It’s 2,000 pounds heavier as well, but has a longer boom and more sail area than the J/111, which Johnstone says will earn it a PHRF rating somewhere in the low 50s. There’s no conflict for the J/111 class either, says Johnstone, as the J/112E is absolutely a cruising boat. But under the hands of a competent crew, it will be a handicap-­racing sleeper. To prove the point, Chicago-area dealer Rich Stearns finished second with one in Chicago YC’s 2016 Race to Mackinac (Division 5).

“The helm has excellent feel,” says Chuck Allen. “In 10 to 12 knots, it definitely sails like a J Boat, with the traveler up, sheet eased and twisted off to get it rumbling. There’s great bite in the rudder — we tried hard to wash it out, but it just bit every time.”

The J/112E’s standard keel is a 7-foot iron fin with a lead shoe encased on the bottom. The boat is vacuum-infused with balsa in the hull and foam in the deck. Bulkheads are solid walnut and the floorboards are synthetic, but teak-and-holly is an option. The keel grid is heavily reinforced glass, and the chainplates are bolted onto the outside of the hull (with cover plates), which Johnstone says provides a better tie-in to the hull structure.

On deck, there’s an adjustable backstay (hydraulic would be an upgrade) and an upgraded composite wheel for that black-is-fast look. The winches are recessed to provide proper leads, the traveler is recessed to eliminate a tripping hazard, and underdeck mainsheets exit from the cockpit sidewalls. It’s a system that Johnstone says allows them to avoid using the typical German mainsheet system, which requires the use of a winch in light air. The more direct-to-hand mainsheet system, says Allen, with a fine and gross tune, provides much better feel in winds under 15 knots.

“Like every J Boat we’ve seen in the past, this one was presented properly, even though it came straight off the ship,” says Greg Stewart. “The sails were good, the rig was right, and it was ready to sail. It seems like a bigger boat than 36 feet, and it isn’t your standard J Boat interior, which is nice. It’s a great-looking boat, at the dock and on the water.”

All the judges agreed that the J/112E is suited to weeknight club racing, whether the spinnaker comes out of a bag on deck or on a top-down furler as tested. Adding a code zero to the inventory, says Allen, would be a wise choice for cruising and longer point-to-point races.

More Information

Best Crossover:
J/112E

Designed for:
Club racing
Cruising

The judges liked:
Upwind performance
Appealing Design
Essentials-only interior

Required crew:
Five to six

Price as tested:
$280,000

The post Best Crossover: J/112E appeared first on Sailing World.

It’s not just another little technical singlehander, however. This one also has a 138-square-foot spinnaker, which makes it all the better for getting down the track. It also gives asymmetric newcomers a platform on which to learn the nuances of sailing hotter angles.

The Evo checks in at 15 feet 8 inches and 175 pounds. It’s built by Ovington Boats, in England, a respected builder of numerous high-performance dinghies. Ovington’s attention to detail is obvious, and the judges noted the Evo’s outstanding build quality, as well as the excellent finish work and hardware selection.

Rig time is 15 minutes from trailer to launch, says Hayden Bennett. Every sail control has either a hook or spliced fitting, so there’s no fussing with knots. The mast base has six pin positions to get the center of effort where you want it for the three sail choices. The spinnaker halyard is continuous, with a takedown patch so hoists and douses into and out of the foredeck chute are smooth and easy. “It’s simple,” says Chuck Allen. “You just bear away, cleat the main off so it’s at the corner [of the transom], sail deep for a second while you hoist, turn up, and sheet on.” While the rig does have shrouds, they simply act as running backstays, preventing the spinnaker luff curve from going soft in puffs. In other words, they’re not something you need to fuss with between races.

