american sailboat designers

10 Best Sailboat Brands (And Why)

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

December 20, 2023

‍ There's no denying that sailors are certainly a passionate bunch. We’re so passionate about our boats that we always try going for the best sailboats. To make it a lot easier for you, here are the best sailboat brands.

Owning a sailboat is an indulgence that many of us only dream about but very few ever have the privilege of sailing the seas in what they can actually call their own.

While there's nothing wrong with renting a sailboat, the honor of owning one is certain what many sailors dream of.

With a perfectly crafted sailboat as company, gliding through the water, waves, and wind brings some sort of unmatched comfort and peace.

Add this to the fact that sailing takes you far away from the daily hustles and bustles that we've become accustomed to in our daily lives and you'll see why the life of sailing is very appealing to the masses.

But without a proper sailboat, all this fun and the good life of sailing are thrown out of the window.

Contrary to the widespread opinion, owning a sailboat isn't beyond anyone's reach. It's something that we can all achieve. But before getting into that, it's important to know some of the best sailboat brands.

The best sailboat brands will make your life as a sailor a lot easier and more fun. The best sailboat brands have, for decades if not centuries, mastered the art of woodworking. They've dedicated their skills and immense amount of their time to designing and manufacturing nothing but the best quality of sailboats in the industry.

So if you've been looking for the best sailboat brands from all over the world, you've come to the right place. We'll discuss the best of the best, something that will give you a perfect getaway from your normal life.

Table of contents

‍ Must-Have Features for Your Sailboat

Before highlighting the best sailboat brands, it would be appropriate to jog your mind a little with some of the features that must be available in your sailboat.

Choosing a sailboat can sometimes be a matter of compromises. In other words, it's sometimes sensible to accept that a sailboat cannot have all the features that you desire.

As such, it's all about going with a sailboat that has the features that matter to you most.

For this reason, let's look at the most basic features that can make the difference in both safety and comfort while improving your sailing experience.

A Safe and Comfortable Sailing Cockpit

You'll most definitely be spending a huge amount of time in the cockpit. Whether you're keeping watch, trimming sails , helming, or just enjoying the scenery, there's no better place to do all these than from the cockpit. That being said, a good cockpit should have the following.

• Have a good depth for safety reasons and adequate drainage
• Should give you a quick and easy access to jammers, cleats, and other important parts of the winch system
• Should have a seat or seats that are about 35 cm high, 50 to 55 cm wide to provide ideal support
• The seats should be adjustable to offer maximum comfort and allow you to change your position

GPS Chartplotter

Use a GPS Chartplotter once and your sailing will never be the same without it. It not only allows you to map a course but is also a great way of ensuring that your sailboat exactly follows that course. It also gives you constant updates on ocean conditions, weather conditions , and potential hazards such as deadly currents and sandbars.

A GPS Chartplotter is also an important safety device that can help you in some very critical situations while out there on the water.

For instance, it has a man-overboard button that is essentially meant to allow you to receive coordinates of the exact location should someone fall off your boat.

Electric Winch System

This is an amazing addition to any sailboat. It allows you to sheet a jib even in high and strong winds with a simple press of a button. It also gives you the chance of trimming a mainsail easily while still carry out other essential tasks in the sailboat.

An electric winch system can be of great importance, especially if you're short on crew. This is because it can free up some crew members to carry other important tasks. In other words, it can make duties that would otherwise require more crew members a lot easier.

More importantly, an electric winch system can maintain safety even in the roughest of conditions, thereby preventing you and your crew from getting injured. In essence, an electric winch system will make your sailing a lot safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable.

Reverse Osmosis Watermaker

This is a very valuable accessory, especially if you're going on long sea voyages. You can spend days on end without drinking clean and safe water.

As the name suggests, you can use this accessory to turn seawater into purified drinking water. It uses the reverse osmosis method that's essential not only in removing bacteria and parasites from the water but also in turning the water into purified and safe drinking water.

Even though this device is pricey, it's a great way to mitigate the over-reliance on huge water tanks. All you have to do is to ensure that it's properly maintained and you'll have an endless streak of safe drinking water no matter where you are.

Wide and Clutter-free Deck

While the deck is often an overlooked feature of a sailboat, it can be the difference between a great sailing experience and a stressful one. In essence, the deck of a sailboat should be wide enough and clutter-free.

This is significant as it can enable you to quickly access different parts of your sailboat with hindrance or getting tangled. As you can see, this is particularly important in improving safety and reducing stress.

With that in mind, make sure that the deck is organized in such a way that you can have easy access to sails, masts, and winches.

You should, therefore, avoid sailboats with decks that are designed in such a way that you have to climb on top of the cabin just to access these features. Needless to say, this can be quite unstable and very dangerous especially when conditions are rough.

The Best Sailboat Brands and Why

1. hallberg-rassy.

Hallberg-Rassy is a Swedish yacht maker that's very well-known in the blue water cruising circles for making some of the highest quality and sturdiest sailboats. For many sailors, this is the number one sailboat brand as it offers absolute comfort, utmost safety, and good and easy handling.

This brand is not only synonymous with sturdy construction but you won't worry getting soaking wet while out there on the water. This is because it has a well-protected deck and cockpit, finished with nice woodwork, and has a powerful engine with a big tankage just to ensure that you can go on long voyages.

When designing its sailboats, this brand has made it a norm to add some features that stand out from the rest. For instance, the bowsprit is an integral feature that makes sailing a Hallberg-Rassy quite easy and much enjoyable. This is because it grants easy access to and from the deck. Its electric anchor winches facilitate smooth maneuvering. Even more, its large steering wheels makes it much easier to control the boat even in the roughest of conditions. In essence, this brand has features that provide good control and an extra sense of safety.

Although this brand has evolved over the years, you'll easily recognize it even from a distance. And why is this? A Hallberg-Rassy never goes out of style. This is a unique sailboat brand that has always stayed true to its principles and concept. No matter which part of the world you go, Hallberg-Rassy will remain the undisputed king of blue water cruising.

2. Nautor's Swan

For over 50 years, Nautor's Swan has endlessly raised the sailing levels by designing and manufacturing new sailboat models that not only push the boundaries but also meet that many requirements and demands of sailors across the world. Thanks to its wide range of seaworthy, timeless, elegant, and highly-performing sailboats, the Nautor's Swan remains one of the best if not the best sailboat makers in the world.

Based in Jakobstad, Finland, this brand has severally set the industry standard with its speedy and sleek models such as the Swan 48, Swan 65, Swan 98, Swan 78, and Swan 120. These models have one thing in common: they never compromise on safety. As a brand that puts safety first, it ensures that its models are made of foam-cored glass fiber and reinforced both with carbon-fiber and epoxy. In essence, Nautor's Swan is widely revered for its unmatched seafaring and safety records.

Additionally, Nautor's Swan models are incredibly responsive. You can easily tell this just by the feel of the wheel. This brand has models that will gracefully slice through the biggest of waves with ease. That's not all; the interior of these models that are very comfortable even when the going gets tough. This is, without a doubt, a brand that strives to create self-contained worlds with each model.

3. Beneteau

This is perhaps the most selling sailboat brand in the world. For over a century now, this brand has based its models in a combination of simplicity and performance. This is a brand that will serve you just right across all latitudes and in all circumstances. Whether you prefer the Oceanis Yacht 62 or the Figaro Beneteau 3, this brand will never let you down on all fronts.

This brand revolves around a simple concept of creating a link around the world. From the deck space to its design and light, this brand does everything possible not just to uniformly transform life at sea but also to open doors to new horizons in a very luxurious yet practical way. Its models are designed with clear deck plans, stable hulls, simplified maneuvering and interior materials and equipment that can be easily personalized.

Whether you're looking for a racing sailboat or something that's designed to explore and enjoy the world in the company of friends and family, Beneteau is a true combination of sensations and simplicity. This is a brand that brings to the seas fun, simplicity, smartness, toughness, safety, intuitiveness, as well as dazzling reinvention.

4. Amel Yachts

Based on the ethos of designing and manufacturing comfortable, robust, and easy-to-handle boats, this French brand has, for over five decades, offered sailors and other sailing enthusiasts the perfect opportunity to explore the seas with the utmost quality, comfort, and more importantly, safety.

Using 100% French know-how, this brand has brought to the sailing world some of the best boats such as the Santorini, the Mango, the Super Maramu, and the Maramu. We would be doing this brand total injustice if we said that they're distinctive. Truth be told, there's nothing comparable to an Amel model. Well Amel was and still is, the ultimate standard by which other sailboat models are measured.

From items such as electric winches and furling, to generators, Watermaker , and washing machine down to the simplest of items such as towels. Spare filters, bathrobes, deck brush, and a boat safe, the Amel is in reality with what the real life of a sailor is and should be.

Although some may say that Amel still has room for improvement in terms of specifications and personalization, it cannot be denied that the Amel is a serious brand that designs and manufactures complete boats. With this brand, you'll be guaranteed of a higher degree of reliability, safety, and an edge of fun while out there on the water.

5. Hinckley Yachts

Based in Maine, United States, Hinckley Yachts is a brand that has been building robust, luxury, and safe sailboats for more than 90 years now. In its sailboat class, you'll find several sailboats that have classic shapes, inner strength, dramatic lines, and features that are absolutely essential in dealing with the challenges of the North Atlantic.

This brand has been successful in integrating impeccable craftsmanship with new technologies to ensure that their models always stand out while articulating advanced sailing practices, timeless aesthetic, robust construction, and the utmost safety. Whether you choose the Bermuda 50, the Sou'wester 53 or any model for that matter, you'll never be short of advanced performance based on the best design and technology.

In terms of features, this brand provides sailboat models with modern performance hulls. These hulls are constructed with inner layers of carbon, outer layers of Kevlar, and are aligned with computer-designed load paths. Every feature is designed without compromising comfort.

To this end, this brand offers you a perfect combination of both fun and sail. This brand offers more than just sailing. Instead, it offers a unique sailing experience that's combined with the pure joys of sailing in the blue waters with an ease of ownership and maneuverability.

6. Oyster Yachts

If you've been looking for luxury more than anything else, Oyster Yachts provides you with numerous solutions. This British brand is widely known for manufacturing a wide range of luxury cruising sailing yachts. Its sailboats are among the finest in the world and are immensely capable of taking you to some of the far-flung places in the world without having to worry about high winds and hellish waves.

Whether you choose the iconic Oyster 565 or the immense Oyster 595 you never fall short of experiencing the new world like never before. These are models that will enable you to own your adventure, choose your destination, set your courses, pick your anchorage, and stay safe at all times. If you want to hold the wheel and pull the sail while feeling the tang of salt spray on your face, Oyster Yachts is the way to go.

This is, unquestionably, a brand that's meant for you if you want to explore the seas in comfort, luxury and utmost safety. From craftsmanship, sailboat design, to hull, deck, and keel configurations, everything is designed to allow you to circumnavigate the world in comfort, elegance, and style.

7. Tartan Yachts

Based in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, there's arguably no better to begin your sailing adventures than with a sailboat designed and manufactured by Tartan Yachts. With several award-winning designs and construction, this brand is widely known for providing easy handling, great performance, and an ultimately stable platform.

This brand always strives to deliver a unique and the best possible experience to every sailor. As a brand, Tartan fully understands that every sailor has his/her unique sailing needs. As such every component of their models is designed with engineering levels that guarantee optimum performance, excellent on-deck visibility, and luxurious interior.

From the Tartan 5300, the Tartan 4300, the Tartan 345 to the New 365 and the Fantail, this brand makes it a priority to ensure that its models are among the strongest, lightest, and more importantly, the safest in the sailing industry. In essence, this brand can be ideal if you appreciate performance. It has rewarding sailing features both in narrow water lines and wider passages. Add this to its easy handling and you'll have a top-notch performer in virtually every condition.

8. Catalina Yachts

As one of the most popular boat manufacturers in the world, this American brand is widely revered for building the sturdiest boats that can hold up perfectly well in real-world conditions. These are generally family-oriented boats that are intelligently designed to ensure that your entire family can have fun out there on the water.

Some of the models include the cruiser series such as the Catalina 315, the Catalina 385, the Catalina 425 while the sport series include the Catalina 12.5 Expo, the Catalina 16.5, and the Catalina 14.2 Expo. As the current winner of the "Boat of the Year" Cruising World, you'll rarely go wrong with a Catalina model.

It offers a wide range of sailboat sizes that suits your lifestyle. This brand makes it a priority to ensure that all their models are not only safe but offer the best ownership and sailing experience. If anything, this brand is widely known to have one of the most excellent resale values in the sailing industry.

9. Island Packet Yachts

From the IP 525, the IP 439 to the IP 379, the Island Packet Yachts is a brand that encourages its customers not to keep the world waiting. This brand is meant for sailors who want to explore the world in utmost comfort and safety.

The first thing you'll notice in an IP sailboat is its large aft deck. This is not only perfect for sunbathing but can also serve you well if you want an impromptu dinner with friends and family while out there on the water. The living space is also large enough to carry most of your belongings, which is an added advantage especially if you've been planning to spend longer periods in the seas.

With modern evolution and refinement, as well as proven features, this brand is known to offer sailors maximum comfort, luxury, and safety. You'll have better access to the cockpit, have enough space, and are excellently designed to provide superior seafaring and the best features to enable you to spend extended periods when cruising.

10. Sparkman & Stephens

For more than 90 years, Sparkman & Stephens has been at the forefront of the belief that sailboat excellence goes beyond hull lines and deck plans. Instead, this brand believes in excellent naval architecture, innovation, sophistication, and beauty. This is a brand that has laid the foundation of sailboat as a sport not just in America but all over the world.

