Boat of the Year

Photos by Walter Cooper

The SeaRail 19 is a pint-sized trimaran imported from Vietnam, built by a former Corsair Trimaran employee with imput from noted multihull designer Nigel Irens. The test boat was delivered straight from U.S. Customs, so its U.S. distributor, Bob Gleason, a multihull veteran, was on the water sorting it out before its test time. As we approached Gleason, he looked concerned and suggested the boat not be tested. “The [leeward] float is really burying, and there’s a lot of flexing in the forward beam,” he said. “I don’t think we should go through with this: The boat’s just not ready.”

“Nonsense,” BOTY judge Chuck Allen responded before rolling onto the SeaRail’s trampoline like a Navy SEAL. Off the two of them went, with the screacher deployed, reaching across the bay at a high rate of speed. Gleason was right, though. The other judges looked on as the leeward ama submerged every time a gust filled the sails. After an hour and a half of hard sailing, however, the boat was perfectly intact and the judges were pleasantly surprised. “It was easy to sail, had a high fun factor to it,” said Rich. “If they cleaned up the construction and got the buoyancy right, they’d have something worth talking about. It’s almost there.”

The standard pricing was quoted at $28,000.

Photos by Walter Cooper

The Ker 40 was designed strictly for IRC racing in overseas fleets (1.188), and in order to reduce the higher cost of a custom IRC build, McConaghy Boats offers the boat as a semi-custom option. The hull and deck are essentially fixed dimensions, but the interior and deck layout can be customized to suit the owner's racing agenda, including options for wheel versus tiller, and winch pedestal or not.

The judges sailed Catapult, built for East Coast owner Marc Glimcher, which has a schedule of primarily distance races, so the boat was set up to go offshore with nav station, berths, etc. The judges were most impressed with the quality of the build coming out of McConaghy's operation in China, as areas of clear coat interior exposed good attention to detail and finish. The boat, the judges said, was well balanced, and the high-aspect sailplan delivered plenty of power in the light-wind testing conditions. Base boat price is $318K.

Read more about the Ker 40 here.

Photos by Walter Cooper

Rondar president Paul Young told our Boat of the Year judges that nearly 100 of these 15-foot singlehanded keelboats have been sold in England, with the typical buyer being middle-aged and preferring to "not end up in the drink every time they go sailing." That's a pretty specific ask for a narrow and lightweight (286-pound) dinghy, one that's accomplished with a 137-pound bulb attached to a lifting keel. To keep it interesting, they designed a clever jib-pole system that the judges said was easy to deploy for wing-on-wing sailing. They liked its upwind performance, but off the breeze, said Chuck Allen, "it was nothing special." Fellow panelist Tom Rich said the boat was fun to sail, and lively, but its $15,000 price tag would be a barrier to one-design class development.

Photos by Walter Cooper

The Harbor 30, from California's W.D. Schock, turned out to be a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing. The model our judges sailed was somewhat of a "de-tuned" version, sans optional asymmetric spinnaker and other features one might add for beer can racing. It wasn't quite finished at the factory, either, said the dealer, because it had to be rushed to the U.S. Sailboat Show, and the judges picked up on a few interior finish details that might otherwise be sorted at commissioning.

They were ready to dismiss it at the dock, but once they trimmed the sails and put the bow down, they were all impressed with how well it sailed. "Easy, and surprisingly, quick," is how BOTY judge Chuck Allen put it after his turn on the helm. It's a pretty boat for for some casual weekend cruising, and set up well for shorthanded and family sailing.