Although the judges sailed the Evo in near-drifting conditions, the Bennetts assured them the boat is easy to handle in heavy air, on account of its high-aspect foils and contoured cockpit walls for comfortable hiking. Its flared hull profile helps with righting moment and with roll tacks and jibes, which makes the boat a good skill-builder. The spinnaker doesn’t drag across a headstay, so jibes are made smooth and quick by presetting a lazy sheet, which can be marked for the optimum exit angle. “Everything about the boat is good,” says judge Greg Stewart. “The construction is really well done, and it’s a fun boat even in the light stuff we had. It was still comfortable because you could sit low without feeling like you were crammed into a tiny cockpit. In not a lot more breeze, this boat would have been a lot of fun for sure.”

“It’s a little on the expensive side for a singlehander,” says Allen, “but I can see this catching on with guys who will trailer them around from event to event. It’s a grand-prix dinghy for sure, but it’s a really cool and simple package.”

More Infornation

Best Dinghy:
VX Evo

Designed for:
One-design racing
Asymmetric training

The judges liked:
High-quality construction
Versatile sail options
Cockpit ergonomics

Required crew:
One or two

Price as tested:
$15,000

The post Best Dinghy: VX Evo appeared first on Sailing World.

At only 2,000 pounds all up, and with its swing centerboard, the Seascape 24 is easily ramp-launched and towed behind the family wagon. Getting the deck-stepped mast up and down is a one-person operation. The interior is minimalist and clean, with hanging bags for storage and space under settees for a hard cooler and portable toilet. The V-berth is plenty big, and additional seating slides out from beneath the cockpit to create two double-wide settees. A cabin-top solar panel powers LED interior lights, but other than that, there’s not much to the boat in terms of electrical systems, which is always a good thing. In the cockpit floor is a watertight box to stow fenders, lines and a 4-horsepower ­outboard, keeping odors and water out of the interior.

The hull and deck are cored and vacuumed-infused. The bottom of the hull has a thicker laminate, with Soric coring, in consideration of the boat being sailed into shallow waters when the 6-foot centerboard is hand-cranked into its trunk (reducing draft to only 12 inches). Rudder blades can be pulled up by hand, and friction keeps them upright in their respective cassettes.

With a rounded hull transitioning to chines, the judges felt the boat’s width wasn’t an issue at all, as the boat tracked perfectly in balance without a hint of gurgle off the transom. The high-aspect rudders gave the helm a positive but not sticky feel. The judges also felt the cockpit layout and sail controls were perfect, with plenty of purchase in the mainsheet for the big square-top main, and the jibsheet led straight to cabin-top winches or around deflectors for cross-sheeting.

Asymmetric spinnaker sheets take a few hard turns, which in light air introduced considerable friction, but in stronger breeze, says Chuck Allen, would allow you to trim straight from the block before having to go to a winch via the deflector. Spinnaker douses will happen through the large forward hatch unless you’re single­handing, in which case you can stuff it down the companionway or into a bag in the cockpit.

Boat-lounging accessories? Seascape has that covered too. With a battened boom tent, beanbag chairs and a stocked cooler, the Seascape 24 becomes a proper postrace crash pad.

More Information

Designed for:
Daysailing
Adventure racing

The judges liked:
Responsive helm
Efficient interior
High build quality

Required crew:
Two to three

Price as tested: $69,000

The post Best Recreational Racer: Seascape 24 appeared first on Sailing World.

“It’s designed to be technically accessible and not too complicated to sail,” says Duncan Ross, who represents the Diam 24 One Design’s French builder, ADH Inotec. “The systems are simple. It’s built for racers looking for something a little more exciting but [who] want strict one-design racing.”

If Ross’ pitch sounds appealing, you’ll be into it for $60,000. The boat is delivered with everything required for class racing, including all the cordage, the anchor, the Torqeedo 3HP, three sails and a launching trolley. Simplicity is everywhere in the boat: The 258-square-foot full-­batten main is on a Spectra knot-lock halyard, the roller furling genaker halyard is on a constrictor and is snaked in a bag on the trampoline when stowed. The single self-tacking jib sheet led to the forward end of the cockpit.

