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Sailing World’s 2022 Boat of the Year

• By Dave Reed
• December 22, 2021

Sailing World Magazine’s annual Boat of the Year tests are conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, following the US Sailboat Show. With independent judges exhaustively inspecting the boats on land and putting them through their paces on the water, this year’s fleet of new performance-sailing boats spanned from small dinghies to high-tech bluewater catamarans. Here’s the best of the best from our 2022 Boat of the Year nominees »

Out yonder in the vast cornfields of Wisconsin, boatbuilders in Tyvek suits are infusing polyester glass hulls as fast as they can, buffing out one gleaming white dinghy nearly every 66 hours in a full-tilt routine to place the latest American-made dinghy into the hands of sailors clamoring to get a piece of the new great thing in small-craft sailing: the remarkably versatile Melges 15, our 2022 Boat of the Year. No longer shall youth and adult sailors be cast to their individual dinghy classes, and our judges agree. This one allows all ages to play together in one remarkable 15-footer.

“It’s stable, forgiving and accessible to a wide swath of physiques, a platform where you can learn to sail it and then transition quickly to racing,” says Eddie Cox, the youngster of Melges Performance Sailboats who’s been involved with the Melges 15’s development from inception to launch. “The boat fits a wide variety of sailors, and that’s what our goal was. It’s family-orientated sailing, which is important to us because that’s how Melges boats are.”

While the Reichel/Pugh-designed Melges 15 was originally introduced in May 2020, its BOTY appearance was delayed to 2021, and clearly neither the class nor the builder was waiting for its award. In less than a year, multiple fleets have been seeded and growing across the country, with more than 150 boats sailing and another 175 or so already on order as of October 2021. Demand is, of course, outpacing supply, but the folks out in Zenda don’t mind that one bit.

The most notable trait the judges noted as they observed the boat on land during October’s United States Sailboat Show is its deep cockpit, which puts the boat in a similar space as the Club 420. But that’s about where comparisons end. In fact, during post-sailing deliberations, the judges found it impossible to identify another doublehanded dinghy quite like it, aside from the 25-year-old RS200 class, which is only active in Europe. So, there’s a golden opportunity for the Melges crew in the non-skiff, doublehanded asymmetric-spinnaker market.

The Melges 15’s best trait under sail, however, is its stability. The hull’s wide after sections and sharp chines push a lot of buoyancy outboard, says Greg Stewart. Examine the hull profile from aside the boat on its dolly and it’s easy to see the rocker too, which encourages early planing and a smooth ride uphill while also making it responsive to crew-weight adjustments as wind conditions change.

On deck, the judges took note of the open foredeck, which allows you to safely and comfortably walk or crawl to the bow should you need to when landing or correcting the inevitable spinnaker snafu. Mounted on the foredeck is the asymmetric spinnaker turtle with a stainless-steel throat bar and aluminum retracting sprit. The single-line spinnaker hoist and retrieval system leads to a cam cleat near the mast base and runs aft to a turning block at the transom, so either the helmsman or crew can manage the hoist. Pin-stop adjustable jib tracks are mounted on the side tanks, and sheets lead to ratchet blocks with stand-up rubber boots to provide the appropriate cross-sheeting angles.

Here, in the crew’s playground, a lot of design focus went into the height, width and construction of the boat’s backbone, making it a comfortable seat to straddle in lighter winds. The aluminum-reinforced centerboard box, Cox says, also provides extra strength in the trunk and allows Melges to build the boat more economically. The trunk tapers downward sharply aft toward the floor to provide an anchor point for the mainsheet block. From there, it’s a clean run aft with only the skipper’s hiking straps.

While the trend in dinghy design has been toward open transoms, doing so requires raised floors in order to drain water. To maintain a deep cockpit, Melges instead opted for tried-and-true stainless-steel Elvström/Anderson Bailers, as well as flaps in the transom should the sleigh ride be especially wet and wild.

Aiming to keep the rig tuning quick and simple, the two-part tapered aluminum Selden rig has a single-length forestay and adjustable turnbuckles, while gross settings for varying crew combinations can be made with adjustable spreader brackets for rake and spreader length.

