Southerly Yachts has long been a true design and build innovator in the shoal-draft, drop-keel category of blue water cruisers.  Yet, the company has ben through a few rocky patches and differetnj owners. Most recently the brand with all. the molds has been acquired from the previous owners Discovery Yachts by Concept Yachts in Southampton, England. Concept is essentially saving the Southerly brand.  Their press announcement is below.  Check out the new Southerly Yachts website here.  In a stunning turn of events, the storied UK-based yacht building company, Southerly Yach ..read more

The German-built Sirius brand is not well known in North America, but in Europe the company has quickly earned a reputation for designing and building innovative family cruising boats of exceptional quality. The new 40DS is now the company’s flagship. It is packed with interesting and innovative design elements, starting with the twin keel standard configuration. The two keels, side by side, combined with the rudder, allow the boat to stand on its own three feet when the tide goes all the way out. There are other more conventional keel options but the twins are are a unique Sirius feature. Th ..read more

The post New 2024 Bavaria C50 Tour with Yacht Broker Ian Van Tuyl appeared first on Blue Water Sailing ..read more

The new Dufour 41 that was introduced at the Cannes boat show last September has been voted European Family Cruiser of the Year for 2024 by the panel of yachting journalists who tested a wide variety of new boats in several categories. The new 41 follows in the wake of the very successful 37 and is a boat with great sailing qualities and a huge amount of living space below decks.  Note the hard chines which add stability and interior volume. Also note the boat’s beam in the bow sections which provide for a huge forward master cabin, or for side by side forward double cabins. With huge wi ..read more

On Wednesday, February 21, the Salty Dawg Sailing Association Executive Director Tatja Hopman was alerted by a cruising skipper that a member’s yacht, Simplicity, was anchored and abandoned off a beach on the south coast of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The good Samaritan had boarded the boat and noted that the owners, Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, were not onboard and found evidence of apparent violence. Contact information for the SDSA was posted and the skipper contacted the Association. The good Samaritan contacted the St. Vincent coast guard alerting them of the situation; they ..read more

I am just back from the 2024 Miami International Boat Show where I had the good fortune to spend a hour or more aboard the new Windelo 50 cruising cat from France. The Windelo concept is to provide a spacious cruising cat that has a powerful rig and slippery hulls so the boat will sail well in a very wide range of wind conditions, which reduces the amount of time when you need to motor. But when motoring is required, the boat is powered by electric motors that are fed from a large lithium-ion battery bank. The batteries are charged by the huge array of solar panels on the cabin top, and a die ..read more

The post Yachting World Tests Exciting New HH 44 Cruising Cat appeared first on Blue Water Sailing ..read more

The new Hanse 410, which was introduced at the Cannes boat show last September, was nominated for European Boat of the Year 2004 in the family cruiser category. Although it lost out to the new Dufour 41, the Hanse 410 deserves a special mention. The mid-size cruiser embodies all of what Hanse offers in 2024: she is sleek and  very attractive; she has balanced lines and a low slung cabin top; she has a powerful sailing rig with a self-tacking jib that will be both fast and easy to handle; her cockpit is huge and has a big fold-down transom cum swim platform; below she has three sleeping c ..read more

Launched last fall in time for the Annapolis sailboat show, the new Oceanis 37.1 completes the seventh generation of the Oceanis line that includes eight models launched since 2017.  The Marc Lombard-designed hull and rig provides a roomy family cruising sloop with a surprising turn of speed. Note the broad transom, the chine that runs the full length of the boat and the very full hull sections forward, which all combine to enhance the hull’s stability while providing plenty of interior volume. The cockpit is spacious for a 37-footer with bench seats long enough to sleep on and a table ..read more

Veteran yachting journalist Matthew Sheehan of PlanetSail takes us in a tour of  Europe’s largest indoor boat show and introduces us to the winners of the European Yachts of the Year Awards. The post PlanetSail Takes a Tour of BOOT Dusseldorf 2024 appeared first on Blue Water Sailing ..read more