Hallberg-Rassy

Hallberg-Rassy builds ocean cruisers on the Swedish island of Orust, and has done since 1965 — more than ten thousand boats, all of them recognisable at a glance: centre cockpit, fixed windscreen, blue sheer stripe. In yachting conversation “a Rassy” names a genre, not a brand. Germán Frers has drawn every model since 1988; the founder’s son Magnus Rassy has run the family-owned yard since 2003.

In 2016 the yard did the one thing nobody expected of it: the new HR 44 traded the sacred skeg-hung rudder for twin spades, grew a broad stern, a plumb bow and an integrated bowsprit — and became the fastest, most controversial Rassy ever built. The traditionalists are still arguing. The order book never noticed.