“Put a Loos tension gauge on the forestay, tune the rig up until you hit 19 on the gauge, and that’s your base setting,” Cox says. “When it gets windy, put on a few more turns at the shrouds and that’s how you get to 24, which is your heavy-air setting. It’s all pretty simple. The boom-top mounted vang is anchored on the mast with the sliding track on the boom, which is a clean solution to keep the crew’s runway clear and have a powerful tool to depower the rig (the cleat is on a mast-mounted swivel).

The centerboard and rudder are both aluminum with rubber end caps, which is the go-to solution for maintenance-free appendages these days—less time fairing and fussing means more time sailing, and this is especially true for boats destined for sailing and yacht-club fleets.

“Our goal is to help the sport grow and help racing grow,” Cox says. “We think one problem with American sailing is getting younger sailors out of high school or college sailing into their next race boat. Going fast and being able to go 20 knots downwind hooks people—we need to make sure we are making sailing fast, fun and exciting.”

When the judges got their time in the boat with a fresh 15-knot northwest wind, they witnessed firsthand what Cox had promised. To prove a point of its versatility, veteran judge and college sailing coach Chuck Allen commandeered the 15 alone, set the red spinnaker, and was immediately a projectile—soon a red speck on the horizon.

“The stability of this really opens it to such a wide range of sailors,” Allen says. “The build quality is superb, and it is so clean. It’s classic Melges. They really took their time with it before putting it out there. Its stated purpose is right on target, the price point is good, and with that stability it sails incredibly well upwind and downwind.”

Once they were able to wrestle the tiller from Allen’s hands, fellow judges Greg Stewart and David Powlison, tipping the scales at 420 pounds combined, set off on a few speed burns of their own, climbing to windward in 12 knots of breeze at narrow angles, and effortlessly planing off downwind, knocking through jibes with ease after only a few minutes in the boat.

“Of all the boats we sailed, it was the one I really didn’t want to get off of,” Stewart says. “For me, selecting it as our Boat of the Year comes down to execution of the build and its performance. It’s exceptional in all ways. Everything is so well-integrated and clean. It starts with a good designer, and then it’s good product development and craftsmanship—there’s nothing on this boat that you don’t need.”

Powlison seconds Stewart’s praise for the boat, especially the part about how it serves such a wide variety of crew combinations. “It’s not just a race boat, but a boat to go sail and have fun with anyone, anytime.”

• More: Boat of the Year , Boat of the Year 2022 , Melges , Sailboats
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Chesapeake Bay Magazine

The Best of the Bay

Hampton One Design, a top choice for Bay sailors since the 1930s (Photos by Pat Venturino)

Sailboat racing in the Upper Bay has come a long way.

By Susan Moynihan

Drive across any bridge around the Bay on a clear afternoon and you’ll see groups of sails dotting the water, racing from marker to marker in picturesque clusters of white on blue. Sailboat racing is ubiquitous around the Bay from spring through late fall, but it wasn’t always that way. A current project at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, done in coordination with Havre de Grace Yacht Club, sheds light on the early days of small-boat racing in the Upper Bay, following its development from a sport for the wealthy to an everyday enjoyment accessible to the middle class following World World II. And they even have the boat to illustrate it.

Sailboat racing has been around as long as there have been boats, says Al Caffo, avid history buff and former commodore of the Havre de Grace Yacht Club, when I met him one summer afternoon at the HdG Maritime Museum. “It’s like that old joke: What do you call two boats on the same tack? A race.”

According to Caffo and the museum’s Executive Director Juliette Moore, the nation’s interest in yacht racing really ignited in 1851, when a trio of New York businessmen sailed the schooner America across the Atlantic to England to participate in a race during the World’s Fair. They won the trophy, and that regatta, now known as the America’s Cup, remains the world’s oldest international sporting event. (The modern Olympics didn’t start until 1896.)

Buzz over the race led to the development of yachting clubs all along the East Coast and eventually around the Bay. With its location at the confluence of the Bay and the Susquehanna River, Havre de Grace was an ideal location for one, and the HdG Yacht Club was founded in 1907, with the chief aims of “social, boating, outing and camping.”

Like many clubs around the region, it started off with high hopes but its resources dwindled with the onset of World War I. “Wars tend to end yacht clubs,” said Caffo, “and then they restart again.” And so it went with the HdG Yacht Club, whose initial capital of $1,000 had dwindled to $185 by 1913. The club was loosely reformed in 1927 and formally reincorporated in 1930 with the goal of creating an annual regatta.

