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Episode 1  of our new series, 'In The Yard', see's Dogan, our Lamination Engineer, taking you through how we prepare the mould before the gelcoat is applied.

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The second part of our discussion with SV Delos's Brian Trautman, delving into the psychology of the sea and especially the Captain's chair.

Monohulls Vs Catamarans

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Budget Bluewater Boats

Join the two Dicks as they delve into older suitable blue water yachts you can buy on a budget.

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Home » Blog » Bluewater sailboats » The best bluewater sailboats (we analyzed 2,000 boats to find out)

The best bluewater sailboats (we analyzed 2,000 boats to find out)

By Author Fiona McGlynn

Posted on Last updated: May 16, 2023

We analyzed two-thousand bluewater sailboats to bring you a list of proven offshore designs

What are the best bluewater sailboats?

This was a question we asked a lot of experienced cruisers when we decided to sail across the Pacific. We needed a boat after all, and we wanted to buy the best bluewater sailboat we could afford.

We heard a lot of strong opinions.

Some sailors thought it was reckless to go offshore in any boat that didn’t have a full keel.

Others prioritized performance, and wouldn’t dream of going anywhere in a slow boat like the Westsail 32 (a.k.a. a “Wet Snail 32”).

Opinions like these left us feeling confused like we had to choose between safety and performance.  

If we learned anything from these conversations, it’s that what makes a bluewater boat is a hotly debated topic!

However, there’s a way to cut through all the opinions and get to the bottom of it. The solution is….

We analyzed just under 2,000 boats embarking on ocean crossings (over a 12 year time period) and came up with a list of the ten best bluewater sailboats.

Where did we get our data?

The data for our best bluewater sailboats list comes from 12 years of entries in the Pacific Puddle Jump (PPJ), an annual cross-Pacific rally. We took part in 2017 and had a ball!

You can read about the methodology we used to analyze this data at the bottom of the post.

What do we mean by “best”?

We know, that word is overused on the internet!

Simply, based on our data set, these were the most common makes and models entered in the PPJ cross-Pacific rally. There were at least 10 PPJ rally entries for every make of boat on our top 10 list.

So, these boats are 100% good to go?

No! A bluewater boat isn’t necessarily a seaworthy boat. Almost every cruiser we know made substantial repairs and additions to get their offshore boat ready, adding watermakers , life rafts, solar panels, and more.

Also, you should always have a boat inspected by a professional and accredited marine surveyor before buying it or taking it offshore.

But my bluewater baby boat isn’t on this list!?

There are hundreds of excellent bluewater yachts that are not on this list. For instance, we sailed across the Pacific in a Dufour 35, which didn’t even come close to making our top 10 list.

Choosing the right boat is very much an individual journey.

Where can I find these bluewater boats for sale?

We recognize that a top 10 list won’t get you very far if you’re shopping for a bluewater boat (especially if you’re looking in the used market).

So, to help you find your perfect boat, we’re going to create a big list of bluewater boats that you can use to refine your search on Yachtworld, Craigslist, or any other places to buy a used boat .

Sign up for our newsletter to get our big list of bluewater boats list as soon as it comes out.

We’re also working on a series of posts by size class. For example, if you’re looking for a smaller boat, you can narrow it down to the best bluewater sailboats under 40 feet .

Takeaways from our analysis

There were no big surprises on an individual boat level. All of these makes are considered good cruisers, some of them are even best-selling designs! However, there were a few things that caught our eye.

“Go simple, go small, go now” still holds water

We were thrilled to see the smallest boat in our roundup at the very top of the list! Westsail 32 owners can take pride in their small but mighty yachts (and ignore all those snail-sayers).

While undoubtedly there’s been a trend towards bigger bluewater cruisers in recent years, small cruising sailboats seem to be holding their own. 60% of the monohulls on this list were under 40 feet (if you count the Valiant 40 which sneaks just under at 39.92 feet).

Cat got our tongue

So, we knew catamarans were a thing, but we didn’t fully appreciate HOW popular they’d become!

50% of our top 10 bluewater boat list consists of catamarans—a good fact to toss out the next time you’re trying to garner a happy hour invite on the party boat next door (which will undoubtedly be a catamaran).

Still got it!

We’ve got good news for all you good old boat lovers! 60% of the boats on our list were first built before 2000.

While these older models are less performance-oriented than modern designs, cruisers value these boats for their ability to stand up to rough seas and heavy weather. It just goes to show that solid bones and classic looks never go out of style.

Alright, without further ado, let’s dive into our list of the 10 best bluewater boats!

The 10 best bluewater boats

1. Westsail 32

The Westsail 32 is one of the most iconic bluewater cruisers and 19 have set out to cross the Pacific in the PPJ rally since 2009.

In 1973, this small cruising sailboat garnered a 4-page spread in Time magazine. The article inspired many Americans to set sail and the Westsail 32, with its double-ender design, set the standard for what a real bluewater cruiser should look like.

There were approximately 830 built between 1971 and 1980.

This small boat has taken sailors on ocean crossings and circumnavigations. Though considered “slow” by some, the heavily-built Westsail 32 has developed a loyal following for her other excellent offshore cruising characteristics.

If you’re interested in small bluewater sailboats, check out our post on the best small sailboats for sailing around the world .

2. Lagoon 380

The Lagoon 380 is a reliable, solidly built catamaran and considered roomy for its size. We counted 18 of them in our data set. With over 800 boats built , it may be one of the best-selling catamarans in the world. Like the other boats on this list, the Lagoon 380 has proven itself on long passages and ocean crossings, winning it many loyal fans.

3. Lagoon 440

18 Lagoon 440s have set out to cross the Pacific in the PPJ rally since 2009.

Why leave the comforts of home, when you can take them with you? The Lagoon 440 is a luxurious long-range cruiser, offering beautiful wood joinery, spacious accommodations, and a deluxe galley. Oh, and you have the option of an electric boat motor !

SAIL and Sailing Magazine have both done in-depth reviews of the Lagoon 440 if you want to learn more.

4. Amel Super Maramu (incl. SM 2000)

If you follow the adventures of SV Delos on YouTube, you probably know that the star of the show (SV Delos— in case the title didn’t give it away ) is an Amel Super Maramu. These classic bluewater sailboats can be found all over the world, proof they can go the distance.

We counted 16 Amel Super Maramus and Super Maramu 2000s in our list of PPJ entries.

Ready to join the cult of Amel? Read more about the iconic brand in Yachting World.

5. Valiant 40

When I interviewed legendary yacht designer, Bob Perry, for Good Old Boat in 2019, he told me that the Valiant 40 was one of the boats that most defined him and marked the real start of his career.

At the time, heavy displacement cruisers were considered sluggish and slow, especially in light winds.

Perry’s innovation with the Valiant 40 was to combine a classic double ender above the waterline, with an IOR racing hull shape below the waterline. The result was the first “performance cruiser”, a blockbuster hit, with over 200 boats built in the 1970s.

It’s no surprise we counted 16 Valiant 40s in our data set.

Cruising World magazine dubbed it “a fast, comfortable, and safe cruising yacht,” and there’s no doubt it’s covered some serious nautical miles.

It’s worth noting that there were blistering problems with hull numbers 120-249 (boats built between 1976 and 1981). Later models did not have this problem. Despite the blistering issues, the Valiant 40 remains one of the most highly thought of bluewater designs.

6. TAYANA 37

The Tayana 37 is another hugely popular Perry design. The first boat rolled off the production line in 1976 and since then, nearly 600 boats have been built. Beautiful classic lines and a proven track record have won the Tayana 37 a devoted following of offshore enthusiasts.

12 Tayana 37s have set out to cross the Pacific in the PPJ rally since 2009. Read more about the Tayana 37 in this Practical Sailor review .

7. Lagoon 450

If this list is starting to sound like a paid advertisement, I swear we’re not on Lagoon’s payroll! This is the third Lagoon on our list, but the data doesn’t lie. Lagoon is making some of the best cruising sailboats.

The 450 has been a hot seller for Lagoon, with over 800 built since its launch in 2014. While not a performance cat, the Lagoon 450 travels at a reasonable speed and is brimming with luxury amenities.

At least 12 owners in the PPJ rally chose the Lagoon 450 to take them across the Pacific. It’s no wonder SAIL had so many good things to say about it.

8. Fountaine Pajot Bahia 46

There were 11 Fountaine Pajot Bahia 46s in our data set.

Fountaine Pajot released the Bahia 46 in 1997, a sleek design for traveling long distances. Its generously-sized water and fuel tanks along with ample storage for cruising gear are a real plus for the self-sufficient sailor.

According to Cruising World , “Cruising-cat aficionados should put the Bahia 46 on their “must-see” list.”

9. Catalina 42 (MKI, MKII)

10 Catalina 42s (MKI and MKII) have set out to cross the Pacific in the PPJ rally since 2009.

The Catalina 42 was designed under the guidance of the legendary yacht designer and Catalina’s chief engineer, Gerry Douglas.

One of Catalina’s philosophies is to offer “as much boat for the money as possible,” and the Catalina 42 is no exception. According to Practical Sailor , Catalina aims to price its boats 15% to 20% below major production boats like Hunter and Beneteau.

Practical Sailor has a great in-depth review of the Catalina 42 .

10. Leopard 46

Since 2009, 10 Leopard 46s have embarked on Pacific crossings in the PPJ rally.

Leopards have won legions of fans for their high build quality, robust engineering, and excellent performance.

The Leopard 46 also boasts something of a racing pedigree. It was built in South Africa by Robertson and Caine and designed by Gino Morelli and Pete Melvin, who came up with the record-breaking catamaran Playstation / Cheyenne 125 .

Read more about the Leopard 46 in this Cruising World review .

Methodology

What the data is and isn’t.

The PPJ data was a real boon because it reflects a wide range of cruising boats: small, big, old, new, expensive, and affordable. We think this may be because the PPJ is a very financially accessible rally—the standard entry cost is $125 or $100 if you’re under 35 (age or boat length!).

We did look at data from other (pricier) rallies but found that the results skewed towards more expensive boats.

Needless to say, the data we used is just a sample of the bluewater boats that crossed the Pacific over the last 10+ years. Many cruisers cross oceans without participating in a rally!

Entries vs. completions

The data we used is a list of the PPJ entries, not necessarily the boats that completed the rally. In instances where we saw the same boat entered multiple years in a row, we assumed they’d postponed their crossing and deleted all but the latest entry to avoid double counting.

Boat make variations

The world of boat building and naming can get pretty complicated. Sometimes a manufacturer changes a boat’s name a year or two into production, other times the name remains the same but the boat undergoes a dramatic update.

For the most part, we’ve used SailboatData.com’s classification system (if they list the boats separately, then we have also), except where there are two separately listed models that have the same LOA, beam, and displacement.

Fiona McGlynn is an award-winning boating writer who created Waterborne as a place to learn about living aboard and traveling the world by sailboat. She has written for boating magazines including BoatUS, SAIL, Cruising World, and Good Old Boat. She’s also a contributing editor at Good Old Boat and BoatUS Magazine. In 2017, Fiona and her husband completed a 3-year, 13,000-mile voyage from Vancouver to Mexico to Australia on their 35-foot sailboat.

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• Embarking on a Seafaring Odyssey: Exploring the World of Bluewater Yachts and Cruising Sailboats

Are you ready to embark on a seafaring odyssey that will take you across the endless expanse of the open ocean? If the thought of navigating the deep blue waters on a luxurious boat has always been a dream, then you're about to set sail on an exciting journey. In this comprehensive guide, we'll dive deep into the captivating world of bluewater yachts, sailing on top-tier vessels, and the exhilarating thrill of ocean-going expeditions. Whether you're an experienced sailor seeking new horizons or a novice with a thirst for adventure, this article is your compass to the enchanting realm of maritime exploration.

Introduction

Imagine yourself standing at the helm of a majestic vessel, the wind whispering tales of distant shores, and the gentle rhythm of waves inviting you to set forth on a voyage of a lifetime. The allure of bluewater yachts encapsulates the essence of exploration, luxury, and freedom on the open sea.

Unveiling Bluewater Yachts: Masters of the Sea

Bluewater yachts are the maritime marvels designed to conquer the unpredictable waters of the open ocean. These vessels are engineered with a focus on resilience, safety, and comfort, making them the ultimate choice for those with a passion for venturing beyond the horizon.

Sailing Zenith: Reaching the Pinnacle of Seamanship

At the zenith of sailing prowess, a phenomenon known as the "sailing top" awaits the intrepid mariners. This pinnacle of seamanship represents the epitome of skill, where sailors harness the wind's energy to achieve unprecedented speed, precision, and navigational mastery.

Bluewater Yachts: Where Power Meets Elegance

The allure of bluewater yachts lies not only in their capacity to brave the open ocean but also in their opulent interiors and cutting-edge features. These vessels seamlessly blend power and elegance, offering a harmonious blend of performance and comfort.

Conquering the Vastness: Ocean-Going Yachts in Focus

Ocean-going yachts are the true conquerors of the sea, designed to tackle extensive journeys across the world's oceans. These vessels boast advanced technologies, robust construction, and top-notch safety measures, ensuring a smooth and secure passage, even in challenging conditions.