The Diam 24 One Design is new to the United States for 2017, but it’s been on the European multihull scene since 2014. Production of the 1,100-pound VPLP-designed and polyester-built hulls started in 2014 with 25 boats. The Tour de France à la Voile sailing circuit ditched its monohulls and anointed the Diam 24 One Design its official boat in 2015, which spawned another 30. Thirty more are on deck for the 2017 edition, and new and used boats now reside in six countries.

Ross brought one demo to the States in mid-2016 to pique American interest, and he had the judges’ attention as he briefed them on details of the boat. “Its sweet spot in 12 knots of wind is 13 knots uphill and 15 knots down,” says Ross. “It’s not designed to go 35. It’s not meant to be radical. Just fast, simple, safe and fun.”

The Diam 24 One Design is engineered to come together quickly — it’ll take less than an hour from fully dismantled to sailing, says Ross. Two people are required to mount the wave-piercing floats onto the main hull. After that, lock down four toggles, attach the trampoline at four places, sleeve the two-piece carbon rig, crank it skyward on a winch, strop the shrouds, bend on the sails, and go.

And go the Diam 24 One Design did when the judges hooked into a 10-knot wind streak during their light-air sail. With significant rocker in the main hull, the judges felt that the bows swept through tacks well in light air. There is sufficient buoyancy in the wave-piercing bows, allowing the boat to track with no flex in the platform when going through motorboat wakes. “The boat was dynamite to sail,” says judge Chuck Allen. “The long cockpit in the center hull lets you sit comfortably in the middle of the boat if you have to, and it feels a bit like a sportboat in that way. But in real breeze, you’re going to be sitting out there on the float and loving it.”

While unsure of the American sailing market’s embrace of this foreign one-design, the judges felt the package itself presented perfectly. Sailing is supposed to be fun, the judges said, and it will be with the Diam 24 One Design.

More Information

Boat of the Year + Best Multihull
Diam 24 One Design

Designed for:
One-design Racing
Multihull conversion

The judges liked:
Build quality
Refined sail-controls
Overall performance

Required crew
Three to Four

Price as tested
$60,000

The post Overall Winner: Diam 24 One Design appeared first on Sailing World.

So you wanna foil, do ya, punk? Well, now’s your chance. Conceived as an entry-level alternative to the Moth, the Australian-­designed foiling Waszp, built by McConaghy Boats in China, is a thing of beauty. While the Moth class is successful worldwide, the boats are difficult to sail, expensive and high-maintenance. Waszp creator and top Moth sailor Andrew ­McDougall, of KA Sail, recognized the need for an everyman’s foiler, and with an entourage of high-performance tinkerers, he spent several years developing the Waszp, which is a class-legal Moth but better priced and more forgiving to sail. It’s also a heck of a lot easier to launch than a Moth, which is a bigger deal than one might imagine. With the Waszp, you can sail off the beach with the foils up, drop them once in deeper water, attach the bow-mounted wand’s nipple fitting to the main foil, and off you go.

There’s more volume in the hull, and the foils are larger than a Moth’s, so the boat can accommodate a wider weight range, too. In 10 knots of breeze, the judges were told, a 200- to 215-pound sailor can get enough flow across the foils to achieve flight. Expect takeoff speeds to be similar to a Moth’s, but with lower top-end speeds.

The boat is bulletproof compared with high-end Moths, due to the epoxy hull and the extruded aluminum foils. “If you wreck a Moth foil, you’re talking a couple thousand dollars,” says Moth devotee Ben Moon, who presented the boat to our judges. “This boat is super robust, and that is key.”

A lot of the complexity and engineering in the Moth is concentrated around the mast base because of significant vang loads. To avoid this, the Waszp uses an aluminum wishbone boom, which provides sufficient leech tension. Ask any Moth sailor how it feels to face-plant into a shroud at 25 knots, and you’ll understand the benefit of the Waszp’s unstayed rig, which is a two-piece carbon section that fits into the boat’s travel box. The travel box is another selling point (you can upgrade to a fiberglass box): With a quick disassembly process, the boat can be packed and stored in the garage.