At the time, regattas focused on powerboating—typically on daredevil machines with outboard engines that were all about speed. The yacht club’s first race took place on June 14, 1930. A program from a weekend regatta later that summer, on display at the museum, lists a series of powerboat races, along with sculling, rowing, and even swimming races for men and women, but nary a sailboat race. Along with cash prizes and silver trophy cups, gifts were donated from local businesses, including a stopwatch from Pitcock Bros. Hardware, a fountain pen desk set from Green’s Pharmacy, and no fewer than four silver cup cocktail shakers, from the Democratic Ledger , the local Kiwanis Club, Hecht’s Hardware, and Susquehanna Hose Co.

The regatta was a quick success, likely helped along by the city’s reputation as one of the East Coast’s premier horse-racing destinations. The Havre de Grace Racetrack, known as The Graw, ran from 1912 to 1950, drawing viewers from Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to see winning races by Man o’ War, War Admiral, and Seabiscuit, among other thoroughbreds. “Sporting culture at the time was a great social event, from horse racing to regattas,” says Moore. 

By 1933, Motor Boating Magazine declared HdG Yacht Club’s regatta to be the largest held in the east, says Caffo. The program for the 7th Annual Regatta in 1936 lists 32 separate powerboat races, with multiple classes and distances, along with a few sailboat races almost as an afterthought. “The course maps for the sail races were not what we would refer to as elegant,” says Caffo, and did not factor in wind speed or direction.

This isn’t to say that boats weren’t racing under sail power in other parts of the Bay. Log canoe sailboat races have been documented since the late 1800s around St. Michaels. But it would take another world event to bring on the popularity of small-boat racing as we know it today. In the wake of World War II, returning servicemen created a new middle class, which led to a major increase in affordable housing, household appliances, automobiles, and yes, sailboats. 

In Havre de Grace, Bob McVey was of these returnees. He grew up sailing the upper Bay, joined the Merchant Marine, and then enlisted in the Army at the onset of World War II. Upon returning safely home, he was eager to get back on the water again. So along with two fellow sailors, Marshall Palmer and Steiner Pierce, he invested in a used Hampton One Design (HOD) sailboat.

This classic Chesapeake sailing boat was designed in Hampton, Va., in 1934 by local boatbuilder Vincent Serio. According to the Hampton History Museum, the Hampton Yacht Club wanted to start a one-class boat sailing competition. They chose Serio to design a small sailboat that could be used in regattas and races. One of the key elements was a centerboard, rather than a keel, so the boat could maneuver through the shallow waters of the lower Bay. Equally key was the generous sail size, to take advantage of light winds in the Chesapeake summers. Best of all was the price: Designed as an everyman’s boat, and later available as a kit, a new one retailed for $324.

McVey likely bought his for considerably less, due it its condition; it was said to have been sunk in the water, a deteriorating hull full of sand, when he found it in Chesapeake City. He brought it home and set to work restoring it, naming it Ringer. Despite its humble start, McVey and Ringer became quite the team, and in 1952 they raced to victory in the Admiral Byrd Cup in Cambridge. He continued to be a prolific racer and yacht club supporter until his passing in 1994. His passion and memory is celebrated annually with the HdG Yacht Club’s Bob McVey Memorial Race, the final club race of the season.

But his legacy encompasses more than the race. Fast forward to 2019, when the all-volunteer boat crew at the nearby Havre de Grace Maritime Museum had recently constructed a wooden Opti that was then donated to the local youth sailing program. For their next project, what if they could find and restore an HOD similar to Ringer , the sailboat that set Bob McVey on his racing career?

Under Caffo’s unofficial guidance, the team set to work. HODs are still an active class, with an estimated 700+ boats still racing (though they switched from wood to fiberglass in 1961). To learn more, the team headed to the Hampton History Museum, which had an exhibit on HODs. The exhibit included a refurbished, fully rigged 1947 HOD on display in the lobby, along with tools and artifacts from Serio’s original workshop. During the visit, they met with curator Allen Holiman and shared their hope of restoring an HOD as it would have been when McVey started racing in 1948. Holiman knew people who had wooden HODs they might be willing to donate. David Wingfield had inherited a 1938 HOD from his father, Charlie: Hull 117, built by Serio himself. The hull was rotted in parts, from being stored outdoors, and the original fittings had been replaced by modern ones. Its mast, boom, and rigging had been removed and were used to construct the boat on display in the Hampton museum’s lobby. Wingfield agreed to donate the hull and his brother Ben, who had built an HOD of his own, donated a collection of related blueprints to help with the rebuild.