Oyster 56: A Symphony of Luxury and Performance

Amid the realm of bluewater yachts, the Oyster 56 stands as an emblem of sophistication and performance. With its impeccable balance of luxurious interiors and exceptional sailing capabilities, this yacht represents the zenith of modern maritime engineering.

Read   our  top  notch   articles  on  topics  such as  sailing ,  sailing   tips  and  destinations  in  our   Magazine .  

Navigating Blue Water Sailing: A Journey Beyond Horizons

Blue water sailing transcends the ordinary. It's a calling to embrace the unknown, revel in the ebb and flow of the tides, and cultivate a profound connection with nature. It's an experience that fosters self-discovery while immersing sailors in the grandeur of the world's oceans.

Market Insights: Bluewater Boats Await New Captains

For aspiring sailors, the market offers a treasure trove of bluewater boats, each with its unique blend of features and capabilities. From sleek sloops to robust ketches, these vessels cater to varying preferences and aspirations, ensuring a perfect match for every seafarer.

Sailing the UK Waters: Blue Water Yachts on Sale

In the United Kingdom, the dream of owning a bluewater yacht is well within reach. The market showcases an array of blue water yachts available for sale, providing enthusiasts with the opportunity to explore the British coastline and beyond in style.

The Bluewater Dilemma: Making the Perfect Choice

The decision to select the ideal bluewater yacht requires careful consideration. Factors such as size, layout, amenities, and budget play a pivotal role in ensuring that your chosen vessel aligns with your seafaring ambitions.

Sailing Redefined: Thriving Aboard a Blue Water Catamaran

The blue water catamaran introduces a paradigm shift in sailing dynamics. With enhanced stability, spacious living areas, and shallow-water accessibility, these vessels redefine comfort and freedom on the high seas.

Cruising Sailboats: Where Comfort and Exploration Intertwine

Cruising sailboats offer the best of both worlds: the thrill of exploration and the embrace of comfort. These vessels are thoughtfully designed with cozy interiors, expansive cabins, and efficient navigation systems, making extended voyages an absolute pleasure.

Ocean Sailboats: Harnessing Power with Grace

Ocean sailboats epitomize the harmony between human ingenuity and the raw power of nature. Crafted to navigate the vastness of the ocean, these vessels showcase the art of harnessing wind energy to propel them across boundless horizons.

Centre Cockpit Yachts: A Unique Perspective on Navigation

Centre cockpit yachts offer a fresh perspective on sailing. With their distinctive design placing the cockpit amidships, these vessels provide enhanced visibility, protection from the elements, and a strong connection between the sailor and the sea.

Ocean Sailing Essentials: Navigating the High Seas

Embarking on an ocean sailing adventure demands a comprehensive understanding of essential skills and knowledge. From celestial navigation to weather forecasting, mastering these elements is key to a successful and safe voyage.

Bluewater Yacht Lifestyle: Where Luxury Meets Freedom

The bluewater yacht lifestyle is synonymous with opulence, exploration, and liberation. It's a lifestyle that invites you to roam the world's most captivating destinations while indulging in the opulence of a meticulously designed yacht.

Navigating Choices: Finding Your Ideal Blue Water Cruiser

Selecting the perfect blue water cruiser involves aligning your aspirations with the characteristics of different vessels. Whether you prioritize speed, comfort, or versatility, there's a cruiser tailored to fulfill your maritime dreams.

Exploring Boundless Horizons: The Allure of Bluewater Yachts

In closing, the realm of bluewater yachts invites intrepid souls to embrace the call of the sea. The allure of navigating boundless horizons, the thrill of encountering nature's grandeur, and the serenity of sailing await those who are ready to embark on this extraordinary maritime journey.

So  what  are  you   waiting   for ?  Take  a  look   at   our   range   of  charter  boats  and  head  to  some   of   our  favourite     sailing   destinations .  

Faqs: bluewater yacht adventure: your questions answered.

Bluewater yachts are meticulously designed to handle long ocean voyages and challenging conditions, emphasizing durability, safety, and comfort.

Ocean-going yachts are best suited for experienced sailors due to their robust construction and advanced navigational systems.

The bluewater yacht lifestyle offers a unique blend of luxury, exploration, and the freedom to navigate the world's oceans at your leisure.

BLUE SAILOR'S

Shipyard inc..

Blue Sailors Shipyard is building GRP and Composite motoryacths and sailing boats, up to 110'. Also our design team designs different kind of motoryachts and sailing boats.

BLUEWATER SAILING YACHTS QUALITY CRUISING SAILBOATS FROM THE WORLD’S TOP BUILDERS.

BLUEWATER CRUISING SAILBOATS FOR SALE

2019 Outbound 56

Specifying and building Outbound 56 BAREFOOT was a labour of love for her owners. They wanted to build the best quality and most practical cruising yacht that they could sail easily, as a couple, and that would carry them and their young children in safety and comfort, even to remote areas. The yacht is a very highly specified and much improved version of the well-known Hylas 56. Even after delivery the owner continued to improve and upgrade the yacht – including changing out the main engine. No cost has been spared to produce this wonderful yacht. With her hydraulic in-mast furling main, hydraulic furler to both of the headstays, electric furling gennaker, electric sheet winches - all controlled at the cockpit – she may be sailed single-handed (and has been). The interior provides a delightful aft “stateroom”, a double cabin forward and a versatile third cabin that may be used as a single or double and serves as a stowage area and workbench.

1988 Sparkman & Stephens Custom 50

The Stephen Custom 50 was conceived by the renowned yacht designers Sparkman & Stephens who have designed and built some of the worlds leading cruising and racing sailboats. They did not miss the mark with this 1988 classy cruiser. This stable yacht is designed and optimized for long term cruising and is a true blue-water sailboat. A solid glass hull and full skeg make Brizo a smooth ride even in rough seaways and give assurance. Built at the Queen Long yard in Taiwan, a precursor to the fabled Hylas yachts, her build quality is unquestioned. The quality craftsmanship and fine joinery is apparent throughout the interior of this well-conceived design. A deck saloon and a three-cabin layout make this yacht perfect for cruising couples or families. If you are seeking a boat that can carry you far and wide with speed, safety, and comfort, Brizo is a must see.

2006 Oyster 56

Renown as one of the world leading sailboat builders, Oyster is the epitome which other boats strive to measure themselves against. Ambrosia a great example of quality, function and form. These deck saloon boats boast bright comfortable interiors, practical sail handling from the helm and rigid construction. A perfect family boat or couples cruiser this boat is optimized for long term cruising in comfort and style.

2014 Bestevaer 66 Custom

A very unique yacht that is ready to sail the world for new adventures. Anabel is a very seaworthy yacht that has been built for unlimited cruising and a unique design which is totally “Custom built”. Only one owner from new. Built in the prestigious KM shipyard in Holland and designed by Dykstra Naval architects, it is made to the specifications of its owner who is a very experienced sailor. All on this yacht is thinking of safety, seaworthiness but not leaving aside the maximum comfort it provides for life onboard. There are no other boats like this on the market this is the reason for its customization.

All Bluewater Cruising Sailboats For Sale

• Little Harbor
• Robert Perry
• Sparkman & Stephens

2020 Outbound 56

2012 Southerly 57 RS

2009 Tartan 5300

2009 Outbound 44

2006 Outbound 46

1999 Marten Custom Bill Tripp 72

1993 Robert Perry Custom 63

1990 Little Harbor 59

1989 Windship 60 Cutter

1989 Little Harbor 54

1988 Little Harbor 46

1983 Mason 53

Featured bluewater sailboat brands.

HYLAS COLLECTION

The premier collection of pre-owned Hylas bluewater sailing yachts that are currently available on the market. Collection Yacht brokers have sold more Hylas sailboats in the last decade than all other yacht brokerages combined.

View Hylas Collection

OYSTER COLLECTION

Oyster is one of the world’s top bluewater cruising sailboat brands. Built in the UK, Oysters are finely crafted seaworthy yachts that capable of ocean passages and circumnavigation, with their most popular models being in the 50-70ft range. The Oyster Collection features current Oyster yachts for sale as well as videos, reviews, and guides.

View Oyster Collection

PASSPORT COLLECTION

Built to meet the style and taste of the American sailing market, Passport yachts are admired worldwide for their hand-crafted quality, proven passage making abilities, and well-thought out designs. While the award winning Passport 545 is perhaps the most popular model, the entire line is built to the same standards and respected for its sailing performance, fine interior woodwork, and beautiful detailing inside and out.

View Passport Collection

Bluewater Cruising Sailboat Reviews, Guides, & News

Passport 545 Aft Cockpit Walkthrough Video

Passport yachts gives us a closer look at the interior and exterior of the Passport 545 Aft Cockpit sailboat.

Promo Video of the All New Oyster 565

A great promo video that Oyster has released highlighting features of the all new Oyster 565.

Oyster 725 Review

The 725 was built, as many Oysters are, to sail anywhere her owners wish to go. She is the first boat in the range to have exceptional and dedicated crew quarters.

Oyster 625 Review

The Oyster 625 is a powerful sailboat that can be handled by an experienced couple but also has ample space for a captain and crew if that is the desired cruising mode.

OYSTER YACHT SALES EXPERTS

Collection Yachts, based in the yachting capital of the world, Fort Lauderdale, is proud to represent buyers and sellers of Oyster Yachts. Traveling with clients across the globe to find the best Oyster Yacht has resulted in long lasting relationships and many sales. Like Oyster, Collection Yachts provides top quality service for as long as a client owns their Oyster.

Previously Sold Models

DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE

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Yacht search looking for a specific boat.

We Can Help - At Collection Yachts, each of our yacht brokers specialize in specific segments of the market and have in-depth knowledge of market pricing and availabilty. Tell us what you are looking for and we can share all possible options that meet your criteria, as well as notify you as soon as new listings become available.

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11 Best Single Handed Bluewater Sailboats

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We know that you’re serious about sailing when you finally think of venturing to the ocean. Who can resist dreaming of solo sailing through the Atlantic? This is an adventure to prove your advanced skills, strength, and experience. 

But before going off on your ocean adventure, you need to plan and prepare . We cannot stress enough the importance of good equipment. There is a lot of sailboat types and models in the market and we want to help you choose the best one for your needs.

Do you know what hull, rigging, and keel types you will need? What’s the best material and model for you to buy? 

We will guide you through important sailboat features needed for the cruise. Follow this review until the end and we will share the 11 best single-handed blue water sailboats for your solo ocean sailing!

What Size Sailboat Is Best for Single-Handed Sailing

What type of hull handles rough water the best, sailboat keel types for blue water sailing, keel or decked stepped mast, sloop or ketch, how many spreaders, cutter rig, self steering gear, furling sails, westsail 32, albin vega 27, pacific seacraft 34, canadian sailcraft 36 traditional, hallberg rassy 352, contessa 32, fast passage 39.

If you are planning to manage your boat single-handedly, then size is an important factor to consider. It can affect the size of your accommodation, and maybe the boat’s design for speed and power.

Being alone, you need to have a clear overview of what is happening on your boat. This is especially important when maneuvering or for docking operations. 

Experienced sailors can handle a 60-foot sailboat but novices would find it difficult with its steep learning curve . Check out the Vendee Globe if you don’t believe me. In general, a good sailboat size for single-handed sailing would range from 25 to 40 feet.

We recommend sailboats with sizes under 40 feet. These have good displacement and are great when against bad weather. They are solo-friendly and simply the most manageable.

But in the end, choosing a suitable size depends on your experience and preference. You need to consider your overall health, age, and physique. Make sure to have a complete understanding of your sailboat before going on your journey to prevent accidents.

The hull or the main body of your boat comes in varying shapes and sizes. Each different type of hull is designed for specific purposes. 

When venturing the blue waters, you need to have a hull design that could handle rough waters easily. The hull shape determines the performance of your sailboat and therefore, should align with your strengths and skills. 

Today, the most popular design would be the heavy displacement hull . This design is intended for ocean cruising and longer sailing travels. 

It has great stability and performs better the deeper the draft is. With this design, you would expect a slow and steady motion during your sea travels with minimal effort. 

V-type hulls, on the other hand, are designed to plane or ride on top of the water. You can usually see these types of hulls on powerboats. The V-type hull usually has a bigger engine and best when dealing with choppy waters while moving at high speed.

Narrow beams are also a great option for those who are looking for another ocean friendly feature . These are usually seen in traditional sailboats.

Canoe stern or the double are considered to be the best sterns for offshore sailing. They help cut through a following sea and really helps prevent the waves from pushing the stern over too much. It also has great buoyancy and balance that is perfect for bluewater cruising.

The best materials for hulls would be fiberglass, metal, and aluminum. These are durable and could last for decades if properly maintained.

Aluminum is lightweight and has resistance to corrosion and impervious to magnetism. Boats built with aluminum are fast, stable, and seaworthy.

Fiberglass hulls need less attention. Currently, boats are usually made of fiberglass as the material is easier for companies and also great for seakeeping and stability.

Metal like steel has high abrasion resistance. It helps retain the boat’s appearance but can be prone to rust and corrosion.

A keel is a fin-like blade found at the bottom of a sailboat. It supports the ballast and helps to control and steer the boat. 

