Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2026 i PassageMaker

I grew up around boats, and racing was part of our family life. Weekends were spent in small, single-handed dinghies like the Optimist and Europe. Later, I was in keelboats such as the J/22 and Dragon. I eventually logged offshore miles on bigger race boats. Sailing gave me independence. I loved being at sea and finding my own course. Later, I studied naval architecture and worked for years on the design of commercial vessels, which are built to do a job. What they taught me carries into yacht design: Comfort is part of performance. If people function, then the vessel can do what it is meant to do, from standing watch offshore to cruising farther as a family. My idea for the OTG 20 comes from all of these lessons.…

As the first signs of fall settled in, we were eager to linger in New England’s finest season, but the southward pull was already in motion. We left the anchorage and headed into a thick fog—the type of conditions that demand every tool a navigator has, and a sober respect for how they’re used. The Cape Cod Canal and Buzzards Bay, at its southern end in Massachusetts, are no place to be casual. The area funnels commercial traffic, ferries, fishing vessels and countless recreational boats into a narrow body of water with fast-moving currents. On a clear day, cruising here requires vigilance. In dense fog, the margin for error shrinks to almost nothing. This was hardly our first run in reduced visibility. After a summer of cruising the coast of…

Smart boaters and good captains build maintenance programs and parts inventories with the goal of avoiding unscheduled marina stays for emergency repairs. While working as a freelance skipper, without a say in longterm maintenance, I’ve been on the wrong side of that premise too often. Issues with engine-or generator-cooling systems were often to blame for entirely preventable delays. Neglecting diesel cooling systems is also a sure way to ring up avoidable repair bills. Fortunately, just a few simple steps and a short list of spare parts usually keep diesels running cool, repair bills minimal and dock stays planned. FREQUENT INSPECTION A successful engine maintenance program starts in the engine room. “Check all your fluids before you start the engines, every day,” says John Wheatley, owner of Florida Marine Tech…

CHRIS DIXON CAT TRICKS WRITER Chris Dixon is senior editor at Power & Motoryacht. He wrote the book Ghost Wave and co-wrote The Ocean: The Ultimate Handbook of Nautical Knowledge. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Outside, Popular Mechanics and Garden & Gun. He grew up boating, fishing and surfing along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. He lives in Charleston, S.C., with his wife, son and daughter. GEOFFREY SMITS DESIGN COLUMNIST Geoffrey Smits is a naval architect, designer and founder of SIEdes, a design studio in the Netherlands that specializes in new builds and refits. With more than 20 years of experience in naval architecture and a background in competitive sailing, Smits combines deep technical expertise with visual storytelling. His work can…

We can say two things with absolute certainty about the Cannes Yachting Festival: It’s going to be sunny, and Sirena Yachts will splash a new model. The Turkey-based builder has been fairly consistent with world debuts during the annual event on the Côte d’Azur. This past September’s show was no different, with the builder introducing the Sirena 60. The 60 replaces the 58 in a five-model line that runs from 48 to 88 feet (a 118-footer is currently in build). The exterior lines, drawn by Argentinian yacht designer Germán Frers, remain. The pleasing profile is defined by a plumb bow, hullside glass and a tall pilothouse with forward-facing windows that echo her straight bow. Sirena revamped the 60’s outdoor and indoor spaces. The new model has a longer swim platform…

A bulbous bow serves a number of purposes on all types of hulls. Vessels fitted or properly retrofitted with a bulb bow can see an increase in range from 12% to 15% while reducing trim angle for better visibility; a lower bow wave for less water on deck and shoreline environmental impact; better fuel economy; and reduced pitching for improved comfort and seakeeping. At my naval architecture firm, Bray Yacht Design and Research, we have retrofitted bulbs to more than 60 boats, from 40 feet up to 150 feet, with speeds up to 24 knots. We have also done extensive model testing on numerous designs from deep-V hulls to lobster hull forms. One example was a Selene 59 whose owners saw much better fuel consumption than other Selenes while out…