These models have graced the world for decades and bring immense pleasure to their owners in terms of innovation, performance, and excellence. Though rooted in tradition, the brand has pushed sophistication, technology, and sailing experience to a whole new level. You'll be a proud owner of the Sparkman & Stephens model.

There you have it; these are the best sailboat brands in the world. Although there are several other sailboat brands to choose from, the-above described brands stand shoulder above others in terms of quality, safety, performances and luxury.

Hopefully, you're at a much better place when it comes to choosing a sailboat that suits your lifestyle, needs, and budget .

Happy sailing!

Related Articles

10 Best Sailboats To Live In

Common Issues With Hallberg-Rassy Sailboats

Common Issues With Catalina Yacht Sailboats

Common Issues With Island Packet Yacht Sailboats

I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

by this author

Best Sailboats

Most Recent

What Does "Sailing By The Lee" Mean?

October 3, 2023

The Best Sailing Schools And Programs: Reviews & Ratings

September 26, 2023

Important Legal Info

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.

Similar Posts

Affordable Sailboats You Can Build at Home

September 13, 2023

Best Small Sailboats With Standing Headroom

December 28, 2023

Best Bluewater Sailboats Under $50K

Popular posts.

Best Liveaboard Catamaran Sailboats

Can a Novice Sail Around the World?

Elizabeth O'Malley

June 15, 2022

4 Best Electric Outboard Motors

How Long Did It Take The Vikings To Sail To England?

7 Best Places To Liveaboard A Sailboat

9 Best Trailerable Sailboats

Get the best sailing content.

Top Rated Posts

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. (866) 342-SAIL

© 2024 Life of Sailing Email: [email protected] Address: 11816 Inwood Rd #3024 Dallas, TX 75244 Disclaimer Privacy Policy

Great choice! Your favorites are temporarily saved for this session. Sign in to save them permanently, access them on any device, and receive relevant alerts.

• Sailboat Guide

Philip Rhodes

Philip L. Rhodes is one of the best known American boat designers of the 20th century. His career spanned more than 50 years. Rhodes had worked at a number of firms before joining Cox & Stevens, Inc., New York City in 1934. By 1947 this had become Philip L. Rhodes, Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Rhodes and his firm were pioneers in the development of fiberglass construction methods. The Bounty II for Coleman Plastics in 1956 became one of the earliest yachts built of fiberglass, and established the viability of the new material for larger production boats. By the 1950’s, Philip Rhodes spent most of his time as a manager of the firm. For many years, James McCurdy served as head of the Yacht Design Section. The actual designs of boats followed certain formula and guidelines Rhodes had developed earlier. Much of the later basic design work was done by his son Philip H. (“Bodie”) Rhodes. Detailed layouts and drawings were done by Al Mason, Charles Jannace, and Dick Davis. Other designers worked on motor yachts, and commercial and military boats. In addition, Rhodes’ other son Daniel Rhodes did brokerage work in the office. Philip Rhodes retired in 1970. Jim McCurdy and his son Bodie Rhodes had created their own yacht design company (McCurdy and Rhodes) in 1968. Most of the Rhodes material is archived at the Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library, (Philip L. Rhodes Collection) Mystic Seaport Museum. Listed here are some of the better known, ‘series built’ designs.

60 Sailboats designed by Philip Rhodes

Rhodes 19 CB

Rhodes Bantam

Petrel 12 (Rhodes)

Rhodes 22 continental.

Pearson Vanguard 33

O'Day Tempest 23

Cheoy lee offshore 40.

Swiftsure 33 (Rhodes)

Chesapeake 32

O'Day Outlaw 26

Pearson Rhodes 41

Rhodes reliant 41.

Annapolis 30 (Rhodes)

Traveller 32

Evergreen (Rhodes)

Cabrillo 32.

Week-Ender (Rhodes)

Grumman Dinghy

Robin (Rhodes)

Lake one-design (rhodes), northern 25, seafarer 36c sloop.

Rhodes Idler

Pearson rhodes 41 yawl.

Whistler Class (Rhodes)

Dater (Rhodes)

Mariner 19 CB

Little Sister (Rhodes)

Hurricane 19

Marlin 18 (Rhodes)

Temptress 32

Mariner 19 fk.

Kingfisher III

Edgartown Rover

Seafarer 38 Ketch

Seafarer rhodes 38.

Seafarer 38C

Seafarer 36C

Rhodes Ranger 29

Seafarer bahama 35 ms.

Seafarer 38C KR

Seafarer Meridian 25

Bounty (Rhodes)

Arrowhead (rhodes).

• About Sailboat Guide

©2024 Sea Time Tech, LLC

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

• Catalina 12.5 Expo
• Catalina 14.2
• Catalina 14.2 Expo
• Catalina 16.5
• Catalina 22 Sport
• Catalina 22 Capri
• Catalina 275 Sport
• Catalina 315
• Catalina 355
• Catalina 385
• Catalina 425
• Catalina 445

MAINSHEET MAGAZINE

• TRUE NORTH YACHTS

A legacy built on precision, innovation and unmistakable American craftsmanship.

Elevate your sailing experience with a touch of true American Luxury.

CHEERS! TO OUR OWNERS, DEALERS & TEAM

A key to our success and longevity is the relationship and communication with our owners, dealers and team. For more than 50 years they have propelled us forward as America’s largest sailboat builder.

We are a Catalina family.

MEET OUR FLEET

We’re not just building sailboats; we’re creating experiences that resonate with the essence of American Luxury. Our fleet is a testament to a legacy built on precision, innovation, and the spirit of adventure, with the unmistakable touch of American craftsmanship.

SPORT SERIES

CRUISER SERIES

OCEAN SERIES

Find your dealer.

We have a roster of dealers across the country who represent the Catalina fleet and there’s a good chance they’re planing a show, event or open house to showcase their in-stock Catalina models.

CATALINA YACHTS STORE

CATALINA YACHTS OFFICIAL RETAIL PARTNER

Performance hardware, sails, custom apparel, mats, sheets and much more!

The official publication for thousands of Catalina Yachts sailboat owners around the world.

FORGING AHEAD

From the past 50 years, and to the next 50, Catalina is devoted to providing owners and dealers with quality and value that has made Catalina America’s largest sailboat builder.

Frank Butler’s vision and philosophy carries forward with Sharon Day, who worked alongside Frank for 48 years, at the helm of a veteran leadership team.

TRUE NORTH BY CATALINA

True North initiates Catalina’s entry into the growing market segment of Downeast-style powerboats and promises traditional style with great performance and Catalina value.

PROUDLY OWNED, DESIGNED & BUILT IN AMERICA

Additional resources.

• Brochure Archives
• Associations

PARTS & TECH SUPPORT

727-544-6681

7200 Bryan Dairy Rd

Largo, FL. 33777

Click to view current models

Yacht Service

Click to view our yards

Pre-Owned Hinckley Yacht Brokerage

Click here to view our pre-owned sail and powerboat listings

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Boating State * Outside US / Canada Alabama Alaska Alberta Arizona Arkansas California - North California - South Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida - East Coast Florida - West Coast Gulf Coast Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Manitoba Maryland Massachusetts - North of Boston Massachusetts - Boston and South Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Brunswick New Hampshire New Jersey - North of Sandy Hook New Jersey - South of Sandy Hook New Mexico New York - Great Lakes New York - Coastal North Carolina North Dakota Nova Scotia Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania - East Pennsylvania - West Puerto Rico Rhode Island Saskatchewan South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

43 of the best bluewater sailboat designs of all time

• January 5, 2022

How do you choose the right yacht for you? We highlight the very best bluewater sailboat designs for every type of cruising

Which yacht is the best for bluewater boating? This question generates even more debate among sailors than questions about what’s the coolest yacht , or the best for racing. Whereas racing designs are measured against each other, cruising sailors get very limited opportunities to experience different yachts in real oceangoing conditions, so what is the best bluewater sailboat?

Here, we bring you our top choices from decades of designs and launches. Over the years, the Yachting World team has sailed these boats, tested them or judged them for European Yacht of the Year awards, and we have sifted through the many to curate a selection that we believe should be on your wishlist.

Making the right choice may come down to how you foresee your yacht being used after it has crossed an ocean or completed a passage: will you be living at anchor or cruising along the coast? If so, your guiding requirements will be space, cabin size, ease of launching a tender and anchoring closer to shore, and whether it can comfortably accommodate non-expert-sailor guests.

Article continues below…

The perfect boat: what makes an ideal offshore cruising yacht?

Choosing a boat for offshore cruising is not a decision to be taken lightly. I have researched this topic on…

European Yacht of the Year 2019: Best luxury cruisers

Before the sea trials began, I would have put money on a Hallberg-Rassy or the Wauquiez winning an award. The…

All of these considerations have generated the inexorable rise of the bluewater catamaran – monohulls can’t easily compete on these points. We have a full separate feature on the best bluewater multihulls of all time and here we mostly focus on monohulls. The only exceptions to that rule are two multihulls which made it into our best bluewater sailboats of 2022 list.

As so much of making the right choice is selecting the right boat for the venture in mind, we have separated out our edit into categories: best for comfort; for families; for performance; and for expedition or high latitudes sailing .

Best bluewater sailboats of 2022

The new flagship Allures 51.9, for example, is a no-nonsense adventure cruising design built and finished to a high standard. It retains Allures’ niche of using aluminium hulls with glassfibre decks and superstructures, which, the yard maintains, gives the optimum combination of least maintenance and less weight higher up. Priorities for this design were a full beam aft cabin and a spacious, long cockpit. Both are excellent, with the latter, at 6m long, offering formidable social, sailing and aft deck zones.

It likes some breeze to come to life on the wheel, but I appreciate that it’s designed to take up to five tonnes payload. And I like the ease with which you can change gears using the furling headsails and the positioning of the powerful Andersen winches inboard. The arch is standard and comes with a textile sprayhood or hard bimini.

Below decks you’ll find abundant headroom and natural light, a deep U-shape galley and cavernous stowage. For those who like the layout of the Amel 50 but would prefer aluminium or shoal draught, look no further.

Allures 51.9 price: €766,000

The Ovni 370 is another cunning new aluminum centreboard offering, a true deck saloon cruiser for two. The designers say the biggest challenge was to create a Category A ocean going yacht at this size with a lifting keel, hence the hull had to be very stable.

Enjoyable to helm, it has a practical, deep cockpit behind a large sprayhood, which can link to the bimini on the arch. Many of its most appealing features lie in the bright, light, contemporary, clever, voluminous interior, which has good stowage and tankage allocation. There’s also a practical navstation, a large workroom and a vast separate shower. I particularly like the convertible saloom, which can double as a large secure daybed or pilot berth.

Potentially the least expensive Category A lift keel boat available, the Ovni will get you dreaming of remote places again.

Ovni 370 price: €282,080

There’s no shortage of spirit in the Windelo 50. We gave this a sustainability award after it’s founders spent two years researching environmentally-friendly composite materials, developing an eco-composite of basalt fibre and recycled PET foam so it could build boats that halve the environmental impact of standard glassfibre yachts.

The Windelo 50 is an intriguing package – from the styling, modular interior and novel layout to the solar field on the roof and the standard electric propulsion, it is completely fresh.

Windelo 50 price: €795,000

Best bluewater sailboat of 2022 – Outremer 55

I would argue that this is the most successful new production yacht on the market. Well over 50 have already sold (an equipped model typically costs €1.6m) – and I can understand why. After all, were money no object, I had this design earmarked as the new yacht I would most likely choose for a world trip.

Indeed 55 number one Sanya, was fully equipped for a family’s world cruise, and left during our stay for the Grand Large Odyssey tour. Whereas we sailed Magic Kili, which was tricked up with performance options, including foam-cored deckheads and supports, carbon crossbeam and bulkheads, and synthetic rigging.

At rest, these are enticing space ships. Taking one out to sea is another matter though. These are speed machines with the size, scale and loads to be rightly weary of. Last month Nikki Henderson wrote a feature for us about how to manage a new breed of performance cruising cats just like this and how she coaches new owners. I could not think of wiser money spent for those who do not have ample multihull sailing experience.

Under sail, the most fun was obviously reserved for the reaching leg under asymmetric, where we clocked between 11-16 knots in 15-16 knots wind. But it was the stability and of those sustained low teen speeds which really hit home  – passagemaking where you really cover miles.

Key features include the swing helms, which give you views from outboard, over the coachroof or from a protected position in the cockpit through the coachroof windows, and the vast island in the galley, which is key to an open plan main living area. It helps provide cavernous stowage and acts as the heart of the entertaining space as it would in a modern home. As Danish judge Morten Brandt-Rasmussen comments: “Apart from being the TGV of ocean passages the boat offers the most spacious, open and best integration of the cockpit and salon areas in the market.”

Outremer has done a top job in packing in the creature comforts, stowage space and payload capacity, while keeping it light enough to eat miles. Although a lot to absorb and handle, the 55 offers a formidable blend of speed and luxury cruising.

Outremer 55 price: €1.35m

Best bluewater sailboats for comfort

This is the successor to the legendary Super Maramu, a ketch design that for several decades defined easy downwind handling and fostered a cult following for the French yard. Nearly a decade old, the Amel 55 is the bridge between those world-girdling stalwarts and Amel’s more recent and totally re-imagined sloop designs, the Amel 50 and 60.

The 55 boasts all the serious features Amel aficionados loved and valued: a skeg-hung rudder, solidly built hull, watertight bulkheads, solid guardrails and rampart bulwarks. And, most noticeable, the solid doghouse in which the helmsman sits in perfect shelter at the wheel.

This is a design to live on comfortably for long periods and the list of standard features just goes on and on: passarelle; proper sea berths with lee cloths; electric furling main and genoa; and a multitude of practical items that go right down to a dishwasher and crockery.

