| Reviews | |
|---|---|
 | K1- The Boat To Bridge The Great Sailing Divide THIS MONTH, the YL test boat is the K1 keelboat; a small lightweight singlehander of 15ft length and weighing just 125kg, a similar weight to many dinghy classes. So it seems like the... Read Review |
 | Versatile RS100 Suits Body Weights And Skill Levels SINGLE-HANDING is becoming more and more popular, so manufacturers are producing a wider choice of variants on the single-hander theme and you can have any flavour you like, from little junior... Read Review |
 | HORIZON HEADER LAUNCHED last year amidst the glamour of Cannes Boat Show and one of the unrivalled stars of December’s Paris Show, the Beneteau 58 is the biggest Oceanis and one which takes the line to a new... Read Review |
 | D-One, Done Deal? LET’S look this month at the D-One, the new fast hiking single-hander from Devoti, says Alan Henderson. While most single-hander dinghies like Lasers and Solos have just one sail, the... Read Review |
 | Pace With Space SOMETIMES in this business, the ducks line up. Everything falls into place and the world seems crystal clear. With the Hanse 470 that does rather seem to be the case, writes YL racing editor Andi... Read Review |
 | Bahia Beats The Bumps And Bruises HERE IS a formula; a boat which provides excellent value for money on initial purchase price, which sails well and which resists bumps and bruises, needing minimal maintenance. That formula is the... Read Review |
 | 405 Sails Above Its Size ‘IT IS NOT the European Yacht of the Year 2010 for nothing’. This was, in fact, a throwaway quip from Miles Stratton at the end of a short, but inspiring Clyde sail on Dufour’s 405 Grand’ Large in... Read Review |
 | First And Foremost Andi Robertson takes Beneteau’s new First 35 on a standard setting La Rochelle test sail HAVING come first and second in the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, interest is building rapidly in... Read Review |
 | Swift By Name, Comfortable By Nature WITH NO expertise at all in the field of trawler yachts, it was with an open mind that we went to see Beneteau’s new baby, the Swift Trawler 34 on her arrival in Largs, courtesy of northern... Read Review |
 | Elan 380 Gets The YL Nod Over Big Sister IT’S BEEN on the cards for a long time. One of those great looking boats which has been performing well since its launch in 2006, but one which we have just not had the opportunity, nor the time... Read Review |
 | A31 Djinn Offers A Real Racing Tonic FOR THE A31, a case of right boat at the right time is just part of the story. As well as hitting the international market with a well priced smaller race boat, the A31 has been outstandingly... Read Review |
 | Laser Goes Stratospheric! THE LASER Stratos Keel has really stood the test of time and remains a consistent, steady seller for Laser. It may not have the glamour or performance of the bigger SB3 sportboat or the... Read Review |
 | Clyde Odyssey! YL racing editor Andi Robertson takes to the Clyde with Jeanneau’s new Sun Odyssey 33i a simple family cruiser racer which ticks all the boxes at this popular length. THE SIMPLE pleasures... Read Review |
 | More Of The Same, But More IRC Friendly Andi Robertson sails the new Farr designed Beneteau First 40 which promises much as a regatta winning cruiser-racer. THE FIRST of the new Farr designed First 40’s will already be afloat in... Read Review |
 | Elite Fleet Racer ACHIEVING its own class start at the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series on Loch Fyne with 11 boats, the RS Elite entry has more than doubled since last year. There are high hopes that the class size... Read Review |
 | Oceanis – The Alternative Investment! Andi Robertson heads for Marseille, where the flagship Beneteau Oceanis 54 delivers in all departments and earns a place in the racing editor’s affections. ONE MAN’s dream is another... Read Review |
 | Perfect Package Extended Andi Robertson sails the Beneteau Oceanis 34 Marseille and declares it the perfect family cruiser that ticks all the boxes. LAST year the Beneteau Oceanis 31 was one of my boats of the... Read Review |
 | Boldly Beautiful Moody’s new 45 Deck Saloon is a radical design with accommodation which puts some larger yachts to shame, and Andi Robertson likes it, a lot! THERE’S ‘wow’ factor and ‘wow, what is that?’... Read Review |
 | Solo Act Races like the Vendee Globe are fuelling our passions for short handed or solo sailing. If you’ve caught the bug Jeanneau’s new SunFast 3200 could be the ideal medicine, reckons racing editor Andi... Read Review |
 | The Price Is Right Andi Robertson comes on down to Kip for a Clyde sail on Hanse’s new 430 which promises to be big on performance, but easy on price…. ‘HANSE yachts sell themselves’. That is a throwaway... Read Review |
 | Beneteau’s Baby Is Top Of The Class Andi Robertson finds that Beneteau’s Oceanis 31, the baby of the range, is so sailable that you won’t want to stop…. IT MAY be the starter model in Beneteau’s Oceanis range, but the new 31... Read Review |