When the big metal lock’s door clangs shut on the first chamber of the Telemark Canal, there’s a sense of finality. Ready or not, you are on your way up into the interior of Norway. In a lock system, you can only go one way: forward. We had already cruised more than 60 miles along the south Norway coast. We’d harbor-hopped through archipelagos and had a brief test drive on the North Sea that convinced us electronic propulsion could probably be trusted. But the long summer days—about 20 hours of daylight—were playing havoc with our sleep patterns. We were now headed into a somewhat remote and raw area of the Telemark Region with nothing but the promise of a futuristic electric drive system and a possible fast-charging station somewhere out…

From the terrace of the Ambasciatori Hotel in Sorrento, Italy, soft swells of crystalline water call toward the expanse of the Mediterranean. Vesuvius looms to the north, stretching up into the clouds. I have logged many hours on this sea, cruising the coasts of Corsica, Sardinia, Croatia, the Aeolian Islands and Sicily. But even in this region that is always stunningly beautiful, many people consider Amalfi to be the gem. I’ve visited the Amalfi Coast a half dozen times, by land or by boat. In July 2019, after a decade of discussing the merits of marriage, Giselle and I tied the knot on the bow of Roxane, a 153-foot sailing yacht, with the cliffs of Positano as our background. It wasn’t legally binding, but at that moment, I understood the…

FIRST LOOK: CORMORANT COR55 RAV Owners of the COR55 RAV took delivery last summer at Cormorant’s shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. They put the CE Category A Ocean-rated hull through its paces with a 14-day, 950-nautical-mile shakedown cruise to their native Norway. The COR55 is the first boat to splash in a semi-custom series of four models that range from 55 to 75 feet. The raised pilothouse 55 has an enclosed sky lounge with a helm design that arranges a pair of captain’s chairs flanking a center console, both facing a trio of 32-inch multifunction displays. The wheel is concealed within the console by owner’s request, and there are captain’s quarters nearby. Above the enclosed helm is a flybridge, with both areas having access to a boat deck that can accommodate…

Three things in the late 1980s led to the creation of the original Nordhavn 46. The first was that designer Al Mason got annoyed with the boys. Mason had been working with brothers Jeff and Jim Leishman for about a decade, building about 200 sailboats before consumer demand softened for sailing in general. The young Leishmans wanted to evolve some concepts, but Mason, who was older, resisted. “We were asking him to do design changes and things that he didn’t really like doing,” says Jim Leishman, owner and vice president at Nordhavn. “In those days, it was ink on vellum. It was time-consuming. You had to redraw the entire boat if you wanted to change something in the galley.” The second thing was that Jeff Leishman was completing his…

Selling your boat is not an easy task, especially if you feel pressure because a new one is already on its way. The sooner your old boat sets sail with a new owner, the more money stays in your pocket. But even if your dealer is willing to do a trade, you still have to address potential buyers who want a bargain. Professional sales brokers typically charge about 10 percent of the final selling price for their services. You should always consider this commission when establishing the asking price. If you want to walk away with, say, $250,000, then you will need $275,000 on the sale to get that amount. In a market like the one we’ve been in for a while now, there are more boats for sale than…

Of all the boats I stepped aboard at the 2025 Cannes Yachting Festival, few left me as impressed as Aquila’s 46 Yacht. The foiling catamaran is the builder’s successor to its 44, a model that has seen more than 200 hulls sold in 10 years. With a beam almost exactly half her overall length, the 46 is undeniably stocky, yet somehow sleek. When she’s docked stern-to, it’s impossible to miss the multilevel, fullbeam swim platform. A stern ladder/passarelle ensures safe boarding and easy egress to the brine. Just overhead for the dinghy, there’s a hidden crane in the after end of the flybridge sole with a single-point hook. Wide dual side stairs lead to the cockpit, which is the social centerpiece of the 46. A nearly full-beam, forward-facing sofa and…