There’s no getting around the fact these designs do look rather dated now, and through the development of easier sail handling systems the ketch rig has fallen out of fashion, but the Amel is nothing short of a phenomenon, and if you’ve never even peeked on board one, you really have missed a treat.

Photo: Sander van der Borch

Contest 50CS

A centre cockpit cruiser with true longevity, the Contest 50CS was launched by Conyplex back in 2003 and is still being built by the family-owned Dutch company, now in updated and restyled form.

With a fully balanced rudder, large wheel and modern underwater sections, the Contest 50CS is a surprisingly good performer for a boat that has a dry weight of 17.5 tonnes. Many were fitted with in-mast furling, which clearly curtails that performance, but even without, this boat is set up for a small crew.

Electric winches and mainsheet traveller are all easy to reach from the helm. On our test of the Contest 50CS, we saw for ourselves how two people can gybe downwind under spinnaker without undue drama. Upwind, a 105% genoa is so easy to tack it flatters even the weediest crewmember.

Down below, the finish level of the joinery work is up there among the best and the interior is full of clever touches, again updated and modernised since the early models. Never the cheapest bluewater sailing yacht around, the Contest 50CS has remained in demand as a brokerage buy. She is a reassuringly sure-footed, easily handled, very well built yacht that for all those reasons has stood the test of time.

This is a yacht that would be well capable of helping you extend your cruising grounds, almost without realising it.

Read more about the Contest 50CS and the new Contest 49CS

Photo: Rick Tomlinson

Hallberg-Rassy 48 Mk II

For many, the Swedish Hallberg-Rassy yard makes the quintessential bluewater cruiser for couples. With their distinctive blue cove line, these designs are famous for their seakindly behaviour, solid-as-a-rock build and beautifully finished, traditional interiors.

To some eyes, Hallberg-Rassys aren’t quite cool enough, but it’s been company owner Magnus Rassy’s confidence in the formula and belief in incremental ‘step-by-step’ evolution that has been such an exceptional guarantor of reliable quality, reputation and resale value.

The centre cockpit Hallberg-Rassy 48 epitomises the concept of comfort at sea and, like all the Frers-designed Hallberg-Rassys since the 1990s, is surprisingly fleet upwind as well as steady downwind. The 48 is perfectly able to be handled by a couple (as we found a few years back in the Pacific), and could with no great effort crack out 200-mile days.

The Hallberg-Rassy 48 was launched nearly a decade ago, but the Mk II from 2014 is our pick, updated with a more modern profile, larger windows and hull portlights that flood the saloon and aft cabin with light. With a large chart table, secure linear galley, heaps of stowage and space for bluewater extras such as machinery and gear, this yacht pretty much ticks all the boxes.

Discovery 55

First launched in 2000, the Discovery 55 has stood the test of time. Designed by Ron Holland, it hit a sweet spot in size that appealed to couples and families with world girdling plans.

Elegantly styled and well balanced, the 55 is also a practical design, with a deep and secure cockpit, comfortable seating, a self-tacking jib, dedicated stowage for the liferaft , a decent sugar scoop transom that’s useful for swimming or dinghy access, and very comfortable accommodation below. In short, it is a design that has been well thought out by those who’ve been there, got the bruises, stubbed their toes and vowed to change things in the future if they ever got the chance.

Throughout the accommodation there are plenty of examples of good detailing, from the proliferation of handholds and grabrails, to deep sinks in the galley offering immediate stowage when under way and the stand up/sit down showers. Stowage is good, too, with plenty of sensibly sized lockers in easily accessible positions.

The Discovery 55 has practical ideas and nifty details aplenty. She’s not, and never was, a breakthrough in modern luxury cruising but she is pretty, comfortable to sail and live on, and well mannered.

Photo: Latitudes Picture Library

You can’t get much more Cornish than a Rustler. The hulls of this Stephen Jones design are hand-moulded and fitted out in Falmouth – and few are more ruggedly built than this traditional, up-for-anything offshore cruiser.

She boasts an encapsulated lead keel, eliminating keel bolts and creating a sump for generous fuel and water tankage, while a chunky skeg protects the rudder. She is designed for good directional stability and load carrying ability. These are all features that lend this yacht confidence as it shoulders aside the rough stuff.

Most of those built have had a cutter rig, a flexible arrangement that makes sense for long passages in all sea and weather conditions. Down below, the galley and saloon berths are comfortable and sensible for living in port and at sea, with joinery that Rustler’s builders are rightly proud of.

As modern yachts have got wider, higher and fatter, the Rustler 42 is an exception. This is an exceptionally well-mannered seagoing yacht in the traditional vein, with elegant lines and pleasing overhangs, yet also surprisingly powerful. And although now over 20 years old, timeless looks and qualities mean this design makes her look ever more like a perennial, a modern classic.

The definitive crossover size, the point at which a yacht can be handled by a couple but is just large enough to have a professional skipper and be chartered, sits at around the 60ft mark. At 58ft 8in, the Oyster 575 fitted perfectly into this growing market when launched in 2010. It went on to be one of the most popular models from the yard, and is only now being superseded by the newer Rob Humphreys-designed Oyster 565 (just launched this spring).

Built in various configurations with either a deep keel, shoal draught keel or centreboard with twin rudders, owners could trade off better performance against easy access to shallower coves and anchorages. The deep-bodied hull, also by Rob Humphreys, is known for its easy motion at sea.

Some of the Oyster 575’s best features include its hallmark coachroof windows style and centre cockpit – almost everyone will know at first glance this is an Oyster – and superb interior finish. If she has a flaw, it is arguably the high cockpit, but the flip side is the galley headroom and passageway berth to the large aft stateroom.

This design also has a host of practical features for long-distance cruising, such as high guardrails, dedicated liferaft stowage, a vast lazarette for swallowing sails, tender, fenders etc, and a penthouse engine room.

Privilege Serie 5

A true luxury catamaran which, fully fitted out, will top €1m, this deserves to be seen alongside the likes of the Oyster 575, Gunfleet 58 and Hallberg-Rassy 55. It boasts a large cockpit and living area, and a light and spacious saloon with an emphasis on indoor-outdoor living, masses of refrigeration and a big galley.

Standout features are finish quality and solid build in a yacht designed to take a high payload, a secure walkaround deck and all-round views from the helm station. The new Privilege 510 that will replace this launches in February 2020.

Gunfleet 43

It was with this Tony Castro design that Richard Matthews, founder of Oyster Yachts, launched a brand new rival brand in 2012, the smallest of a range stretching to the flagship Gunfleet 74. The combination of short overhangs and centre cockpit at this size do make the Gunfleet 43 look modern if a little boxy, but time and subsequent design trends have been kind to her lines, and the build quality is excellent. The saloon, galley and aft cabin space is exceptional on a yacht of this size.

Photo: David Harding

Conceived as a belt-and-braces cruiser, the Kraken 50 launched last year. Its unique points lie underwater in the guise of a full skeg-hung rudder and so-called ‘Zero Keel’, an encapsulated long keel with lead ballast.

Kraken Yachts is the brainchild of British businessman and highly experienced cruiser Dick Beaumont, who is adamant that safety should be foremost in cruising yacht design and build. “There is no such thing as ‘one yacht for all purposes’… You cannot have the best of all worlds, whatever the salesman tells you,” he says.

Read our full review of the Kraken 50 .

Wauquiez Centurion 57

Few yachts can claim to be both an exciting Med-style design and a serious and practical northern European offshore cruiser, but the Wauquiez Centurion 57 tries to blend both. She slightly misses if you judge solely by either criterion, but is pretty and practical enough to suit her purpose.

A very pleasant, well-considered yacht, she is impressively built and finished with a warm and comfortable interior. More versatile than radical, she could be used for sailing across the Atlantic in comfort and raced with equal enjoyment at Antigua Sailing Week .

A modern classic if ever there was one. A medium to heavy displacement yacht, stiff and easily capable of standing up to her canvas. Pretty, traditional lines and layout below.

Photo: Voyage of Swell

Well-proven US legacy design dating back to the mid-1960s that once conquered the Transpac Race . Still admired as pretty, with slight spoon bow and overhanging transom.

Capable medium displacement cruiser, ideal size and good accommodation for couples or family cruising, and much less costly than similar luxury brands.

Photo: Peter Szamer

Swedish-built aft cockpit cruiser, smaller than many here, but a well-built and finished, super-durable pocket ocean cruiser.

Tartan 3700

Designed as a performance cruiser there are nimbler alternatives now, but this is still an extremely pretty yacht.

Broker ’ s choice

Discovery 55 Brizo

This yacht has already circumnavigated the globe and is ‘prepared for her next adventure,’ says broker Berthon. Price: £535,000 + VAT

Oyster 575 Ayesha

‘Stunning, and perfectly equipped for bluewater cruising,’ says broker Ancasta International. Price: £845,000 (tax not paid)

Oyster 575 Pearls of Nautilus

Nearly new and with a high spec, this Oyster Brokerage yacht features American white oak joinery and white leather upholstery and has a shoal draught keel. Price: $1.49m

Best bluewater yachts for performance

The Frers-designed Swan 54 may not be the newest hull shape but heralded Swan’s latest generation of displacement bluewater cruisers when launched four years ago. With raked stem, deep V hull form, lower freeboard and slight curve to the topsides she has a more timeless aesthetic than many modern slab-sided high volume yachts, and with that a seakindly motion in waves. If you plan to cover many miles to weather, this is probably the yacht you want to be on.

Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Besides Swan’s superlative build quality, the 54 brings many true bluewater features, including a dedicated sail locker. There’s also a cockpit locker that functions as a utility cabin, with potential to hold your generator and washing machine, or be a workshop space.

The sloping transom opens out to reveal a 2.5m bathing platform, and although the cabins are not huge there is copious stowage space. Down below the top-notch oak joinery is well thought through with deep fiddles, and there is a substantial nav station. But the Swan 54 wins for handling above all, with well laid-out sail controls that can be easily managed between a couple, while offering real sailing enjoyment to the helmsman.

Photo: Graham Snook

The Performance Cruiser winner at the 2019 European Yacht of the Year awards, the Arcona 435 is all about the sailing experience. She has genuine potential as a cruiser-racer, but her strengths are as an enjoyable cruiser rather than a full-blown liveaboard bluewater boat.

Build quality is excellent, there is the option of a carbon hull and deck, and elegant lines and a plumb bow give the Arcona 435 good looks as well as excellent performance in light airs. Besides slick sail handling systems, there are well thought-out features for cruising, such as ample built-in rope bins and an optional semi-closed stern with stowage and swim platform.

Outremer 51

If you want the space and stability of a cat but still prioritise sailing performance, Outremer has built a reputation on building catamarans with true bluewater characteristics that have cruised the planet for the past 30 years.

Lighter and slimmer-hulled than most cruising cats, the Outremer 51 is all about sailing at faster speeds, more easily. The lower volume hulls and higher bridgedeck make for a better motion in waves, while owners report that being able to maintain a decent pace even under reduced canvas makes for stress-free passages. Deep daggerboards also give good upwind performance.

With bucket seats and tiller steering options, the Outremer 51 rewards sailors who want to spend time steering, while they’re famously well set up for handling with one person on deck. The compromise comes with the interior space – even with a relatively minimalist style, there is less cabin space and stowage volume than on the bulkier cats, but the Outremer 51 still packs in plenty of practical features.

The Xc45 was the first cruising yacht X-Yachts ever built, and designed to give the same X-Yachts sailing experience for sailors who’d spent years racing 30/40-footer X- and IMX designs, but in a cruising package.

Launched over 10 years ago, the Xc45 has been revisited a few times to increase the stowage and modernise some of the styling, but the key features remain the same, including substantial tanks set low for a low centre of gravity, and X-Yachts’ trademark steel keel grid structure. She has fairly traditional styling and layout, matched with solid build quality.

A soft bilge and V-shaped hull gives a kindly motion in waves, and the cockpit is secure, if narrow by modern standards.

A three or four cabin catamaran that’s fleet of foot with high bridgedeck clearance for comfortable motion at sea. With tall daggerboards and carbon construction in some high load areas, Catana cats are light and quick to accelerate.

Sweden Yachts 45

An established bluewater design that also features in plenty of offshore races. Some examples are specced with carbon rig and retractable bowsprits. All have a self-tacking jib for ease. Expect sweeping areas of teak above decks and a traditionally wooded interior with hanging wet locker.

A vintage performer, first launched in 1981, the 51 was the first Frers-designed Swan and marked a new era of iconic cruiser-racers. Some 36 of the Swan 51 were built, many still actively racing and cruising nearly 40 years on. Classic lines and a split cockpit make this a boat for helming, not sunbathing.

Photo: Julien Girardot / EYOTY

The JPK 45 comes from a French racing stable, combining race-winning design heritage with cruising amenities. What you see is what you get – there are no superfluous headliners or floorboards, but there are plenty of ocean sailing details, like inboard winches for safe trimming. The JPK 45 also has a brilliantly designed cockpit with an optional doghouse creating all-weather shelter, twin wheels and superb clutch and rope bin arrangement.

Photo: Andreas Lindlahr

For sailors who don’t mind exchanging a few creature comforts for downwind planing performance, the Pogo 50 offers double-digit surfing speeds for exhilarating tradewind sailing. There’s an open transom, tiller steering and no backstay or runners. The Pogo 50 also has a swing keel, to nose into shallow anchorages.

Seawind 1600

Seawinds are relatively unknown in Europe, but these bluewater cats are very popular in Australia. As would be expected from a Reichel-Pugh design, this 52-footer combines striking good looks and high performance, with fine entry bows and comparatively low freeboard. Rudders are foam cored lifting designs in cassettes, which offer straightforward access in case of repairs, while daggerboards are housed under the deck.

