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Ben Ainslie: “We’re a bit of a dark horse” – America’s Cup countdown

America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Day 1 report: Lessons for teams and organisers alike

How to watch today’s America’s Cup today’s Preliminary Regatta opening race live streams from anywhere

Sinking of the Bayesian Superyacht: What we know as rescue efforts enter third day

How the America’s Cup weather favours Team New Zealand

Who will win the 37th America’s Cup?

Alinghi Red Bull Racing suffers another mast failure days before start of America’s Cup racing

“At this stage of the America’s Cup, you don’t want to be too comfortable.” – Inside INEOS Britannia

Breaking news: One dead, six missing after sailing superyacht sinks off Sicily

Bluewater Luxury – The new Moody DS48

Stylia: 22.8m of bluewater perfection

Air Yacht 80 a dream package

Is your anti-foul choice contributing to Global warming?

More details of the hotly-anticipated XR 41

Paul Goodison: The British skipper looking to win the America’s Cup… for the USA

‘What is it that makes parking a boat so tense?’ – Nikki Henderson

WATCH: Will the USA’s Radical America’s Cup Design Choices Pay Off?

The coolest Watersports Toys of 2024: From inflatable foilers to motorised Paddle Boards

Cayman 28 first look: An all-carbon skiff with a rack for five people

Olympic Sailing Penultimate Day Highlights: Golds for Britain, Italy, and Austria

Olympic Sailing 2024 Highlights: Light Winds Delay Medal Races, Record Breaking Dinghy Medallists

Catamarans and multihulls.

Expert tips: how to sail multihulls downwind in big breezes

5 of the best new ocean cruising catamarans for 2024

The best specialist yachts: new and interesting designs

Best catamaran and multihull: We sail the very best yachts on two and three hulls

Sailing across the atlantic.

Sailing from Annapolis to Iceland on the viking routes of old

How to prepare for an Atlantic crossing with the ARC

What’s the best autopilot kit for a transatlantic?

The ‘easy’ way to sail across the Atlantic?

New mutihulls take on an Atlantic crossing

How to prepare for an Atlantic crossing

Extraordinary boats.

Newly restored schooner cruiser-racer Adela: ‘Some of the best sailing of my whole life’

Baltic 80 Custom: A ‘rosy’ design for racing and luxury offshore cruising

Hunters to racers: the fascinating world of Azorean whaleboat racing

Extraordinary boats: The Yachting World Diamond from design to deck

Extraordinary boats: Maluka – restoration of a 1932 classic

World’s fastest monohull: Malizia-Seaexplorer IMOCA 60

Practical cruising.

‘Electric yacht propulsion opens doors to a completely different way of thinking about sailing’

An expert guide to safe line handling at sea

Great seamanship: Slow Boat to Uruguay

How to find the right weather window

Allures 40.9 vs Ovni 400: French aluminium centreboarders go head-to-head

CNB 66 yacht test: Intoxicating cruiser is a cut above the mainstream

Saffier SE37 Lounge test: A veritable supercar of the seas

Swan 65 test: The triumphant return of a true sailing icon

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How to pass your Yachtmaster Practical Exam

The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore has long been the qualification that cruising yacht sailors, both amateur and professional, have aspired to. Quite aside from the fact that it is the gateway…

Maiden crew’s First Mate Rachel Burgess: ‘The girls showed how tough they were’

• July 9, 2024

Jeanneau has contacted Sun Odyssey 410, 440 and 490 owners amid safety concerns

• June 25, 2024

Sailing square riggers: ‘You’re more appreciative of what sailing used to be’

New rules to mean easier cruising to France from 1 June 2024

• June 3, 2024

Orcas ‘attack’ and sink a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar

• May 14, 2024

How to improve power management on a yacht

How to prepare for your Yachtmaster Offshore exam

Sail more with J-Boats

A magical cruising ground just a stone’s throw from France

Golden globe race.

Jeremy Bagshaw on his 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

Michael Guggenberger on his 2022-223 Golden Globe Race

Abhilash Tomy on his 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

Visiting the D-Day Normandy Beaches by boat

‘We passed no living creature apart from three cows and a lone sheep’

10 hidden must-see destinations on the West Coast of Scotland

Cruising life.