It is generally designed to stop the boat from getting blown sideways because of wind pressure. The full keel, modified full keel, fin skeg, and fin spade rudder are all suited for bluewater sailing.

A full keel runs along the full length of the boat – from the bow to the stern – which makes it the most stable in the water. It carries the vessel well and is the safest to use when grounding as it reduces the chances of damage. 

This is most ideal when cruising and the most comfortable out of the four keel types with its minimal heel. Although the slowest on the list, it has great directional stability and steering capability. 

An improved version is the modified full keel . It is a hybrid with improved windward performance and better heel reduction than the full keel. However, it made small concessions on its stability and comfort.

Meanwhile, the fin keel with skeg rudder has more strength and protection against damage and impact. It also has better mobility and steering capability. 

This type has a faster speed and windward performance compared to the modified and full keel types. It is also more balanced, which is ideal for cruiser-racer types of sailboats.

Lastly, we have the fin with a spade rudder. This is the fastest type on the list but also the most vulnerable as the spade rudder greatly relies on the rudder stock. But if you want speed and great windward performance, then this type is the right one for you.

Sailboat Rigging Types

Rigging is the whole system of ropes, chains, and cables. It supports the sailboat mast and controls the sails’ orientation and degree of reefing.

There are two main groups of sailboat rigs, Deck Stepped and Keel Stepped. The main difference lies in the location of its mast step. Both are fine choices and the better rig would depend on your preference.

Just as its names suggests, you can find the mast stand on top of the deck with Deck Stepped and on the hull’s bottom with Keel stepped. This means that to reach the keel, the mast would need to pierce through the cabin.

Deck Stepped rigs have masts that are more flexible because of their contact points, and are easily adjustable for optimal performance. Keel Stepped rig is rigid and strong and offers slow and steady cruising.

Now let’s move on and talk about Slope rigged and Ketch rigged. Which is better?

A sloop rig is simple. It is composed of a mast with a jib and a mainsail. Ketch, on the other hand, is more complex with its two masts with any foresail, main and mizzen mast combinations.

If you are choosing between Sloop and Ketch rigged sailboats for solo sailing, then we recommend Sloop. Although, Ketch is manageable and can be easily used with less strength and effort. This is perfect for cruising as it can work around multiple sailing conditions.

In terms of spreaders, you can freely choose between a single or dual spreader. This deflects shrouds and supports the mast. We do recommend dual spreaders but single spreaders are also good. 

It’s just that double spreaders give the rig more strength and better sail control.

The cutter rig is sometime referred to as an inner forestay or baby stay. Simplest way of describing it is that you have two head sails instead of just one. Gives you more options on sail configurations.

Single Person Sailboat Equipment and Gear

Your sailboat would not be complete without gear and equipment. You might want to invest in autopilot or wind vane, furling headsails, electric windlass, life jackets, and AIS to make your voyage much easier.

Wind Vane is an autopilot steering that you can use without electricity. It is usually placed on the back to catch the wind and respond to various wind conditions.

It automatically adjusts the rudders in response to the wind to alter the boat’s course. This is helpful because it’s like having another crew member on board you don’t have to listen to and feed.

Headsail furling or roller reefing is necessary for easier management of your headsails. It is important to have a functioning and updated roller furling system in order to reef, dowse, or stow the headsail efficiently.

Another item we would recommend is an electric windlass . You can choose one that works vertically or horizontally, depending on your needs. This will help you move the anchor effortlessly with a single button. Using the two windlasses that god gave you makes anchoring more difficult then it needs to be.

Life jackets are a must in every sailboat. Just be sure it fits you and that you know how to use it. Also, be sure to buy a coast guard approved product with a harness that could support your weight. 

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) will help you avoid collisions . It is recommended to get a receiving and transmitting one when going solo sailing. 

This way, you and the other boats with AIS within the radar area are alerted to each other’s speed, course, and direction.

Really, you won’t know what you might encounter in the ocean so you must always be prepared. We hope that these items will help you achieve a safer and more secure sailing experience.

11 Best Sailboats for Solo Sailing

Now, here are 11 sailboats that are best for solo sailing. Any of these vessels are guaranteed to take you safely and comfortably anywhere around the world.

This is a long full keel fiberglass sailboat that was built from 1971 to 1981. Its design was based on a previous model, Kendall 32, and has an amazing interior size geared for comfortable cruising.

W32 is widely noted for its seaworthiness. It is built with a strong and durable design and materials to resist extreme sea conditions.

It was used on various voyages and circumnavigations. Its hull is a heavy displacement and double-ender type designed for long periods of sailing.

It is also a cutter-rigged sailboat equipped with a single mast, forestaysail, mainsail, and jib. Its overall length including the bowsprit and boomkin is roughly 40 feet, which is perfect for sailing single-handedly.

Most people would note that the speed and acceleration of W32 are quite slow. This is due to its larger wetted area and sometimes newbies’ mistake of carrying too much on board.

With the right keel, sails, and rig configurations you can improve on W32’s speed and weaknesses. As seen from David King’s documented modifications, W32 proved to be safe, steady, and fast when sailing on blue waters.

Vega 27 is a modified full keel sailboat with a masthead sloop rig. It was designed around 1966 and became the most popular production sailboat in Scandinavia.

It has a unique look because of its reverse sheer commonly seen in smaller boats to increase the area of its interior. It is made with fiberglass, but has a narrower hull compared to similar sized boats in its class. 

Its shallow hull has a large cutaway as seen with modified full keel designs. This can make her quite stiff, heeling to about 15 degrees when its shoulders are buried.

Still, it is great for single-handed sailing because of its manageability and balance under different conditions. You cannot help but admire its light helm and great tracking capability.

Vega’s light air performance is okay but it shines when the wind blows at 15 knots or more. It could even maintain its dryness even with rough waves and weather conditions.

The most comforting feature would be its control and stability at all times unlike other more modern vessels with spade rudders. Overall, it is safe and ideal for longer cruises offshore.

This 30-foot traditional sailboat could take you anywhere. Alberg is notable for its narrow beams, long overhangs, and full cutaway keel with its directly attached rudder.

It is strong and durable. Its materials were mostly aluminum, hand-laid fiberglass, and polyester resin. More ballasts were produced in later productions as the early ballast was built with iron as opposed to the original lead design.

Alberg is greatly influenced by folk boats in Scandinavia. It is built with fiberglass and has an interior with comfortable full standing headroom and a well-vented galley.

This classic design from 1962 is ideal to cross oceans and is used for various circumnavigations. Alberg is a stable and seaworthy boat that could even be used in casual racing. Its best point of sail seems to be a beam reach and close reach.

It is praiseworthy when crossing oceans. Unlike modern designs that tend to be thrown around on rough seas, Alberg’s narrow beam design slices through big and rough waves and moves quickly. Under extreme weather conditions, it could perform heaving-to and lying-a-hull with no problems.

Pacific Seacraft 34 is a smaller heavy displacement semi-long keel sailboat based on the highly successful Crealock 37. It has the same graceful lines and appearance as the Crealock and is known as the Voyagemaker.

It is built with comfort and safety in mind with its large overhanging bow and beautiful sheer line ending with a traditional canoe stern. Constructed with the highest standard, it is a seaworthy sailboat that is ideal for bluewater voyages.

It is a cutter-rigged sailboat with skeg-hung rudders and control lines being fed back to its cockpit. The smaller cockpit may feel cramped but its design lowers the risk of flooding.

Still, it has a great interior suited for living aboard. It has a large headroom, comfortable galley, and up to five berths for comfortable cruising.

Although you may feel some hobby-horsing windward because of the overhangs, Seacraft 34 is overall a very balanced boat with great upwind performance. It has outstanding control capabilities and is able to sustain surfing speed with ease.

This is a double-ended full keel cruiser designed by Bob Perry and built-in Taiwan in response to the rising popularity of Westsail 32. It was offered to the market as a semi-custom boat and built with high-quality materials.

You can modify the internal layout and can choose a ketch, cutter, or pilothouse version. There is an option to use wood or aluminum spars. The mast could also be keel-stepped or deck-stepped.

Before, only 20 were ketch sailboats due to the popularity of the cutter design at that time. Now, ketch has proven to be faster and more balanced between the two.

Tayana is relatively faster than any sailboat in its class. Its best point of sail is in its broad reach. It also tracks well windward, and is an ideal choice for the trades. It is also great how the cockpit is secured from any flooding even when traveling. 

Today, a lot of people are still actively sailing this. Tayana 37 has become well known for offshore and blue water sailing.

Canadian Seacraft is well known for its fiberglass racer and cruiser. CS 36 is a small traditional fin keel sailboat with a masthead sloop intended for recreational use. It is seaworthy and has good performance in different weather conditions.

It was designed by Raymond Wall and had a production run between 1978 to 1987. It remains to be popular in both north and south borders.

It is a beautiful sailboat with a graceful sheer line and balanced overhangs at both bow and stern. Its details and quality in design and production are clearly of a higher tier.

It is mostly built with fiberglass and balsa wood. It is equipped with an internally mounted spade transom hung rudder. All of its lines lead to the cockpit, which is ideal for single-handed sailing.

CS 36 Traditional also has a deep-depth draft and wide beams with great access to the cockpit and foredecks. It is wide and spacious, which is perfect for comfortable cruising.

The sailboat has great proportion and traditional aesthetics. It is simple and straightforward, which makes it ideal for bluewater sailing.

This is a sturdy and high-quality sailboat built between 1978 to 1991. It features a progressive design, combining a walk through with the aft-cabin from the main saloon. It is made with a tall and standard rig each supported on double and single spreaders, respectively.

Hallberg Rassy 352 has a nicely balanced hull sporting a fin keel with rudder on skeg, a generous beam, and a 45 percent high ballast ratio. Its water and fuel tanks are placed low in the keel to improve sail carrying ability.

Its production spanning 14 years allowed for continuous improvements in its specifications. Newer sailboats have raised hulls for bigger headroom in the under the deck, aft cabins, and the walkthrough. Engines were also replaced by a Volvo and later a Penta Turbo or the bigger MD 22.

It is impressive how they balanced good interior and sailing performance. It has great seakeeping ability and smooth motion in heavy seas, easily an ideal sailboat for singlehanded sailing.

Corbin 39 was designed based on a Dufour design named Harmonie, increasing freeboard, and flushing the deck. Its style is influenced by the classic Scandinavian cruiser, Westsail 32.

It has a long fin keel, blunt bow, and a high freeboard. It was sold as kits, and various deck molds were produced. They have pilot, aft, and center cockpit variations.

It was made of sturdy and high-quality materials. The earlier version’s decks were of marine grade mahogany but it was later changed with Airex foam. Its lead ballast was encapsulated with fiberglass for added protection.

Earlier boats had a single spreader main or a turbocharged double spreader. Later, Corbin used 49 feet double spreader rigs instead, and all were deck-stepped.

Corbin 39 is truly a strong and seaworthy vessel. With its fin keel and skeg rudder, cutter rig, and reefed main combinations, it could take anyone safely and comfortably anywhere in the world.

Valiant 40 took its looks from Scandinavian double-ender sailboats. It had a successful production run that spanned for 47 years. It proved to be one of the pioneers for modern blue water designs.

Its hull is made from thick hand-laid fiberglass, bolted and covered with teak. Its ballast is cast with lead bolted to the keel stub. Lastly, the skeg is constructed separately from hull molding and encased with fiberglass before being fastened to the hull.

It has a beautiful bow and sheer lines and a longer LWL for maximum speed. At the back are a non-spacious cockpit and a canoe stern ideal for bluewater sailing operations.

Under the waterline is a fin keel with its skeg hung rudder. It perfectly matches with the cruising hall above, minimizing wetted surface area 

Overall, Valiant 40 is a seaworthy vessel with great blue water performance. Extremely balanced and well-mannered, it can withstand extreme weather conditions with ease and minimal effort on your part.

It soon gained a reputation as a fast water passage-maker with high integrity. Now, it is regularly used for circumnavigations by solo sailors and voyagers.

If you like a sailboat with a proven track record, then Contessa 32 is for you. It is a seaworthy racer-cruiser with good all-around sailing capabilities released in 1971.

Like its younger sister, Contessa 26, it has great speed, integrity, and affordability . Contessa 32 is a definite combination of old and new with its traditional narrow beam, a full hull with a fin keel, and fiberglass rudder protected by a skeg found in more modern yachts.

It has marked overhangs and a narrow tuck-up stern. It has less headroom below in return for its lesser wind resistance.

This configuration delivers fast racing speed and great stability. It could definitely withstand extreme weather and rough waves. Contessa 32 is claimed to be able to right itself when rolled or capsized.

Contessa 32 is known for its forgiving nature. It has a responsive helm and excellent windward performance. With its astounding stability, it can carry full sail for up to 25 knots.

Fast Passage 39 was designed by William Garden and is said to be a legendary cruiser with speed, ruggedness, and fame. It is a stout double-ender comparable to the Valiant 40.

It has the same LOA and LWL as Valiant and also has nearly identical ballast and displacement. The difference is its narrower frame and more evolved underwater shapes resulting in flatter forward and aft keel sections and less wetted area. It also has great directional stability as its rudder allows great control under wind vane and down steep waves.

It is a high performing sailboat but also difficult to find as only 41 were produced. A part of the group was offered as hull and deck kits intended to be finished by the sailboat owners.