Best bluewater sailboats for families

It’s unsurprising that, for many families, it’s a catamaran that meets their requirements best of increased space – both living space and separate cabins for privacy-seeking teenagers, additional crew or visiting family – as well as stable and predictable handling.

Photo: Nicholas Claris

Undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories has been the Lagoon 450, which, together with boats like the Fountaine Pajot 44, helped drive up the popularity of catamaran cruising by making it affordable and accessible. They have sold in huge numbers – over 1,000 Lagoon 450s have been built since its launch in 2010.

The VPLP-designed 450 was originally launched with a flybridge with a near central helming position and upper level lounging areas (450F). The later ‘sport top’ option (450S) offered a starboard helm station and lower boom (and hence lower centre of gravity for reduced pitching). The 450S also gained a hull chine to create additional volume above the waterline. The Lagoon features forward lounging and aft cockpit areas for additional outdoor living space.

Besides being a big hit among charter operators, Lagoons have proven themselves over thousands of bluewater miles – there were seven Lagoon 450s in last year’s ARC alone. In what remains a competitive sector of the market, Lagoon has recently launched a new 46, with a larger self-tacking jib and mast moved aft, and more lounging areas.

Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

Fountaine Pajot Helia 44

The FP Helia 44 is lighter, lower volume, and has a lower freeboard than the Lagoon, weighing in at 10.8 tonnes unloaded (compared to 15 for the 450). The helm station is on a mezzanine level two steps up from the bridgedeck, with a bench seat behind. A later ‘Evolution’ version was designed for liveaboard cruisers, featuring beefed up dinghy davits and an improved saloon space.

Available in three or four cabin layouts, the Helia 44 was also popular with charter owners as well as families. The new 45 promises additional volume, and an optional hydraulically lowered ‘beach club’ swim platform.

Photo: Arnaud De Buyzer / graphikup.com

The French RM 1370 might be less well known than the big brand names, but offers something a little bit different for anyone who wants a relatively voluminous cruising yacht. Designed by Marc Lombard, and beautifully built from plywood/epoxy, the RM is stiff and responsive, and sails superbly.

The RM yachts have a more individual look – in part down to the painted finish, which encourages many owners to personalise their yachts, but also thanks to their distinctive lines with reverse sheer and dreadnought bow. The cockpit is well laid out with the primary winches inboard for a secure trimming position. The interior is light, airy and modern, although the open transom won’t appeal to everyone.

For those wanting a monohull, the Hanse 575 hits a similar sweet spot to the popular multis, maximising accommodation for a realistic price, yet with responsive performance.

The Hanse offers a vast amount of living space thanks to the ‘loft design’ concept of having all the living areas on a single level, which gives a real feeling of spaciousness with no raised saloon or steps to accommodation. The trade-off for such lofty head height is a substantial freeboard – it towers above the pontoon, while, below, a stepladder is provided to reach some hatches.

Galley options include drawer fridge-freezers, microwave and coffee machine, and the full size nav station can double up as an office or study space.

But while the Hanse 575 is a seriously large boat, its popularity is also down to the fact that it is genuinely able to be handled by a couple. It was innovative in its deck layout: with a self-tacking jib and mainsheet winches immediately to hand next to the helm, one person could both steer and trim.

Direct steering gives a feeling of control and some tangible sailing fun, while the waterline length makes for rapid passage times. In 2016 the German yard launched the newer Hanse 588 model, having already sold 175 of the 575s in just four years.

Photo: Bertel Kolthof

Jeanneau 54

Jeanneau leads the way among production builders for versatile all-rounder yachts that balance sail performance and handling, ergonomics, liveaboard functionality and good looks. The Jeanneau 54 , part of the range designed by Philippe Briand with interior by Andrew Winch, melds the best of the larger and smaller models and is available in a vast array of layout options from two cabins/two heads right up to five cabins and three heads.

We’ve tested the Jeanneau 54 in a gale and very light winds, and it acquitted itself handsomely in both extremes. The primary and mainsheet winches are to hand next to the wheel, and the cockpit is spacious, protected and child-friendly. An electric folding swim and sun deck makes for quick fun in the water.

Nautitech Open 46

This was the first Nautitech catamaran to be built under the ownership of Bavaria, designed with an open-plan bridgedeck and cockpit for free-flowing living space. But with good pace for eating up bluewater miles, and aft twin helms rather than a flybridge, the Nautitech Open 46 also appeals to monohull sailors who prefer a more direct sailing experience.

Made by Robertson and Caine, who produce catamarans under a dual identity as both Leopard and the Sunsail/Moorings charter cats, the Leopard 45 is set to be another big seller. Reflecting its charter DNA, the Leopard 45 is voluminous, with stepped hulls for reduced waterline, and a separate forward cockpit.

Built in South Africa, they are robustly tested off the Cape and constructed ruggedly enough to handle heavy weather sailing as well as the demands of chartering.

Photo: Olivier Blanchet

If space is king then three hulls might be even better than two. The Neel 51 is rare as a cruising trimaran with enough space for proper liveaboard sailing. The galley and saloon are in the large central hull, together with an owner’s cabin on one level for a unique sensation of living above the water. Guest or family cabins lie in the outer hulls for privacy and there is a cavernous full height engine room under the cabin sole.

Performance is notably higher than an equivalent cruising cat, particularly in light winds, with a single rudder giving a truly direct feel in the helm, although manoeuvring a 50ft trimaran may daunt many sailors.

Beneteau Oceanis 46.1

A brilliant new model from Beneteau, this Finot Conq design has a modern stepped hull, which offers exhilarating and confidence-inspiring handling in big breezes, and slippery performance in lighter winds.

The Beneteau Oceanis 46.1 was the standout performer at this year’s European Yacht of the Year awards, and, in replacing the popular Oceanis 45, looks set to be another bestseller. Interior space is well used with a double island berth in the forepeak. An additional inboard unit creates a secure galley area, but tank capacity is moderate for long periods aboard.

Beneteau Oceanis 473

A popular model that offers beam and height in a functional layout, although, as with many boats of this age (she was launched in 2002), the mainsheet is not within reach of the helmsman.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49

The Philippe Briand-designed Sun Odyssey range has a solid reputation as family production cruisers. Like the 473, the Sun Odyssey 49 was popular for charter so there are plenty of four-cabin models on the market.

Nautitech 441

The hull design dates back to 1995, but was relaunched in 2012. Though the saloon interior has dated, the 441 has solid practical features, such as a rainwater run-off collection gutter around the coachroof.

Atlantic 42

Chris White-designed cats feature a pilothouse and forward waist-high working cockpit with helm position, as well as an inside wheel at the nav station. The Atlantic 42 offers limited accommodation by modern cat standards but a very different sailing experience.

Best bluewater sailing yachts for expeditions

Bestevaer 56.

All of the yachts in our ‘expedition’ category are aluminium-hulled designs suitable for high latitude sailing, and all are exceptional yachts. But the Bestevaer 56 is a spectacular amount of boat to take on a true adventure. Each Bestevaer is a near-custom build with plenty of bespoke options for owners to customise the layout and where they fall on the scale of rugged off-grid adventurer to 4×4-style luxury fit out.

The Bestevaer range began when renowned naval architect Gerard Dijkstra chose to design his own personal yacht for liveaboard adventure cruising, a 53-footer. The concept drew plenty of interest from bluewater sailors wanting to make longer expeditions and Bestevaers are now available in a range of sizes, with the 56-footer proving a popular mid-range length.

The well-known Bestevaer 56 Tranquilo  (pictured above) has a deep, secure cockpit, voluminous tanks (700lt water and over 1,100lt fuel) and a lifting keel plus water ballast, with classically styled teak clad decks and pilot house. Other owners have opted for functional bare aluminium hull and deck, some choose a doghouse and others a pilothouse.

Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

The Boreal 52 also offers Land Rover-esque practicality, with utilitarian bare aluminium hulls and a distinctive double-level doghouse/coachroof arrangement for added protection in all weathers. The cockpit is clean and uncluttered, thanks to the mainsheet position on top of the doghouse, although for visibility in close manoeuvring the helmsman will want to step up onto the aft deck.

Twin daggerboards, a lifting centreboard and long skeg on which she can settle make this a true go-anywhere expedition yacht. The metres of chain required for adventurous anchoring is stowed in a special locker by the mast to keep the weight central. Down below has been thought through with equally practical touches, including plenty of bracing points and lighting that switches on to red light first to protect your night vision.

Photo: Morris Adant / Garcia Yachts

Garcia Exploration 45

The Garcia Exploration 45 comes with real experience behind her – she was created in association with Jimmy Cornell, based on his many hundreds of thousands of miles of bluewater cruising, to go anywhere from high latitudes to the tropics.

Arguably less of a looker than the Bestevaer, the Garcia Exploration 45 features a rounded aluminium hull, centreboard with deep skeg and twin daggerboards. The considerable anchor chain weight has again been brought aft, this time via a special conduit to a watertight locker in front of the centreboard.

This is a yacht designed to be lived on for extended periods with ample storage, and panoramic portlights to give a near 360° view of whichever extraordinary landscape you are exploring. Safety features include a watertight companionway door to keep extreme weather out and through-hull fittings placed above the waterline. When former Vendée Globe skipper Pete Goss went cruising , this was the boat he chose to do it in.

Photo: svnaima.com

A truly well-proven expedition design, some 1,500 Ovnis have been built and many sailed to some of the most far-flung corners of the world. (Jimmy Cornell sailed his Aventura some 30,000 miles, including two Drake Passage crossings, one in 50 knots of wind).

Futuna Exploration 54

Another aluminium design with a swinging centreboard and a solid enclosed pilothouse with protected cockpit area. There’s a chunky bowsprit and substantial transom arch to house all manner of electronics and power generation.

Previous boats have been spec’d for North West Passage crossings with additional heating and engine power, although there’s a carbon rig option for those that want a touch of the black stuff. The tanks are capacious, with 1,000lt capability for both fresh water and fuel.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams. Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Although foiling feels like a recent revolution to take the world of watersports by storm, it has been at the heart of America’s Cup racing for 10 years. It was August 2012 when the sailing world was turned upside down by a 72- foot catamaran flying in the Hauraki Gulf. Emirates Team New Zealand had brought foils to the America's Cup, changing the face of top-level yacht racing forever. Six years later, in 2018, the publication of the AC75 Class Rule marked the beginning of a new sailing era. The engineering and sailing techniques needed to get the AC75 to fly were completely different from anything seen before. During the 36th America's Cup in 2021 the AC75 proved themselves to be unique and kept millions of fans worldwide glued to their screens.

Therefore On the 15th of November 2021, eight months after Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defended the America's Cup, an updated 'Version 2' of the AC75 Class Rule was released. The foiling monohulls to be used in Barcelona in 2024, will be slightly different, with rules being tweaked partly to improve light wind performance and reduce crew numbers from 11 to 8. The move to reduce the crew means cycle power is again legalised, and the cyclors, introduced by Team New Zealand in 2017, might return in the game. But what's the technology behind the AC75?

Therefore On the 15th of November 2021, eight months after Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defended the America's Cup, an updated 'Version 2' of the AC75 Class Rule was released. The foiling monohulls to be used in Barcelona in 2024, will be slightly different, with rules being tweaked partly to improve light wind performance and reduce crew numbers from 11 to 8. The move to reduce the crew means cycle power is again legalised, and the cyclors, introduced by Team New Zealand in 2017, might return in the game. But what's the technology behind the AC75? To start with, the AC75 is big - 75-feet long and 16-feet wide - but, it's also light, which is crucial, because the AC75 is designed to fly. It's also different - rather than a keel, a brand new concept keeps it standing. Foil Cant Arms move under, or outside, the boat to provide the leverage it needs to stay upright. Some parts of the boat are supplied - the mast, rigging, foil-cant arms and their hydraulics are all stock components. But, there are still plenty of areas that designers can experiment with to find a race-winning edge. The double-sail skin Mainsail combines with the D shaped mast to form a wing, generating the power the AC75 needs to foil. Underwater is where things get really interesting, the foil cant system is a battery-driven, hydraulic power-unit that supplies the energy to lift and lower the immensely strong - and heavy - foil cant arms. As the boat swaps tacks, the cant system is activated, placing one hydrofoil in the water, and lifting the other one out, where its weight becomes ballast. At the end of the arms lie the teams' secret weapons - the foil wings. Apart from basic rules governing dimensions and weight, these are open territory for designers. With the teams allowed to build only one AC75, will a lot change from what we have seen during the last Cup, or will the new monohulls resemble the winning Kiwi boat?

• BOAT OF THE YEAR
• Newsletters
• Sailboat Reviews
• Boating Safety
• Sailing Totem
• Charter Resources
• Destinations
• Galley Recipes
• Living Aboard
• Sails and Rigging
• Maintenance
• Best Marine Electronics & Technology

Sailboat Design Evolution

• By Dan Spurr
• Updated: June 10, 2020

You know the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? As a judge for the 2020 Boat of the Year (BOTY) competition at this past fall’s US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, I helped inspect and test-sail 22 brand-new current-model sailboats. And I came away thinking, Man, these aren’t the boats I grew up on. In the case of new boats, the saying is wrong: “Nothing stays the same.”

OK, sure, today’s boats still have masts and sails, and the monohulls still have keels. But comparing the Hinckley Bermuda 40, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful and seaworthy boats of the 1960s, ’70s and even ’80s, with, say, the Beneteau First Yacht 53, which debuted at the show, is pretty much apples and oranges.

To get a better sense of what has happened to yacht design, boatbuilding and equipment over the past three, four or even six decades, let’s take a closer look.

