Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Cruising World

After visiting and sailing Nautitech’s new flagship catamaran, the 48 Open, this past fall as part of Cruising World’s Boat of the Year trials in Annapolis, Maryland, it occurred to me that people could take the word “open” to mean any number of things. First and foremost, it could refer to the sporty twin helms—located aft on either transom—in the great outdoors, under the open sky, out there where you can feel the wind in your face and hear the rush of water flowing past the hulls as wakes are left quickly astern in any sort of breeze. Then there’s the open feel to the boat, especially in the flow from the salon to the cockpit. Interior designer Christophe Chedal-Anglay—working alongside the naval architects at Marc Lombard Yacht Design Group…

There’s an old saying that I’m sure we’ve all heard: “Use the right tool for the job.” I like to think of boats as the tools and our cruising grounds as the job. We’re often drawn to the new, shiny, expensive self-ratcheting wrench when what we really need is the greasy, dingedup crescent wrench. That’s marketing for you. As seen on TV. And while I’m sure we’d all like to think that we aren’t affected by marketing, we most definitely are. If the cruising dreamers out there don’t think their boat choice has been affected by boat shows and the glossy perfection of online influencers’ boats (and their made-for-TV lives), I’ve got a bridge to sell them. I’ve owned four liveaboard boats in the past 22 years, and I’m not…

We had the right boat: Searcher, a Bowman 57 ketch. I’d already made two voyages to the Caribbean on it. I had just turned my business over to a nonprofit and retired. Our two kids were the right ages: Our daughter, Ren (short for Renaissance), was 10, while our son, Havana, was 8. They’d been brought up on Searcher and could swim, row a boat, paddle kayaks, and sail a dinghy. But my wife, Julie, still needed convincing that this was the perfect time to move aboard and spend the winter in the Caribbean. I gave her a copy of Don Casey’s book Dragged Aboard: A Cruising Guide for a Reluctant Mate. Besides, I told her, when I had turned over the school I’d founded, the house went with the deal.…

The Nautitech 40 Open Bumfuzzle rests at anchor in Komodo National Park, which is located in the center of the Indonesian archipelago, between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores. In the space of just 100 miles, Patrick Schulte, seen on the foredeck, and his family sailed alongside blue whales, swam with whale sharks, scuba dived with turtles and giant mantas, and ran from two male Komodo dragons fighting over a female. The Schultes missed Komodo on their first circumnavigation, but their second trip, this time with their kids, gave them a chance to explore even more. Story on page 70…

Imagine your anchor is set in a pristine anchorage. The sails are flaked, the lines are stowed, and the drinks are poured. There’s nothing left to do but relax in the cockpit and enjoy the simple, sustainable sailing life. As you soak in the view under the setting sun, the scenery takes your breath away—until you spy an eyesore. It’s a derelict sailboat. The once-white hull is stained with yellow streaks. A hole in the port side reveals the boat’s innards. Its fractured mast points at you like a broken finger. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program and the International Maritime Organization, about 1.5 percent to 2 percent of recreational fleet vessels in the United States and Europe are retired annually—amounting to roughly 242,000 and…

Legions of cruisers have zero interest in a two-hulled boat (and please, do not call catamaran hulls “pontoons”). Traditionalists, wooden-boat aficionados, weekend club racers, folks with limited mooring space and tight boat-buying budgets—nope, not them. Happy where they are. We can relate. My wife, Harriet, and I grew up staunch monohullers. Our respective parents owned a herd of single-hulled boats, from racing dinghies to cruiser/racers. The names of monohull legends, from America’s Cup winners to circumnavigators, are imprinted in both of our consciousnesses. Back in the day, those were real sailors. Those were real boats. But times and needs and boats change, and in 2008, Harriet and I converted to a cat. Before that, I had sailed, in the course of boat reviews for sailing magazines, more than two dozen…

Painting a vessel’s hull or deck is a significant undertaking—financially and logistically. It requires the unstepping of spars, the removal of hardware (ideally), and the production of copious amounts of dust, which means the cabin needs to be sealed tight. Even then, some dust always makes its way into interior or deck locker spaces, necessitating a deep cleaning. I managed a boatbuilding and refit yard for 11 years. We routinely painted hulls, decks and spars, primarily using traditional two-part paint. In many cases, the hull color was being changed, and it was the rare exception when an owner opted for a light or neutral color. Almost invariably, folks wanted the snazzy dark colors such as super jetblack, vivid red, aristo blue, jade mist green and, of course, Stars-and-Stripes blue. It’s…