Fast Passage 39 also has a proven track record and has won single-handed blue water races. It performs great under a wide range of conditions, especially in light winds.

By now you should have some idea what makes a vessel Bluewater friendly. There are hundreds of vessels that can make long distance voyage safe and enjoyable. These examples above are just a few examples of the Best Single Handed BlueWater Sailboats.

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What Is Bluewater Sailing?

It's easy to confuse offshore sailing with bluewater sailing - and it's no wonder. Many people do, including myself. So I've decided to list the difference once and for all in this post.

What is bluewater sailing? Bluewater sailing is a type of ocean cruising: it refers to long term open sea cruising, for example passages (ocean crossings). Bluewater sailing implies a lack of support and requires a certain amount of self sufficiency, since you're away from land for long periods of time. An example is crossing the Atlantic.

But you can't just stock up any boat and go at it: not all boats can handle 'blue water'. You need a different boat type and also some add-ons. So before crossing the Atlantic, make sure to read on.

On this page:

Different types of cruising, what is a blue water sailboat, what do you need for blue water sailing, related questions.

You can sail on any kind of water, really: rivers, lakes, oceans. Each type of water has its own challenges and difficulties, and some are harder to master than others. Most people only sail inland or coastal waters and stay well within reach of the Coast Guard.

Bluewater sailing is a type of ocean sailing that requires a lot of extra skills and equipment. Crossing an ocean requires a lot of prepping and planning, and maybe even a different boat. You should plan on not seeing harbor for multiple weeks.

Here are the different types of sailing:

• Estuary - rivers that lead to sea
• Coastal - in sight of land
• Off Shore - out of sight of land
• Ocean - blue water

The easiest sailing is on inland waters . Freshwater lakes and rivers are pretty safe. There are more people around that can help you out and the water conditions are more predictable.

Estuary (tidal mouth of a river) and coastal sailing also has a lot of oversight. With the Coast Guard keeping a close eye on everybody, the chance that something really bad happens is extremely small.

Offshore sailing can be the most difficult. You're sailing offshore when you can't see the coast anymore, but you're also not crossing an ocean or something like that. Sea conditions can get very rough: the weather gets more unpredictable where land meets water, and the current can get very strong. A mistake can have huge consequences. Offshore is being watched pretty closely by the Coast Guard as well, so if something goes wrong, help will be underway.

Blue water sailing is one of the most advanced types of sailing. It's hard simply because you have to be self-reliable. You're out on the open ocean alone, sometimes for two or three weeks. It can get pretty rough. If anything breaks, you need to be able to fix it. If something goes wrong, you need to solve it. The stress can be intense, and plenty of people break down because of it. But plenty of people also toughen up (maybe after first breaking down).

Difference Between Bluewater and Offshore

So where exactly is the line between offshore and blue water? It's hard to say. There is of course a grey area (pun intended). I'd say that offshore sailing is when you plan on returning to the same port, or getting to a port in the same coastal region. If you're planning on crossing a large ocean to arrive in a port in a different coastal region, or another continent, that's definitely bluewater.

A good rule of thumb is that it's probably bluewater if there's some sort of crossing involved.

Other sailors say that it comes down to the amount of support you can expect. No support = bluewater. You simply have to deal with whatever the water throws at you.

As long as the Coast Guard comes to get you when there's trouble, and you don't have to fix it yourself, it's offshore sailing and not bluewater.

What's the difference between bluewater and offshore sailing? The difference is the voyage length and place of arrival. If you plan to return to the same port or arrive in the same coastal region, we speak of offshore sailing. If you cross an ocean and arrive in a different coastal region, or on another continent, we speak of bluewater sailing.

So the type of sailing is determined by the water you're on, but also your intentions.

A blue water sailboat is a boat that is designed for extended voyages in open water. The opposite are inland production boats. Blue water boats and production boats differ in a couple of ways. In this post I'm talking about monohull sailboats, and not multihulls or powerboats. So I'll leave catamarans and trimarans out of the discussion (however cool they are).

Blue water boats are stronger, more stable, generally longer, and a bit slower. Production boats are cheaper, more lightweight, sometimes faster, and generally shorter.

The difference between a blue water and inland sailboat is the production method, hull type and shape, material, and general safety and quality of the boat. The most important aspect of ocean sailing is a strong hull. You need a very reliable one, as this is your only line of defense. Most production boats are made of aluminum and are spot-welded together. So there not super strong.

The hull of a blue water boat is most likely made of fiberglass instead of aluminum. This makes them a lot stronger and more durable. This is important to deal with the enormous forces that are pounding it in rough weather. Larger waves and stronger currents all add to the stress on the boat. Other materials are used as well, like wood, aluminum (better welded), steel, and so on. Fiberglass is your safest bet though.

A blue water sailboat has a displacement hull with a keel (fin). The keel increases the stability a lot. Because of this, the boat will be able to hold up in larger waves. It reduces the risk of capsizing. It also increases the draw, making the boat less suitable for shallow waters.

The boat needs to be longer to deal with longer waves, but also to provide enough storage space for supplies and equipment. A longer boat generally is faster. If you want to learn more on the link between hull length and speed, read my nerd post about it here (I'm proud of it).

They also use better quality rigging and sails, to keep up with the stronger winds.

Another important feature in blue water boats is the systems that are used to deal with saltwater. Salt causes galvanic corrosion, which eats away at aluminum and steel parts. So the boat needs to be outfitted with a different cooling system and parts to offset this corrosion.

A bluewater sailboat most likely has an inboard engine with full closed cooling system. It also has a Mercathode system with sacrificial anodes.

If you want to know more about the difference between fresh and saltwater boats, you should definitely check out my article here (opens in new tab).

The most important thing is supplies: your boat needs to be able to carry lots of freshwater and fuel for long-range cruising. People that do serious blue water sailing will carry large freshwater tanks that will last them at least three week. You need water for drinking, but also for cooking and washing.

In general you need roughly 5 liters of water per person per day. You want to be able to last three weeks. If you're crossing oceans, you want to double that, just to be safe. So we're talking about 240 - 480 liters of water for a three week trip (about 50 - 100 gallons).

They'll also carry plenty of extra fuel for emergencies. If you need to get out of there (for example hurricanes coming up) you don't want to wait for the wind to come around. You just want to start that engine and GO. Typically you carry enough fuel to go for about 500 nautical miles. This is about 240 liters (60 gallons) of fuel for an average mid-sized engine.

Supplies and systems you need:

• plenty of freshwater
• plenty of fuel
• autopilot (definitely)
• a water maker (to filter saltwater into fresh drinking water)
• a fridge or freezer
• all kinds of safety gear
• marine communications (HF Radio)
• marine navigation equipment (radar)
• forward scanning sonar
• two anchors (at least)

If you want to learn more on how to choose your marine navigation equipment , head over to the recommended gear section of this website:

• Click here for my recommended chartplotter
• Click here for my recommended compass

If you're interested in how to convert your freshwater sailboat for saltwater, I've previously written an in-depth article on it. I'm proud of it, it's a good read. You can check it out here .

What is offshore sailing? Offshore sailing is sailing on open seas, out of sight of land, with the intention of returning to the same harbor (or another in the same coastal region). You stay within reach of Coast Guard assistance (5-15 NM from shore). You need an appropriate boat for offshore sailing, with a strong enough hull and a keel.

Glynn Erasmus

Hi Shawn Informative article. I am in South Africa, not a sailor as such (have done windsurfing), but have been looking at boats with a view to living on one, for reasons of accommodation costs. I would like your thoughts, if possible, on whether this boat, currently in your part of the world if you are still in the Netherlands, could make a trip down to South Africa, bearing in mind some of the conditions around Cape Town, and I suppose because it is not really, as far as I understand, a blue water type boat. https://www.scheepsmakelaardijgoliath.nl/schepen-aanbod-detail/162371/zeilsloep-900/

I have always loved the sea but only experience it from shore a very healthy respect for it, since lockdown i stubbled into sailing after watching a true event video of a saleboat capsize and 4 day survival , so you could say i started from the worst sinario and now i’m hooked, I can’t think of anything else, i eat sleep and sh*# sailing from beginners to avanced sailors , i don’t have a boat or means to get one yet , but the fire is lit.

Best regards Paul Fitz

Hi Shawn, You know the feeling when, occasionally, you discover a site or videos that you anticipate devouring like a ravenous crocodile? Well for me this is one of those happy times. I’ve work to attend to today but will be counting the minutes until I’m back home enjoying your site and Youtube videos. I’m 62, a very interested novice who has never sailed, but who’s desperate to start, ultimately to the point of crossing the Atlantic solo. I love to spend long periods alone and relish the chance to put my solitary nature and self-reliance to good use. I’m searching for a little ‘project’ blue water boat around 25 to 30 feet, and have a lifetime of carpentry, plumbing, electrical and metalwork skills waiting to be used. I’d like a full-length keel if I can find one as I like the way the rudder is protected. Bless you for taking the time and effort to publish all this information - I just read this blue water boat article and now can’t wait to get stuck in to more this evening. Best wishes, Dave.

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You may also like, 41 sailboat cruising essentials for long trips.

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10 Best Sailboat Brands (And Why)

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

December 20, 2023

‍ There's no denying that sailors are certainly a passionate bunch. We’re so passionate about our boats that we always try going for the best sailboats. To make it a lot easier for you, here are the best sailboat brands.

Owning a sailboat is an indulgence that many of us only dream about but very few ever have the privilege of sailing the seas in what they can actually call their own.

While there's nothing wrong with renting a sailboat, the honor of owning one is certain what many sailors dream of.

With a perfectly crafted sailboat as company, gliding through the water, waves, and wind brings some sort of unmatched comfort and peace.

Add this to the fact that sailing takes you far away from the daily hustles and bustles that we've become accustomed to in our daily lives and you'll see why the life of sailing is very appealing to the masses.

But without a proper sailboat, all this fun and the good life of sailing are thrown out of the window.

Contrary to the widespread opinion, owning a sailboat isn't beyond anyone's reach. It's something that we can all achieve. But before getting into that, it's important to know some of the best sailboat brands.

The best sailboat brands will make your life as a sailor a lot easier and more fun. The best sailboat brands have, for decades if not centuries, mastered the art of woodworking. They've dedicated their skills and immense amount of their time to designing and manufacturing nothing but the best quality of sailboats in the industry.

So if you've been looking for the best sailboat brands from all over the world, you've come to the right place. We'll discuss the best of the best, something that will give you a perfect getaway from your normal life.

Table of contents

‍ Must-Have Features for Your Sailboat

Before highlighting the best sailboat brands, it would be appropriate to jog your mind a little with some of the features that must be available in your sailboat.

Choosing a sailboat can sometimes be a matter of compromises. In other words, it's sometimes sensible to accept that a sailboat cannot have all the features that you desire.

As such, it's all about going with a sailboat that has the features that matter to you most.

For this reason, let's look at the most basic features that can make the difference in both safety and comfort while improving your sailing experience.

A Safe and Comfortable Sailing Cockpit

You'll most definitely be spending a huge amount of time in the cockpit. Whether you're keeping watch, trimming sails , helming, or just enjoying the scenery, there's no better place to do all these than from the cockpit. That being said, a good cockpit should have the following.

• Have a good depth for safety reasons and adequate drainage
• Should give you a quick and easy access to jammers, cleats, and other important parts of the winch system
• Should have a seat or seats that are about 35 cm high, 50 to 55 cm wide to provide ideal support
• The seats should be adjustable to offer maximum comfort and allow you to change your position

GPS Chartplotter

Use a GPS Chartplotter once and your sailing will never be the same without it. It not only allows you to map a course but is also a great way of ensuring that your sailboat exactly follows that course. It also gives you constant updates on ocean conditions, weather conditions , and potential hazards such as deadly currents and sandbars.

A GPS Chartplotter is also an important safety device that can help you in some very critical situations while out there on the water.

For instance, it has a man-overboard button that is essentially meant to allow you to receive coordinates of the exact location should someone fall off your boat.

Electric Winch System

This is an amazing addition to any sailboat. It allows you to sheet a jib even in high and strong winds with a simple press of a button. It also gives you the chance of trimming a mainsail easily while still carry out other essential tasks in the sailboat.

An electric winch system can be of great importance, especially if you're short on crew. This is because it can free up some crew members to carry other important tasks. In other words, it can make duties that would otherwise require more crew members a lot easier.

More importantly, an electric winch system can maintain safety even in the roughest of conditions, thereby preventing you and your crew from getting injured. In essence, an electric winch system will make your sailing a lot safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable.

Reverse Osmosis Watermaker

This is a very valuable accessory, especially if you're going on long sea voyages. You can spend days on end without drinking clean and safe water.

As the name suggests, you can use this accessory to turn seawater into purified drinking water. It uses the reverse osmosis method that's essential not only in removing bacteria and parasites from the water but also in turning the water into purified and safe drinking water.

Even though this device is pricey, it's a great way to mitigate the over-reliance on huge water tanks. All you have to do is to ensure that it's properly maintained and you'll have an endless streak of safe drinking water no matter where you are.

