We are proud to announce more award wins for our outstanding brands! Sail Magazine's highly anticipated Top Ten Winners for 2025 included the new J/Boats J/40 and the Nautitech 48 Open. This adds to the J/40's other recent win of Cruising World's Yacht of the Year for 2025.
Check out the Jury comments on each of the models:
J/40
The new J/40 fills a worthwhile niche in this size range for the sailor who feels the need for speed—and maybe a Bermuda Race or Chicago-Mac—and who also wants to take the family or friends cruising in comfort and safety. In short, this boat makes fast sailing fun, and that means you’re going to want to sail it a lot. “This boat was a total blast during our test sail,” says Wendy. “I’ve never spun a boat in two continuous circles without touching a sail. We did the maneuver just for the fun of it, and the agility was pretty jaw-dropping.” With a carbon spar as standard, emphasis in the build on weight control, and a deck layout and sailplan clearly geared toward efficient, quick sailing, this boat also maintains a level of comfort and practicality that’s appealing for cruising. “The J/40 is wonderfully balanced and has the agility of a much smaller boat,” Adam says. “She is a true racer/cruiser that delivers on her performance promises, even in light air.”
Nautitech 48 Open
In the catamaran world, performance cats and cruising cats seem pretty clearly divided. But the new Nautitech 48 Open does a heckuva job bridging the gap, with its emphasis on keeping things as straightforward and easy as possible while delivering inspiring performance. She’s relatively light for her size with just over 13 tons of displacement, and her long, slim keels—no daggerboards—keep her tracking well. “Every so often, a model comes along where it all comes together, and this, the last design from Marc Lombard, is exactly that,” Zuzana says. This new flagship, “has dialed in all that matters on a cruising cat: a stable and intuitive platform, comfortable accommodations, and slippery sailing.” The owner’s suite spreads across the entire port hull, while on starboard, the layout gets “modular.” You can spec two cabins and two heads, one cabin and one head with an office, or a cabin and head with the “SmartRoom” that serves as workshop, stowage space, or laundry room. It’s a feature that distance cruisers will love.