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2022 January 1

This racer-cruiser makes for spirited club racing and great family cruising

When Canadian-born naval architect Rob Ball talks about favorites among the dozens of boats he designed for C&C Yachts, he lists the C&C 34+ racer-cruiser as one his best. During an October 20
2021 November 1

This swift family cruiser is handsome and thoughtfully laid out

Holy cow! My editor has given me two new French boats to review this month, the Oceanis 34.1 by Beneteau and the Sun Odyssey 380 by Jeanneau. I had to study these two boats carefully to even tell them
2021 November 1

This good-looking family cruiser’s deck is laid out for easy sailing

Now let’s see what Marc Lombard, the same designer as the Oceanis 31.4 can do when you give him a very similar design brief and an additional 2 feet 8 inches of additional hull length. Looking at th
2021 November 1

This family cruiser offers affordable amenities

During the late 1980s, recreational sailors began searching for cruising boats that were easy to handle and loaded with liveaboard comforts. Hunter Marine Corp. answered the call with several models,
2021 October 1

With a racer-cruiser pedigree, this performance cruiser will make speedy offshore passages

Sometimes when I listen to an old Jackson Brown album, I get the feeling that Mr. Brown had been following me around taking notes. I get a similar feeling when I look at a new J/Boats cruising design.
2021 October 1

This elegant cruiser is meant for ocean sailing

When I was 15, I worked in a meat market, Ray’s Meats, after school. My walk home would take me past an old-fashioned drug store that had an extensive assortment of magazines including at least four
2021 September 1

After 50 years and hundreds of designs, Bob Perry revisits one of his classics and redesigns it for the modern era

It was 1973. I had left my job drawing ferrocement boat plans for Jay Benford and was headed to Boston to work for Dick Carter—my dream job. I never bought into the ferrocement “craze” that Benf
2021 August 1

This beautiful classic continues to win races and the hearts of offshore cruising sailors

The origin of the celebrated Pearson Rhodes 41 can be traced back to the 1950s and construction of the Bounty II design, a cruising sloop designed by naval architect Philip Rhodes that was made of a p
2021 July 1

This midsized Canadian cutter is robustly built for bluewater passagemaking

More than 40 years after the first Cabot 36 cutter was built in Canada, the boats remain cherished by their owners and the stuff of dreams for sailors looking to purchase one.  Only 49 of these
2021 July 1

This new cruising catamaran boasts good performance with comfortable living space

Let’s add 12 feet to the LOA and see what designers Simonis Voogd can do with an LOA of 54 feet 3 inches. I think the main difference between this big cat built by Kinetics Catamarans and the Bali 4
2021 July 1

This comfortable cruising cat has plenty of space for three couples to lounge about

I try to keep my reviews objective. I don’t always succeed. If I see what I consider to be a “design flaw” I’ll point it out. But aesthetics are so subjective. I hesitate to impose my sen
2021 June 1

With all kinds of bells and whistles available, this cruiser can make ocean passages in comfort

I always enjoy getting a new Hallberg-Rassy model to review. I like German Frers hull designs and the layouts and decks of the H-R boats are always very well thought out. This new model at 50 fee
2021 June 1

This powerful performance cruiser has speed and style for world cruising

Here’s a big, stylish cruising boat from Jeanneau with the focus on comfort. The Jeanneau Yacht 60 is designed by Philippe Briand, a very accomplished designer of both racing and cruising boats.Look
2021 May 28

This new cruising cat has all the luxury features and speed performance of its bigger sisters in a compact, easy-to-handle package

Full disclosure: I love Leopard Catamarans. I’ve “owned” several, admittedly only for a week at a time on bareboat charters, but that was enough to find them fun to sail, easy to maintain and ve
2021 April 1

The raised-saloon cruiser has creature comforts for two couples

Here’s a new Oyster model that is about the same LOA as the Shogun 50, but this is a cruising boat with no pretense to being a race boat. Oyster did not invent the raised saloon configuration.
2021 April 1

The racer-cruiser is 200% fast and comfortable

I frequently ask my editor Greta to give me something interesting and different to review. Well, I got my wish this month. This new design by Oscar and Haken Södergren is really different. If yo
2021 March 1

Sleek performance cruiser checks all the right boxes for offshore sailing

Dufour is one of the oldest French production builders still in business. In 1974 I raced a Dufour Arpege in the Chicago-Mackinac race. The Arpege was an older design at that time. This latest Dufour,
2021 March 1

This racer-cruiser puts the focus on speed with a slick deck layout

This month we have two new European builds to review, the Dehler 38 SQ and the Dufour 430 Grand Large. It would be nice to compare the differences in the two designs, but most of the differences are i
2021 March 1

Robustly built, this traditional cruiser is made for bluewater sailing

If Gozzard Yachts had a mantra, it might be comfort and safety.  The late Canadian boat designer and builder Hedley “Ted” Gozzard harbored strong opinions on how a sailboat should be laid out
2021 January 1

The modern cold-molded cruiser has speed and style for fast passages

Here’s a handsome new design by my friend Kevin Dibley. Kevin is a very good designer and a nice guy. The builder is Lyman-Morse and the company’s pedigree goes back many years. I have been to tha

Perry on Design

  • An American-built pilothouse cruiser keeps you out of the rain

  • This performance cruiser has Italian flair

  • Retro style but modern performance are the trademarks of this new cruiser

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