Scandinavia’s largest regatta: ‘More like a cruising rally than a race’

Sailing across the Irish Sea: ‘We had never seen such evocative scenery’

CLOSING SOON: Coppercoat Brian Black Memorial Award 2024 with £4,000 up for grabs

A grudging feeling of gratitude to our awful water companies

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Women in Sailing: Southampton Boat Show Women in Marine Day

Olympic Sailing Round-up: Team GB Triumphs and Tears

37th America’s Cup: Key Info, Dates & How to Watch

How to Sail on a Budget: Tom Cunliffe’s Column

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Boat Test: New Luxurious Multihull Lagoon 60

Finding Uninvited Guests Onboard: Sailing with Animals

Cornish Crabber Revived: Boatbuilders Staying Afloat

Sailing Today New September Issue Out Now!

Anchoring Masterclass: How to Anchor like an Expert

ZOLEO: Your Satellite Lifeline on the Open Seas

Sunsail’s Sailing Adventures: Celebrating 50 Years and Beyond!

An enduring Allure

Seamless Satellite Communication: ZOLEO’s Safe Sailing Solution

Dream Guarantee: Dream Yacht’s New 10% Income Offer

South Atlantic Cruising: Sailing Cape Town to Brazil

Team GB Sails into Gold: Ellie Aldridge’s Olympic Kiteboarding Win

Musto Skiff World Championship 2024: Age Is No Barrier

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How to Avoid Cabin Fever: Tom Cunliffe’s Column

America’s Cup E-Series: New Virtual AC Sailing Game

Southampton Boat Show 2024: What to Expect

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Steering by the Stars: A Guide to Celestial Navigation

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Anchorages In Brittany: Guide to Finding Peaceful Anchoring Spots

Transatlantic Voyage: Sailing Eastward vs Westward

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Best Prime Day Deals for Sailing: Helly Hansen Gear

Six Top Sailing Torches: Durable & Waterproof

Sailing safety equipment: Your essential guide to staying safe at sea

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SAILING Magazine —it’s “The Big One,” people say. It’s full of beautiful pictures and instructive material on all aspects of sailing. SAILING , founded in 1966 by an avid Great Lakes sailor, is the sailor’s magazine. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016, it is the oldest continuously published sailing magazine in the United States.

SAILING is a national magazine that is set apart from its competition by its oversize pages and fresh, honest reporting. The magazine is meant for sailors who, above all else, are interested in sailing, reading about it and enjoying it through the many pictures and incisive text.

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This is the sailor’s magazine. Each issue brings you a wealth of information from every corner of the sport.

Perry on Design

This high-powered, high-tech cruising trimaran has speed to burn

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Traditional Seamanship: Why Old-fashioned Sailing is Best

Old-fashioned sailing provides deep connection with the ocean and with one another, Ellen Leonard tells us.

Old-fashioned sailing in a sparkman & stephens yawl.

My first long ocean voyage, a circumnavigation of the globe, had more in common with voyaging in the post-war years than it did with contemporary ocean sailing. My husband Seth and I made that voyage in the first years of the 21st century; therefore, if we had been much wealthier, we could have sailed in a style not greatly different from that which is common today. As it was, our experience would have felt familiar to such iconic voyagers as the Smeetons or the Pyes.

Our sloop was built in 1968, to a 1954 design. Specifically, she was an imitation of the famous Sparkman & Stephens yawl Finisterre (winner of three consecutive Bermuda Races), although she was a sloop rather than a yawl. Despite being 38 feet overall, and 27 feet on the waterline, she displaced 24,000 pounds. She had a relatively shallow-draught keel, with a centerboard that could be lowered for upwind performance. She was low to the water, had sweeping overhangs and a narrow stern, and a small cabin with a traditional layout. Her chart table was expansive and her bunks were narrow. Although her hull was constructed of solid fiberglass, she had a solid mahogany cabin, coamings, and toerail; her ports, stanchions, and most of her other fittings were bronze. Even her propeller shaft was bronze. Her engine was a Perkins 4.107 that leaked an embarrassing quantity of oil. The boat herself leaked, through the chainplates, coamings, winch bases, toerail, and many other places. We slowly but surely resolved all these leaks over the course of our circumnavigation, but they were there for a time, just as they had been for many sailors over the centuries.