Design Dilemmas

At the risk of oversimplification, since the fiberglass era began in the late 1940s and ’50s, the design of midsize and full-size yachts has transitioned from the Cruising Club of America rules, which favored all-around boats (racers had to have comfortable interiors) with moderate beam and long overhangs, to a succession of racing rules such as the IOR, IMS and IRC. All of them dictated proportions, and each required a measurer to determine its rating.

As frustration grew with each (no handicap rule is perfect), alternatives arose, such as the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, which essentially based one’s handicap on past performance of the same boats in the same fleet. Also, one-design racing became more popular, which spread beyond identical small boats to full-size yachts, popularized in part by builders such as J/Boats and Carroll Marine. The ethos there was: Who cares about intricate rating rules? Let’s just go out and sail fast and have fun!

And that might best sum up the design briefs for the monohulls in this year’s BOTY competition: good all-around performance with comfortable, even luxurious accommodations. Gone are interiors that noted naval architect Robert Perry called “the boy’s cabin in the woods,” deeply influenced by stodgy British designers of the past century and their now-old-fashioned (though ­sea-friendly, one should note) concepts of a proper yacht, drawn and spec’d by the same guy who designed the hull, deck and rig. Today, dedicated European interior designers are specially commissioned to inject modernity, home fashion colors and textures, amenities, and more light—even dubiously large port lights in the topsides.

Overhangs, bow and stern, have virtually disappeared. Why? It seems largely a matter of style. Plus, the bonus of increased usable space below, not to mention a longer waterline length for a given length overall, which translates to more speed. Former naval architect for C&C Yachts and Hunter Marine, Rob Mazza, recalls that 19th-century pilot cutters and fishing schooners operating in offshore conditions generally had plumb bows, so in a sense, bow forms have come full circle.

Today’s boats are carrying their wide beam farther aft. Gone are the days of the cod’s head and mackerel tail. Wide, flat canoe bodies are decidedly fast off the wind, and might even surf, but they pay a comfort penalty upwind.

These boats have lighter displacement/length (D/L) ratios, which means flatter bottoms and less stowage and space for tanks. The Beneteau 53 has a D/L of 118, compared with the ­aforementioned Bermuda 40 of 373. Among entries in this year’s BOTY, the heaviest D/L belonged to the Elan Impression 45.1, with a D/L of 195. Recall that when Perry’s extremely popular Valiant 40 was introduced in 1975, the cruising establishment howled that its D/L of 267 was unsuitable for offshore sailing. My, how times have changed!

Perhaps more important, one must ask: “Have the requirements for a good, safe bluewater cruiser actually changed? Or are the majority of today’s production sailboats really best-suited for coastal cruising?”

The ramifications of lighter displacement don’t end there; designers must consider two types of stability: form and ultimate. As weight is taken out of the boat, beam is increased to improve form stability. And with tanks and machinery sometimes raised, ­ballast might have to be added and/or lowered to improve ultimate stability.

What else to do? Make the boat bigger all around, which also improves stability and stowage. Certainly the average cruising boat today is longer than those of the earlier decades, both wood and fiberglass. And the necessarily shallower bilges mean pumps must be in good shape and of adequate size. That’s not as immediate an issue with a deep or full keel boat with internal ballast and a deep sump; for instance, I couldn’t reach the bottom of the sump in our 1977 Pearson 365.

And how do these wide, shallow, lighter boats handle under sail? Like a witch when cracked off the wind. We saw this trend beginning with shorthanded offshore racers like those of the BOC Challenge round-the-world race in the early 1980s. As CW executive editor Herb McCormick, who has some experience in these boats, says, “They’ll knock your teeth out upwind.” But route planning allows designers to minimize time upwind, and cruisers can too…if you have enough room and distance in front of you. Coastal sailors, on the other hand, will inevitably find even moderate displacement boats more comfortable as they punch into head seas trying to make port.

A wide beam carried aft permits a number of useful advantages: the possibility of a dinghy garage under the cockpit on larger boats; easy access to a swim platform and a launched dinghy; and twin helms, which are almost a necessity for good sightlines port and starboard. Of course, two of anything always costs twice as much as one.

Some multihulls now have reverse bows. This retro styling now looks space-age. Very cool. But not everyone is sold on them. Canadian designer Laurie McGowan wrote in a Professional BoatBuilder opinion piece, “I saw through the fog of faddishness and realized that reverse bows are designed to fail—that is, to cause vessels to plunge when lift is required.” Mazza ­concurs: “Modern multihulls often have ­reverse stems with negative reserve buoyancy, and those are boats that really can’t afford to bury their bows.”

McGowan also cites another designer critiquing reverse bows for being noticeably wet and requiring alternative ground-­tackle arrangements. The latter also is problematic on plumb bows, strongly suggesting a platform or sprit to keep the anchor away from the stem.

Rigging Redux

If there was a boat in Annapolis with double lower shrouds, single uppers, and spreaders ­perpendicular to the boat’s centerline, I must have missed it. I believe every boat we sailed had swept-back spreaders and single lowers. An early criticism of extreme swept-back spreaders, as seen on some B&R rigs installed on Hunter sailboats, was that they prevented fully winging out the mainsail. The counter argument was that so many average sailors never go dead downwind in any case, and broad reaching might get them to their destinations faster anyway—and with their lunch sandwiches still in their stomachs.

That issue aside, the current rigging configuration may allow for better mainsail shape. But as Mazza points out, it’s not necessarily simple: “By sweeping the spreaders, the ‘transverse’ rigging starts to add fore-and-aft support to the midsection of the mast as well, reducing the need for the forward lowers. However, spreader sweep really does complicate rig tuning, especially if you are using the fixed backstay to induce headstay tension. Swept spreaders do make it easier to sheet non-overlapping headsails, and do better support the top of the forestay on fractional rigs.”

Certainly, the days of 150 ­percent genoas are over, replaced by 100 percent jibs that fit ­perfectly in the foretriangle, often as a self-tacker.

Another notable piece of rigging the judges found common was some form of lazy jacks or mainsail containment, from traditional, multiple lines secured at the mast and boom; to the Dutchman system with monofilament run through cringles sewn into the sail like a window blind; to sailmaker solutions like the Doyle StackPak. This is good news for all sailors, especially those who sail shorthanded on larger boats.

Construction Codas

Improvements in tooling—that is, the making of molds—are easily evident in today’s boats, particularly with deck details, and in fairness. That’s because many of today’s tools are designed with computer software that is extraordinarily accurate, and that accuracy is transferred flawlessly to big five-axis routers that sculpt from giant blocks of foam the desired shape to within thousandths of an inch. Gone are the days of lofting lines on a plywood floor, taken from a table of offsets, and then building a male plug with wood planks and frames. I once owned a 1960s-era sailboat, built by a reputable company, where the centerline of the cockpit was 7 degrees off the centerline of the deck—and they were one piece!

Additive processes, such as 3D printing, are quickly complementing subtractive processes like the milling described above. Already, a company in California has made a multipart mold for a 34-foot sailboat. Advantages include less waste materials.

Job training also has had an impact on the quality of fiberglass boats. There are now ­numerous schools across the country offering basic-skills training in composites that include spraying molds with gelcoat, lamination, and an introduction to vacuum bagging and infusion.

The patent on SCRIMP—­perhaps the first widely employed infusion process—has long ago expired, but many builders have adopted it or a similar process whereby layers of fiberglass are placed in the mold dry along with a network of tubes that will carry resin under vacuum pressure to each area of the hull. After careful placement, the entire mold is covered with a bag, a vacuum is drawn by a pump, and lines to the pot of resin are opened. If done correctly, the result is a more uniform fiberglass part with a more controlled glass-to-resin ratio than is achievable with hand lay-up. And as a huge bonus, there are no volatile organic compounds released into the workplace, and no need for expensive exhaust fans and ductwork. OSHA likes that, and so do the workers.

However, sloppy processes and glasswork can still be found on some new boats. Surveyor Jonathan Klopman—who is based in Marblehead, Massachusetts, but has inspected dozens, if not hundreds, of boats damaged by hurricanes in the Caribbean—tells me that he is appalled by some of the shoddy work he sees, such as balsa cores not vacuum-bagged to the fiberglass skins, resulting in delamination. But overall, I ­believe workmanship has improved, which is evident when you look behind backrests, inside lockers and into bilges, where the tidiness of glasswork (or lack thereof) is often exposed. Mechanical and electrical systems also have improved, in part due to the promulgation of standards by the American Boat & Yacht Council, and informal enforcement by insurance companies and surveyors.

We all know stainless steel isn’t entirely stainless, and that penetrations in the deck are potentially troublesome; allowing moisture to enter a core material, such as end-grain balsa, can have serious consequences. The core and fiberglass skins must be properly bonded and the kerfs not filled with resin. Beginning in the mid-1990s, some builders such as TPI, which built the early Lagoon cruising catamarans, began using structural adhesives, like Plexus, to bond the hull/deck joint rather than using dozens of metal fasteners. These methacrylate resins are now commonly used for this application and others. Klopman says it basically should be considered a permanent bond, that the two parts, in effect, become one. If you think a through-bolted hull/deck joint makes more sense because one could theoretically separate them for repairs, consider how likely that would ever be: not highly.

Fit-and-Finish

Wide transoms spawned an unexpected bonus; besides the possibility of a dinghy “garage” under the cockpit on larger boats, swim platforms are also possible. In more than one BOTY yacht, the aft end of the cockpit rotated down hydraulically to form the swim platform—pretty slick.

Teak decks are still around, despite their spurning for many years by owners who didn’t want the upkeep. In the 1960s and ’70s, they were considered a sign of a classy boat but fell from favor for a variety of reasons: maintenance, weight and threat of damaging the deck core (the bung sealant wears out and water travels down the fastener through the top fiberglass skin into the core). Specialty companies that supply builders, like Teakdecking Systems in Florida, use epoxy resin to bond their product to decks rather than metal fasteners. And the BOTY judges saw several synthetic faux-teak products that are difficult to distinguish from real teak—the Esthec installed on the Bavaria C50 being one example.

LPG tanks no longer have to be strapped to a stanchion or mounted in a deck box because decks now often incorporate molded lockers specifically designed for one or two tanks of a given size. To meet ABYC standards, they drain overboard. In tandem with these lockers, some boats also have placements or mounts for barbecues that are located out of the wind, obviating the common and exposed stern-rail mount.

Low-voltage LED lights are replacing incandescent bulbs in nearly all applications; ­improvements in technology have increased brightness (lumens), so some even meet requirements for the range of navigation lights. Advances in battery technology translate to longer life, and depending on type, faster charging. And networked digital switching systems for DC-power ­distribution also are becoming more common.

Last, I was surprised at how many expensive yachts exhibited at Annapolis had nearly the least-expensive toilets one can buy. Considering the grief caused by small joker valves and poorly sealed hand pumps, one would think builders might install ­systems that incorporate higher-quality parts or vacuum ­flushing, and eliminate the minimal hosing that famously permeate odors.

Dan Spurr is an author, editor and cruising sailor who has served on the staffs of Cruising World, Practical Sailor and Professional Boatbuilder. His many books include Heart of Glass , a history of fiberglass boatbuilding and boatbuilders .

Other Design Observations

Here are a few other (surprising) items gleaned from several days of walking the docks and sailing the latest models:

• Multihulls have gained acceptance, though many ­production models are aimed more at the charter trade than private ownership for solitary cruising. You’d have to have been into boats back in the ’60s and ’70s to remember how skeptical and alarmist the sailing establishment was of two- and three-hull boats: “They’ll capsize and then you’ll drown.” That myth has been roundly debunked. Back then, the only fiberglass-­production multihulls were from Europe, many from Prout, which exported a few to the US. There are still plenty of European builders, particularly from France, but South Africa is now a major player in the catamaran market.
• The French builders now own the world market, which of course includes the US. Other than Catalina, few US ­builders are making a similar impact. In terms of volume, Groupe Beneteau is the largest builder in the world, and they’ve expanded way beyond sailboats into powerboats, runabouts and trawlers.
• Prices seem to have outpaced inflation, perhaps because, like with automobiles, where everyone wants air conditioning, electric windows and automatic transmissions, today’s boats incorporate as standard equipment items that used to be optional. Think hot- and cold-pressure water, pedestal-wheel steering, and full suites of sailing instruments and autopilots.
• More: design , print may 2020 , Sailboats
• More Sailboats

Meet the Bali 5.8

Celebrating a Classic

New to the Fleet: Italia Yachts 12.98

Leopard 40 Prelude Listed For Sale

The Moorings Expands in Croatia

C-Map Updates North America Charts

St. Vincent Court Orders Deportation For Hijacking Suspects

• Digital Edition
• Customer Service
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Email Newsletters
• Cruising World
• Florida Travel + Life
• Sailing World
• Salt Water Sportsman
• Sport Fishing
• Wakeboarding

Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. Cruising World may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site.