Holiman also connected them with Mike Evans, who added his circa 1940s HOD to the effort. This boat still had its wooden mast, boom, whisker pole, and bronze fittings. By combining elements from the two boats, they would be able to create a convincing replica of what McVey would have sailed in 1948.

The restoration work was done on the lower floor of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, much of it done during the pandemic. Following the faded blueprints and whatever images they could find, they cleaned and patched the hull, painted the deck and topsides, stripped and varnished the mahogany planking, fabricated and attached the mahogany coaming and gunwales, and varnished the king plank, decking, and centerboard. They removed the modern fittings and replaced them with Evan’s bronze originals, fabricating any missing details onsite from bronze and wood. “We learned a lot from YouTube,” says Caffo.

After a year’s delay due to the pandemic, the boat made her public debut in the 2021 Bob McVey Memorial Race, the season ender held on September 10 at Havre de Grace Yacht Cub. For the occasion, the club agreed to have a fourth start, just for the HOD class. “If we’re able to sail around the course, we’ll be able to declare ourselves the winner,” said Caffo the week before they put their project in the water. “But we do have to complete the course, it’s not a slam dunk.” Turns out, the boat performed beautifully on the water, and the win was well earned.

Going forward, Hull 117 will be on display in the boat shop at the museum, and then hopefully taken out each season to represent those early regattas. The whole project is a fitting testament to sailboat racers, then and now. In the words of Bob McVey, “The motivating force that defines the sport of sailing is the satisfaction of finding what your measure of ability is.” 

Susan Moynihan writes about travel and food, and is the author of 100 Things to Do in Annapolis and the Eastern Shore Before You Die . Follow her at @susanmoynihan.

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Memoir of a Skipjack

story by Joe Evans “In 1993 I bought a skipjack.” So begins Randolph George’s memoir,

The High-Adrenaline Racing of SailGP, Where Boats Don’t Float—They Fly

Three-time Rolex Sailor of the Year Tom Slingsby gives us a glimpse into a new sort of sailing.

Ever wanted a new sport to get into? Perhaps one that combines adrenaline, high-tech thrills and spills, and exotic locations? SailGP might be for you. Think of it as Formula 1 on water, with ten nations battling it out in 50-foot-long, 80-foot-tall high-tech racing catamarans powered entirely by the wind. But here’s the thing: They don’t sail. They fly—and fast.

SailGP, founded in 2019, is the brainchild of billionaire sailing nut Larry Ellison and New Zealander Sir Russell Coutts, arguably the most famous and successful competitive sailor in the sport’s history. From the get-go, the pair’s idea was not to create just another race series for yachty insiders but a global, spectator-friendly event that could capitalize on the new advances in sail racing afforded by foiling technology. This year, the season reached 193 million viewers, up 48 percent from 2023. Taking more than a little inspiration from Formula 1, SailGP set out to attract non-sailors to this burgeoning sport, partly by staging the races in nontraditional waters, like Abu Dhabi, Bermuda, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Since its inception, the SailGP competition has been sponsored by Rolex, which has long been a supporter of all manner of sailing. Last year, the brand extended its support by ten more years. As well as a $2 million purse for his team, the winning skipper at the grand finale, which this season took place below the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, receives a titanium Yacht-Master II.

Many of sailing’s luminaries are also key members of Rolex’s Testimonee program, evangelizing for both sailing and its unique connection with ocean sustainability. One of them is Tom Slingsby, helm and CEO of SailGP’s Team Australia and three-time Rolex Sailor of the Year. At the top of his game, Slingsby, 39, has carried off three of the four SailGP championships for Team Australia since it began in 2019.

Foiling, just a decade-and-change old, has transformed competitive sailing. Put simply, thanks to the physics of hydrostatic pressure, by sailing on carbon-fiber blades, an entire 50-foot racing catamaran can lift itself out of the water, reducing the drag coefficient to almost nothing and producing speeds unimaginable just 15 years ago. Often this means the boat moves three, even four times faster than the wind.