Bit by bit, small upgrade by small upgrade, Seth and I did bring ourselves into the current century, or at least into the late 20th century. By the time we dropped the hook back in Maine, after four years of sailing around the world, we had solar panels, electric light, a Pactor modem for email over the single sideband radio, and even a minuscule refrigerator. But at the beginning, our only concession to modernity – or rather, the only piece of it we could afford – was a small black-and-white GPS . This showed us merely our latitude and longitude; the rest of our navigation we did on those large paper charts that today are pretty much relegated to wall decoration.

Our electrical capacity was limited to the very small battery bank we had, only 270 amp hours. We used this to power the little GPS, our VHF radio, and our navigation lights while underway. Those three little bulbs, however, drew enough amperes that we were concerned about the electrical draw on a long passage, especially on our Pacific crossing, a month at sea from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. So we went to the tremendous effort and expense of installing a small wind generator while we were in Panama. With this extra power, we were later able to install an electronic depth sounder (what luxury!) and then much later on, the tiny fridge, just big enough to keep any fish we caught from going bad before we could eat it.

A couple of years later, in Australia, we replaced the wind generator with solar panels, realizing that we disliked the necessity of anchoring in windy places, and also the fact that the blades had maimed at least one poor seabird. The increased reliability of our electricity, especially in sunny places like Queensland, led us to install electric cabin lights. Up until that point, however, we had lived as sailors for centuries had done, with an oil lamp to light the cabin after dark.

We had two fresh water tanks under the settee berths; for the first year we pumped our water at the galley sink with a hand pump; when we reached New Zealand, we upgraded to a foot pump. In ports where we could easily obtain fresh water, we would fill a “solar camping shower” bag with it, letting the black bag sit in the sun to heat the water and then washing ourselves with it up on deck. This was rather pleasant in deserted tropical anchorages, but was less enjoyable in colder locations, or in crowded harbors where we felt a bit exposed, even wearing our bathing suits. On passages we used our fresh water only for drinking and cooking; a shower at sea was a bucket of saltwater.

We rowed to and from the shore, aboard our eight-foot faux lapstrake solid fiberglass dinghy. We cooled our boat in warm places simply by opening the hatches; we warmed ourselves in cold places simply by layering on clothing or blankets. We always sailed. We used our oil-leaking engine only to maneuver into tight marinas or harbors; often we sailed right on and off our anchor, and we never motored at sea. We used less than 40 gallons of diesel fuel per year. If there was no wind – as there wasn’t for six days off Australia’s Northern Territory – we just drifted.

For the first year and a half of old-fashioned sailing, we obtained weather forecasts simply by looking at the sky and the barometer. Then, upon leaving New Zealand, we joined a single sideband radio net, on which a man back in New Zealand reported weather forecasts. Another year and a half after that, upon leaving for South Africa from the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, we finally upgraded to receiving GRIB files over SailMail, via a Pactor modem hooked up to our SSB. With the advent of our Pactor modem, we also finally had primitive, text-only email communication with the outside world. Before that, voice communication with other radio stations – other boats with SSB or VHF – had been our sole contact with the world beyond our little sloop. Indeed, on our Pacific crossing, we only had the VHF on which to communicate, meaning we could speak only to those vessels that came within 25 miles of our position. Over the course of that month-long passage, a month that just the two of us spent out of sight of land, we spoke with only one ship.

There is a certain element of difficulty in living in this way. There are times when you are very tired, or the wind is blowing strong, and you wish you had an outboard motor for the dinghy. Sometimes the dishes you washed in the light of the oil lamp turn out not to be all that clean in the light of day. Your hair itches after weeks of seawater bucket “showers.” Drifting out of sight of land, in a dead calm, in tropical heat, for a full week, taxes your mental stamina in way not familiar to most modern Westerners. Reading the sky and the barometer to estimate your own weather forecasts requires an attentiveness and observation power beyond what most of us are used to. Living without refrigeration restricts your diet in unpleasant ways. Sailing without modern aids like radar, AIS, chartplotters, and electronic autopilots makes for quite a bit more work and more vigilance. This is especially true in thick fog, even more so when that fog is hiding a busy roadstead like Cape Town, South Africa. Hauling a 60-pound anchor up by hand, especially in deep anchorages, when you have many feet of chain to haul up as well, requires serious strength. And making ocean passages aboard a low-freeboard, heavy displacement boat, especially in high winds and steep waves, makes for a very wet ride.