Copyright © 2024 Cruising World. A Bonnier LLC Company . All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

• OC Wally Cento
• 84 Mini Maxi
• IMOCA Open 60
• Consultancy Services
• 30m Blue Water Cruiser
• 25m Explorer Yacht
• 24m Fast Cruising Catamaran
• 23m Performance Cruiser
• 20m Explorer Yacht
• 20m High Performance Cruiser
• 18m Blue Water Cruiser
• 15m Performance Cruiser
• 15m Explorer Yacht
• 12m Explorer Yacht
• Multihull Design
• 18m Explorer Yacht
• 40m Blue Water Cruiser
• 40m Cruiser Racer
• 33m Performance Cruiser
• 30m Wally Cento
• 24m ORCsy Racer Cruiser
• 24m Day Sailer
• Carbon Component Design
• Yacht Performance Development
• CFD and Model Testing
• Twin Rudder Steering Systems
• Custom Deck Hardware
• Modifications and Refit
• VPP Routing and Sail Analysis
• Classic Yacht Refit & Optimisation
• Naval Architecture
• Engineering
• Rudder Design
• Brokerage Services
• 'Seahorse Magazine' #192
• Lucent #180
• Influence #171
• 'Eora' #169
• 'The Three Brothers' #168
• 'Edenred' #165
• Polka Dot #154
• 'Teata' #148
• ‘Sensei’ #131
• 'Sabre II' #93
• French Pineapple #79
• 'Letto Di Pletto' #47
• 'Mowgli' #41
• 23.8m Ultime Trimaran
• 20.7m Orma Trimaran
• 18.28m Orma Trimaran
• 16.75m Cruising Catamaran
• 16.1m Cruising Catamaran
• 12.8m Crowther Shockwave Catamaran
• 9.1m Seacart 30 Trimaran
• 26.3m Aluminium Sloop
• 22.38m Aluminium Classic Yacht
• 21.0m Steel Schooner
• 21.0m Aluminium Cruising Ketch
• 20.0m Aluminium Explorer Yacht
• 20.0m Luca Brenta Racer Cruiser
• 19.6m Aluminium Bluewater Cruiser
• 19.2m Aluminium Lifting Keel Sloop
• 18.23m Mylius Racer Cruiser
• 16.0m Sly Cruiser Racer
• 14.5m Aluminium Cruising yacht
• 13.87m Wooden Motor Sailer
• 11.6m Classic Pilot Cutter
• 25.25m Reichel Pugh Maxi
• 18.28m IMOCA 60 One Planet
• 18.28m O Canada IMOCA Open 60
• 18.28m Come in Vendee Open 60
• 18.23m Mylius FD Racer Cruiser
• 15.84m TP52 Racing Yacht
• 15.25m Pegasus Open 50
• 10.89m Figaro 3
• 10.1m Figaro 2
• 14.5m Aluminium Cruising Yacht

29-year-old becomes first American woman to sail nonstop around the world

Geoff Bennett Geoff Bennett

Shoshana Dubnow Shoshana Dubnow

Leave your feedback

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/29-year-old-becomes-first-american-woman-to-sail-nonstop-around-the-world

Cole Brauer became the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world last week, capturing worldwide attention through her Instagram posts chronicling the journey. The 29-year-old joins a group of fewer than 200 people who have made the trek. She was the only woman that participated this year in what's known as the Global Solo Challenge. Geoff Bennett spoke to Brauer from Spain.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Now an historic and epic achievement by an American woman that captured worldwide attention.

Cole Brauer became the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world last week after finishing in Spain. Brauer, who is 29 years old, joined a group of fewer than 200 people in the world who have ever done that. She was the only woman that participated this year in what's known as the Global Solo Challenge.

Brauer was able to stay in touch with her team by satellite, which also allowed her to regularly chronicle her 30,000-mile-long journey on Instagram, where nearly half-a-million people followed her posts. Her feed detailed how she dealt with bad weather, waves, injury, dehydration, and much joy along the way.

I spoke with her earlier today from Spain.

Sailing around the world is a daunting pursuit, even on a vessel with a full crew. How were you able to do it on your own? What was that like?

Cole Brauer, Competitive Sailor:

I really wanted to do it by myself, not because I needed to prove anything, but mostly because I really like the introspective moments that you can have when it's just you.

You don't have to try to impress anyone. It's just you and your vessel. And I thought it was really wonderful. I'm missing it every single day.

Your journey took you around the three great capes off of Africa, Australia, and South America and through Point Nemo, an area in the Pacific Ocean that's so far away from any land that the nearest humans are actually often orbiting overhead on the International Space Station.

What was the most difficult moment of your journey?

Cole Brauer:

I wouldn't say that there was like one big, big, difficult part. There was a lot of small, difficult parts that they bring you irritation, anger, frustration.

For example, when I first left, it took about two weeks to adjust. I had spent so much time with my team and so much time with my family. Then, all of a sudden, there was no weaning-off period. You just kicked off the dock and you're going along.

And I'm good at being alone, but now I was completely alone and there was no one to confide in. I don't tell very many people this, but I cried every day for the first two weeks, because I just missed team dinners, being able to go out for drinks, being able to have croissants and cappuccinos.

And that might have been the hardest part if I actually look back on it, was just the interaction with humans that I didn't have anymore.

And there were moments, as I understand it, where you were concerned that your vessel might actually fail? Tell me about that.

So, there was a couple of moments. That was probably the biggest moment I ever was fearful of, was these boats, these manmade objects, are just not made to handle this type of stress, maybe 10,000 miles or even 20,000 miles, but almost 30,000 miles. And we just don't build things in modern day to be able to withstand something like that without maintenance.

And so I was doing a lot of maintenance trying to keep up with these things that were deteriorating.

Yes, there was a moment in your trip where you were sort of tossed across the boat and you injured a rib. And at one point you had to self-administer I.V. fluids to ward off dehydration.

How did you find the mental fortitude to keep going?

I don't know if it's mental fortitude or if it's just you don't have another option.

So, when you don't have anything else, there is no other way. There's no way to quit. It's not like you can just call someone and be like, OK, come pick me up, because you're so far away. There's nobody that can come and get you.

So maybe that's considered mental fortitude, but it's kind of like you just — I have a journal that I wrote down every day what was going on. And every morning, if I — when I hurt myself, my ribs, I just wrote down a list of, OK, this is what I'm going to do today. And if I don't get it all done, it's OK. But at least, like, step one, breakfast, step two, go outside.

And it's not really mental fortitude. It's just following the steps. That's all.

What did it feel like when you finally reached the end of your grueling race?

It was like every day, because every day was a challenge. Every day was an experience. Every day was the best day of my life.

And that is exactly what the finish was also. And so it wasn't the biggest relief. But I did love seeing my family and my friends. And that was such a wonderful moment. I would say lighting the flares was such a wonderful moment too, because it's something that sailors, when you see a sailor finish this big important race, that is the tradition is to light flares and hold them over your head.

And to be actually — to actually have that moment, it's such a dream come true.

Sailing is still a male-dominated sport. What message do you hope all of this sends to women and girls who want to follow in your footsteps?

I think that it's not just about women. I think it's about men also, is that it's so male energy-dominated.

And so even men that maybe are a little bit more feminine have had to hide that side of themselves, and because they're afraid to lose their sponsorships or not be respected in the community. And I think it's not really as being just a woman, but it's bringing that feminine energy to kind of balance the super male energy-dominant sport.

And that was kind of what I was hoping, is that, if you are feminine, you should be able to be who you are even if you're in the middle of the ocean. You shouldn't have to be thinking if someone's judging you when you're trying to deal with a boat that's breaking in half.

So I think that's super important for young women to understand. You don't have to lose yourself to do your dream.

Do you think you might try another voyage like this in the future?

Oh, 100 percent. This race was always meant to be a stepping-stone for a much bigger race coming.

It happens every four years. So, in 2028, I plan on doing the Vendee Globe, but it is tenfold on sponsorship money on time, energy. And it's — that race is much well-known that it's dominated by the French, the French sailing community. And so coming in as an American, an American woman, it's never been done before.

And so my hope is to be the first American woman to race in the Vendee Globe in 2028.

Well, we will be watching.

Cole Brauer, thanks so much for your time.

Thank you for having me.

Listen to this Segment

Watch the Full Episode

Geoff Bennett serves as co-anchor of PBS NewsHour. He also serves as an NBC News and MSNBC political contributor.

Support Provided By: Learn more

More Ways to Watch

• PBS iPhone App
• PBS iPad App

Educate your inbox

Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.

East Hampton graduate Cole Brauer is first American woman to solo circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat

Cole Brauer, arriving Thursday in A Coruña, Spain, became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself. Credit: AP/James Tomlinson/Cole Brauer Ocean Racing

Racing around the world has long been an aspiration of Cole Brauer, who grew up on the East End of Long Island with the ocean so close.

“I just wanted to get out on the water," said Brauer, 29.

Thursday, she made history by becoming the first American woman to solo circumnavigate the world in a nonstop sailboat race.

"I'd always wanted to race around the world, because I wanted to be able to be offshore, without anybody around, just kind of like in that Puritan type of style, no building, no cars, no nothing, just really beautiful ocean weather," she told Newsday in an interview Saturday. 

For her parents, it was far from easy to wait out the 130-day, near-30,000-mile voyage, her dad, East Hampton native David Brauer, confessed.

"It's been hell," Brauer, 59, now of Trevett, Maine, said Friday in a phone call from A Coruña, Spain. "A lot of sleepless nights."

On Thursday, her place in the books was sealed when she sailed her 40-foot sailboat into the harbor at A Coruña, on the northern Atlantic coast of Spain, finishing second among more than a dozen sailors competing in the Global Solo Challenge. She also became one in a field of fewer than 200 elite sailors — and just the 18th woman ever — to solo circumnavigate the globe nonstop, according to a register maintained by the International Association of Cape Horners.

Cole Brauer left A Coruña in October to begin her quest in the staggered-start field, sailing south along the west coast of Africa, then around the Cape of Good Hope and east to Australia. She traversed the Pacific, sailing around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and continuing across the Atlantic aboard her sailboat, named First Light.

Along the way, the 5-foot-2, 100-pound 2012 graduate of East Hampton High School got her ribs battered when she slammed into the cabin walls during a storm that generated 30-foot seas, and she had to self-administer an IV after becoming dangerously dehydrated.

She's has had to be able to handle any challenge that came her way. There really was no other way.

"You just know the boat, and you know when she's not happy, and you learn very quickly how to make her happy ... because I'm on the boat, and I have full control, I never felt like, 'Oh, I need to go to shore, oh, this and that is happening.' Things were breaking, but I had planned exactly what I needed to have for spares and tools, and even if I didn't, you just learn how to, you know, use a hammer for five different types of tools because you don't have the actual tool," she said in the interview. 

After months at sea on an arduous journey, she and her teammates are resting — finally — and celebrating.

"The whole team is here. I finished two days ago, so we've mostly been popping bottles of champagne, and I've been eating like I've never eaten in my entire life," she said. "We're just enjoying a couple days as an entire team, just a big celebration after a long, long six months of our lives, and then we all go home." 

Dawn Riley, executive director of the Oakcliff Sailing Center in Oyster Bay and the first woman to be a crew member in an America's Cup race, said, "It is incredible how she has made it around [the world] and made it look so easy to her hundreds of thousands of followers."

Brauer grew up on Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton, off Accabonac Creek near Gardiners Island and Gardiners Bay.

Though David Brauer said Cole first learned sailing basics as a young teen on small Sunfish-type sailboats, it was her twin sister, Dalton, who was a member of the sailing club at East Hampton High School. It wasn't until Cole Brauer went to the University of Hawaii to train to be a doctor following a year studying photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design that she seriously became involved in sailing — setting the hook that would lead her to ocean racing.

"She was an artsy kid," East Hampton Union Free School District Superintendent Adam Fine said Friday of Cole. "She was a gifted photographer — and I still have a picture Cole gave me in my office . . . this beautiful, religious figure, draped in darkness and streaming light."

David Brauer said his daughters have always been strong-willed and confident, and noted Dalton also is a skilled sailor and sailing instructor.

Still, he said the toughest time for him and his wife, as parents, was fear of the unknown.

Brauer said at the last-minute prior to setting out on the Global Challenge, Cole learned she still needed more solo mileage to qualify for the race, and as a result had to sail First Light solo across the Atlantic from Newport, Rhode Island, to A Coruña just to qualify.

Then, there was the treacherous four months at sea solo.

He said being able to talk to Cole almost daily via a satellite phone was a blessing. But, he said: "While it takes a lot of angst out of the day, being able to see her, the scariest thing was when we'd be talking and there'd be a sound and she'd say, 'I have to go check something outside,' and then she'd pop out the cabin door and disappear. Most of the time on deck she'd be tethered to the boat. But with something like that, she'd just pop out, and I'd be sitting there, waiting, thinking: 'Where is she? Did she fall off the damn boat?'

"Trust me. That was hell."

The Brauers flew to Spain ahead of Cole's arrival Thursday and were on a boat that met her sailboat two miles outside the harbor — aptly, at dawn — then followed her as she sailed in on First Light.

David Brauer said his brother, who's a commercial airline pilot, named his own daughter Amelia Mayday Brauer after Amelia Earhart, and that he thought of the failed quest of the famed aviator as he followed Cole's circumnavigation to its successful end.

"I was trying to think of all the other women who have accomplished firsts," David Brauer said, "and now I think, 'Wow, my daughter is among them.' When we finally got to land? There were some tears, for sure. And a lot of joy ... It's all just so incredible."

The biggest news, politics and crime stories in Suffolk County, in your inbox every Friday at noon.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy .

Brauer celebrates as she became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself when she arrived Thursday in A Coruña, Spain. Credit: AP/James Tomlinson/Cole Brauer Ocean Racing

Most Popular

Latest videos.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• AP Top 25 College Football Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Cole Brauer becomes first American woman to race sailboat alone and nonstop around world

After a 130-day journey, a jubilant Cole Brauer arrived back in A Coruña, Spain to become the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself. (March 7)

This photo provided by Cole Brauer Ocean Racing shows Brauer as she became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself when she arrived Thursday, March 7, 2024, in A Coruña, Spain. (James Tomlinson/Cole Brauer Ocean Racing via AP)

• Copy Link copied

A CORUNA, Spain (AP) — Alone, Cole Brauer braved three oceans and the elements as she navigated her sailboat for months.

When she and her 40-foot (12.2-meter) sailboat arrived Thursday in A Coruna, Spain, the 29-year-old became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself, traveling across about 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers).

