Sail Far Live Free

Visiting the Strictly Sail show in Chicago has quickly become one of Erin and I's favorite mid-winter traditions. While looking at a sailboat inside of a big convention center in January isn't nearly as fulfilling as feeling the boat heel in a fresh July breeze, we still enjoy the opportunity to browse the new selection of production craft from the big manufacturers and see what innovations show up at the exhibitor booths. Below are some of my quick impressions and photos from the 2013 show. Best In Show: Com-Pac 23 Pilothouse Sure, there were plenty of big boats that were more predictable winners like the Blue Jacket 40, Beneteau Oceanis 45, or Delphia 47, but the Com-Pac 23 offers an amazing accommodation plan in an affordable, trailerable package that's downright shippy! This little yacht was introduced earlier in 2012, but this was my first chance to take a look. She would make a perfect little pocket cruiser for a couple. There's a lot of live-ability in

The racer-cruiser concept has been around since the early 1960's (see Ted Brewer's 50 Years of Cruising Sailboat Evolution ). Today's examples seem less of a compromise and are able to offer excellent cruising accommodations while still being competitive on the race circuit. But compromises still exist, nonetheless. Now there's a new kid coming to the racer-cruiser neighborhood and I'm intrigued because the project collaborators are two designers who have produced several models that fill my cruising spirit with envy. Island Packet's founder and current CEO/Chief Designer, Bob Johnson, has teamed with his old buddy Tim Jacket, ex-President and Chief Designer at Tartan and C&C, to begin producing a "performance cruiser" called the Blue Jacket 40. The BJ40 is planned to be the first in a series of boats to come out of this collaboration. They'll be built at Island Packet's facilities and are said to be a melding of Bob's cruising design