New Sailboat Designs

Boats you might not know about

We’ve many times lamented the disappearance of so many production small-boat designs and manufacturers. The realities of the high-risk business model and the fact that producing smaller boats tends to be less profitable has conspired to limit customer options.

With that in mind we did some research on newer or less-well-known production sailboats to see which designs might haver sailed under our radar. Of course Hunter, Catalina, Norseboat, Hobie, Liteboat, Crawford, Gig Harbor, Com-Pac and others are still building small sailboats, but here are a few more we found. Please use the comments section below to share other production designs readers should know about. —Eds

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FAREAST 18

Here’s an interesting sport-boat suitable to cruising or racing. There’s a performance rig and a lifting keel, plus three berths. We know very little about it, or domestic availability, but they do show a US distributor.

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THE ROCKET

Our friend Miles Moore at FuntoSail.com turned us on to the Rocket. This modern take on a familiar-looking boat is really pretty damn appealing boat when you think about it.

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PAINE 14

The Paine 14 has been around a while, but this classic-styled mini-yacht and her sisterships are in production as cold-molded builds with lots of options.

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FIRST 18SE

The Beneteau First 18SE is another cabin sport boat with lifting keel and simple accommodations. Originally designed by Seascape, this trailerable keelboat would make a great adventure vessel.

MINICAT

Here are some unusual designs we stumbled upon—a series of inflatable sailing catamarans. From the 10-foot, 51-pound Guppy to the 15-foot Minicat 460, these boats offer some interesting possibilties.

VENTURA 2300

Ken Lange and Ventura Sport Boats offers the Malbec 18 of course, but they have been working on the release of a Ventura 2300 as well.

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What other small or tralerable boat designs have you come acroas that are still in production? Let us know below. •SCA•