Brauer, all 5-foot-2 (1.6-meter) and 100 pounds (45.4 kilograms) of her, is one of more than a dozen sailors competing in the Global Solo Challenge. Brauer was the youngest and only woman in the group that set sail in October from A Coruna.

The starts were staggered. Brauer took off Oct. 29. As of Thursday, some in the field had dropped out of the race.

The race took Brauer south along the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and then eastward toward Australia. From there, she continued east where Brauer faced the unpredictable, treacherous and deadly Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America before continuing northeast across the Atlantic Ocean toward Spain.

The race took her 130 days to complete.

“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” NBC News reported Brauer saying before drinking Champagne from her trophy Thursday while being celebrated by family and fans.

While Brauer is the first American woman to race around the globe alone by sea, she is not first woman to do so. Polish sailor Krystina Chojnowska-Liskiewicz finished her 401-day voyage around the globe on April 21, 1978, according to online sailing sites .

Kay Cottee of Australia was the first woman to achieve the feat nonstop, sailing off from Sydney Harbor in Australia in November 1987 and returning 189 days later.

The global voyage is not an easy one, even on a vessel with a full crew.

“Solo sailors, you have to be able to do everything,” Brauer told the NBC “Today” show Thursday. “You need to be able to take care of yourself. You need to be able to get up, even when you’re so exhausted. And you have to be able to fix everything on the boat.”

Satellite communications allowed Brauer to stay in touch with her racing team and connect with fans on social media, where she posted videos from the race and her boat, “First Light.”

Along the way she encountered 30-foot (9.1-meter) waves that tossed her about the boat, according to NBC News.

She injured a rib and even gave herself an IV to fend off dehydration.

Sailing solo means not just being a skipper but a project manager, said Marco Nannini, the race’s organizer. That means steering the vessel, making repairs, knowing the weather and keeping yourself healthy, he said.

“The biggest asset is your mental strength, not the physical one,” Nannini said. “Cole is showing everyone that.”

One of Brauer’s social media posts from Dec. 8 showed her frustration.

“I haven’t really had the bandwidth to get into everything that’s been going on the past 48 hours, but the short version is the autopilot has been acting up again and I needed to replace some parts and do a rudder recalibration,” she wrote. “For once the light air is actually helping, but it’s been exhausting, and I’m sore and tired.”

“It’s all part of the journey, and I’m sure I’ll be feeling better once the work is done and I’ve gotten some sleep,” Brauer added. “But right now things are tough.”

But she’s handled the tough, even though some in the sport believed it wouldn’t be possible due to her gender and small frame.

“I push so much harder when someone’s like, ‘no, you can’t do that,’ or ‘you’re too small,’” Brauer said.

“It would be amazing if there was just one other girl that saw me and said ‘Oh, I can do that, too,’” she added.

This story has been updated to remove an erroneous reference to Brauer being the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe alone in a sailboat.

Watch CBS News

Who won Oscars for 2024? See the full list of Academy Award winners

By Jordan Freiman

Updated on: March 11, 2024 / 9:09 AM EDT / CBS News

"Oppenheimer" won big at the 2024 Oscars , coming in with 13 nominations and earning awards in major categories such as best director, best actor and best picture .

"Barbie," the other half of the dual box-office Barbenheimer sensation , earned eight nominations, but only got one win Sunday night for best song. 

Other big winners at the 96th Academy Awards were "Poor Things" — which won awards for hair and makeup, production design and costume design — and Cillian Murphy, who won best actor , continuing his winning streak after taking home comparable awards at the 2024 Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards for the title role in "Oppenheimer."

Emma Stone, in what some consider an upset win, took home best actress for her role in "Poor Things," beating out Lily Gladstone , who became the first Native American to be nominated for best actress for her role as Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon."

This year's ceremony took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and featured its share of both hilarious and touching moments . Comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returned to host the Oscars for the second year in a row and his fourth time overall. 

The full list of this year's Oscar winners and nominees is below.

Who won the most Oscars for 2024?

"Oppenheimer" won the most Oscars at the 96th Academy Awards with seven, including some of the most coveted awards — best picture and best director. Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy won best supporting actor and best actor for their roles in the film, while the movie also took home awards for cinematography, editing and score.

Best picture

• "Oppenheimer" — Winner
• "American Fiction"
• "Anatomy of a Fall"
• "The Holdovers"
• "Killers of the Flower Moon"
• "Past Lives"
• "Poor Things"
• "The Zone of Interest"

Best supporting actress

• Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers" — Winner
• Emily Blunt, "Oppenheimer"
• Danielle Brooks, "The Color Purple"
• America Ferrera, "Barbie"
• Jodie Foster, "Nyad"

Best animated short film

• "War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko" — Winner
• "Letter to a Pig"
• "Ninety-Five Senses"
• "Our Uniform"
• "Pachyderm"

Best animated feature film

• "The Boy and the Heron" — Winner
• "Elemental"
• "Robot Dreams"
• "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

Best original screenplay

• "Anatomy of a Fall" — Winner
• "May December"

Best adapted screenplay

• "American Fiction" — Winner
• "Oppenheimer"

Best makeup and hairstyling

• "Poor Things" — Winner
• "Society of the Snow"

Best production design

Best costume design, best international feature film.

• "The Zone of Interest," United Kingdom — Winner
• "Io Capitano," Italy
• "Perfect Days," Japan
• "Society of the Snow," Spain
• "The Teachers' Lounge," Germany

Best supporting actor

• Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer" — Winner
• Sterling K. Brown, "American Fiction"
• Robert De Niro, "Killers of the Flower Moon"
• Ryan Gosling, "Barbie"
• Mark Ruffalo, "Poor Things"

Best visual effects

• "Godzilla Minus One" — Winner
• "The Creator"
• "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"
• "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One"

Best film editing

Best documentary short film.

• "The Last Repair Shop" — Winner
• "The ABCs of Book Banning"
• "The Barber of Little Rock"
• "Island in Between"
• "Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó"

Best documentary feature film

• "20 Days in Mariupol" — Winner
• "Bobi Wine: The People's President"
• "The Eternal Memory"
• "Four Daughters"
• "To Kill a Tiger"

Best cinematography

Best live action short film.

• "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" — Winner
• "The After"
• "Invincible"
• "Knight of Fortune"
• "Red, White and Blue"
• "The Zone of Interest" — Winner

Best original score

• "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny"

Best original song

• "What Was I Made For?" from "Barbie" — Winner
• "It Never Went Away" from "American Symphony"
• "I'm Just Ken" from "Barbie"
• "The Fire Inside" from "Flamin' Hot"
• "Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)" from "Killers of the Flower Moon"
• Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer" — Winner
• Bradley Cooper, "Maestro"
• Colman Domingo, "Rustin"
• Paul Giamatti, "The Holdovers"
• Jeffrey Wright, "American Fiction"

Best director

• Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer" — Winner
• Jonathan Glazer, "The Zone of Interest"
• Yorgos Lanthimos, "Poor Things"
• Martin Scorsese, "Killers of the Flower Moon"
• Justine Triet, "Anatomy of a Fall"

Best actress

• Emma Stone, "Poor Things" — Winner
• Annette Bening, "Nyad"
• Lily Gladstone, "Killers of the Flower Moon"
• Sandra Hüller, "Anatomy of a Fall"
• Carey Mulligan, "Maestro"

Full list of Oscars 2024 winners

• Best picture: "Oppenheimer"
• Best director: Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"
• Best actress: Emma Stone, "Poor Things."
• Best actor: Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer"
• Best supporting actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
• Best supporting actor: Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer"
• Best original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, "Anatomy of a Fall"
• Best adapted screenplay: Cord Jefferson, "American Fiction"
• Best animated feature: "The Boy and the Heron"
• Best animated short: "War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono"
• Best international feature: "The Zone of Interest" (United Kingdom)
• Best documentary feature: "20 Days in Mariupol"
• Best documentary short: "The Last Repair Shop"
• Best live action short: "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar"
• Best score: Ludwig Göransson, "Oppenheimer" 
• Best original song: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, "What Was I Made For?" from "Barbie"
• Best sound: Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn, "The Zone of Interest"
• Best production design: James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek, "Poor Things"
• Best cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, "Oppenheimer"
• Best makeup and hairstyling: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, "Poor Things"
• Best costume design: Holly Waddington, "Poor Things"
• Best editing: Jennifer Lame, "Oppenheimer"
• Best visual effects: Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima, "Godzilla Minus One" 
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Academy Awards

Jordan Freiman is an editor and writer for CBSNews.com. He covers breaking news, trending stories, sports and crime. Jordan has previously worked at Spin and Death and Taxes.

More from CBS News

Former Sacramento Councilman Loloee's vacant seat to be filled by end of month

Bernie Sanders wants the US to adopt a 32-hour workweek. Could workers and companies benefit?

Motorcyclist dies in crash outside of North Auburn

2-year-old girl hit by truck in Woodland dies at hospital

Prison escapees charged with murder in deaths of American couple presumed dead after yacht hijack

Three inmates who escaped prison in Grenada last month have been charged with capital murder in the deaths of an America n couple presumed dead after their yacht was hijacked.

Ron Mitchell, 30, Atiba Stanisclaus, 25, and Trevon Robertson, 23, were charged with two counts of capital murder “by intentionally causing” the deaths of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel, the Royal Grenada Police Force announced Thursday. 

The three men had escaped custody on the island of Grenada on Feb. 18, "commandeered" a yacht called Simplicity docked in the St. George area, and made their way to the nearby island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where they were recaptured on Feb. 21 , police had said.

Simplicity was Hendry and Brandel's sailing yacht and they were on board at the time.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police said last week the couple is presumed “deceased.”

Royal Grenada Police Commissioner Don McKenzie also said last week the couple was most likely “disposed of” at sea by the escaped prisoners. McKenzie said there’s   a “low probability” Brandel and Henry might be alive.

The scene on the couple’s boat was “consistent with signs of violence,” St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Superintendent Junior Simmons said last week.

“Several items were strewn on the deck and in the cabin, and a red substance that resembled blood was seen on board,” he said. “There was no discovery of bodies on board the yacht.”

The three inmates were also charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery, and two counts of kidnapping. Stanislaus was additionally charged with one count of rape — though police did not say who Stanislaus is accused of raping. 

All three made their first court appearance in court Thursday and were remanded to prison. They are due back in court on March 27.

Hendry and Brandel, American retirees and sailing enthusiasts, traded their life in Alexandria, Virginia, for their longtime dream of life at sea, experiencing "a different adventure every day," Brandel’s son, Nick Buro, told  NBC Washington .

The couple had been planning the trip down to Grenada — their first to the Caribbean island — for “years and years and years, training themselves, preparing the boat, preparing themselves ... to make the trip,” Hendry’s son, Bryan Hendry, told   the station.

The family of Hendry and Brandel released a statement on Feb. 27 through the Salty Dawg Sailing Association , which the couple had made their voyage to the Caribbean with.

“We are incredibly saddened to hear the news that our parents Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry are now presumed dead. We remain optimistic in the on-going search led by the St. Vincent Coast Guard," the statement said.

"While the end of their life may have been dark, they brought light, and that light will never be extinguished from the hearts and minds of the people who knew, loved and cared so deeply about them," it continued.

“Ralph and Kathy lived a life that most of us can only dream of, sailing the eastern coast of the United States, living on their home Simplicity, making friends with everyone they encountered, singing, dancing and laughing with friends and family — that’s who Ralph and Kathy were and that’s how they will be remembered in our hearts."

Breaking News Reporter

‘Some Damn Fine Shoes’

The artisans who are still making clothes in American factories

I n 1989, the American workwear brand Carhartt produced a special clothing collection to mark its centennial. While shopping with my wife at a vintage store in New Jersey a few years ago, I came across one of these garments—a cotton-duck work jacket with a patch on the chest pocket that read 100 Years, 1889–1989 . The same was stamped on each brass button. Intrigued, I took the jacket off its hanger. The inside was lined with a blanketlike fabric to provide extra warmth when working outdoors. Crafted with Pride in U.S.A. read the neck tag, and the underside bore the insignia of the United Garment Workers of America, a now-defunct labor union founded around the same time as Carhartt itself.

Nineteen eighty-nine doesn’t seem that long ago. But holding this jacket in my hands, I began to have the feeling you get when looking at a very old photograph. I was holding an artifact from a lost world.

Blue jeans, high-top sneakers, Western boots, button-down dress shirts, durable workwear: iconic clothing, invented by Americans. But although Americans still sport these items, we hardly produce any of them. In 1980, at least 70 percent of the clothing we wore was made domestically. Today, that figure is 3 percent . Sewing plants in Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Texas were packed up whole, the machinery shipped to Bangladesh or In­donesia, where eager workers would do the job for perhaps $5 a day. Over a period of 40 years, America out­sourced the shirt off its back.

As a reporter who has covered the apparel industry for years—and who also grew up in the heartland and witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of the decline in American manufacturing—I could not stop thinking about these statistics. At first, I dwelled on the 97 percent of clothing now made over­seas. But after a time, my focus reversed, and I became intrigued by what remained—the 3 percent. Anyone who had fought against economic forces and survived was either stubborn or crazy—or really good at what they did. I set out to meet them.

T he shoemaker Rancourt & Co. occupies the front half of a square, flat-roofed building surrounded by scrubland in a desolate neighborhood of Lewiston, Maine. Maine, along with Massachusetts, was once the center of shoemaking in the U.S., and practically every town—Lewiston, Wilton, Dexter—had a shoe factory. Now the state of American footwear manufacturing is even more dire than clothing production—only 2 percent of shoes sold in America are still made here. Yet Rancourt continues to produce its handmade leather shoes and moccasins in this mill town.