Nearly two decades ago, Seawind Catamarans walked off with top honors in Cruising World’s 2007 Boat of the Year contest multihulls category. Judges praised the couple-friendly liveaboard layout, sailing performance and bluewater-voyaging safety features of the Seawind 1160, a catamaran they also recognized as being that year’s most innovative entry. Many of those same noteworthy features—refined now over the launch of several subsequent models—are be found aboard the Seawind 1370, which this year’s panel of judges named 2025 Best Midsize Multihull. Like its predecessor, the 45-foot 1370 is well-suited to be a couple’s liveaboard goanywhere cruising boat, with a versatile Solent sail plan that has a full-batten square-top main, a self-tacking jib and a screecher. The two headsails are on furlers, so changing gears to match conditions is manageable for…

Set Sail in Style with the 2022 Xquisite X5 PLUS Price: $1,650,000 USD Step aboard excellence with this impeccably maintained 2022 Xquisite X5 PLUS—available now through Xquisite’s exclusive Certified Pre-Owned Program. Enjoy peace of mind with a comprehensive technical inspection, a full week of onboard training, and an extended 90-day Xquisite Yachts warranty. Currently docked in beautiful Alicante, Spain, this yacht is in pristine condition and fully prepped for the Mediterranean sailing season. This sought-after 3-cabin, 3-head owner’s version comes fully equipped for long-term liveaboard cruising and global circumnavigation. Prefer another destination? Delivery to the Caribbean or the USA is available upon request. Your next adventure begins here! PLEASE SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 94 Xquisite Yachts xquisiteyachts.com | info@xquisiteyachts.com | 1-707-370-5264…

Pushy islanders circling the boat in their canoes. Drunken rascals harassing or assaulting crews. The constant threat of being attacked by saltwater crocodiles. Reading reports about Papua New Guinea, we weren’t sure if it was a wise idea to even dare a brief stopover. § But Papua New Guinea does have the advantage that it lies outside the cyclone belt (at least the northern part). So, we went, but we kept to a route far from the main islands. In the remote little islands, we found beautiful nature and hospitable people wherever we stopped. § While occupying only 1 percent of the world’s landmass, Papua New Guinea has an incredible 7 percent of Earth’s biodiversity. It is the world’s third-largest island country and the most populous among Pacific island nations—even…

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as foraging for food while cruising. Some sailors catch fresh fish off the stern. Others, like my husband, Mitchell, and I, prefer to dive in the shallows. Our love for cruising and life at sea began long before we found our present boat, Esprit, a Peterson 46. We’d lived and worked on many boats before this one, always dreaming of someday starting a small charter business on our own boat. Finally, we found Esprit in Panama. The boat had just completed a 15-year circumnavigation with its previous owners, a family who had meticulously maintained it. Esprit was sturdy, well-loved, and ready for the next adventure. Soon, the boat was ours. We were starry-eyed but slightly nervous as we embarked on our maiden voyage from Panama…

Last year, I had the opportunity to operate the American Magic simulator, which had the exact same configuration as the racing yacht itself. I felt like I was in the cockpit of a spacecraft. All the screens, buttons, readouts, digital files, and headsets for communication reminded me of Buck Rogers and Star Trek. I’m sure that the computers and artificial intelligence helped the sailors in their quest to win the America’s Cup, but I was bewildered. One of the coaches said that today’s better Cup helmsmen are skilled video-game players, and often aircraft pilots comfortable with sophisticated instrumentation. A few days after my time in the simulator, I enjoyed a sail on a brisk winter’s day aboard my 32-foot sloop. My complete package of instruments includes a compass, a VHS radio…

In marinas, it’s common to see freshwater hoses connected to boats—especially liveaboards. A hose runs from a dockside faucet to a pressure-reducing inlet on the boat, typically lowering municipal water pressure from around 60 psi to 35 psi. This allows consistent water pressure at all onboard faucets without relying on noisy pressure pumps. It also means no battery drain, as well as fresh water straight from shore. The downside? If a hose or fitting fails, the uninterrupted water flow can flood—and sink—a boat. On my schooner, Britannia, the original shore-water system had no fail-safe. The plastic pipes dated back to the boat’s construction in 1978 and ran in a confusing tangle deep in the bilge. My Downeast 45 has an unusually deep and long bilge—53 inches from the salon sole…

Those old Dos Equis beer commercials featuring the fictional “most interesting man in the world” were catchy and hilarious. The suave, bearded protagonist reflected a serene wisdom born from quiet intelligence and outsize deeds. In 2017, our Boat of the Year team had our first exposure to Xquisite Yachts, and the seasoned voyager and visionary who’d launched the brand with the X5, which was named that year’s Most Innovative Sailboat. Back then, I was joshing a bit when I referenced those beer ads, talking about Xquisite’s brash founder. But after 2022, when the reworked 53-foot X5 Plus was named Best Cruising Catamaran Over 50 Feet, and again after inspecting the Xquisite Sixty Solar Sail for our 2025 Boat of the Year contest, I’m not kidding anymore. Tamas Hamor might just…