But it also provides a unique satisfaction. Like a lengthy mountain trek or climb, it shows you that you are capable of discomfort and effort beyond what you may have expected. Just as the author and pioneering aviator Beryl Markham found when she left home as a very young woman, it’s liberating and satisfying to discover that, “I never had less and I never needed more.” Combined with the marvelous experiences of offshore voyaging – the seabirds wheeling in the pink sky as the sun rises after a dark night of rain squalls; the flying fish shimmering over the waves; the delicious taste of a tuna you caught yourself; the feathery tops of palm trees at the end of a long passage; spinning yarns with fellow sailors; Sunday brunch with a local family on a remote island; the quiet stillness of a protected cove – sailing like this, in a style many people today would find primitive, provided Seth and myself with a unique joy.

Old-fashioned sailing: Connecting with the Natural World

I think that the true reason for this was that the simplicity of it necessarily connected us more fully with what we were doing, with the natural world through which we were moving. Creature comforts, as lovely as they are, in some ways form a barrier between us and our world. Finding a balance between the two is important: after all, Seth and I did not cross the Pacific on a raft, Kon-Tiki style. We had bunks with bedsheets, a gas burner on which to cook hot meals, and enough tins and dried food to last us for months. But we lived much closer to the elements than we would have done aboard a more modern, kitted-out yacht. It’s hard to feel removed from the ocean, and from the act of sailing across its vast expanse, when green water is coursing down the decks and drenching you on your watches in a gale. When we reached an island or a bay or a harbor, we would carefully nose around it before dropping the hook; hauling up the anchor by hand had given us a great appreciation of the depth of the water in which we anchored. Drifting in calms instilled deep gratitude for the gift of wind. The dim light of the oil lamp meant that our daily routines were much more in keeping with the rising and setting of the sun, and we appreciated full moon nights much more than we ever had before. Seawater showers and a poor diet offshore made the simple pleasures of bathing in fresh water and eating fresh fruit in port into supreme joys.

I think that slowing down our lives, reducing them and simplifying them, added enormously to the joy and wonder of our ocean sailing and the beauties of each new landfall. Perhaps the biggest contribution to this was our lack of communication with the outside world. Satellite communications back then – and I am only speaking about less than 20 years ago – were prohibitively expensive. Internet connection on a sailboat was unheard of, not even quite believable, a bizarre extravagance that megayachts were rumored to have. SSB radio with slow modems and text email service was as high-tech as it really got, and Seth and I didn’t even have that for the first three years. We communicated with those at home sporadically: via letters posted from a port with a post office; via emails sent from internet cafes; and sometimes via phone, in conversations curtailed by the expense of a long-distance connection from pay-phone booth. And so we lived much as people had for generations, socializing with the people in our immediate vicinity, making new friends when we went to new places. In short, we lived in each moment in the place in which we found ourselves. At sea, that meant with only each other, and the sea and sky and the wild creatures, for company. The simplicity of that, the slowness of it, the immediacy and intimacy of it, resets your mind in way, enables a degree of focus and calm that’s missing in the fast pace of the digital world.

And so, while Seth and I have upgraded now to slightly larger, cold-molded wooden sloop, with pressure water, an anchor windlass, and even radar, our floating home remains relatively simple. Thus, sailing remains the time and place in which we reconnect with the natural world, with the ocean we are sailing upon, with the wildlife we observe, with the people we meet, and with each other.

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Classic Boat is the magazine for the world’s most beautiful boats. Packed with stunning images, we have the inside stories of the great classic yachts and motorboats afloat today, as well as fascinating tales from yesteryear and the latest from the wooden boat building scene around the world.

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• Rescuers Find 5 Bodies Aboard the Sunken ‘Bayesian’ Superyacht 

The yacht's owner, Mike Lynch, and his daughter Hannah, have been identified.

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The celebratory trip aboard Bayesian took place shortly after Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. in a long-running legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard after he sold Hewlett his company, Autonomy, for $11 billion.

Boat International has quoted a crew member as saying that the boat was struck by a freak weather event, which caused it to heel 20 degrees on its right side. It continued to heel until it began to take on water and sank in just 12 minutes. “We just didn’t see it coming,” Capt. James Calfield told Italian media.

An anonymous superyacht captain speculated to Boat International that water entering through the top via open doors and windows could have caused the sinking, given that no breaches have been reported in the hull. Some witnesses have said that the mast snapped before the boat sank, but divers report the vessel is intact on the sea bottom.

