59° North Sailingvideo
The Best Boat for Ocean Sailing
December 16, 2025 · 55 min · 467 views
What this video covers
Andy Schell and August Sandberg of 59° North Sailing discuss what makes the best offshore sailboat, framing the conversation around a sailor-to-boat continuum: whether the boat takes care of the sailor or the sailor takes care of the boat. Matt Rutherford's solo non-stop circumnavigation of the Americas in an Albin Marine AB Vega 27 anchors the skilled-sailor end; Ryan Ellison's early experience on a Beneteau Oceanis 40 illustrates how a less experienced sailor can quickly outgrow an underpowered cruising boat.▶ 6:11 Schell argues the heavy-displacement, full-keel, attached-rudder design is a myth as the default best choice, though he concedes it is the boat he'd want in a true survival storm.▶ 10:07 He cites the Valiant Yachts 42 as an example of a properly engineered fin-keel, spade-rudder design built for offshore use, contrasting it with production boats that cross oceans but weren't designed to.▶ 12:37 Bob Perry's point that skeg-hung rudders often rely on the rudder to hold the skeg — not vice versa — is cited against the skeg-protection myth.▶ 12:15 Schell's primary metric is sail-area-to-displacement ratio: below 15 is off his list, 17–19 is the sweet spot, above 20 means constant reefing.▶ 16:50 Falcon sits at 22 and is almost always reefed; Spica's default of 13.5 prompts a planned mast upgrade.▶ 16:32 Slow passage speeds — two to three knots — are dismissed as unworkable offshore, where swell and current punish underpowered boats in ways flat-water sailing does not.▶ 17:47
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