 | Elegance And Esprit Sail Well In Harmony HARMONY Yachts is a company with strong ideas, but whether it can carry on its successes into a difficult market place where there is no shortage of models to choose from and very little to choose... Read Review |
 | Beneteau’s Briand Battler Beneteau’s new First 45 delivers in every department; a regatta winning cruiser racer with family comforts. Andi Robertson takes the helm for a Monaco test sail… AS A showcase for... Read Review |
 | Elan 450 Tops League Of IRC-Friendly Cruiser Racers Racing Editor Andi Robertson lets the new Elan 450 have its head off Porto Roz, Slovenia FOR ME it’s an irony that the weather for our Elan 450 test was something less than average. Having... Read Review |
 | Foiling Ready To Take Off? Are Foilers just for the Gods of sailing? Alan Henderson went to Datchet Water where Datchet Watersports Centre has just become the first place in Britain to offer lessons in sailing on foils to... Read Review |
 | Rising Star Racing editor Andi Robertson sails Archambault’s A40RC, an off the shelf refined regatta performer. In the right hands, it’s a potent weapon… ARCHAMBAULT Yachts’ Joubert Nivelt designed... Read Review |
 | Océanis Revisited Beneteau took a good look at the basics when designing the new Oceanis 37. The result is a sociable, solid performing cruising yacht, says Andi Robertson SOMETIMES it is necessary to... Read Review |
 | Jeanneau’s 42 – Optimum Deck Saloon Cruiser AS A concept, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey Deck Saloon range needs little introduction. From the 54DS still a personal favourite – right down through the range to the 39 footer, it is a series which... Read Review |
 | Return Of The Trailer Sailer? It has always been an niche market that cyclically rises and falls in popularity. Arguably trailer sailing hit its heyday with the Drascombes when literally ‘running ashore for a picnic’ had an... Read Review |
 | Delphia: Ideal Racer Trainer IT IS NEVER going to be easy to break into the UK sportboat market that is presently dominated by the Laser SB3 and which sees the J80 strong and the likes of the Hunter 707, the 1720 and the... Read Review |
 | Elan 340 – Star Of The Show? A BORN cynic when it comes to those annual boat ‘Oscars’, I was more than a little interested to find out if the Elan 340 matched her 2007 nomination at European Boat of the Year, writes YL racing... Read Review |
 | Jeanneau Va Voom Jeanneau’s Sun Odyssey 42i Performance will eat up the miles quickly, says YL racing editor Andi Robertson. FACED with stock production cruising boats, time and again we have drawn the... Read Review |
 | Cracked And Close Reaching – Sweet Spot On The Oceanis 46 DO WE always strive for bigger? Is it always better? When we tested Beneteau’s new Oceanis 46 up alongside the big sister 50, it was hard not to draw the conclusion that, given the... Read Review |
 | Vive La Motor Yacht Difference! HYERES, France and Jeanneau’s annual international press test week gave us the chance to catch up with three of Jeanneau’s key craft in their five boat range of Prestige sports cruisers, writes... Read Review |
 | Merry By Name, Merry By Design…. IT’S HYERES and the annual Jeanneau media press test which provided a good opportunity to become acquainted with their Merry Fisher range of power craft. While they are almost certainly an... Read Review |
 | Premium Performance And The Price Is Right WE MAKE no bones about revisiting the Beneteau Oceanis 50, which we briefly sailed in light wind last year in Valencia. With the first new 50 arriving in Scotland recently, when we visited... Read Review |
 | A Grand Surprise… Racing editor Andi Robertson runs the rule over the latest OD all rounder to reach the UK. Rhu Marina was the venue… SO WE have bought the big boats 15 years ago and lost a pile in resale... Read Review |
 | ENHANSED PERFORMANCE IN CLYDE ZEPHYRS OF THE emerging production cruiser brands it is arguably Hanse who are making waves. With a growing reputation for no nonsense, no frills value for money production boats their philosophies are... Read Review |
 | GRAND BANKS EVOLVES ITS HERITAGE EVERYONE who sails will not only have heard of a Grand Banks, they could probably pick out its unique lines from a line up of all other motor yachts. Yet the ultimate design in luxury trawler... Read Review |
 | BAVARIAN BARGAIN HUNT Andi Robertson tests the new Bavaria 33 and 37. They may not offer breathtaking sailing, but do give exceptional value… NO DOUBT to the chagrin of other European volume yacht... Read Review |
 | ANYONE FOR T? Beneteau’s new First 34.7 opts for a T shaped keel. Andi Robertson finds it to be a cruiser with racing in its blood, which may spark a new One Design class. FOLLOWING in the successful... Read Review |
 | PRAGMATIC PERFORMER Andi Robertson finds the Beneteau Oceanis immensely desirable, with a pragmatic streak THE OCEANIS 50 sits somewhere near the head of that growing genre of go-anywhere blue water cruisers... Read Review |