“You see spectators’ faces when you go past them doing nearly 100 kilometers an hour on the water and at four times the wind speed,” Slingsby says. “It’s unbelievable.” Foiling has almost doubled competitive sailing’s top speed—and it’s getting faster all the time. Not that speed is really the aim here.

“I don’t think it’s SailGP’s goal to set an outright speed record or anything like that,” Slingsby explains. “What we want is a good racing product. Our hydrofoils don’t need to just go super fast in a straight line; they need to go around a racetrack efficiently, to take off in light airs and sail well in strong airs, and be maneuverable when tacking and jibing.”

But getting there requires both skill and experience in a fast-evolving sport, as well as an array of technology and data gathering. So called “aviation officers” on each team have one job: to keep the race boat flying on its foils in constantly changing conditions. When they don’t, interesting things can happen.

Slingsby will probably race any boat you put in front of him. There’s a reason for that. “In the Olympics in 2008,” he says, “I went in as a favorite to win the Laser gold medal and I choked—basically I finished 22nd. Then my good friend Nathan Outteridge [a fellow Australian and helm of SailGP Team Switzerland] was leading going into the final race and ended up coming away with fifth and missing a medal. We were both really depressed. We were sitting having a beer after the Olympics and he said, ‘We’ve just got to sail more. Let’s just sail every type of boat, learn every type of skill, and that way we will be hard to beat.’”

Slingsby (and Outteridge) did just that, diving headfirst into the nascent sport of foiling at just the right time. Both went on to win Olympic golds.

“I’m very fortunate that I actually got to be part of sailing before foiling came along,” Slingsby says. “I went to the Olympics in Lasers, probably the simplest boat in the world, and then I was there when the America’s Cup boats started hydrofoiling. Now I’m here now with SailGP, the fastest and most amazing foiling league in the world, and it’s really taking our sport to new levels.”

Unlike Formula 1, there’s a deliberately bare-bones vibe to the infrastructure of SailGP to make the whole competition as environmentally sustainable as possible. The tagline is, after all, “Powered by Nature.”

“SailGP is at the top of the sport,” Slingsby explains, “so it filters down through the whole of sailing. We see and deal with ocean health every day; we see it much more than, say, tennis players do, or F1 drivers, or track athletes. We’re out there dealing with Mother Nature; it’s probably just us and surfers. It’s our responsibility to raise awareness.”

Off the water, the Impact Awards challenge GP teams to come up with ingenious ways to reduce waste and save on resources. For instance, the race catamarans—which all have the same design—were designed so they can be disassembled and fit into a single 40-foot container.

The benefit of one-design racing is that it levels the playing field. Skill becomes much more pivotal. Each boat has around 160 electronic sensors, tracking every setting of the boat, especially below the waterline, where the angle of attack of the foils is critical. Win or lose, at the end of a race day, all those recorded settings are beamed straight to the cloud and are immediately accessible to the other teams and their tacticians.

“Initially, I really didn’t like it,” says Slingsby of the data sharing. “We were the top team, and every day we’d go out and be losing advantage to our competitors because they would see our data from that day, and they were getting closer and closer. But now, I think it’s just good for SailGP. The racing is so much tighter.”

Tighter, but also more human. While material failures account for a proportion of crashes, decisions made by a skipper in a split second—or simply a split second too late—can throw out a whole race.

Another curiosity of SailGP is the way the finals are set up. The point system gives the race winner ten points, second place receives nine points, and so on. But the finals are where it gets interesting. The grand-finale weekend consists of five qualifying fleet races featuring all ten teams, and then the final race itself. Only the top three teams get to race in the final, with their seasonal scores effectively erased. Which means a team could be third overall for the season and still win the grand finale in the last few minutes of the season. It makes for a gripping race.

That’s precisely what happened last month in San Francisco, where third-place Spain, skippered by Diego Botin, edged out league leaders New Zealand and Australia in a race that lasted just ten minutes.

Slingsby, for his part, is currently in Barcelona, where that other great sailing race, the America’s Cup, is underway. SailGP’s 2024-25 season kicks off in November in Dubai. Two new teams are rumored to be joining the fray, attracted by the unique approach to racing established for SailGP.