David Hutchinson, captain of Bayesian ’s sistership Rosehearty , both built by Perini Navi , told BI that it was “very difficult to understand what could have overwhelmed a vessel of that size, calling the sailing superyacht series “bulletproof.”

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerse are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking, according to The New York Times .

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, told paper that he expects a series of lawsuits to determine responsibility. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he said.

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Sailing Avocet : A New Adventure Begins

• By Marissa Neely
• August 20, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every boat has a story. So does every boat owner. And few tell those stories better than Marissa and Chris, the crew of Avocet, a 1979 41-foot Cheoy Lee. They met the boat in February 2018, just three months before college graduation, got married in June 2018, and have been liveaboards ever since. Avocet’s journey has only just begun, and as Cruising World’s newest ambassadors, the Avocet crew share their adventures with our community, from the technical aspects of cruising a classic sailboat to the breathtaking destinations they visit to the challenges (and triumphs!) that come with the liveaboard life.

Ahoy, from Avocet

My name is Marissa, and I am half of the crew on Avocet , a 1979 41-foot Cheoy Lee that my partner, Chris, and I have been living aboard since 2018.

Chris grew up in a sailing family, spending time on small lake boats and sailing near the San Francisco Bay area aboard his family’s Mason 43. His older brother purchased a Hans Christian 33, Prism, to cruise the world, paving the way for us to follow in his wake half a decade later.

Chris got me involved in the sport early in our relationship. We were barely 15 when he persuaded me to crew for him in the annual High Sierra Regatta, where I caught the sailing bug. After high school, Chris asked me to marry him in Costa Rica while we were aboard his brother’s boat. Of course, I said yes to a life of adventure, which led us to where we are now.

Our current story starts with how we found our beloved Avocet . We met the boat in February 2018, just three months before college graduation. We signed the papers in March, and Chris spent nearly every weekend driving eight hours to prepare Avocet for our move-in day.

Then, in May, we began our adult lives—him with his bachelor’s degree in social sciences, and me with bachelors’ in ski business, resort management and global business management. We got married on June 2, 2018, just two days before Chris carried me from the dock to Avocet ’s cockpit and we unpacked on board.

The Discovery

Back when Chris and I were looking for boats in 2018, Avocet was not even on our radar. We were looking for something simpler, like a Catalina 36. At the time, we had no intentions of cruising, and we were looking for a crash pad while Chris finished his studies at film school in San Francisco Bay.

We convinced ourselves that the Catalina 36 was everything we wanted, until we stepped aboard one in Southern California and realized it wouldn’t suit our lifestyle needs. We had no Plan B, but we did have Chris’ brother Jon with us. He found Avocet .

“We cruised with a boat like this in Mexico,” Jon said as he boarded the boat. After a few moments on board, Chris felt at home, comparing the warm teak walls to his family’s Mason 43. I was not as easily charmed—I thought the interior was atrocious—but Chris begged me to give it a minute.

After we drove away, Chris couldn’t stop thinking about the boat. His offer to the seller was laughable at best, probably around $25,000, which is what we had saved. The seller rejected that offer, so Chris wrote a letter to the seller, explaining who we were and why we would be honored to buy it. We settled around $30,000, which was $10,000 less than the original listed price. We still had to get a bank loan, but Avocet was ours.

The Confusion

People recognize that Avocet is a Cheoy Lee but often fail to identify the model. On the outside, the boat looks strikingly similar to the Offshore 41 and Pedrick 41, but has key differences. Cheoy Lee had seen a similar design from naval architect Ray Richards, the designer of the Offshore, and subsequently designed its own Cheoy Lee 41. Richards’ new-at-the-time element was a 6-foot-deep cruising fin, in which the forefoot is a cutaway and the rudder is attached to a skeg. Richards described the boat as “stiff as a church,” which we have found to be very true.

Unlike Avocet , the Offshore 41s don’t share the same tumblehome, leaving them much narrower with a different sheer. Inside, Avocet ’s saloon is oval-shaped, unlike the semi-circle cut of the Offshore. Our boat’s head is abaft the saloon on the starboard side, forward of the stateroom, with a closet separating them. In the Offshore, there is no closet.

Avocet is also different from the Offshore below the waterline, thanks to Avocet ’s modified fin keel and separated skeg-hung rudder. Our boat’s prop shaft comes right out of the keel, making our shaft 4½ feet long. Another notable difference is that the Offshore has a slightly taller cabin top.