Wide and Clutter-free Deck

While the deck is often an overlooked feature of a sailboat, it can be the difference between a great sailing experience and a stressful one. In essence, the deck of a sailboat should be wide enough and clutter-free.

This is significant as it can enable you to quickly access different parts of your sailboat with hindrance or getting tangled. As you can see, this is particularly important in improving safety and reducing stress.

With that in mind, make sure that the deck is organized in such a way that you can have easy access to sails, masts, and winches.

You should, therefore, avoid sailboats with decks that are designed in such a way that you have to climb on top of the cabin just to access these features. Needless to say, this can be quite unstable and very dangerous especially when conditions are rough.

The Best Sailboat Brands and Why

1. hallberg-rassy.

Hallberg-Rassy is a Swedish yacht maker that's very well-known in the blue water cruising circles for making some of the highest quality and sturdiest sailboats. For many sailors, this is the number one sailboat brand as it offers absolute comfort, utmost safety, and good and easy handling.

This brand is not only synonymous with sturdy construction but you won't worry getting soaking wet while out there on the water. This is because it has a well-protected deck and cockpit, finished with nice woodwork, and has a powerful engine with a big tankage just to ensure that you can go on long voyages.

When designing its sailboats, this brand has made it a norm to add some features that stand out from the rest. For instance, the bowsprit is an integral feature that makes sailing a Hallberg-Rassy quite easy and much enjoyable. This is because it grants easy access to and from the deck. Its electric anchor winches facilitate smooth maneuvering. Even more, its large steering wheels makes it much easier to control the boat even in the roughest of conditions. In essence, this brand has features that provide good control and an extra sense of safety.

Although this brand has evolved over the years, you'll easily recognize it even from a distance. And why is this? A Hallberg-Rassy never goes out of style. This is a unique sailboat brand that has always stayed true to its principles and concept. No matter which part of the world you go, Hallberg-Rassy will remain the undisputed king of blue water cruising.

2. Nautor's Swan

For over 50 years, Nautor's Swan has endlessly raised the sailing levels by designing and manufacturing new sailboat models that not only push the boundaries but also meet that many requirements and demands of sailors across the world. Thanks to its wide range of seaworthy, timeless, elegant, and highly-performing sailboats, the Nautor's Swan remains one of the best if not the best sailboat makers in the world.

Based in Jakobstad, Finland, this brand has severally set the industry standard with its speedy and sleek models such as the Swan 48, Swan 65, Swan 98, Swan 78, and Swan 120. These models have one thing in common: they never compromise on safety. As a brand that puts safety first, it ensures that its models are made of foam-cored glass fiber and reinforced both with carbon-fiber and epoxy. In essence, Nautor's Swan is widely revered for its unmatched seafaring and safety records.

Additionally, Nautor's Swan models are incredibly responsive. You can easily tell this just by the feel of the wheel. This brand has models that will gracefully slice through the biggest of waves with ease. That's not all; the interior of these models that are very comfortable even when the going gets tough. This is, without a doubt, a brand that strives to create self-contained worlds with each model.

3. Beneteau

This is perhaps the most selling sailboat brand in the world. For over a century now, this brand has based its models in a combination of simplicity and performance. This is a brand that will serve you just right across all latitudes and in all circumstances. Whether you prefer the Oceanis Yacht 62 or the Figaro Beneteau 3, this brand will never let you down on all fronts.

This brand revolves around a simple concept of creating a link around the world. From the deck space to its design and light, this brand does everything possible not just to uniformly transform life at sea but also to open doors to new horizons in a very luxurious yet practical way. Its models are designed with clear deck plans, stable hulls, simplified maneuvering and interior materials and equipment that can be easily personalized.

Whether you're looking for a racing sailboat or something that's designed to explore and enjoy the world in the company of friends and family, Beneteau is a true combination of sensations and simplicity. This is a brand that brings to the seas fun, simplicity, smartness, toughness, safety, intuitiveness, as well as dazzling reinvention.

4. Amel Yachts

Based on the ethos of designing and manufacturing comfortable, robust, and easy-to-handle boats, this French brand has, for over five decades, offered sailors and other sailing enthusiasts the perfect opportunity to explore the seas with the utmost quality, comfort, and more importantly, safety.

Using 100% French know-how, this brand has brought to the sailing world some of the best boats such as the Santorini, the Mango, the Super Maramu, and the Maramu. We would be doing this brand total injustice if we said that they're distinctive. Truth be told, there's nothing comparable to an Amel model. Well Amel was and still is, the ultimate standard by which other sailboat models are measured.

From items such as electric winches and furling, to generators, Watermaker , and washing machine down to the simplest of items such as towels. Spare filters, bathrobes, deck brush, and a boat safe, the Amel is in reality with what the real life of a sailor is and should be.

Although some may say that Amel still has room for improvement in terms of specifications and personalization, it cannot be denied that the Amel is a serious brand that designs and manufactures complete boats. With this brand, you'll be guaranteed of a higher degree of reliability, safety, and an edge of fun while out there on the water.

5. Hinckley Yachts

Based in Maine, United States, Hinckley Yachts is a brand that has been building robust, luxury, and safe sailboats for more than 90 years now. In its sailboat class, you'll find several sailboats that have classic shapes, inner strength, dramatic lines, and features that are absolutely essential in dealing with the challenges of the North Atlantic.

This brand has been successful in integrating impeccable craftsmanship with new technologies to ensure that their models always stand out while articulating advanced sailing practices, timeless aesthetic, robust construction, and the utmost safety. Whether you choose the Bermuda 50, the Sou'wester 53 or any model for that matter, you'll never be short of advanced performance based on the best design and technology.

In terms of features, this brand provides sailboat models with modern performance hulls. These hulls are constructed with inner layers of carbon, outer layers of Kevlar, and are aligned with computer-designed load paths. Every feature is designed without compromising comfort.

To this end, this brand offers you a perfect combination of both fun and sail. This brand offers more than just sailing. Instead, it offers a unique sailing experience that's combined with the pure joys of sailing in the blue waters with an ease of ownership and maneuverability.

6. Oyster Yachts

If you've been looking for luxury more than anything else, Oyster Yachts provides you with numerous solutions. This British brand is widely known for manufacturing a wide range of luxury cruising sailing yachts. Its sailboats are among the finest in the world and are immensely capable of taking you to some of the far-flung places in the world without having to worry about high winds and hellish waves.

Whether you choose the iconic Oyster 565 or the immense Oyster 595 you never fall short of experiencing the new world like never before. These are models that will enable you to own your adventure, choose your destination, set your courses, pick your anchorage, and stay safe at all times. If you want to hold the wheel and pull the sail while feeling the tang of salt spray on your face, Oyster Yachts is the way to go.

This is, unquestionably, a brand that's meant for you if you want to explore the seas in comfort, luxury and utmost safety. From craftsmanship, sailboat design, to hull, deck, and keel configurations, everything is designed to allow you to circumnavigate the world in comfort, elegance, and style.

7. Tartan Yachts

Based in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, there's arguably no better to begin your sailing adventures than with a sailboat designed and manufactured by Tartan Yachts. With several award-winning designs and construction, this brand is widely known for providing easy handling, great performance, and an ultimately stable platform.

This brand always strives to deliver a unique and the best possible experience to every sailor. As a brand, Tartan fully understands that every sailor has his/her unique sailing needs. As such every component of their models is designed with engineering levels that guarantee optimum performance, excellent on-deck visibility, and luxurious interior.

From the Tartan 5300, the Tartan 4300, the Tartan 345 to the New 365 and the Fantail, this brand makes it a priority to ensure that its models are among the strongest, lightest, and more importantly, the safest in the sailing industry. In essence, this brand can be ideal if you appreciate performance. It has rewarding sailing features both in narrow water lines and wider passages. Add this to its easy handling and you'll have a top-notch performer in virtually every condition.

8. Catalina Yachts

As one of the most popular boat manufacturers in the world, this American brand is widely revered for building the sturdiest boats that can hold up perfectly well in real-world conditions. These are generally family-oriented boats that are intelligently designed to ensure that your entire family can have fun out there on the water.

Some of the models include the cruiser series such as the Catalina 315, the Catalina 385, the Catalina 425 while the sport series include the Catalina 12.5 Expo, the Catalina 16.5, and the Catalina 14.2 Expo. As the current winner of the "Boat of the Year" Cruising World, you'll rarely go wrong with a Catalina model.

It offers a wide range of sailboat sizes that suits your lifestyle. This brand makes it a priority to ensure that all their models are not only safe but offer the best ownership and sailing experience. If anything, this brand is widely known to have one of the most excellent resale values in the sailing industry.

9. Island Packet Yachts

From the IP 525, the IP 439 to the IP 379, the Island Packet Yachts is a brand that encourages its customers not to keep the world waiting. This brand is meant for sailors who want to explore the world in utmost comfort and safety.

The first thing you'll notice in an IP sailboat is its large aft deck. This is not only perfect for sunbathing but can also serve you well if you want an impromptu dinner with friends and family while out there on the water. The living space is also large enough to carry most of your belongings, which is an added advantage especially if you've been planning to spend longer periods in the seas.

With modern evolution and refinement, as well as proven features, this brand is known to offer sailors maximum comfort, luxury, and safety. You'll have better access to the cockpit, have enough space, and are excellently designed to provide superior seafaring and the best features to enable you to spend extended periods when cruising.

10. Sparkman & Stephens

For more than 90 years, Sparkman & Stephens has been at the forefront of the belief that sailboat excellence goes beyond hull lines and deck plans. Instead, this brand believes in excellent naval architecture, innovation, sophistication, and beauty. This is a brand that has laid the foundation of sailboat as a sport not just in America but all over the world.

These models have graced the world for decades and bring immense pleasure to their owners in terms of innovation, performance, and excellence. Though rooted in tradition, the brand has pushed sophistication, technology, and sailing experience to a whole new level. You'll be a proud owner of the Sparkman & Stephens model.

There you have it; these are the best sailboat brands in the world. Although there are several other sailboat brands to choose from, the-above described brands stand shoulder above others in terms of quality, safety, performances and luxury.

Hopefully, you're at a much better place when it comes to choosing a sailboat that suits your lifestyle, needs, and budget .

Happy sailing!

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A record on the high seas: Cole Brauer becomes first US woman to sail solo around the world

On Thursday, Cole Brauer made history, becoming the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world. The 29-year-old from Long Island, New York, celebrated at the finish line in Spain by drinking champagne from her trophy.

Friends, peers and sailing enthusiasts had been cheering Brauer on since last October, when she embarked on her more than four-month journey.

Race organizer Marco Nannini told USA TODAY he started the Global Solo Challenge to "create a platform for sailors like Cole to showcase her skills and move on to a pro sailor career."

While at sea Brauer kept her more than 400,000 Instagram followers updated − and entertained − with videos from onboard First Light. The trip was extremely challenging and physically exhausting, Brauer said in one video from December.

In the post, she describes how frustrated she felt when she had to fix and replace different parts of the boat.

"I don't want you guys to think I'm like Superwoman or something," Brauer said. "Right now I've been feeling just broken," she added, describing how she had to fix the boat's autopilot system after injuring her torso against the side of the boat's hull amid intense waves.

Who is Cole Brauer?

Brauer is from Long Island and competed for the University of Hawaii sailing team. She went to high school in East Hampton, New York, her university team website says. She was the youngest of more than a dozen sailors, or skippers, in the Global Solo Challenge.

The professional sailor lives in Boothbay, Maine, and during the spring and summer, she can be also found in Newport, Rhode Island, gearing up for races, the Newport Daily News reported last year .

Brauer has sailed on First Light, a 40-foot yacht, for over five years, the outlet reported.

"I always said I wanted to race around the world in this boat," she told the newspaper.

From above and below First Light's deck, Brauer shared aspects of her journey with followers and die-hard sailing fans.

On New Year's Eve, she donned a dress and danced at midnight , and in another post, she showed off how many pull-ups she can do.

As the only woman racing solo, nonstop around the world in the first Global Solo Challenge, Brauer said she was determined to prove there's nothing women and girls cannot accomplish.

"I push so much harder when someone's like, 'No, you can't do that,'" Brauer told NBC Nightly News . "And I'm like, 'OK, watch me.'"

Brauer is the first American woman to sail solo around the world. But Kay Cottee of Australia was the first woman in the world to accomplish the milestone, sailing off from Sydney Harbor in Australia in November 1987 and returning 189 days later.

On her profile page on the Global Solo Challenge website, Brauer said she wanted to send a message to the sailing community that it's time to leave its male-dominated culture in the past. In the profile, Brauer took aim at a lack of equal pay and what she describes as harassment in the sailing industry.

"Just as well as this community has built me up it has broken me and my fellow female teammates down. I am doing this race for them," Brauer said.

Brauer and her spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

How long was Cole Brauer at sea?

Brauer was sailing for over four months after departing on Oct. 29.

She finished second in the race, behind a sailor who departed about a month before she did.

The start times differed because that first place boat, Phillipe Delamare's Mowgli, is much slower, Nannini said, explaining the race's staggered start times.

"The format means that if you enter on a slow, small boat you can still win, which makes it much more inclusive than an event where a bigger budget is a definite advantage," he said.

France's Delamare will win first-place prize money of 7,500 euros (about $8,140), Brauer will win 5,000 euros (about $5,430) and the third place finisher will win 2,500 euros (about $2,710), Nannini said.

