- Sail Magazine

Two years ago, members of the Thistle Class of one design sailboats started a pilot program, working with Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana, aimed at making as many Thistle Class regattas and events as environmentally sustainable as possible. What the sailors have accomplished since then has ...

At just three days long, Leg 6 is minuscule compared to recent legs of The Ocean Race, but that won’t mean any less drama given the close standings and six boats returning to the race. The course follows an 800-mile wending path from Aarhus, Denmark, to The Hague in The Netherlands, with a […]

Our arrival in the Cabo Verde, or Cape Verde, islands began with a bang. Actually, a wild jibe to leeward, a loud crack as the main came across, and a violent heel right down to the rail, to be honest. This was to be our first landfall on our new-to-us Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 509. My 21-year-old ...

Last week, I almost crashed Falken into the dock. We were returning from the third trial sail in the English Channel since completing our Farr 65’s yearlong refit, and I was distracted. The following day we were set to have our first open house to share our newly refit dream boat with the […]

Riddle me this, sailor: What do you get when there’s a gale warning out of the west and a 13-year-ebb tide rushing out of the east? If you answered “a bad time” or “a washing machine,” you are correct. Such were the conditions on day 1 of the Race to Alaska (R2AK) that […]

For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail at sailmagazine.com/multihull Fountaine Pajot knows a thing or two about the mid-40-foot sweet spot for cruising multihulls, and with the launch of the new Tanna 47 cat, they’ve dialed in their […]

From posting a new monohull speed record to shuffling the leaderboard, Leg 5 was a drag race all the way from Newport to Aarhus, Denmark. With just two legs remaining, the double-scored transat put crucial points on the board, and for the top three teams, it's not over until it's over. June 2023

Often, the trickiest parts of a charter have nothing to do with ticklish navigation, lousy weather, or seasick crew. Instead, they are about logistics and bureaucracy, and I was remembering this as the two female Cuban customs agents with hot pink nails dug through my bag with gusto. On discovering […]

For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail at sailmagazine.com/multihull I first saw Beneteau’s Excess brand of sailing catamarans in 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a room full of marine journalists, some of whom, like me, weren’t […]

Southern California was serving up a strong dose of its May Grey/June Gloom weather when I arrived in Santa Barbara. With a thick marine layer and cool temperatures, the breeze was light and the seas were flat. I had arrived to test the Oyster 495, a new model from a family of cruisers I’ve […]

If you’re an avid sailor and passionate traveler at the same time, you probably start making plans for your next sailing adventure as soon as your last charter vacation is over. Depending on how much time you spend on the water you might even consider buying your own boat. But then […]

Buddy Melges, whose career in sailing and impact on the sport has been so remarkable that few superlatives come close to describing it, has died at age 93. The two-time Olympic medalist, two-time Star world champion, three-time 5.5-Meter world champion, three-time Mallory Trophy winner, and ...

During The Ocean Race’s Newport stopover, SAIL magazine had a chance to catch up with some of the sailors that make this race possible. Here’s a peek into the mindsets onboard halfway through the round-the-world race. “The shore crew did an amazing job of getting the boat back […]

The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is a collection of 1,400 ocean sailors with extensive offshore seamanship, command experience, and a shared passion for making adventurous use of the seas. Their experiences and expertise make them, collectively, one of the most reliable sources of information on […]

Most sailors take months or more to learn a new boat since, truth is, most of us have limited or sporadic time to devote to the education. David and Alison Lennarz, on the other hand, put their learning curve on fast-track mode when they took delivery of their new Balance 526 in St. Francis, South […]

The Ocean Race's 5,550-nautical-mile sprint from Itajai, Brazil, to Newport, Rhode Island, concluded last week, complete with Gulf Stream storms, the intense equatorial heat of the doldrums, and a double dismasting. Managing Editor Lydia Mullan breaks down the highs and lows of Leg 4 in the latest […]

Mother Nature is good at heavy lifting. She effortlessly—and depending on where you sail, fairly regularly—delivers thousands of gallons of precious drinking water directly to the decks of our sailboats. All that work and water needn’t go down the drain. To harvest rain, on our […]

