{"id":43878,"date":"2020-12-08T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=43878"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:42:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T21:42:39","slug":"x-yachts-x40-best-performance-cruiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/x-yachts-x40-best-performance-cruiser-2021-boty\/","title":{"rendered":"X-Yacht\u2019s X40: Best Performance Cruiser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/X40-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"X4.0 Sailing in Miami FL\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/X40-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/X40-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/X40-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/X40.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Best Performance Cruiser Winner 2021 X-Yachts X40<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Billy Black <\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n<p>With this year\u2019s aforementioned diminished nominee list, it was impossible to break down the fleet across the board to fit each boat into a neat, tidy category. One of the two notable exceptions was the Performance Cruiser class, with three strong entries: the Arcona 435, the Beneteau Oceanis 40.1 and the X-Yachts X4&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;\/sup&gt;. We\u2019ll get to the Arcona and the Beneteau in the pages to come, but for 2021, the clear winner in this class of sweet-sailing racer\/cruisers was the X4&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;\/sup&gt;. It clearly met the criteria for being the top performer in its stated design brief: a boat that will compete strongly\u2014and well\u2014on the racecourse, yet be comfortable and fun for coastal cruising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>With the X-Yachts, we\u2019ve seen this figurative movie before. The Danish brand has taken home BOTY hardware four times in the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"padding_vertical embed\">\r\n<section class=\"content\">\r\n<h2 class=\"heading | margin_centered bold\">2021 Boat of the Year Winners at a Glance<\/h2>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"padding_vertical\">\r\n\t<section class=\"content\">\r\n\t\t<div>\r\n\t\t\t<ul class=\"list | margin_centered element-ul\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/excess-11-boat-of-the-year-for-2021-boty\/\">Excess 11: Boat of the Year<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/x-yachts-x40-best-performance-cruiser-2021-boty\/\">X-Yacht\u2019s X4<sup>0<\/sup>: Best Performance Cruiser<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/island-packet-439-best-full-size-cruiser-2021-boty\/\">Island Packet 439: Best Full-Size Cruiser<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/hh-50-best-luxury-cruiser-2021-boty\/\">HH 50: Best Luxury Cruiser<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/hylas-60-best-luxury-cruiser-2021-boty\/\">Hylas 60: Best Luxury Cruiser<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/beneteau-oceanis-yacht-54-best-redesign-boty-2021\/\">Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 54: Honorable Mention<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/corsair-880-best-sport-boat-2021-boty\/\">Corsair 880: Best Sport Boat<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/5-new-sailboat-nominees-2021-boty\/\">5 New Sailboats That Were Nominees<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Murphy, our resident boatbuilding whisperer\u2014he\u2019s worked closely with the American Boat and Yacht Council writing textbooks and creating curricula\u2014was emphatic when it came to the quality of the X4&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;\/sup&gt;\u2032s \u00adconstruction: \u201cX-Yachts has built 5,000 boats since they went into business in 1979. So they have a good, long track record. They\u2019re probably best known in performance circles, so when we board an X-Yacht, we expect the boat is going to sail pretty well, which this one certainly did. As far the build quality, this is one of the top two yachts in this year\u2019s fleet (the other is the HH 50 cat, which we\u2019ll get to). It\u2019s an epoxy hull, which is the best resin you can use to build boats, in terms of both strength and resilience. It also has a galvanized-steel grid. In years past, there have been questions about the long-term integrity of that grid, but they\u2019re unfounded. My feeling is that the massive steel structure is not encapsulated; it goes on top of the fiberglass structure, and it\u2019s not an issue. I think this boat is straight-up wholesome. It\u2019s a really, really lovely sailboat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Pillsbury found the efficient deck layout to his liking: \u201cThis boat was one of few we saw this year that actually had enough winches on it to sail it like a proper boat. We climbed on several others where a clutch was used to service several lines from a single winch. Sometimes it was hard to remember which clutch to open and which clutch to close, which took away a lot of the joy of sailing. Here you can just load up a winch and know that your line is going to be there, that you have quick access to it. I really liked that. It was also one of only a couple of boats that had a full-on traveler, which to my mind, when you carry a lot of sail, as this boat does, if you can\u2019t really control and trim that mainsail, it\u2019s a problem. And here\u2019s another trend we saw for 2021: a below-deck furler for the headsail, which makes for a nice, clean deck layout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\n\nAs far as the build quality, this x-yacht is one of the top two for this year.\n\n<\/p>\n<cite><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Our X4&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;\/sup&gt; sea trials were also heavily influenced by the father\/son owners who will be using the boat very differently, but who also made it quite clear that it will address and serve both of their sailing ambitions very well. Son Ryan is an avid inshore and offshore racer who has a Sydney-Hobart Race under his belt, who plans to campaign it hard; he\u2019ll put the racing element into play. Doublehanded racing, especially in these socially distanced times, is becoming ever more popular, and the X4&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;\/sup&gt; should be ideal for those venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan is a sailmaker, so there will of course be a full quiver of racing sails aboard. But the boat is also set up for his dad, Mike, and his wife to sail efficiently, with a self-tacking jib for cruising forays. (It also has a bow thruster and the electric furler for the jib, which added some weight forward and isn\u2019t the ideal setup for racing; we\u2019d guess Ryan and Mike had some interesting conversations about those features.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>But at the end of the day, the family wound up with a yacht that will be ideal for everyone in the household: a racer\/cruiser that is every bit both. So, fair winds, Ryan and Mike. You\u2019ve got the one boat perfect for the two of you.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A racing sailor son and cruiser father find the perfect dual-purpose family sailboat in the X-Yachts X4<sup>0<\/sup>, named Best Performance Cruiser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20201208","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"167","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Built in Denmark by a company with a long pedigree of racer-cruisers, the X40 hit the bull's eye when matched up to its design brief.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"XMPA7CLOWZEOVPKIUTSOMOPYZ4","arc_website_url":"story\/sailboats\/x-yachts-x40-best-performance-cruiser-2021-boty\/","custom_permalink":"story\/sailboats\/x-yachts-x40-best-performance-cruiser-2021-boty\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[1349,282,1348,1426,411,657],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}