Elan Impression

With its swooping deck-saloon cabin profile, plumb stern, and loads of ports and overhead hatches to let light pour into the sleeping cabins and saloon below, there’s a lot to like about the look and feel of Elan Yachts’ new midrange cruising sailboat, the Impression 45.1.

Throw in a full-batten main, overlapping genoa and agile steering, and the 45.1 is an able sailing boat too, as Cruising World’s Boat of the Year Judges found out during a light-air day right after the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, this past October.