Truly it’s vexing that sailing luminaries don’t get more attention in the U.S.—a nation founded on the very skill of being able to sail successfully and well—and it really hits you front and center watching “The Wizard of Zenda,” Mark Honer’s terrific […]

“I’m gonna lose you! Don’t let go…. Don’t let go!” Those were the words that I kept pleading to my husband as he clung to the Lifesling while I used all my adrenaline and grit to pull him back onboard. How we ended up there is a cautionary tale. Like most days […]

It should probably come as no surprise that a major philosophical design element behind the new Italia 14.98 is simply beauty. “The boat was designed around the concept of being…an elegant boat, going fast through the water,” says designer Maurizio Cossutti. “We’re […]

In the small hours of the morning a mere two days from the Leg 4 finish in Newport, The Ocean Race competitor GUYOT Environment has dismasted. All crew are reported to be safe. Co-skippers Robert Stanjek and Benjamin Dutreux were both onboard, as well as Ocean Race veteran Annie Lush and […]

For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail at sailmagazine.com/multihull Just when monohull purists have become accustomed to catamarans, there’s a cosmic shift to three hulls. Trimarans certainly aren’t new, but their popularity is growing, […]

The idea of packing it all up and going cruising is simultaneously massively appealing and daunting. To a young sailor, it can feel almost impossible, but I’ve learned a few things that have changed my perspective significantly. My partner, Sara, and I (combined age of 48) raised a few […]

If you go over the side offshore, you’re dead. If we get you back, you’re lucky. The edge of the boat is a 2,000-foot cliff—you go over, the consequences are the same, it just takes a little longer.  —Andy Schell, 59 North Sailing, SAIL, April 2019 Coast Guard […]

I married into a sailing family. I was raised in the Rust Belt, north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, amid fields of corn, soy, and cows. I had gone a good 27 years without ever setting foot onto a sailboat. Before my relationship with my wife, Chiara, whenever I thought about sailboats (which I will […]

For more multihull reviews and stories, subscribe for free to Multihull Power & Sail at sailmagazine.com/multihull The new Rapido 40 trimaran is designed by Morrelli & Melvin, whose portfolio includes multihull rockets ranging from America’s Cup contenders to Steve Fossett’s […]

B&G has long been putting out top-of-the-line electronics, but the new Zeus S Chartplotter is a fresh take on the best way to give sailors the exact information they need, when they need it. “So many more people sail shorthanded these days, whether as a couple or when they’re […]

As David Tunick explains it, his sailing evolved over time. “I’m not a great sailor,” says the art dealer, 78, with a self-effacement that typifies his storytelling. “I wasn’t raised in junior sailing. I wasn’t in any yacht club, and it took me years to get into […]

Kirsten Neuschäfer, a South African whose life as a sailor has practically defined the word “adventure,” today won the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race, becoming the first woman to win a solo round-the-world race. She finished in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, where she began nearly […]

Early on the morning of April 27, Holcim-PRB dismasted off the coast of Brazil. The IMOCA 60 was in just days into Leg 4 of The Ocean Race, sailing in moderate conditions. The failure comes as something of a shock since Holcim-PRB has been so dominant in the race up until this point, winning […]

After 32 years of operation, Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB) is moving. Six years, countless volunteer hours, persistent efforts working with state, county, and local lawmakers, and $5 million have gone into creating the country’s premiere Adaptive Boating Center, CRAB’s new […]

It’s been a minute since I’ve done any serious voyage planning. Even saying that is sort of sad, but I’ve been filling my sailing days lately with short trips in familiar waters for which the only planning needed has been what’s the weather look like, and do we have enough […]

In 2020, 30-year-old Clarisse Crémer set off on one of the most ambitious feats in sailing—the Vendée Globe. Alongside 32 other competitors, she left Les Sables-d’Olonne to race around the planet alone without stopping on a 60-foot monohull. Among the fleet were some of […]

Chances are you’ve been at the boatyard or marina lately, hovering hopefully as you wait for your boat to get back in the water, checking with your service techs about projects they’ve been working on to have you all ready for a great season of sailing. These are the busiest months of […]