“The America’s Cup is a development game,” says Slingsby. “You design your own boat and you’re just trying to make it the fastest you possibly can on the water. Essentially, you’re in training boats for three years and then you get three or four months in your actual race boat. You really do one important event in four years. With SailGP, we get to race for a full season every year. So for sure, SailGP is my favorite thing to do, because it’s consistent racing every month. Me, I’m a racer.”

Nick Sullivan is Creative Director at Esquire, where he served as Fashion Director from 2004 until 2019. Prior to that, he relocated from London with his young family to Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He has styled and art directed countless fashion and cover stories for both Esquire and Big Black Book ( which he helped found in 2006) in exotic,uncomfortable, and occasionally unfeasibly cold locations. He also writes extensively about men’s style, accessories, and watches. He describes his style as elegantly disheveled.

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Grand Soleil 65LC review: One of the most stunning new designs

• Toby Hodges
• August 27, 2024

The Grand Soleil 65LC is one of the most stunning new production yachts available, but who is it for? and, most importantly, what’s it like to sail?

Product Overview

Price as reviewed:.

Granted, the sight of Grand Soleil’s president Gigi Servidati sailing the beautiful Grand Soleil 65LC off Portofino arm in arm with his partner, tanned and clad in white linen, screams Italian cool. It’s picture poster stuff, sailing’s equivalent of an Italian supercar pinup from a lifestyle photoshoot.

But that’s not what draws my eye. However well Grand Soleil has perfected such a chic theme, we’ve seen this type of imagery before. Rather, there’s a certain angle of photography showing the yacht’s lines that hooks me – the aft quarter shot – everything else becomes peripheral. Show me those flared sections.

Sexy lines sell. And the Grand Soleil 65LC boasts the blend of qualities that befit a pure performance cruiser: contemporary powerful lines mixed with a look that stands out yet should age well. It has a little of the Advanced Yachts 66 to it – another Italian model that perfected the wraparound raised coachroof look (also by Nauta Design) and has stood the 10-year test of time handsomely. But then it adds the modern kick-ass beam, together with a very subtle chine leading to those distinctly flared aft sections… Oof!

‘The aft quarter hooks me. Show me those flared sections…’ Photo: Alberto Cocchi

When the GS 72 launched two years ago, these lines stood out. That Matteo Polli has managed to replicate it on a more ‘manageable’ size without losing any of the wow factor shows a young designer at the top of his game. The GS 65 is, naturally, an evolution, using the same powerful, sporty design.

Polli explains how the hull form “maintains the pronounced V in the bow and low wetted surface of the Grand Soleil 72 for less resistance, greater dynamic stability when heeling and better performance in light airs”. It’s a design he optimised for a broad wind range, “from lightship in racing conditions up to full load in cruising mode.”

The Grand Soleil 65 is one of the most stunning new production yachts available. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

And the overall beam of the Grand Soleil 65LC is only 20cm less, at a formidable 5.95m (viewed stern-to from the dock, the transom stops you in your tracks). It contains much of the same features as the GS 72, including the same genset and watermaker, but with that brings its own challenges, Polli explains. As the lightships and loaded displacement is a larger range on the GS 72, the attention to weight and wetted surface area becomes stricter on the smaller yacht.

Again it’s offered as a Long Cruise (LC) or Performance (P) model, with the variations found in the coachroof – or lack thereof – and internal layouts. Whichever version you choose, it’s quite a minimalist deck and cockpit. Helms aft leave a roomy cockpit, with very long, wide benches – you can seat 10 around the long central table – so the higher coachroof coamings and backrests of the LC make a lot more sense for cruising, offering at least some comfort and protection. It can also house a large sprayhood.

The lines and layout of the LC do it for me personally, however the orders so far are split evenly between the Long Cruise and Performance models – across both the 72 and 65 designs.

A modern powerful shape, the 65LC carries its wide beam right aft. The coachroof oozes style, with coamings extended to encompass the long cockpit. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

Turning it on

You can perhaps sense my eagerness to sail this boat. Following a long, hot and humid, windless Mallorcan morning, just as I was beginning to fear we might not get a chance to experience this 65 LC properly, the sudden arrival of a moderate breeze from the west-northwest was highly welcomed. The uncalibrated wind instruments were not working, but the white caps forming further out in Palma Bay suggested the breeze was in the teens, and at the upper end of that in gusts. With full sail set and a lively amount of heel on, it felt special to lean onto those powerful aft sections and surge to weather. We clocked a steady 9.5 knots upwind, and could nudge into double figures by footing off a little.

