Since 22 years I have sailed many thousand miles at sea with many different type of yachts. From traditional longkeelers till catamarans and modern X-Yachts. My own first boat was a classic Rival 32, with which I sailed more then 22.000 miles.

The difference between a modern and a traditional yacht

In my opinion is a good built modern yacht better and does it have many advantages against a traditional or classic yacht. A good modern yacht has the advantage to be able to carry more sail under the same circumstances due to a better stability. Because of this it will not only sail higher and faster to the wind, but it also has the advantage to be able to make much better advance against the wind and herewith has the possibility to sail easier into safety. Already a few times I experienced that it became almost impossible to sail against a stormwind with a classic yacht. With a lee shore nearby this can lead to life dangerous situations.

Also with backwind I find a modern yacht safer. Many times I experienced that surfing with waves and wind was the easiest method for avoiding problems. Surfing fast is only possible with modern hulls. As each sailor knows, danger comes from big waves. These big waves had much less power due to the high speed at which I was surfing with them. Although attention is needed to steer correct, I found steering with high speed also eassier. In a way it is comparable with the windsurfer which you see surfing from many meters high 'freak waves'. The problem starts when the surfers falls, and as a yacht without enough speed, becomes a prey of the waves. So speed means safe sailing.

But not only with heavy weather is a modern yacht better. A traditional yacht is most often in light winds 'a sitting duck' waiting for heavy weather, unless it takes much use of it's engine, which is no pleasure during long periods. A good modern yacht is also quick in light and medium winds.

Good modern designers will also take care that as much as possible weight is concentrated in the centre of the yacht. All experienced sailors know that a yacht then will have less motion and a better performance. However it is very important that the modern yacht is balanced very well and built very strong because of the heavier loads on the structure of the yacht, mast and rigging due to the capabilty to carry more sail. Still many 'experts' say that traditional yachts are most seaworthy. Most often they confuse strong built with heavy built, not having knowledge of good solid modern production techniques. In a discussion with them you often will experience they had no experience with solid built modern yachts, but pitty enough only with 'cheaper' types. As many people find out to late that many modern yachts are not built for their 'publicity' expectations. We can easy show you the difference on the boat or at the yards.

Undoubtly a Moody will be slower sailingboat then an X-Yacht. There is simply more interior and woodwork inside and all weight has to be moved. But we experienced, specially with the latest designs, that designer Bill Dixon has done better then expectations. In 1995 he has won the Superyacht Award for one of his one-off designs. His modern hull lines and right weight choices have arranged to have much better performance then comparable cruisers. Although not claiming to match racing speeds, on testsails we allways experience to out perform with ease our direct cruiser competitors. Even better proof are the testsails in quality sailing magazines, which allways conclude that the performance was very good and much better then expected for a solid built cruising yacht.

It's the Performance Cruiser formula

The new generation of X-Yachts Performance Cruisers is mostly sold to people who are experienced cruisers and less to people who use the boat for pure racing. Hearing from the yard and other dealers and also having our own experience we estimate to sell to 80% cruiser orientated and 20% racing orientated clients. Although we admit that most of these cruisers like having a yacht that performs well as they have experienced after many years of sailing how important a good sailing performance can be. Undoubtly many very experienced racing sailors choose an X-Yacht. Not only because of the potential performance, there are faster boats on the market, pure racing yachts, but mainly because they are so strong built and built to take the often very heavy racing loads. The steel frame takes all the loads from the frame stepped mast and the rigging. Also the keel is directly installed on the frame and not on the hull as on most boats. Because sailsurface mostly means power and speed, a racing yacht will allways try to use as much sailsurface as possible. Under heavy wind conditions this can lead to forces on the yacht which are much more then double compared with normal cruising use. Many racing sailors experienced that their racing yacht was not made for it. Sometimes this can lead to serious destruction. Often they come to us and try to trade it in for better.

If you go into serious sailing, there is simply not much good choice.

In our opinion either you end up with good built but heavy, slow and extremely expensive yachts, or with cheaper but most often not very well built boats, which not only can be a big dissapointment later, but can also lead to dangerous situations on seas were the boat is not made for.

Your Choice

Whatever your choice will be, more speed or more comfort, we can offer you both ways as we know the boats we represent are made for the seas as no other!