why they ultimately named it the Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran.

“I like having the sail controls and the main living space on the vessel all on the same level,” Naranjo said. “You have that nice continuity between the main saloon and the cockpit, so the off watch is only a few steps away from the helm and all the action. And I liked the overall workmanship. It really performed in the heavy air. I think she’s a great boat.”

“One of the strongest features is the removable Bimini over the cockpit,” judge Dan Spurr said. “When it’s retracted, you have really good visibility of the sails. When you don’t need that visibility, when it’s raining or you’re motoring, you can pull it back and have some shade and sun protection. The kind of convertible option is nice. On a lot of cats with a fixed hardtop, you can’t see anything and have to go to one side or the other to check sail trim.”

“I really liked her as well,” judge Ed Sherman said. “At one point sailing, we saw 43 knots of apparent wind. And it just remained relatively quiet and in control. So we certainly gave it quite a structural workout, and it just did very well. It felt quite solid. I like the helms aft. I think they’re really onto something here. I was very impressed.”

So, to once again pose the question from the top of this write-up, does nothing succeed like this Excess? Aw, c’mon. You know the answer.

See All Winners:

2020 Boats of the Year

Other Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

The post Excess 12: Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran appeared first on Cruising World.

The big-boat classes in the 2020 Boat of the Year competition presented some big problems for the judging panel. Take the Full-Size Cruiser 45 to 55 Feet fleet, with a quartet of extremely solid contenders across a wide range of price points and with different design briefs and objectives, ranging from versatile performance-style cruisers to a dedicated bluewater passagemaker. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

At $550,000, the Bavaria C50 packed a lot of punch into a 50-footer. “It’s billed as a family cruiser, and features twin helms and a single rudder,” judge Dan Spurr said. “The representative who presented the boat emphasized the division between the entertainment area and the cockpit and working areas, and that cockpit really resonated with me—for a bigger boat, it’s very efficient to sail.” The Bavaria also struck a chord with fellow judge Ed Sherman: “I’ve been watching the evolution of Bavarias since they first started coming to the United States, and they’ve come a long way. Everything about them is significantly better than the earlier boats, and you get a lot of features for the price. It’s a player in this group.”

From a value standpoint, the Elan Impression 41.5 left a strong, good impression on the judging panel. Judge Ralph Naranjo was particularly enamored with the overall build quality of the hull laminate. “It’s an ­ISO-approved Category A offshore boat; they did a really nice job with the vacuum infusion,” he said. “I was crawling in those aft lockers looking at the autopilot arrangement, and could see how well the deck elements and bulkheads went in. And the autopilot installation was great, with an excellent stainless-steel bracket that was bolted and cantilevered to catch both the deck and the bulkhead. The autopilot and rams have to take a huge amount of thrust or push/pull; they need to be in there securely. And they were.”

It was clearly going to take an outstanding vessel to sway the panel’s opinions. It turned out there was not only one other formidable yacht to choose from, but two.

“The Amel 50 is truly an oceangoing globe-trotter,” Sherman said, speaking about the latest, highly anticipated model from the long-standing stalwart French builder. “With a signature watertight forward crash bulkhead, a centrally located sea chest for easily isolating a leak and shutting it down, to a globally conscious shore-power system that can deal with 50 or 60 hertz and 120 or ­230-240 volts, Amel has designed a boat that will have you covered wherever your travels take you. For those who want to cruise in luxury, this is the boat.”

“Amel has long been one of the only worldwide ­companies to offer what is essentially a ‘ready to cruise’ boat,” Spurr said. “The boat can be operated entirely from the security of the cockpit, which has a windshield and hardtop, like many solo offshore racers. Some of my colleagues didn’t like this feature, feeling it isolated the helm from feeling the weather. The boat is not inexpensive, but it also seemed to have the highest-quality finish.”

“To me, it’s more of a motorsailer than a traditional cruising sailboat,” Naranjo said. “Her performance under sail is somewhat limited by a fairly high displacement and a modest sail area. She is easy to handle, though, because of her power-assisted sail ­trimming and setting capabilities.”

