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

The post Beneteau Oceanis 30.1: Best Performance Cruiser appeared first on Cruising World.

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

The post Catalina 545 Named 2020 Overall Boat of the Year appeared first on Cruising World.

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

The post Catalina 545: Best Full-Size Cruiser Over 55 Feet appeared first on Cruising World.

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.

It’s not every year that the BOTY panel presents a special prize to the Most Innovative yacht they inspect and sail, but it’s not every year that a truly radical—even revolutionary—vessel like the Eagle Class 53 appears in their sightlines, which made it an easy choice for the designation for 2020. There’s simply never been anything like it, so much so that it was beyond characterization.

“This is one of the finest examples of engineering and workmanship I’ve ever seen,” judge Ed Sherman said unequivocally. “It’s more innovative than anything we’ve ever seen, ever. It’s just amazing how nicely this boat was finished. You know, with its wing sail and foils, you could say it’s a totally bizarre boat in every aspect of its design, but it’s done beautifully.

“When we started talking to the builder, Tommy Gonzalez,” Sherman continued, “he explained how it was really a team build, and they had to bring in some high-end experts from different areas of expertise and assemble them into a team to create this. The quality of the glasswork—and I know it’s carbon, but I still call it glasswork—is simply outstanding. The quality of gear and kit that they assembled on it, and the way they executed it, was first-class. Even the paint job was first-class. It was all done perfectly and tastefully. I am just impressed and proud to say this was built by people who live and work in my home state of Rhode Island, who produced this very high level of craftsmanship.”

“It was a glimpse of the future,” judge Ralph Naranjo added. “It was truly the epitome of the strength-to-weight ratio. From an engineering point of view, it refined the technology of composites, at least where it stands today. It mimicked what Boeing does with aircraft. It was a boat that was sculpted, not just engineered. And then I looked up and saw that solid wing, and was bedazzled by the fact that it rotates with the wind and was a sail I’d never have to take down. That alone marveled me. All in all, she just works, and I’m glad for those people who have the money and can capitalize on that level of R&D. This boat was truly a pleasure.”

“I agree that the workmanship is incredible,” judge Dan Spurr said. “It’s interesting that the wing, the way it was described, actually can work as a storm sail. To get maximum performance, you would rely on the soft sail that attaches to the wing. But even without it, as we saw, it sails very quickly. It’s just an amazing machine.”

So, Most Innovative indeed. Any questions?

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 Eagle Class 53: Most Innovative appeared first on Cruising World.

It’s hard to imagine three vessels, in a single class, as different in layout, purpose and execution than the trio of multihulls that comprised the year’s Best Full-Size Multihull class. Two of the three were catamarans, and the third a most unusual craft: a cruising trimaran. Sorting out these unique boats was a challenge.

The multimillion-dollar Eagle Class 53—built in Rhode Island to exacting standards and a radical design brief (with potential foiling capability and a solid wing mast that also incorporates a “soft” mainsail on its trailing edge)—was not, in any manner, a contemporary cruising boat. Yes, there is a pair of cabins with doubles aft, and the central living space includes a workable galley and one other notable feature. “It’s the only boat we sailed that even had a full bar on deck with slide-out seats sitting on carbon fiber: custom-made carbon-fiber pods,” panelist Ed Sherman said. “I mean, it’s just an amazing piece of workmanship. I don’t know what else to say. It’s a cool boat.” And while it would be a reach to call the Eagle 53 a cruiser, it was certainly remarkable and couldn’t be ignored, which is why the judges were unanimous in separating it for special recognition.

What it thus came down to was which of the two remaining boats—the Bali 5.4 cat and the Neel 47 tri—best addressed or met its stated design briefs. The 55-plus-foot Bali certainly has offshore bona fides—the boats are delivered across the Atlantic from the boatyard in France where they’re crafted—but the yacht is most definitely laid out for steady work (and parties) in the charter trade. The final deliberations were lively.