You may notice that the mast is comparatively far aft. This increases the jib’s sail area and also brings the boom further aft –  “more sail without raising the centre of effort,” Polli told me. This also increases the headsail options, including a removable inner stay, and a shorter bowsprit for the same gennaker area. The 65 LC comes with a self-tacking jib as standard, although the test boat had a more conventional slightly overlapping jib.

It was an increasingly rare pleasure to again sail a performance yacht of this size with a single rudder. This high-aspect blade is mounted comparatively far forward, acting as a foil with plenty of grip. That said, and for a yacht with such a balanced sail plan, I found that upwind leg a little heavy on the helm. The 65 LC carries a significant amount of sail for her relatively light displacement so playing with the sail and weight trim more should help (we had 10 aboard, a mixed ability crew and in cruising mode).

Form and function: the clean decks see lines led underdeck. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

A shimmering halo surrounded the bright afternoon sun, which, together with the breeze ruffling the sparkling seas, made for distinctly pleasant conditions. The wind freshened up more as we approached the lighthouse at the bay’s western point of Cala Figuero. It was now 15 to 18 over waves with clear white caps, the GS 65 still clocking 9 to 9.5 upwind with full sail. We could push up to 10 knots in the gusts if we dropped off a few degrees, but even when close-hauled I noted we were not pointing particularly close, tacking through almost 100°.

This is perhaps explained by the wider angle of the headsail sheets, which is reportedly 12° rather than the 8° of the Performance version. The coachroof on the LC version finishes before the mast, with the jib tracks pushed out to the side decks, where the roof on the Performance model extends past the mast and carries the tracks on top and further inboard.

significant beam buys space for large aft cabins and a tender garage below a very open transom. Note how the teak deck wraps up the coamings to soften the visual line of the coachroof. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

As with the GS 72, the project was spearheaded by veteran racer and boatbuilder Franco Corazza, who stressed how good the coachroof line is for a raised saloon boat – seated at either helm under sail, you can still clearly see the bow. That said it’s very much a Med-style performance cruiser deck, where streamlined looks come above cruising practicalities and comfort. This is particularly noticeable at heel.

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Reaching machine

We were gifted a lovely, long, early evening leg back from the lighthouse. The wind was blowing off the island over clear, flat water so it was easy to see each bullet of breeze approaching our aft quarter. With a deep reaching A0 set and pulling from a furler midway along the bowsprit, we averaged 9-10 knots in the lighter breezes, up to 11 in the gusts.

Heat it up a little and you can feel the power. The Grand Soleil 65LC has a potent amount of sail area and relies on the form stability of her powerful hull shape for righting moment. So while it can harness light breezes and puffs, loads should be respected (and the temptation to carry too much sail avoided!).

Signature Nauta styling. The saloon table can seat eight. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

It was certainly enjoyable sailing, but perhaps not the fully exhilarating ride her shape promises. I also found the winch setup a little unusual, particularly for the mainsheet. It’s led neatly each side through the deck to clutches right by the helms and winches further aft. Although these are within reach for those wanting to sail short-handed – or when the trimmer is in contact with the helmsman – the winches are right in the quarters. Here you’re also conscious of the significant beam and flat deck space to cross, and a lot of open transom behind.

The mainsheet is a reverse T system, led to a single point as on the test boat, onto a winch on a central plinth, or to a captive winch. You can also opt for a recessed and powered traveller. Mastbase halyard winches help keep the cockpit clean, plus there are tailing lockers. But with a completely open transom I’d worry about lines trailing overboard, and the pushpit rail is only 2ft high so I’d want a third guardwire higher up.

The styling on deck is slick, especially the way the teak deck rises up on the coachroof coamings to help lower the visual line. The tender garage is low but provides enough room for a dinghy up to 3.1m, and there’s deck access from above for stowing fenders. The sail locker is also generous, with a heads and pipe cot within, yet still plenty of space for spare warps, sheets and sails.