How dangerous was Cole Brauer's sailing race?

A medical team including a nurse and a physician trained Brauer and sent her on her journey with medicines and medical supplies, in case of any health issues, according to her Instagram account.

Early in the race, Brauer administered her own IV with a saline solution after she became dehydrated, according to one video posted to her social media.

Brauer's most serious health scare happened in early December when she said gnarly ocean conditions caused the boat to jolt, throwing her across the inside of the boat and slamming her hard against a wall.

Her ribs were badly bruised as a result, and her medical team told her to alternate between taking Advil and Tylenol, Brauer said on Instagram.

"Rigging up a sleeping seat belt has been added to my priority list," she said in the post's caption. "I know I'm very lucky that this wasn't a lot worse."

What is the Global Solo Challenge?

The inaugural Global Solo Challenge is a nonstop sailing race in which competitors departed last year from A Coruña, Spain.

The race encompasses nearly 30,000 miles and takes place mostly in the southern hemisphere.

After leaving waters off the coast of Spain, sailors travel south and around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. The race then includes the two other capes that together make up the famous three great capes: Australia's Cape Leeuwin and South America's Cape Horn.

About half of the other competitors dropped out of the race, according to racing data posted online by the Global Solo Challenge.

Delamare finished the race late last month after embarking on his journey in late September 2023, according to race data.

Contributing: Associated Press

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You Haven’t Seen Blue Until You’ve Seen San Andres

The island, close to Nicaragua but part of Colombia, boasts waters in seven shades of the color. Counting them — from a boat, from a cay, from the shade of a coconut tree — is a meditative experience.

The attractions on San Andres include the tiny islands known as cays. Johnny Cay, which sits across the water from the more populated northern part of San Andres, looks like the dictionary entry for “deserted island.” Credit... Toh Gouttenoire for The New York Times

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By Shannon Sims

• March 11, 2024

On San Andres, a small Colombian island in an archipelago off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, counting the blues in the famous “Sea of Seven Colors” is on every visitor’s to-do list. It’s a midday activity done en route as you cruise among the cays, or keys, dotting San Andres’s eastern side: low-lying (mostly) uninhabited specks that aren’t much more than coral topped with palm trees and circled by sandbars.

From my bobbing perch, I counted six: a deep sapphire, a dusky azure, stripes of teal, turquoise and cerulean and, in the distance, a swath of brilliant cyan against the edge of a tiny, palm-fringed island.

“Do you see seven?” the boat’s captain asked.

When I told him my tally, he laughed. “Six?” he said. “That means you can still relax a little more.”

San Andres is not on the radar of many U.S. travelers, but in Latin America, and especially among Colombians, it is a coveted honeymoon destination or a long-weekend retreat — a spot in the middle of the ocean to disconnect from whatever weighed you down on the mainland.

Connecting with history

The archipelago of San Andres and Providencia is more than 400 miles north of the mainland of Colombia, and closer to 100 miles east of Nicaragua, but thanks to a historical wrinkle that is still being ironed out, it is part of Colombia.

Kent Francis James, 73, was the archipelago’s governor during the 1990s and advised the current local and national government on boundary issues with Nicaragua. But his passion, he said when I met him on San Andres, is helping tourists connect more deeply with the island’s history.

“We want you to come here not just to get your skin burned, but to bring home a better understanding of Caribbean history,” he said, as we sat on his home’s balcony and enjoyed the view of the water in the distance, framed by bougainvillea and palm trees.

Mr. James scanned the horizon and pointed out the shipwrecks that litter the island’s waters. “We were geographically on the route of the Spanish going up the coast with gold, so this is the place the pirates used to be on watch,” he explained, describing how voyagers often underestimated the shallow waters surrounding the islands’ many cays and ran aground — to the delight of pirates like the Welsh-born Sir Henry Morgan, who is believed to have used San Andres as a base of operations.

We were technically in Colombia, but Mr. James spoke in clipped English — his accent itself a nod to the island’s history.

Although it is believed that the Dutch and Christopher Columbus landed on the archipelago, it was the British who settled San Andres around 1630. English was the island’s first language, and still today it’s spoken by the native islanders.

Unlike most places in Latin America, San Andres has no record of Indigenous peoples on the island. It was seemingly uninhabited when the Europeans arrived. And that’s why when locals refer to “native” islanders, they are referring to the descendants of the original British settlers or, more frequently, the descendants of the once-enslaved Africans those settlers brought over.

This Afro-Caribbean ethnic group is called Raizal, a takeoff of the Spanish word for “roots.”

Posadas Nativas

Cleotilde Henry, 75, is one of the island’s Raizal leaders. Her family traces back to the African slave trade, she explained, as she set out crunchy slices of fried breadfruit and balls of sweet coconut on her dining room table. She didn’t make the treats just for me — she sets them out every day for the tourists who rent rooms in the upstairs of her home through the island’s posadas nativas , or native inns program.

“I was born in this house,” she said, pointing around the small living room to yellowed family portraits in wooden frames and crocheted table coverings. “So when I thought about what I could do to make money from tourism, the only thing I had was this house.”

Today Ms. Henry, who is also the president of the archipelago’s Posadas Nativas Association , rents 12 rooms, which can be found under the name “ Cli’s Place ” on travel-booking websites like Booking.com.

Across the archipelago, around 200 homes have been designated “posadas nativas,” offering an opportunity for tourists to stay with a local family — usually under the watchful eye of the matriarch — in their home, and to eat local, Raizal foods.

It’s the local solution to a universal challenge: how to retain the unique identity of a place when tourism starts booming. Less than 20 years ago, Raizal people accounted for 57 percent of the population of San Andres, but each year that number gets smaller, as Colombians from the mainland are lured to the blue waters of island life.

A bikini and a golf cart

Although the beaches of San Andres are not among the most beautiful in the world, the water a short distance offshore is, thanks to the sunken reefs, and so many visitors skip exploring the interior of the island in favor of getting wet.

Each cay differs from the next. Johnny Cay, which sits across the water from the more populated northern part of San Andres, looks like the dictionary entry for “deserted island”: a clump of palm trees ringed by white sand. Rocky Cay is not much more than its namesake rock, with a lean-to beach bar and a rusty shipwreck sticking out of the water beside it. You reach Haynes Cay by wading through waist-deep water, holding a wobbly rope connecting the cay to a no-frills restaurant built on a sandbar. A typical day vacationing in San Andres includes bopping among the cays, pausing to doze against their palm trees or swim in the water around them, and, along the way, counting blues.

Like the pirates of the past, today’s snorkelers and scuba divers are delighted by the sunken ships dotting the waters, as they get to explore the underwater ecosystems created by those wrecks. In 2000, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization established the massive Seaflower Biosphere Reserve , a vast protected marine area surrounding the islands.

“It’s like a mountain range under the water here, and that’s why we have deep spots but also these sandbars and cays,” explained Jorge Sanchez, 68, a former dive instructor on the island who invited me to his home one afternoon to view topological maps of the area’s ocean floor. Waving his hand across one map, he added, “The ocean species don’t know where the border is between Colombia and Nicaragua, so this is a great place to see all kinds of animals from different places.”

Even if you don’t enjoy the waves, San Andres is a gorgeous setting to enjoy the seven shades of blue from afar. And the not-too-steep hills and smooth-enough roads mean that the breeziest, most fun way to do that is by renting a mule (pronounced moo-LAY), a little golf cart, the typical way visitors get around the island.

I’d never driven a golf cart any significant distance, so when Ms. Henry suggested that I put on my bathing suit and take one around the island, I balked. But about an hour later, I was smiling like a fool, the ocean wind blowing back my hair as I chugged down the road ringing the coast at about 25 m.p.h., with motorcycles zipping around me. I cruised past the cays, hopping in the water when it called to me, making my way down to the island’s less populated southern end. I stopped for lunch at the Raizal restaurant Miss Janice Place for fried fish and coconut rice.

On the way back, I planned to swing by Mr. James’s house, to tell him about my day. Without a good cell signal on the island, the only way I could do this was by popping in, so I headed toward his place, until the chugs of my mule became less frequent, and I finally realized the engine had shut off. My trusty mule was sliding backward down the hill. I slammed on the brake, slowing the slide, but couldn’t get the engine to turn over again. Fortunately, some utility workers witnessed the scene, suppressed their laughter and came to my rescue. They improvised a solution and hauled the golf cart to the top of the hill using long wires. I told them I was visiting Mr. James, and one of the workers turned and shouted over a wall of bushes — “Mister Kent! We found an American!”

Grinning, Mr. James emerged from his property to greet me, and as I waved a thank you to my utility-worker heroes, he explained he wasn’t surprised to see me.

“Because a tourist can spend their days on the beach, and fill their stomach with our food and rum, and then go home and never return,” he said. “But once you start to talk to locals about our history, you will always want to come back.”

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport has direct connections to Panama City, Panama, and multiple cities in Colombia, and from San Andres it’s possible to get a flight to the neighboring island of Providencia.

Once on the island, the best way to get around is either by taxi, easily found in downtown San Andres or arranged in advance, or by mule , which can be rented for around 200,000 Colombian pesos, or about $51, per day.

Staying at a posada nativa, or locally owned inn, is the maximum immersion experience on the island, and often will be the most affordable lodging option; expect to pay about 235,000 Colombian pesos a night with breakfast. Cli’s Place Posada Nativa , Posada Nativa Licy and Miss Trinie’s Posada Nativa are some of the most popular.

For a more upscale experience, Decameron operates many hotels on the island, including the Decameron Isleno at Spratt Bight beach, a centrally located, all-inclusive option for about one million Colombian pesos per night. Hotel Casablanca offers rooms with a view of Johnny Cay for about 1.1 million Colombian pesos per night. Short-term rental options are also available through Airbnb. Many are within condominium developments and have amenities like pools, doormen and gyms.

Niko’s Seafood is a midrange restaurant near the center of San Andres serving fresh-caught fish cooked for around 50,000 Colombian pesos.

La Regatta is perhaps the fanciest restaurant in San Andres, specializing in seafood like ceviche for 75,000 Colombian pesos a or grilled lobster with coconut rice (215,000 Colombian pesos) served on a patio over the water near central San Andres. Reservations required, request the patio.

Miss Janice Place on the southern end of San Andres in San Luis offers typical Raizal food for 40,000 Colombian pesos for mains accompanied by coconut rice and jars of natural fruit juice.

Namasté Beach Club San Andres is near Rocky Cay with chic lounge chairs and a menu ranging from beach snacks like empanadas (around 30,000 Colombian pesos) to proper dinner like fried local fish (50,000 Colombian pesos).

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

Italy :  Spend 36 hours in Florence , seeking out its lesser-known pockets.

Southern California :  Skip the freeways to explore the back roads between Los Angeles and Los Olivos , a 100-mile route that meanders through mountains, canyons and star-studded enclaves.

Mongolia : Some young people, searching for less curated travel experiences, are flocking to the open spaces of this East Asian nation .

Romania :  Timisoara  may be the most noteworthy city you’ve probably never heard of , offering just enough for visitors to fill two or three days.

India: A writer fulfilled a lifelong dream of visiting Darjeeling, in the Himalayan foothills , taking in the tea gardens and riding a train through the hills.

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

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Sailor Cole Brauer makes history as the first American woman to race solo around the world

Aboard her 40-foot racing boat First Light ,  29-year-old Cole Brauer just became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself.

The New York native pulled into A Coruña, Spain, on Thursday after a treacherous 30,000-mile journey that took 130 days.

She thanked a cheering crowd of family and fans who had been waiting for her on shore.

“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” she exclaimed, before drinking Champagne from her trophy.

The 5-foot-2 powerhouse placed second out of 16 avid sailors who competed in the Global Solo Challenge, a circumnavigation race that started in A Coruña with participants from 10 countries. The first-of-its-kind event   allowed a wide range of boats to set off in successive departures based on performance characteristics. Brauer started on Oct. 29, sailing down the west coast of Africa, over to Australia, and around the tip of South America before returning to Spain.

Brauer is the only woman and the youngest competitor in the event — something she hopes young girls in and out of the sport can draw inspiration from.

“It would be amazing if there was just one girl that saw me and said, ‘Oh, I can do that too,’” Brauer said of her history-making sail.

It’s a grueling race, and more than half of the competitors have dropped out so far. One struck something that caused his boat to flood, and another sailor had to abandon his ship after a mast broke as a severe storm was moving in.

The four-month journey is fraught with danger, including navigating the three “Great Capes” of Africa, Australia and South America. Rounding South America’s Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet, is often likened to climbing Mount Everest because of its perfect storm of hazards — a sharp rise in the ocean floor and whipping westerly winds push up massive waves. Combined with the frigid waters and stray icebergs, the area is known as a graveyard for ships, according to NASA. Brauer  said  she was “so unbelievably stoked” when she sailed past Cape Horn in January.

Marco Nannini, organizer of the Global Solo Challenge, said the comparison to scaling Mount Everest doesn’t capture the difficulty of the race. Sailing solo means not just being a skipper but a project manager — steering the boat, fixing equipment, understanding the weather and maintaining one’s physical health.