The first thing that struck judge Dan Spurr was the unusual sailing experience, with the steering station situated on a flybridge well above the waterline. “It felt like a floating island and kind of sailed like one, I thought,” he said. “Being so high above the water, even though we were doing well in light air and making 5 or 6 knots, it was almost hard to tell whether we were moving.”

His fellow judge Ralph Naranjo concurred. “The main boom on the Bali is probably 15 or 16 feet high,” he said. “You’re giving away a lot of the foot of the sail, and you’re sticking the masthead up a lot farther in the sky to get the same kind of drive. At anchor in warm climates in areas where you sail flat and don’t have too much of a seaway, boats like this certainly fit the bill. And the Bali was an extreme version of that. The idea of doing an ocean passage up there aloft seems like a tiring situation.”

“I was actually pleasantly surprised that the boat sailed better than I thought it would, and by a significant margin,” Sherman said. “And let’s not forget the chartering equation that’s a big part of this boat’s aura. The way it’s equipped and laid out down below, it’s built for calm seas and a bunch of friends to have one hell of a good time.”

In some ways, that describes the reasoning behind what happened next. Viewing it as the better layout and configuration for serious cruising, the judges conferred the title of Best Full-Size Multihull on the Neel 47. For the BOTY 2020 awards, three hulls proved better than two.

“The Neel 47 is a very ­interesting boat—the only ­trimaran in our collection, which has quite a bit of significance just from a design perspective because it enables them to get all of their heavy gear and machinery in that center hull,” Sherman said. “In terms of balance, it’s a great way to go. Under sail, the motion of the boat through the water was very comfortable. It’s a unique concept with the interior layout in that the ­owner’s stateroom is at deck level with these giant picture windows overlooking the horizon, and the guest cabins are aft and in the amas. So even though we have a 47-footer here, it’s really a couple’s boat, though there is room for occasional guests.”

“The trend of late in cruising multihulls has certainly been toward cats, so I appreciated their efforts to make a cruising trimaran,” Spurr said. “There’s a real trade-off—the fundamental one being I believe you’re going to get better performance with a trimaran, but you’re going to sacrifice accommodations. So I feel that for most of the buying public, they’re going to have to be leaning toward the performance end of the spectrum. The main owner’s cabin on the saloon level is kind of fun and interesting, but it’s adjacent to the galley and entertaining areas. So, I agree with Ed that this is a boat aimed at an experienced couple.”

Those couples who go with a Neel will be going with a winner.

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 Neel 47 Trimaran: Best Full-Size Multihull appeared first on Cruising World.

There’s no question that crewed and bareboat chartering has become one of the largest, most profitable segments of the entire recreational marine industry. The annual US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, now dedicates an entire portion of its exhibits to charter companies—the popular “Vacation Basin”—and of course, a vast number of the new boats on display, particularly along the ever-growing catamaran ranks, will be employed in the charter trade. To recognize that fact, in recent years, the judging panel has awarded a special prize to the top charter boat, a practice that has continued for 2020.

There was no lack of contenders: Bavaria has made huge inroads into chartering in the British Virgin Islands, and of course, a high percentage of boats from the big cat builders —a third to half of all boats built from Fountaine Pajot and Lagoon, and in even greater numbers for Bali—go into charter service, either directly to the major charter companies or through private owners who put their boats into a charter-­management scheme.

Perhaps not coincidentally, with Batman graphics throughout the boat, owners who wore Batman costumes to publicize their boat’s charter availability, and even a catchy name (Batamaran), the Fountaine Pajot Elba 45 was ideally set up for chartering, and the won-over judging panel ultimately agreed that it made the Best Charter Boat for 2020.

It had all the major ­attributes required for a happy trip through the islands: It performed well; it had stellar accommodations; and it was well-laid-out for kicking back and enjoying the spritely sailing.

