Big Sister Also Rocks

We’ve already expressed our deep affection for the Excess 11, which we named 2021’s Overall Boat of the Year. But the 11’s big sister, the Excess 15, is also a rocking sailboat that we very much enjoyed sailing. It was also easily worth a prize, and likely would’ve garnered one in an expanded field with a dedicated class of catamarans.

As with the 11, the 15 refers to its length in meters, which translates to 48 feet, 6 inches. So, she’s a big, rangy cat!

Murphy felt one its strongest optional features was right overhead: “In the hardtop Bimini that comes aft over that social space in the cockpit, there’s an optional sunroof built right into it that slides open or closed. This is another one of those kind of design problems we’ve seen on many of the boats that we sail. It’s really lovely to be able to open up the space when you’re under sail and want to see the sunshine or the stars—or when you want clear visibility of the sail plan up through the middle of the boat—and close it against sun or rain. It’s a wonderful feature, and I would recommend that anybody interested in these boats take that option. It’s a very strong one.”

For our test sail on the 15, we powered past a Fort Lauderdale drawbridge and into the cerulean Atlantic (we’d tested the 11 on Chesapeake Bay). It was a revelation. Murphy said: “It was really nice to be able to sail this boat out in waves and, you know, really sail it the way that it’s meant to be sailed. Once we had the sails dialed in and set up, you could really see how easy it would be to just keep going and roll away the miles on this one.”

Pillsbury agreed: “There’s a big, square-top mainsail, but it’s very easy to handle. And I loved the traveler setup on this boat. There’s lots of horsepower, but it’s also simple to control. The self-tacking jib was handy if you’re shorthanded or in close quarters, but rolling out the Code Zero was spectacular. You’re right there feeling the wind, hearing the water. You really are sailing.”

Which, we discovered with each Excess, was the entire point of the exercise.