And how does it sail? The judges were skunked for their test, but new owners around the country are sharing stories of pure enjoyment and immediate foiling, taking the boat for a spin right out of the box. The wings can be pinned to a lower position, and the foil ­adjustments preset for lower ride heights until you figure out the balancing act.

Once you’ve got that part dialed in, you can start to play with the worm-screw adjustment on the main foil, which controls ride height. This adjustment is made on the fly by a small-diameter line led out to the wings. Once you’ve got ride height to be second nature, it’s time to explore bow attitude by twisting the tiller extension. It’s bow-down downwind, bow-up upwind. There are also adjustments using the rudder gantry and wand for different conditions when you get more advanced.

Hundreds of build slots were sold before production came online midway through the year, and since our Boat of the Year tests, Waszps have been buzzing on waterways around the country. At $10,500 ready to sail, the boat is inexpensive enough to be an impulse buy, says Allen, but one that will be justified when Junior gets his hands on it (smaller sails are in the works for lighter sailors). The Waszp will be welcomed with open arms at existing Moth events, further swelling the ranks of sailing’s new foiling generation.

More Information

Best One-Design: Waszp

Designed for:
One-Design racing
entry-level foiling

The judges liked:
Clever engineering
High-quality build
Overall concept

Required crew: One

Price as tested:
$10,500

The post Best One-Design: Waszp appeared first on Sailing World.

Cruising World and Sailing World magazines have announced nominees for the highly anticipated 2017 Boat of the Year awards at the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Md. The annual awards, elected by independent judging teams for each of the publications, recognize the best of the year’s new sailboat models being introduced in North America.

The nominated boats move on to the judging round, where they will be inspected and sailed by the judges from each magazine. Cruising World judges focus on production boats laid out and equipped for coastal and offshore sailing and voyaging, while the Sailing World panel concentrates on boats designed and built with racing in mind.

“The two dozen nominees in this year’s Boat of the Year contest represent an intriguing blend of sporty racer/cruisers, flat-out long-range voyagers, state-of-the art catamarans and versatile coastal cruisers,” said Herb McCormick, Cruising World Boat of the Year director. “Our independent panel of judges will have a challenging time deciding which boats for model year 2017 ascend to the winner’s circle.”

“We have an incredible diversity of boats for our judges to experience this year,” says Dave Reed, Sailing World editor. “From the 14-foot foiling Waszp dinghy to the Italian-built Solaris 50, which is a thing of beauty, we have the sport covered.”

The 2017 Boat of the Year winners will be announced in the January issue of Cruising World and the January/February issue of Sailing World, both available in late December.

2017 Sailing World Boat of the Year Nominees:

• J/112E
• Corsair Pulse 600
• Diam 24
• Fareast 23R
• X-Yachts X4
• Elan E4
• Topaz Cat 16
• Alerion Sport 30
• Seascape 24
• VX Evo
• Dehler 34
• Solaris 50
• Waszp

2017 Cruising World Boat of the Year Nominees:

Full-Size Cruiser Under 50 Feet

• Hallberg-Rassy 40 MkII
• Catalina 42
• Elan Impression 45
• X-Yachts X4
• Dufour 460 Grand Large

Full-Size Cruiser Over 50 Feet

• Jeanneau 58
• Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 62
• Solaris 50

Performance Cruisers

• Alerion 30 Sport
• Elan E4
• J/112E
• Dehler 34

Cruising Catamarans Over 50 Feet

• St. Francis 50 Mk II
• Balance 526
• Royal Cape Catamarans Majestic 530
• Xquisite X5

Cruising Catamarans Under 50 Feet

• Lagoon 42
• Lagoon 450 S
• Fountaine-Pajot Lucia 40
• Seawind 1190

Charter Catamarans

• Gemini Freestyle
• Bali 4.0 Lounge
• Bavaria Nautitech Fly 46
• Leopard 45

The post 2017 Boat of the Year Nominees Announced appeared first on Sailing World.