Unfortunately, there is not much existing literature on Cheoy Lee 41s—especially sloops—since they seemed to have been built to order and highly customized by whoever commissioned them. We asked Cheoy Lee for help in our hunt to find details about Avocet , but no records were in their database.

Richards did kindly answer my emails and provided some insight, supporting our own findings: “I am not particularly familiar with it, but your email jogged my memory that indeed, Cheoy Lee had Pedrick design a 41, ‘borrowing’ from mine but with the, by then, contemporary style of underbody and flatter sheer. I also recall that Pedrick was or had been in the Sparkman & Stephens office, a factor that Cheoy Lee probably and understandably would have figured as good for sales. There were more than a few misquotes and errors. For example, I turned out four, not 10 designs for Cheoy Lee. The first was a 39, a larger and heavier version of an aluminum one-tonner that had received some good press, but it was totally away from the type and style of CL’s market niche. It was flush-decked and had a plumb transom from which a dirty big outboard rudder was hung. Tad Woodhull, Lyon Yachts, Essex, Connecticut, had one and did well racing it in Long Island Sound. It was he who stimulated Cheoy Lee toward replacing Phil Rhodes’ very handsome Reliant , which came to be sold as their Offshore 40. Thus came my 41, which was originally designated Offshore 40. Maybe that, in CL’s mind, was much like replacing a Richards with a Pedrick. The 32 came next. It was followed by the 38, very similar in features to the 41.”

There only seem to be eight CL41s in existence, reflected on the Cheoy Lee Association owners page, and Avocet appears to be one of the only sloops.

The Construction

Like most boats of this vintage, Avocet has a solid fiberglass hull. According to the company literature, the thickness in these boats ranges from about seven-sixteenths of an inch at the sheer to 1 inch, but we have found Avocet to be five-eighths of an inch at the sheer and as much as 2 inches at the keel.

This level of fiberglass production was uncommon at the time and gave Cheoy Lee a good reputation for building robust boats. Unlike many other early fiberglass classics, the Cheoy Lee 41s had fiberglass decks, most with a teak overlay. The previous owner removed Avocet ’s teak deck, most likely in Mexico in 2004. Beneath the fiberglass deck is mahogany planking that serves as core. We inspected it. Dry as a bone.

Cheoy Lee poured its own cast iron ballasts, but our keel is lead, which is denser, softer and not subject to corrosion. Cheoy Lee Shipyards said it was unlikely that the boat originally had a lead keel, but it’s possible that Avocet ’s original owner commissioned it with lead ballast, for which we are thankful.

On the other hand, Avocet was built with poor-quality stainless steel. The chainplates crumbled in our hands. Fasteners were a problem, too. Most owners, like us, have replaced the shoddy metal, sometimes paving the way for other problems, such as leaks. We had this issue when the fasteners in our toe rail corroded, leaving voids that allowed water intrusion into our interior. Instead of replacing the toe rail, we removed it and added a bulwark. This let us glass over the deck-to-hull joint, reinforcing the structural integrity of our boat. It is, so far, the crowning upgrade on our extensive project list.

Avocet ’s previous owner also replaced the Sitka spruce spar in 2004 with our aluminum mast, which we refitted in 2021. Avocet is deck-stepped with a single spreader and a relatively short boom, meaning the boat is heavily headsail-driven.

I know what you are thinking: A cruising boat with a deck-stepped mast? How could this be? Well, as with many things in sailing, there is a deck-stepped versus keel-stepped debate.

Deck-stepped boats have masts that are more flexible, making the mast easier to adjust for optimum performance by making small adjustments to the standing rigging. Going upwind, the backstay, runners and check stays can have tension added to tighten the stays and pull the mast aft. This will both rake the mast aft, giving it weather helm, and tension the headstay for added pointing ability.

If all the stays fail on the mast, it will fall over, since it stands on the deck totally reliant on the rigging—one of the many reasons we replaced our chainplates and all the rigging, and beefed up our mast step in 2021.

Avocet ’s geared steering quadrant is also unusual. Unlike with cable or worm steering, the input from the helm goes directly to a pinion gear, which turns a larger planetary gear, then a drive shaft mounted vertically inside the binnacle. This connects directly to the rudder shaft through two more gears. There is little that can go wrong with this system. All the gears are locked together with large components, eliminating the risk of cable failure.