Usually when people ask me how I learned to sail, I answer that I taught myself. And this is true to a large extent. No one ever taught me how to row a boat; handling oars seemed as self-evident as walking. I do recall being taught to manage an outboard-powered skiff as a boy, but when I decided I […]

It happens in a moment of weakness. Perhaps my wife is distracted, perhaps she buckles under the gray of the winter sky. Even though Danielle’s idea of a Caribbean vacation features white sandy beaches, a comfortable hotel room, and dinner at a seaside restaurant, she says yes. Two days later […]

Video by Elena Patriarca Most of the multihull world seems driven by the concept that bigger is always better. But with its new 38-foot Catsmart, Bali Catamarans is taking a refreshing step in the other direction, presenting the smallest boat in its model range for a market that Catana Group Sales […]

The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is a collection of 1,400 ocean sailors with extensive offshore seamanship, command experience, and a shared passion for making adventurous use of the seas. Their experiences and expertise make them, collectively, one of the most reliable sources of information on […]

After four legs of intense racing, The Ocean Race IMOCA 60 fleet will arrive in Newport, Rhode Island, mid-month for the only United States stopover in the race. In addition to being the homeport of the American-flagged 11th Hour Racing Team, Newport has also hosted a stopover for three consecutive […]

Video by Elena Patriarca The new VPLP-designed Outremer 52 is something of a natural hybrid between its enormously popular predecessor, the 51, and the more recent 55, expanding upon design innovations from the latter. It’s also a response to owner feedback, representing four key design […]

Yesterday, Golden Globe Race organizers announced a “Code Red” situation for skipper Ian Herbert-Jones, whose EPIRB was activated in the midst of a massive south Atlantic storm with winds gusting in the high 80s and a sea state of around 20 feet. He was sailing the Tradewind 35, Puffin, […]

Leg 3 is the showpiece of The Ocean Race, combining exhausting conditions, constant boat repairs, and challenging tactics. Join SAIL's Managing Editor Lydia Mullan for a breakdown of all the highs and lows of this Southern Ocean marathon.

Nerd alert: We’re talking networks and data this month, none of which is really integral to the safe running of a boat as far as seamanship is concerned, but all of which is addictingly fun and surprisingly enlightening. Specifically, I’m looking at NMEA 2000 networks and how to get the […]

Dousing a big headsail like an asymmetrical spinnaker takes careful crew coordination, and on the J/32 Betsy, that teamwork is a family affair. Nine-year-old Jamie Fallon opens the forward cabin hatch and stands by to collect the sail; his 11-year-old brother, Ben, steers dead downwind being ...

Nine boats, nine captains, nearly 70 people, and about a million problems. That’s the mayhem we faced as we prepped to leave on a group charter from Martinique bound for Grenada. As captains, our single assigned point of contact to help us ready our boats for departure was a Frenchman named […]

Before I’d even laid eyes on a cala, the word conjured mystical visions. Formed by ancient rivers, calas are delightfully protected coves of turquoise water and white sand beaches framed by precipitous cliffs, and Mallorca, where we were spending a week chartering, has an embarrassment of […]

Location: 32.19 N, 70.34 W, somewhere in the North Atlantic, three days out of Beaufort, North Carolina. “Done.” Jeremy put the iPad face down on the towel under the dodger. “We’ll have a new set of GRIBs in a few minutes. And Chris’ weather should be in the next time […]

Winter can be hard on boats, even when they’re properly winterized, covered, and tucked in for the long dark nights. Come spring, we’re all antsy to get back on the water, but before you untie the lines, it’s important to make sure your boat is as ready as you are. Spring […]

It has been nearly 20 years, a full generation, since J/Boats has produced an offshore-capable boat that can be both raced and comfortably cruised. For aficionados of larger Js it has been a long wait, but I’m here to tell you: It was worth it. This new J/45, one of SAIL’s Top 10 Best […]

For 49 years, St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) has drawn top regional and international sailors thanks to its renowned trade winds, high caliber sailors, and race management, not to mention coastal courses that offer a test of strategy, navigation, and helmsmanship. Add some of the best ...