The galley is at the same eye-level as the saloon. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

Semi-custom step-up

The GS 65 and 72 are available as this ‘LC’ model, though they’re different beasts to the smaller LCs in Grand Soleil’s range (more suited to their ‘Long Cruise’ name). “Over 60ft the concept and the owners change,” Corazza explains. He oversees these more semi-custom builds, in a separate facility to Cantiere del Pardo’s main production site.

A composite sandwich build, with composite main bulkheads and interior furniture all foam-cored, produces a light displacement of 26.5 tonnes on the GS 65. The hull is built by vacuum-infusing Vinylester resin into biaxial glassfibre (in one shot), with unidirectional carbon used for reinforcement. The infusion is all done in-house.

It’s an impressive, semi-custom approach. “It’s why we bought Adria Sail,” says Corazza, referencing the quality and experience of the Fano shipyard which has built custom yachts for a variety of Italian brands. Next up is a Grand Soleil 80 which will really see the brand kick ahead with this new semi-custom range.

Inviting master cabin has good headroom right up to the forward end of the nice low berth and plenty of stowage. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

The LC version of the 65 provides a generous amount of natural light to the semi-raised saloon and the natural teak veneer finish looks smart (also available in Alpi and natural oak). It’s offered with three or four cabins and a midships galley, while the Performance version sites the galley aft.

As well as the 270° views it brings, a prime benefit of the LC’s raised saloon format is that the generator and tank space is all contained below the saloon sole. This also helps to maximize the space of the two aft cabins as no technical/engine room is needed between them.

Here we see the volume gains the flared sections and all that beam brings. Indeed, these aft cabins can be chosen with doubles or twins and have wider berths than the master cabin (they are noisier though, particularly under engine).

The aft cabins can be doubles or twins with lots of natural light and a good feeling of space. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

The port side has separate day-head access, but this is via the shower – somewhat unconventional considering those in the optional fourth cabin will likely need to use this heads too. Although there is space for a crew berth in the large sail locker, the fourth cabin option makes a wiser choice for those wanting to keep a crew for any length of time. This Pullman features good sea-going berths opposite the mast base, tall locker space and is aside the galley, though it’s also right next to the owner’s cabin so lacks segregation.

The standard layout sees a dinette area rather than this fourth cabin. As well as providing a mess area, this could also benefit those wanting extra office space (he writes, while working on his kitchen table…), as the navstation is an aft-facing affair that adjoins the saloon sofa berth. Opposite, the U-shaped galley has a relatively compact but practical format with good work surface and refrigeration space, even if it lacks the finesse of customised crockery or glass stowage.

Optional Pullman cabin. Photo: Alberto Cocchi

The test boat costs €2.8m without sails, but with a high level of equipment included. Which is a lot of money. It’s a very appealing and well-done package, with a high-end stylish interior that maintains the Italian chic theme, but it’s not quite premium finish quality. Some joinerwork didn’t line up, floorboards creaked underfoot etc (Grand Soleil says it is changing the sandwich floorboards because owners don’t like the flexing). I’m sure such areas will keep improving as the brand pushes more into this semi-custom sector.

Grand Soleil 65LC specifications

LOA: 21.60m / 70ft 10in LWL: 18.50m / 60ft 8in Hull length: 20.10m / 65ft 11in Beam: 5.95m / 19ft 5in Draught: 3.50m / 11ft 6in Displacement: 27,500kg / 57,320lb Ballast: 7,200kg / 15,837lb Water: 840lt / 185gal Fuel: 825lt / 181gal Sail area: 278m2 / 2,992ft2 Sail area/displacement ratio: 29.2 Disp/LWL ratio: 117 Design: Matteo Polli & Nauta Design Builder: grandsoleil.net

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Looks-wise, this boat had me at first glance... Take my money! In terms of performance, the GS 65LC carries plenty of sail and form stability so should suit fast Med cruising if handled respectfully. While I’d like to sail it with fewer people, with working wind instruments, and with Matteo Polli aboard to get his thoughts on best trim (weight and sails), I have a lot of faith in the design and designer and therefore the yacht’s potential to please. As far as build quality is concerned, it’s impressive, especially for a long-established mainstream brand that is used to producing smaller yachts in high volumes. The decision to use a specialist yard has paid off, although some finish quality could be improved if it’s to compete against premium brands. And the style: it’s one for us dreamers. Just hand me a linen shirt and beam me aboard on the Italian Riviera.