With so much mechanical advantage, Avocet has a different feel than other boats. Because of the geared steering, we can never feel weather helm, which takes some getting used to if you are a seasoned sailor. We also have an easy time hand-steering, and our autopilot has more control. The lock-to-lock at the wheel takes four complete revolutions of the helm. In the time we have owned Avocet , we have really grown to like this system.

Avocet also has an inboard Perkins 4-108 diesel engine that is midship between the galley and head. With the weight concentrated on centerline, we have less pitching. The weight is also low, with the Perkins below the cabin sole, about 2 feet below the waterline. It’s not the easiest location for maintenance, but it’s a valuable addition to our lead ballast, making it the best possible location for sailing performance.

And, our cabin sole is removable for access the engine. We also have a 6-foot-deep bilge with pumps and alarms to address any incoming water and eliminate flooding.

If our engine were above the cabin sole and beneath the companionway (like many are), it would be at equal risk of water damage due to a green wave—a good reason why we relocated our batteries to a watertight spot.

The Performance

Although Avocet isn’t truly an International Offshore Rule vessel, it shares a lot of traits, having been built at the height of IOR times in the late ’70s. The hull has bow and stern overhangs, the boat has a wide beam, and it is heavily headsail-driven. It sails incredibly well for its heavy weight, too. With a modified fin keel and a large rudder far aft on the stern, Avocet always feels well-footed underway. The keel digs deep into the sea while the rudder has significant control on any given point of sail.

At 26,000 pounds, Avocet is not a light boat, but it carries the weight in all the right places. Our favorite attribute is the boat’s low-slung nature. The freeboard is relatively low off the water, and much of the weight is carried below the waterline. This all contributes to Avocet ’s best sailing characteristic, which is stiffness.

In a generous breeze of 15 to 25 knots, we can carry all our canvas and keep a heel no more than 15 to 20 degrees, making life aboard blissfully comfortable. Avocet ’s unassuming image is what makes it such a good boat a comfortable racer in disguise. That’s how we squeezed out a second place showing in this year’s Banderas Bay Regatta, with the heaviest handicap in the entire race.

Avocet ‘s journey has only just begun, and we’re thrilled to share our adventures with the Cruising World community. As Cruising World ‘s newest ambassadors, you’ll get a front-row seat to our experiences, from the technical aspects of cruising a unique boat like Avocet to the breathtaking destinations we encounter and the challenges (and triumphs!) that come with full-time liveaboard life.

In the coming months, we’ll be chronicling our ongoing adventures, giving you a variety of specially curated content from our cruising life, from boat projects and maintenance to the realities of full-time liveaboard life, managing limited space and staying connected with loved ones back home.We believe Avocet ‘s story resonates with many sailors. It’s a testament to the spirit of adventure, the joy of living a life less ordinary and the unique bond that forms between a crew and its boat. We’re excited to share this journey with you, so stay tuned for more updates from Avocet ! In the meantime, learn more about what we’re up to now at svavocet.com .

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For Sale: 2006 84′ Lazzara

• By Donny Gilbert
• August 21, 2024

Starfire, a 2006 84′ Lazzara yacht, has five staterooms, six heads, captain and crew quarters and is listed with HMY Yachts sales for $1.757 million. Sleek lines make this yacht look fast, even at the dock, and it has solid performance. Twin 1,800 hp Caterpillar C30 diesels reportedly push this 84-footer to 27 knots.

The yacht’s flybridge is set up for entertaining and is partially shaded by the hardtop. Guests can relax on a curved portside settee with table aft, while forward is a curved settee with table to starboard. There is also a wet bar with three swivel stools. Starfire ’s peninsula-shaped wet bar is equipped with a Corian and wood bar top with ice maker underneath, Wolf electric grill and under-counter refrigerator. Guests can enjoy a beverage and burger while soaking up the sun in the hot tub to starboard. The aft deck can function as a sundeck or use it to secure a dinghy. The yacht’s Nautical Structures davit has a 1,199-pound lift capacity. 

