Seascape 18

A fast and simple sport boat that you can also cruise 

- Charles J. Doane

How’s this for convenience? I got the word from SAIL HQ that I should test-sail the Seascape 18 from Slovenia, recently introduced to these shores, and it turns out the new U.S. rep is based in Kittery, Maine, mere footsteps from my home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Even better, on arriving at the town dock in Kittery I found out I’d be sailing with Andraz Mihelin, one of the masterminds behind the whole Seascape concept.

Which is as follows: take the current hot monohull-racing hull form—fine plumb bow, wide hindquarters, plus hard-chined topsides— and insert one super-simplified performance rig with easy-to-use controls so that mere mortals can have fun sailing fast without getting the pants scared off them.

Seascape, which was founded by two hotshot Mini-Transat racers (Andraz and his buddy Kristian Hajnsek), introduced the 18, the company’s first boat, just six years ago in Europe and have already sold several hundred hulls, in the process fostering a burgeoning one-design racing scene. They’ve since followed with a Seascape 27, which was actually introduced here before the 18, and the Seascape 24.