Nannini cited the relatively minuscule number of people who have sailed around the world solo — 186, according to the International Association of Cape Horners — as evidence of the challenges that competitors face. More than 6,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, according to  High Adventure Expeditions .

Brauer stared down 30-foot waves that had enough force to throw her across the boat. In a scare caught on camera, she badly injured her rib   near the halfway point of the event. At another point, her team in the U.S. directed Brauer to insert an IV into her own arm due to dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea.

She was able to stay in constant communication with members of her team, most of whom are based in New England,   and keep herself entertained with Netflix and video calls with family through Starlink satellites.   That’s also how Brauer was able to use Zoom to connect with NBC News for an interview, while she was sailing about 1,000 miles west of the Canary Islands.

While Brauer was technically alone on First Light, she had the company of 450,000 followers on Instagram, where she frequently got candid about life on an unforgiving sea while reflecting on her journey.

“It all makes it worth it when you come out here, you sit on the bow, and you see how beautiful it is,” she said in an Instagram video, before panning the camera to reveal the radiant sunrise.

Brauer grew up on Long Island but didn’t learn to sail until she went to college in Hawaii. She traded in her goal of becoming a doctor for life on the water. But she quickly learned making a career as a sailor is extremely difficult, with professional racers often hesitant to welcome a 100-pound young woman on their team.

Even when she was trying to find sponsors for the Global Solo Challenge, she said a lot of people “wouldn’t touch her with a 10-foot pole” because they saw her as a “liability.”

Brauer’s message to the skeptics and naysayers? “Watch me.”

“I push so much harder when someone’s like, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ or ‘You’re too small,’” Brauer explained.

“The biggest asset is your mental strength, not the physical one,” Nannini said. “Cole is showing everyone that.”

Brauer hopes to continue competing professionally and is already eyeing another around-the-world competition, but not before she gets her hands on a croissant and cappuccino.

“My mouth is watering just thinking about that.”

Emilie Ikeda is an NBC News correspondent.

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Crews announced for The Boat Race 2024

The Cambridge and Oxford crews for The Boat Race 2024 have been officially unveiled at a crew announcement held at the iconic Battersea Power Station.

The 36 student rowers who have won a place in the Blue Boat were announced at the event which was held in public for the first time in the Boat Races’ history.

The crews for the Women’s Race were unveiled first of all, and the Cambridge crew will feature two returning faces, Jenna Armstrong and Carina Graf, but for the others it is their first time in the coveted Blue Boat.

The crews for the Men’s Race were then unveiled, and this year there are five returning Blues: Seb Benzecry, Noam Mouelle, Tom Lynch, Luca Ferraro and Matt Edge.

The full line-ups are as follows:

Cambridge Women’s Blue Boat

Cox: Hannah Murphy     (Girton - MPhil Health, Medicine and Society) Stroke: Megan Lee (Lucy Cavendish - MPhil  Management) 7: Iris Powell (Churchill - BA Natural Sciences) 6: Carys Earl (Gonville and Caius - BA Medicine) 5: Carina Graf    (Emmanuel - PhD Neuro Sci) 4: Jenna Armstrong (Jesus - PhD Physiology) 3: Clare Hole (St Catharine’s - MPhil Population Health Sciences) 2: Jo Matthews (St John’s - BA Medicine (Clinical)) Bow: Gemma King (St John’s - MRes + PhD Stem Cell Biology)

Cambridge Men’s Blue Boat

Cox: Ed Bracey (Wolfson - MPhil Economics) Stroke: Matt Edge (St Catharine’s - PhD Chem Eng) 7: Luca Ferraro (King’s - BA Classics) 6: Tom Lynch (Hughes Hall - PhD Engineering) 5: Kenny Coplan (Hughes Hall - MPhil History of Art) 4: Gus John (Wolfson - MPhil Medieval History) 3: Thomas Marsh (St John’s - PhD Physics) 2: Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall - PhD Astrophysics) Bow: Seb Benzecry (Jesus - PhD Film Studies)

Asked by the host of the event, BBC Sport commentator Andrew Cotter, about whether there was a challenge integrating new faces into the Blue Boat, Cambridge Women’s Coach Patrick Ryan said: “Actually there are no new faces, every single one of them is a returner – just new Blues!”

The Cambridge Men’s and Women’s clubs unified in 2020 and Patrick added: “As we’ve become one club, we’ve learned to share more information and work together, hopefully for the betterment of the athletes here tonight.”

Cambridge Men’s Coach Rob Baker was then asked whether the number of returning Blues in the Men’s Boat would give Cambridge an advantage.

“Every year is different, every year is a challenge,” said Rob. “It’s great to have guys that have won the race and been through the process before, but yes it’s always a big challenge but we are up for it”.

It was the first time that Battersea Power Station, which famously featured on a Pink Floyd album cover, has hosted the crew announcement event. Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of the Boat Race Company Limited, said the venue was appropriate, given that it was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who was also behind iconic buildings at Cambridge and Oxford, including Cambridge University Library.

She added: “[The Boat Race] is the ultimate British tradition, which draws on its heritage yet, with boats full of young students, it is very much an event that looks to the future.

“These young people have a unique opportunity to take to the water on such a high profile day. In order to get there they have made incredible choices. They have combined a full-time rigorous academic schedule with training and racing throughout the year - so let’s not underestimate how impressive these young people really are”.

The Gemini Boat Race 2024 takes place in Putney, London, on Saturday 30 March  – with the Women’s Race starting at 14:46 BST and the Men’s Race at 15:46 BST – renewing an intense rivalry which stretches back nearly 200 years. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 14:00 BST.

Last year saw Cambridge University win both the men’s and women’s races, leaving the overall records as 86-81 in the favour of Cambridge Men’s and 47-30 in the favour of Cambridge Women’s.

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The Cambridge and Oxford crews for The Boat Race 2024

Credit: BRCL/Row360

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Iconic 'little blue boat' that calls Montrose Bay home up for sale after family makes tough decision

For almost 50 years a little blue boat has been moored on the River Derwent in Hobart's northern suburbs by the side of a busy highway.

It is known affectionately by many Tasmanians as "the little blue boat", and has floated alone next to the Brooker Highway at Montrose Bay over the decades.

Sea Breeze, its official name, was built by Robin Attrill in his Montrose backyard in the early 1970s.

His son Colin Attrill said the boat was launched at Macquarie Wharf in 1976.

"It's been on the mooring in Montrose Bay ever since, and that's why it's such an iconic little blue boat," he said.

Tasmanians curious about 'little blue boat'

The boat is an object of fascination for Brooker Highway motorists and foreshore walkers due to it seemingly never moving.

Colin Attrill said it was "absolutely amazing" the number of people who would stop and talk to him about the boat when he was launching the dinghy to go and check on it.

"The number of people that talk to me that are walking past and go 'that boat has been there forever' and 'it was there when I was going to school or every day when I've been driving to work'," he said.

"Some people say they've never seen it move. Well it used to move all the time.

"Of late it's slowed up, we're all busy and dad has slowed up. We lost mum and once that happened it impacted on family activities."

Tough decision to sell

Its owner is now 91 and the boat has not been sailed for about 10 years.

Colin Attrill said the family had recently made the tough decision to try to sell the boat.

"Dad isn't well and he's gotten old, which we all do, and the boat's got old," he said.

"Anyone who knows about a timber boat knows that they need maintenance."

Mr Attrill said the family used to put the boat on the slip at least once a year to clean and antifoul it, and do any repairs.

"But the past few years Dad has been unable to do anything, and the boat unfortunately has just sat on the mooring," he said.

He said the family decided it was time for the boat to have a new owner.

"Nobody is using it, it needs a new owner who will give it the time and get the enjoyment out of it that we had growing up," he said.

"It's a great boat, and there are many years left. Wooden boats just last."

'Next phase' for the boat

The Attrill family is full of passionate sailors and Robin's brother Peter represented Australia in sailing at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 — Tasmania's fifth Olympian and the first to represent the state in sailing.

When Robin finished building the 25-foot river cruiser, known by the family as The Breeze, it was used for trips away around Hobart.

"We used to have family trips down the channel, down to Cygnet, down to Dover, and all places in between fishing and weekends away," he said.

"We also used to go to events in Hobart like the Hobart Regatta, the Sandy Bay Regatta. We'd be down the river at any chance, or up the river. She made it to New Norfolk a couple of times.

"The boat was all over the place, wherever we could."

Mr Attrill said it would be a sad day when the boat left Montrose Bay after almost 50 years.

"We will see where it goes and where it ends up and what's the next phase for the boat," he said.

Over the years its owner has been keeping a watchful eye on it just a matter of metres away, across the Brooker Highway from his Montrose home of more than 70 years.

"He's always been there. He'd open the blinds in the morning in the kitchen and look out the window and there's the boat," son Colin said.

"It's always been a part of his life."

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Countdown to adventure: 5 skippers explain how to prepare for bluewater sailing

• Elaine Bunting
• June 8, 2020

Are you counting down to a big adventure? Five skippers tell Elaine Bunting about their plans and preparations to go bluewater sailing

Make life more fun for all the family onboard

For most sailors, preparing for an Atlantic or round the world voyage typically takes between a year and three years. According to the surveys we carry out annually with ARC rally skippers , that is the average time it takes to choose and buy a suitable boat, equip it, train up and get all the moving parts of work and domestic life aligned.

Right now, almost everyone’s plans are on ice, but this uncertain period of enforced stasis may actually be a good opportunity to take stock of your life goals and what you need to reach them. If you’ve always dreamed of sailing away or of a long voyage and a break from normal, striving life ashore, this could be the time to create more serious plans.

To find out how other sailors are planning their journey along the typical three-year ‘runway’ and what their challenges have been, we spoke to a five sailors at different stages. What follows is a snapshot of their choices and approach.

Photo: Tor Johnson

Flexible plans

Tom and Clair Crean are from the UK but living in Switzerland, where Tom works as an IT consultant. Tom is from a sailing family – his father used to work for Westerly when they built cruisers and cruiser-racers in the UK.

They have been thinking and planning to leave for the last two years and when they came to look for a yacht for a budget of £50-60,000 it was Westerlys and Moodys from the Eighties and Nineties that Tom thought of, boats with a “centre cockpit for a decent aft cabin and solidly built.”

As with everyone we spoke to for this article, finding a good and well-maintained example of a particular type of used yacht was not easy and soon the Creans concluded that they “would never get 100%”.

Article continues below…

How to pick your ideal bluewater yacht: ARC director explains all

I often chat with prospective bluewater cruisers at boat shows and seminars and am frequently asked: “What is the ideal…

Sailing across the Atlantic: Bluewater veterans share top tips for your first crossing

On the afternoon before we left the Canary Islands for the Caribbean for a transatlantic with the ARC, I struck…

The yacht they eventually bought three years ago is Moody Blue , a Moody 376, which they keep in the UK. “We were very lucky: the previous owner had bought the boat 30 years ago and had really looked after it, but not upgraded much so it was almost like it was out of the factory,” says Tom. However, the electronics and many other items were out of date and needed to be replaced, so the Creans began working through a long list.

“The engine had been replaced in 2012 and the sails were in good condition. The rigging had been replaced in 2014 and was all checked. We bought a new cruising chute. We had all the seacocks replaced with Tru Design fittings. They had been OK in the survey but when I was opening one, the handle snapped off in my hand.”

The Creans want their boat to be as inexpensive as possible to run, so they decided not to fit a watermaker or air conditioning. But new electronics, power generation and safety gear was a priority. They have a new Raymarine Axiom Pro MFD, a new radar, AIS and two new lithium batteries. To help with extra, sustainable power, they have a flexible solar panel and a Rutland 1200 wind generator. To reduce consumption, they’ve chosen Hydrovane self-steering gear.

Tom and Clair Crean’s bluewater sailing boat of choice is a Moody 376

Safety gear is among the more expensive categories but can’t be skimped on. Tom and Clair have a new four-person liferaft , and they bought an EPIRB, lifejackets equipped with McMurdo AIS PLBs and a YB Tracker. They are getting a quote for a Jordan Series Drogue and have bought a battery-powered angle grinder and bolt cutters. Tom adds that they have “lots of tools – the forepeak and saloon are full of boxes – and first aid kits.”

In parallel, the Creans are building up their own sailing experience. “This is our first proper boat,” says Tom. “I’ve sailed with my uncle, we bought a 8m cabin cruiser in Weymouth and we have chartered every year for the past 15 years; two weeks per year in BVIs and Croatia, sailing courses in Gibraltar and sailing in the UK. I first did an RYA Competent Crew course in the RAF in the Eighties, then the Day Skipper, then Yachtmaster. Clair has done the Day Skipper course.

“We’ve spent the last three years based in Portsmouth, learning to sail in a complicated area with tides etc. and sailing to the Channel Islands. That has given us more confidence. The longest passage we’ve made so far would be Alderney to Portsmouth, leaving in the early morning and arriving late at night. We have made two night passages before but our big test will when we leave and sail from Falmouth to La Coruña – we are going to do the offshore route as a test.”

“I know it is a lifestyle I will enjoy,” says Tom. “When I’m on the boat is when I’m at my happiest – and with family. It is never boring. So I know for sure we will be very happy. But we are also realistic.