Starfire ‘s current season upgrades include:

• Bottom paint & Propspeed
• Complete exterior wax
• Refinished teak
• Polished metals
• Complete interior detail
• Carpets cleaned
• New stove in galley
• New cooktop
• New dishwasher
• New fire-suppression system
• One new AC compressor
• Chemical flush of AC condensers
• New freshwater-system accumulator

The flybridge helm has two Stidd captain chairs with controls comfortably within arm’s reach. A set of stairs connect the flybridge helm directly with the pilothouse so captains can easily switch positions. The yacht’s electronics and navigation gear includes:

• Furuno NavNet 3D navigation & radar
• Northstar 6000i GPS
• Simrad AR 78  compass
• SimradRS87 GMDSS radio telephone
• Simrad AP25 autopilot Furuno FCV582L with transducer
• B&G HS2000 speed/depth/temp hydra system
• 12″ LCD display to provide video display of ISIS, Nobeltec, CCTV through switching system
• IDT/HP Vector chart plotter display, controls and Nobeltec time zero 1/13 with 12″ flat panel LCD display
• Vicon VC3000 DSP camera
•  Elbex dome camera
• ACR 406 category I, Class 1 EPIRB
• Telular Tri Mode cell phone
• KVH Tracphone cell phone
• KVH Tracphone 252
• Furuno NX3000 with NX3 coupler
• IDT SU1000NET Smart with UPS
• Sea Tel 2498S
• Panasonic telephone system
• Bow thrusters

A molded fiberglass stairwell from the flybridge leads to the cockpit where guests can relax on a cushioned settee with varnished table and four wicker chairs on a teak sole, all shaded by the flybridge. Transom gates lead to the hydraulic swim platform. An Opacmare passerelle makes for easy boarding at the quay. Looking for a little privacy? Head to the foredeck and its sun pads for quiet time with a good book.   

Enter the salon via a double sliding curved glass door. The salon has a pecan veneer that is illuminated from natural light through windows flanking the space. Relax on the portside leather sofa and chairs with a bottle of wine from the wine cabinet while watching a game on the entertainment center to starboard. There is formal dining for six guests. Alfresco dining options are available in the cockpit and on the flybridge. 

Starfire’ s galley is forward of the salon/dinette, inside the pilothouse. Oversized appliances ensure provisions for long-range voyaging. Some of the galley amenities include:

• Country kitchen with island sink
• Granite countertops
• Built-in pantry
• Two wood chairs
• Skylight with laminated chemically strengthened glass
• Brushed stainless-steel appliances
• Grohe double stainless-steel sink and single-lever faucet with sprayer
• Cream color marble sole
• Frigidaire dishwasher
• KitchenAid electric range with 4-burner cooktop
• KitchenAid convection oven
• KitchenAid trash compactor
• Grand electric microwave convection oven
• Instant hot-water dispenser
• Water filter
• Sharp TV 15″ LCD flat screen
• Starboard sliding door to deck
• 24-volt lighting 

After a long day on the water, guests can retire to one of five staterooms. The master stateroom has a king-sized berth with drawers underneath and an en suite head. Relax, take your shoes off and enjoy the carpeted sole while you sit in the loveseat watching a movie on the 42-inch plasma TV. Stow your belongings in a walk-in closet with shelves and lights with access to a separate stowage closet from the main closet. Two VIP staterooms, one on the port side and one to starboard, have queen-sized, walkaround berths with drawers underneath and access to a private head. Two additional guest staterooms are located forward, one with upper and lower berths and one with a full-sized berth. Crew quarters are accessed from the swim platform and can be used for additional guests or kids seeking a little more privacy.  

HMY stated, “Noteworthy features of Starfire include the day head, country kitchen and the massive flybridge, adding to its allure. Propelled by Cat C-30 motors, Starfire maintains a cruising speed of 24-27 knots, promising an impressive performance on the sea. Mechanical highlights of Starfire include TRAC stabilizers, twin Onan generators, a sea-recovery watermaker, and a headhunter waste treatment system, enhancing its overall efficiency and functionality.”

Where is Starfire located? The yacht is currently lying in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Take the next step: call the listing agent, Tony Lazzara , (727) 692-9902, HM Y Yachts

Quick Specifications

• Length Overall: 84′
• Maximum Beam: 20’1″
• Max Draft: 4.5′
• Cruising Speed: 24 knots
• Max Speed: 27 knots
• Hull Material: Fiberglass
• Engine Make: Caterpillar
• Engine Model: C30
• Fuel Type: Diesel
• Combined Horsepower: 3,600 hp 
• Fuel Capacity:  2,000 Gal.
• More: 50'-99' , Brokerage , HMY Yacht Sales , Lazzara , Lazzara Yachts , Yachts for Sale
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