World's Fastest Sailboat

To start off the New Year we have some racy news of the amazing foiler trimaran "Hydroptere". Recently, Hydroptere became the fastest sail boat on the planet. She was able to reach 51.36 knots over 500 meters and 48.72 knots over one nautical mile. This is faster than it took for the first aircraft to cross the English Channel ! The secret: The boat's foils lift the trimaran clear out of the water, reducing resistance by 90%. An amazing feat that will lead to further developments and will surely trickle down to the growing fleet of ultra fast multihull racers in the near future.

check the cool video

Catamarans hit a record high: 27% of all import yachts

Here some good news...Multihulls hit a record high 27% of all imports, up from 23% a year ago Importers are predicting relatively flat imports in North America in 2008; especially in the 20’-40’ range. However they will continue the trend of catering to the recession proof “highest end consumer” estimating an impressive increase of 25 units in the 46’ and over category.
“Threats of a recession” and the prediction that the real estate crises will carry well into 2009, are reflective of a very cautionary tone in builder predictions for 2008.