When I arrived, Mike Rancourt was wearing a ball cap and a fancy pair of shoes in faux alligator. “It’s called a ‘captain’s oxford,’” he said of the style. “It goes way back to the ’60s.” He smiled. “I have a lot of shoes. A new product, I’ll definitely wear it for at least a month to test it and see where the weaknesses are in the shoe, in the sole, wherever they may be.”

Mike learned shoemaking from his father, Dave, a French Canadian who’d come to Maine in the 1950s and found work as a hand sewer in a factory in Freeport. About a million French-speaking immigrants crossed the Canadian border in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, and well into the ’60s, the common tongue in the mills and shoe factories along the Androscoggin River was French. With only a fifth-grade education, Dave rose to become a foreman and then superintendent at a factory.

Mike remembers his father coming home smelling of the shoe factory: “You have leather and you have glue and you have threads and oils.”

In 1982, Dave approached Mike with the idea of starting their own company. Mike was 28 at the time and working in the restaurant business. He saw shoemaking as akin to cooking: “You’re taking raw materials, and you’re turning it into something people love.”

The timing seemed terrible. The year before, the Reagan administration had lifted shoe-import quotas from Taiwan and South Korea, and cheap footwear was flooding the U.S. market. But Mike saw opportunity in this. With companies slashing costs and closing factories to stay competitive, the market had space for high-end, labor-intensive footwear.

Mike and his father set up a factory that they ended up selling to Cole Haan. Dave retired, and Mike started another business, which he then sold to Allen Edmonds. Mike stayed on as president in charge of manufacturing in Lewiston. But a private-equity firm bought Allen Edmonds in 2006, and during the ensuing recession, the new owners started talking about closing the Maine operation completely and moving a majority of its production to the Dominican Republic. Mike learned of the plan at a board meeting. He tried to understand the company’s position even as he was absorbing the blow. “It was like a dagger in me,” he said, “because it was my community.”

Mike declined a new role within the company. Instead, he made the CEO an offer. He asked to buy the factory— his factory—back.

Just as his father had done, Mike invited his son Kyle to join him. Together, they reimagined the family business. While Rancourt remains a private-label manufacturer for other brands, they design and make their own line of custom leather shoes. These they sell online, direct from the factory, to save on distribution costs.

Mike tries to source as many components as he can in America. The leather hides come from the Horween tannery in Chicago, where Mike deals with a guy named Skip, whose dad had dealt with his dad. The thread is from a Lewiston company, Maine Thread, and the heels are made in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Most of Rancourt’s employees used to be working-class rural white folks in their 50s or 60s who’d spent their lives laboring in Maine’s shoe factories. But these days, Rancourt can no longer count on a workforce that has grown up in the industry; it has to train newcomers. Refugees from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo have settled in the Lewiston area in recent years, and about a dozen of the new arrivals have worked for Rancourt, bringing new energy to the aging factory.

Rancourt makes penny loafers, boat shoes, wing-tip brogues, dress boots, chukkas, even a sneaker that Kyle designed. But the brand is most famous for handsewn mocs. Producing one pair takes about 130 separate steps. For an hour, I perched in that corner of the factory, watching the practitioners of a nearly lost craft.

Jeff Rodrigue stood at a workbench. Laid out on the bench were the tools of the trade: a knife, an awl, thread, tacks, lasting pliers (a curious tool with the jaws of pliers and the head of a hammer), needles, wax, and a small, rounded piece of wood that is used for rubbing out marks and nicks in the leather. A good hand sewer can produce about 20 pairs of shoes a day, depending on the style.

Jeff was working on an order of bison-leather slippers. Jeff grabbed a precut piece of leather and pulled it over a plastic shoe form. He hammered tacks into the leather to hold it in place. He repeated this action with another piece, pulling and tacking so that the two pieces, the top and bottom of the shoe, were aligned.

Holding two threaded needles, one in each hand, and juggling an awl at the same time, he carefully pierced a hole into the leather. Then he stuck the needles through the hole, going in opposite directions, and pulled the thread tight in a flourish. He raised his arms out and away from his body after each stitch, his movements fluid and confident, a kind of ballet.

“Takes a good one year to learn to do it,” Jeff said. He’s been doing it now for 30.

O f course , the enthusiasm and determination of a given entrepreneur, and the skill of the employees, is only half the equation. To succeed, a business needs customers. Fortunately for Rancourt, Michael Williams was a fan.

In 2007, Williams created a men’s style blog called A Continuous Lean, or ACL , focused on historical apparel labels such as Woolrich and Filson, and new brands with a similar sensibility.

Williams ran a fashion-PR agency in New York City but had grown up in blue-collar Ohio, east of Cleveland, where he’d spent summers working for his father’s landscaping business. When Williams turned 14, his father took him to buy his first pair of Red Wing work boots. He’d always been fascinated by the factories that had made his hometown, but by the time he was coming up, they were all closing down.

One day in 2007, he visited a factory in Chelsea that made ties for one of his accounts. On the ground floor was a gallery selling work by blue-chip artists. Taking the elevator up several floors, however, Williams was transported to another time. Workers stood at long cutting tables carving up the cloth that a dozen or so sewers would fashion into more ties; the scraps were everywhere. “It felt like I was seeing something rare that most New Yorkers don’t know even exists,” Williams told me.

Williams began visiting the city’s other garment factories, including Primo Coat in Queens and Martin Greenfield Clothiers and Hertling USA in Brooklyn. These family-run factories were holdovers from the days when New York had been a premier garment center, and they reminded Williams of Ohio, rekindling his interest in the workings of industry. “It was very rare to find stuff still made in the U.S., and I wondered, Why? And, more specifically, How are the people who are still doing it doing it? ” That, he told me, was when he started thinking: I should start a blog .

At the outset, Williams didn’t expect many people to read what he was writing. But the personal, ongoing nature of a blog allowed him to go deep, and to create a community around the subject. He covered menswear the way ESPN covered the NFL draft, authoritatively and exhaustively.

Williams became a preeminent proponent of a philosophy known as “Buy quality, buy once.” The idea was that rather than purchase lots of cheap, disposable products, people should spend more on a few well-made items and use them for years, in effect reducing their consumption. His argument for timeless quality resonated with young urban professionals and fashion addicts, as well as with older readers who remembered a time when America’s factories hummed. As his influence grew, Williams found that he could help launch new businesses and save established ones. One of those brands was Rancourt.

Williams touted the Rancourts as “good people who are doing their part to continue the shoe craft in Maine. Even if you take all of that away, Rancourt makes some damn fine shoes.”

R ancourt’s success continued , but over time, Williams’s enthusiasm for the heritage movement waned. He felt that it had been reduced to a trendy look of flannel shirts and rugged boots, stripped of its deeper meaning. After 2015, Williams pulled back from posting regularly.

The Donald Trump years did little to change his mind. Like many Americans, Williams believed that outsourcing had destroyed whole regions, and he had always thought the American-made movement would grow as more people became wise to the value and logic behind it. But when Trump got elected, the “Made in the U.S.A.” movement “got co-opted by this far-right group,” Williams told me. “It got tainted.”

The pandemic changed that. Stories of doctors wearing raincoats into emergency wards and nurses wearing trash bags and washing and reusing the same masks for days because of a lack of protective clothing brought home the impact of offshoring.

In spring 2020, Williams reengaged with his blog, writing a series of posts that took the country to task for turning away from manufacturing and building. “I was infuriated by the fact that we can’t make N95 masks,” Williams told me. “It goes to show we’re just inept. We’re this limp shell of a country. We don’t have the machines. Everything is so dependent on other countries.”

When he called Kyle Rancourt that June to ask how the shoe business was faring, Kyle answered, “We have no business.” A bunch of wholesale orders had been canceled or postponed, and customer orders through the Rancourt website had dropped to zero. Mike and Kyle were facing the very real possibility of having to lay off workers.

Williams sprang into action. He lent his marketing skills, helping Kyle hatch a plan for a crowdfunded project. Rancourt would offer its retail customers wholesale pricing on some of its best-selling shoes, such as the Classic Ranger Moc and the Beefroll Penny Loafer. Williams did free PR for Rancourt around the crowdfund, asking friends and fashion influencers to share it, calling in a lot of favors and promoting it to his tens of thousands of readers on ACL .

The response was overwhelming. Within days, Mike and Kyle had filled enough orders to keep going deep into 2020, through the worst of the shutdown.

When I returned to Lewiston again in 2022, Rancourt’s employee parking lot had significantly more cars; the company had added a dozen workers in the previous two years. Inside, a group of well-dressed tourists was buying shoes in the factory store off the lobby. The factory itself was hopping. Handsewn shoes were back in style; the winds of fashion had shifted in Rancourt’s favor. But that didn’t explain it entirely. In the wake of the pandemic, people were more interested in U.S. manufacturing, and apparel labels were responding.

Out on the factory floor, in the hand-sewing department, Jeff had a new colleague. A middle-aged man with a shaved head and thick-framed glasses stood at the workbench in front of Jeff’s. Joao Kalukembiko had come to the United States from Angola in 2016, with his wife and child. In New York City, where he initially lived, a fellow immigrant told Joao about Maine. After working at Dunkin’ Donuts, Joao heard about Rancourt through Lewiston’s African immigrant community. Kyle liked Joao’s positive personality and hired him on that basis.

After trying a few different jobs, Joao proved to be good at stitching soles for Rancourt’s sneaker line, work that requires hand-eye coordination and close attention to detail. One day, Joao mentioned to Mike that he wanted to try hand sewing. Mike got him training with the veterans, and, unlike everyone else who had tried it, he did well and stuck with it.

By the time I arrived, Joao had been doing the job for more than a year—long enough, by local tradition, to call himself a hand sewer.

This essay was adapted from the forthcoming book American Flannel .

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Grenada Prison Escapees Are Charged With Murder of American Couple

The couple, Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, went missing while sailing off the coast of Grenada.

By Aimee Ortiz

Three men who had escaped from a prison in Grenada and were accused of hijacking an American couple’s yacht to flee have been charged with their murder, the police said on Thursday.

The couple, Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, went missing while sailing off the coast of Grenada . They had been spending the winter cruising in the Caribbean in their catamaran called Simplicity, which was found abandoned in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Feb. 21.

There was no indication in the latest police statement that the bodies of the couple had been recovered as of Thursday.

Trevon Robertson, 23; Atiba Stanisclaus, 25; and Ron Mitchell, 30, face two counts of “capital murder by intentionally causing the death of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel,” the Royal Grenada Police Force said.

The authorities from police forces in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have given different ages and name spellings for the escapees.

The men were also charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery and two counts of kidnapping; Mr. Stanisclaus is also facing a rape charge, the police said, but no details were offered on those accusations. The three men made their first court appearance on Thursday, and are due back on March 27. The Royal Grenada Police Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The police had said in a statement released on Feb. 22 that three men who escaped from a prison in Grenada on Feb. 18 and made their way to St. Vincent using a yacht that had been docked in the St. George area of Grenada.

The prisoners were recaptured on Feb. 21, the same day that the couple’s yacht was found. At the time, the police said they were “currently working on leads that suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process.”

At a news conference on Feb. 26 , Commissioner Don McKenzie of the Royal Grenada Police Force that “information suggests that, while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they disposed of the occupants.”

During a Feb. 26 news conference , Junior Simmons, superintendent of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, said the joint investigation into the disappearance with Grenada police was ongoing, and he said the couple was presumed dead.

The investigation revealed that while sailing from Grenada, “the suspects committed several criminal acts including bodily harm to the couple,” he said.

The couple, who were married for 27 years, were “veteran cruisers,” according to the Salty Dawg Sailing Association , a nonprofit that brings together a community of sailors engaged in long-distance cruising on their boats. The couple were longtime members, the organization said in a statement, and “they both contributed to building the S.D.S.A.”

In a joint family statement posted on the association’s website on Feb. 27, Nick Buro, the son of Ms. Brandel, and Bryan Hendry, the son of Mr. Hendry, said that “if we have learned anything from this tragic event, it’s that we know they left this world in a better place than it was before they were born.”

“Ralph and Kathy lived a life that most of us can only dream of,” the message said. “Sailing the eastern coast of the United States, living on their home Simplicity, making friends with everyone they encountered, singing, dancing and laughing with friends and family — that’s who Ralph and Kathy were and that’s how they will be remembered in our hearts.”

Aimee Ortiz is a reporter on the Investigations desk. She was previously a general assignment reporter on the Express Desk. More about Aimee Ortiz

[{{{type}}}] {{{reason}}}

{{texts.summary}} {{#options.result.rssIcon}} RSS {{/options.result.rssIcon}}

{{{_source.title}}} {{#_source.showPrice}} {{{_source.displayPrice}}} {{/_source.showPrice}}

{{{_source.displayUrl}}}

{{{_source.displayDate}}}

{{{_source.description}}}

{{#_source.additionalFields}} {{#title}} {{{label}}}: {{{title}}} {{/title}} {{/_source.additionalFields}}

Welcome to American Sail

Builder of small sailboats, catamarans, and daysailers.

Small sailboats are our specialty! We've made fun family sailboats for over 40 years.

American Sail got its start over 40 years ago in 1976 with the purchase of the Aqua Cat catamaran.  Over the years we have grown to offer many more sailboats in our line including a larger version of the Aqua Cat and four daysailers that are the Aqua Finn Daysailer, Pennant Daysailer, American 14.6,  and American 18 Daysailer.

If you're looking for the best small sailboats you've come to the right place.  All of our family daysailers are designed for fun and not hard-core racing. Any of our boats can be rigged by one person in under 20 minutes.

We are factory direct. If you have any questions regarding pricing or parts orders please do not hesitate to give us a call at 800-844-2399 or use our CONTACT FORM .