“It may get too much, I don’t know. Let’s get to La Coruña and then keep taking each stage. “From what we have read, the advice is to tell everyone you’re leaving – there are so many reasons not to go – but be flexible. We will just go, and anything we do will be great.”

Decluttering your life

Fergus and Chloe Bonner are unusual among sailing couples in that it is Angus who is the relative beginner and Chloe the more experienced sailor who has nurtured the dream of cruising. She already has around 50,000 miles of long-distance sailing behind her on a previous adventurous voyage from New Zealand to the UK via Alaska and the North West Passage .

“Chloe had this sailing background and when we got together ten years ago we often said it would be great to go sailing with children . Then our twins came along and it was full-on. We bought a house and we did the house up and even just going to work was quite hard.

“One summer we went dinghy sailing in Annecy and it re-fired that thought. But there was no way we could afford it. Then we started to look into it and read blogs. We started to look at how much rent we could get for our house and we curbed all our nonessential spending. Then I got a promotion – Chloe is a nurse and I work for a media company.”

Fergus and Chloe Bonner chose an Island Packet 40 for their long-term cruising plans

They began searching for a boat with a strict budget of £100,000 in mind, and began reducing their outgoings and shrinking down their lives and belongings to reset in a more modest way. “We basically went through everything we had and started selling stuff,” says Angus.

“We’d done a lot of cycling and triathlons. I sold two bikes, Chloe sold a bike, we sold the turbo trainer. We sold snowboarding gear and even little things like bike components, children’s things. Anything. We started off with high-value stuff and went through the house to find things we didn’t need.

“When you start doing this you realise you don’t need them and I wondered ‘Why did I buy these things?’ We made about £10,000 and it felt like therapy getting rid of it. And it prepares you for life on a boat where you don’t have the money or the space.”

Besides decluttering physical items, they cut down on subscriptions that accumulate: “Strava, Amazon Prime, Ancestry, British Triathlon membership, gym membership… We just stopped going out, having meals out; typically, lunch was £60 for four of us. Now we don’t buy things we don’t need, even clothes. I take things up to my mum’s and ask her to repair them. It feels really good to be getting into that mentality, and to teach the boys skills to fix things.”

They began looking at brokerage yachts, starting their search on yachtworld.com and looking at what was in that budget. “There were hundreds of production boats and we started thinking: ‘Great there are loads and they have got a new chartplotter and so on’ and we probably looked at the wrong things.

After looking at Moodys and at the Ovni 435 – “amazing but realistically we couldn’t afford it” – they settled on an Island Packet 40 last November which they bought for £108,000. Their budget for preparing the boat was “in hindsight, quite naive,” he admits. They need a liferaft, EPIRB, satphone, auxiliary power such as solar power and arch and davits for a dinghy. There have been unanticipated expenses, such as replacing sanitation hoses.

Educating on board can include navigation and maths…

“We thought we’d spend another £15,000. People bandy around numbers and some say you need an extra 15-20%. That’s nonsense. We thought the boat didn’t need a lot of work but we have had to redo the rigging, we have put in a new battery charger, we’ve rebedded all the chainplates, replaced all lights with LEDs, replaced some bilge pump piping, unstepped mast and redid all electrics – we have a spreadsheet of 100 items. We haven’t even started on things we need to go sailing long-term, such as the liferaft, solar panels and EPIRB.”

In fact, Fergus and Chloe haven’t even sailed their boat yet other than on sea trials. But Fergus did a RYA Day Skipper course last year and once they do get sailing, they’re thinking of getting an instructor to do one-to-one coaching and also help them master close quarters manoeuvring.

But he reveals: “The whole thing has been made much harder because we have two children in school and we don’t have relatives nearby. When we go on courses, it means they have to be aboard or we have to find somewhere to put them for a week. We have to, and do, involve them.”

At anchor in the Caribbean – that’s the dream

Ultimately, their plan is to live on board for three or four years and home school their 6-year-old twins. “We will focus on the important stuff like reading, writing and maths and then learn as we go. How formal it will be I don’t know at this point. I would have to say that is low down the list. The focus is on getting the boat ready.”

When they do leave, hopefully next summer, they plan to sail to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and across to the Caribbean before going through the Panama Canal and perhaps round the world. “But,” says Fergus, “it’s loose. A firm plan is going to change.

“We might get somewhere and get some work or come back. At the moment we’re learning, and that learning curve is huge – I feel like I’m doing a doctorate. But it is amazing how much you can learn when you are really focussed on something.”

A crew on an Oyster take it easy on a transatlantic crossing. Photo: Tim Bishop

Learning new skills

Antony Smyth and his wife, Morgan Chambers, live in Canada and are planning to live on board. Antony, a former management consultant, quit work three years ago, but Morgan is still working. Their goal has been to have a boat as a “mobile hotel” for themselves, family and friends, and sail across the Atlantic and slowly make their way through the Panama Canal and Pacific to reach Smyth’s native New Zealand.

“It has taken decades to get away,” he says, “We have been working up to this for 30 years, but it’s easy because we both have had good jobs.”

The couple previously owned a Westerly Oceanlord, and co-owned a 41-footer they kept in the Greek islands, and the choice of yacht and route for this long plan was a conundrum. “These are hard decisions,” he says, “what kind of boat, multihull or monohull? Where do we go? Are the kids interested? Would friends come if they were invited? You could spend years thinking about it.”

In the end, they decided to buy a second-hand Westerly 49, one of only 12 ever built. They chose it because the design has dual owners’ cabins with a walk around. They paid £110,000.

“The boat we bought had been a cottage for five years, so everything needed doing. We’ve fitted a bow thruster, repainted it, reconditioned the steering, replaced all the wiring, got new rigging, new sails and new running rigging, replaced lots of internal fittings… knives, forks, the lot. I’m not what you call handy, but the learning has been great, the 12V DC electrics, fibreglass – and it has been hugely enjoyable to do it.”

They may rent their house if they are away for a long time, and the plan is to start in La Rochelle and sail perhaps up the west coast of Britain to the Baltic first, before going further.

An ever-expanding budget

Nick Deacon and Michele Cruwys have sailed all their adult lives. The time, they feel, is right now to go – Michele recently retired from her job as a consultant paediatrician and Nick, who runs the product development side of a small software company, will retire in the next year or two. Their children are grown up and finishing university.

They previously owned a Grand Soleil 43, which they sold last year. Like others we spoke to, finding the right used yacht was difficult and took a couple of years of searching among brokers and travelling to inspect boats.

“Finding the boat was really tough; locating a boat that was within budget and in reasonable condition. We were quite fussy. We wanted a higher-end, well-made boat and had excluded more mass produced production boats so it was the Oyster, Najad, Hallberg-Rassy end of the market. It is hard to find boats in good condition – some are being set with unrealistic prices and the ones we saw in Europe were pretty beaten up.”

Finally they bought a Najad 511 lying in Sweden. “It was a tiny bit bigger than planned but we went for it and we bought it in October. It was brought back from Sweden by a delivery crew and I joined the captain for the first part,” says Nick.

Their current plan is to leave the UK next May and sail across the Atlantic with the ARC 2021. “Then we will potter around the Caribbean and South America for a year or so and, if all is going well, go through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and continue round the world.”

Their boat was built in 2004 boat so has needed “a fair bit” of upgrading and maintenance. The couple have replaced the standing rigging, bought all new sails, a full set of Raymarine instruments, MFD and Autohelm, AIS, installed SSB radio, refurbished the watermaker and overhauled all the hydraulics.

“It’s an ever-expanding budget,” admits Nick. “For example, we knew we would need to have the rigging replaced to comply with the insurance terms, but we have uncovered a few surprises. The refurbishment we’ve done since we bought the boat would, I guess, be somewhere around £60,000.”

Life is not so simple

Richard Glen is planning and preparing for his big escape, but he doesn’t know for sure when it will be. He already has the yacht to sail away on, a 1979 Ron Holland-designed Swan 441, and plenty of experience from years of RORC racing and cruising. But getting to the point in life when he could go is not something within his control.

Richard Glen’s Swan 441 at anchor in Turkey

“The boat side is quite straightforward as we have taken advice from World Cruising Club and the ARC to get the boat ready so we’re OK on that. It’s the home life that is far more difficult,” he confesses.

“In 2017, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I have become her full-time carer. That is quite a challenge. So although we had this plan it is all rather based on the state of my mother. So I can’t say we are definitely going, though the boat is definitely ready to do the ARC+ next year and then World ARC. My mother is 91 and apart from Alzheimer’s the rest of her life is pretty bulletproof. It’s a conundrum to balance your life along with caring for someone else’s.

“I’m a one-man band, a landscape architect. I used to work for British Waterways designing marinas. I did put various things in place: for example, I bought property to provide rental income in case my business income dropped off, which is what I have been living off while I’m a full-time carer.”

Richard Glen’s Swan 441 on passage in the Mediterranean

Richard plans to go sailing with his wife and daughter, who will be 12 this month. He says they have made the decision that “she will learn more by having these adventures than being in school and it would be far more fulfilling for her”.

“We’ve discussed the situation where she could be doing her O-levels but is it better to have these opportunities when they come along,” he explains. “We’ve always been delaying it and you could always do that and never get round to it. It’s not simple, and that’s the big challenge in going off long distance sailing.”

Richard’s boat is based in Marmaris in Turkey and over the last year he has been getting it ready and renewing equipment. He has replaced all the navigation electronics, getting a Raymarine MFD fitted and AIS. He is debating whether to buy a Watt&Sea hydrogenerator.

Photo: Tim Bishop

He will have the rigging replaced and is going to get a new No 1 headsail. “We already have normal heavy 1oz and asymmetric spinnakers and we have a staysail, yankee and No 3 but it would be good to have the larger genoa,” he says. Living on board could, he believes, be done “quite frugally but we would have to go through that transition period of thinking we are on holiday. So it would theoretically be OK provided we acted sensibly.

“We don’t need cars and other paraphernalia but we would have mooring, docking and maintenance so money would be going in other directions. But I haven’t done a huge amount of calculations on that. It might actually be cheaper than living at home, with care and carers and so on.”

From a personal perspective, he says: “Over the years I have done a lot of thinking about it and my training is up to date, with Ocean Yachtmaster and navigation, sea survival, first aid courses, etc. I have also done a lot over the years around yacht maintenance with Hamble School of Yachting.

“We’ll go through everything underwater such as seacocks and cutless bearing and we can at least be listing these things this year and it gives us a year to prepare for November next year.”

First published in the May 2020 edition of Yachting World.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce spotted on vacation together in mystery location

No blue dresses on this boat.

In a series of photos posted by gossip blog Deuxmoi Monday, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were seen holding hands as they walked through the docks of an undisclosed location.

Although it’s unclear if they were on their way into the docks or out, they tried to keep a low profile with the “Lover” songstress hiding behind a baseball cap and sunglasses.

They also sported neutral outfits with Swift wearing a long-sleeve shirt and shorts and Kelce rocking a T-shirt and shorts.

Their getaway comes amid reports that the NFL star is planning a vacation with the 14-Grammy winner ahead of the release of her highly-anticipated album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.

An insider close to Kelce, 34, told the US Sun, “He booked some very nice hotel suites and tables at great restaurants to take her on days off.

He wants to take her on romantic getaways to have her relax and go discover those nice cities and European romantic places together.”

Swift, 34, is not set to take the stage for her Eras Tour for another two months after wrapping up her concerts in Asia and Australia.

Amid their respective breaks from their careers, the A-list couple are reportedly nesting at the pop star’s Los Angeles estate.

“They’re focused on rest and recuperation and relaxing at home and having low-key and chill time together,” an insider told Us Weekly last week. “They are enjoying movie nights in her home theater, catching up on films and shows they’ve missed.”

However, they have not missed out on some of the most exclusive parties in Hollywood as they were seen at  Madonna’s ultra-exclusive post-Oscars bash while the NFL star was also  spotted at Jay-Z’s annual “Gold Party.”

Aside from attending the star-studded parties, Swift has also hosted a few “small, intimate gatherings” of her own.

“They can finally rest and intend on spending quality time together and with friends and family,” a source told Us Weekly.

Lone sailor 20 miles off Cornish coast rescued

The lone sailor was initially assisted by the crew of the RNLI Sennen Cove lifeboat, 'Volunteer Spirit'

• Published 4 hours ago

A sailor has been rescued after he was unable to control his yacht due to rigging issues 20 miles (32km) off the Cornish coast.

Sennen Cove lifeboat was sent to the sailor at 01:40 GMT on Sunday.

He was north west of Longships Lighthouse and was unable to control the vessel, the RNLI said.

The Sennen lifeboat crew found the yacht and began towing it to Newlyn before swapping the tow with the Penlee lifeboat at 07:00, two miles (3.2km) from the harbour.

The yacht landed safely in Newlyn after the tow was taken up by the RNLI Penlee's temporary lifeboat, 'City of London III'

The RNLI said the crew had to reconnect the tow twice but arrived safely in the harbour by 11:00.

A spokesperson for the RNLI Penlee Lifeboat Station said: "The yacht skipper was very appreciative of the assistance provided by both lifeboat crews and Falmouth Coastguard.

"He also very much enjoyed a sausage sandwich and coffee at the RNLI’s Penlee Lifeboat Station."

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