Sailing prowess is never a debatable issue with X-Yachts, however, and after treating the judges to a world-class sailing experience, they ­ultimately decided that the X-Yachts X46 was the Best Full-Size Cruiser 45 to 55 Feet for 2020. (It was a back-to-back winning effort from X-Yachts; in 2019, X-Yachts’ X49 was also honored as the Best Full-Size Cruiser.)

“This was just a joy to sail,” Sherman said. “A ­performance sailing boat in every sense —very close-winded. It was everything I’ve come to expect from X-Yachts. They are put together by real craftspeople who take a great deal of concern in everything they do. So many little things. For instance, the wiring connections behind the panel board are all bent to 90 degrees and secured in place, and they hand-solder the solid copper bus links between the switches. This is all labor-intensive stuff that you just don’t see on most boats. They’ve always been known for using top-quality gear, and they certainly didn’t cut any corners here.

“The epoxy resin they use in the layup is going to last forever, and the post-cure process is just top shelf,” Sherman continued. “I mean, what can I say? And I believe the pricing is actually pretty darn good. This boat costs $740,000, which is nothing to laugh at—it’s a significant amount of money. But when you compare it dollarwise to some of the other boats out there of similar lengths, you know what? It kind of stands out. And so, yes, I’m a fan. I’ve always been.”

“Like all X-Yachts, it has a unique feature in the construction, with a steel grid that sits on stringers with a balanced lifting point where you can actually lift the entire boat with a crane, with a strop that comes down through a hatch,” Spurr said. “The quality of construction all around seemed very good, with the keel actually bolted to the grid. Basically, we were told that you can’t lose the keel on this boat, which is pretty remarkable. And it’s really a handsome boat all the way around.”

Not to mention, when the final votes were cast, it was a winning one.

See All Winners:

2020 Boats of the Year

Other Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

The post X-Yachts X46: Best Full-Size Cruiser 45 to 55 Feet appeared first on Cruising World.

Let’s start with displacement/length. Displacement is a measure of how much water a particular hull form displaces, and length is, well, length. In general terms, the lower the D/L ratio is, the less water is being displaced for a given length, which would indicate better performance. Performance, though, often reflects speed, but not necessarily comfort, underway. Long-distance cruisers might get there fast on a boat with a very low D/L figure, but they might not get much sleep along the way because of the boat’s lively movement in a seaway.

Sail area/displacement is a ratio that affects how much horsepower a particular sail plan has to push a vessel. Most cruising boats today will have an SA/D number in the high teens and low 20s, with the higher the ratio indicating a more powerful rig. Again, the numbers can deceive. The trend today is toward sail plans with non-overlapping jibs. Boats sail just fine upwind, but the minute you bear away, the relatively small jib quickly becomes ineffective. This, in turn, has been a boon for the suppliers of colored sails, such as code zeros and cruising spinnakers.

Lastly, our BOTY judges measure the sound or decibel levels aboard every boat when motoring. Why? First, it’s hard to sleep on a loud boat, and if the crew can’t stay rested, it can lead to all sorts of other problems. Second, silence doesn’t come cheap. Besides a lack of proper sound insulation, rattles and creaks caused by poor construction can all contribute to the din. To put things in perspective, 50 dB is equivalent to a quiet conversation at home, and 60 dB is akin to background music at a restaurant. Noise in the upper 70 dB range can be considered annoying; above 80 dB, noise can become harmful after long exposure.

See All Winners:

• Overall Boat of the Year
• Best Performance Cruiser
• Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 feet
• Best Full-size Cruiser
• Best Full-size Cruiser Over 55 Feet
• Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran
• Best Full-size Multihull
• Best Charter Boat
• Most Innovative

The post 2020 Boat of the Year Nominees’ Specifications and Key Sailboat Comparison Metrics appeared first on Cruising World.