“I was very satisfied with this boat,” judge Ed Sherman said. “It was well-built. I liked the way the deckhouse and interior were fashioned, and the way it was structurally engineered. It all indicated to me that this is going to be a strong boat that will last a while. Which is exactly what you want with a boat that’s going to be well-used with week after week of charter clients coming aboard.”

“It had that ‘four-by-four’ cabin layout—four staterooms and four heads—that’s ideal for chartering,” judge Ralph Naranjo said. “They’re squeezing a lot into the available volume down below, and I mean that in a good way. I’m happy with the way the steering station is laid out, with a single helm and a separated area for trimming sails. It’s going to maximize the fun for the sailors who charter her.”

Which, of course, is the exact point of the exercise.

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 Fountaine Pajot Elba 45: Best Charter Boat appeared first on Cruising World.

The battle for supremacy in the Midsize Cruiser class came down to a clash between builders from two nations: France and Sweden. The French were represented by two boats from longtime builder Dufour—the 390 and the 430—and the Swedes by the latest offering from the renowned Hallberg-Rassy yard: a 44-footer. Unfortunately, due to extreme conditions in the Chesapeake (see “A Little Bit of Everything,” page 67), the smaller of the two Dufours was unable to make its appointment for sea trials. The 430 performed admirably, though, with judge Ed Sherman especially impressed by how quiet it was under power.

Calendar year 2020 is going to be a very interesting one for Dufour. The company is now in the stable of the growing boatbuilding conglomerate Fountaine Pajot, and it’s making a fresh commitment to the brand, with new—and bigger—Dufours soon to be introduced. It promises to be intriguing. Stay tuned.

However, for the 2020 BOTY contest, nobody was going to deny the all-around oceangoing excellence of the sweet Hallberg-Rassy 44, which was unanimously named the Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 Feet.

There’s no question that the Hallberg-Rassy benefited from a test sail conducted in truly sporty conditions, with gusts in the 20-knot range and a substantive seaway running, which the yacht purposefully muscled through. The 44 is built to Nordic standards for North Sea conditions, and it showed.

“It’s just a solidly built boat,” Sherman said. “We had the pleasure of sailing it in a pretty strong breeze, and it just went through the water with no effort. It was just doing its thing and loving it. All the equipment they use is Grade A. My only gripe is that if I were to buy the boat, I would spec out a steering wheel that was about 4 inches smaller in diameter so that I could get around it a bit more easily in what is a fairly tight cockpit. Plus, it’s so easy to steer, I don’t believe you need the leverage of a larger wheel. That was my only complaint.”

Judge Ralph Naranjo concurred with his colleague’s assessment. “Externally she’s a sound, ruggedly constructed vessel,” he said. “But more to the point, there’s integrity to how the systems are installed. Looking over how the autopilot goes in, for example, the bracketing can be as important as the selection of the autopilot itself. It’s very well-situated because the bracket is secured to both a transverse and longitudinal member. There’s no shoehorn effect.

“In fact,” he continued, “you lift up the aft bunk and look at all the other equipment installed in that space. It’s almost as if there were laboratory testing going on there, and you have access to all of it. The entire boat is like that. Everything from the bow thruster to the anchor windlass showed that same attention to detail. And to me, the integrity of the builder showed through in the quality of the product.”

“Yes, the quality construction was mainly what got my vote,” judge Dan Spurr said. “We didn’t find any real shortcoming. Everything seemed well-done. The joiner work was tight. The woodwork inside was beautifully done. It sailed well. And I like the Hallberg-Rassy windshield. The vast majority of sailboats have a canvas dodger with vinyl windows. Eventually, the canvas wears out and the vinyl gets cloudy. The supposed virtue is that you can put them down, but nobody ever does, it seems. With the windshield, you can add a canvas top, but it offers protection in a more permanent way. I appreciate that utility. The little things added up here.”

And the finished product was a winner.

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 Hallberg-Rassy 44: Best Midsize Cruiser Under 45 Feet appeared first on Cruising World.