Those old Dos Equis beer commercials featuring the fictional “most interesting man in the world” were catchy and hilarious. The suave, bearded protagonist reflected a serene wisdom born from quiet intelligence and outsize deeds.
In 2017, our Boat of the Year team had our first exposure to Xquisite Yachts, and the seasoned voyager and visionary who’d launched the brand with the X5, which was named that year’s Most Innovative Sailboat. Back then, I was joshing a bit when I referenced those beer ads, talking about Xquisite’s brash founder. But after 2022, when the reworked 53-foot X5 Plus was named Best Cruising Catamaran Over 50 Feet, and again after inspecting the Xquisite Sixty Solar Sail for our 2025 Boat of the Year contest, I’m not kidding anymore. Tamas Hamor might just be the most interesting man in the marine industry.
“I like to solve problems,” he told us, which seemed to sum him up well.
Because of logistical challenges ahead of this year’s contest, the Sixty was late arriving to the Annapolis Sailboat Show in Maryland. The boat was still being prepped when we inspected and sailed it, so we didn’t get to put all its tech to a thorough test, something judge Tim Murphy alluded to in his notes: “The Sixty Solar Sail comes from an impressive company that we BOTY judges have watched grow from almost nothing in the past eight years. We’ve been particularly impressed by the service regime that creator Tamas Hamor has established among Xquisite owners; it’s adapted for true worldwide travel and maintenance. In the Sixty, Hamor his taken his explosive creativity to new levels in detail after detail. In this Hull No. 1, we found that his ideas sometimes seemed one step ahead of the available technology. But keep an eye on this boat and this builder—new and impressive things are happening here that we’re sure will trickle through the fleets of boats from other builders.”
All that said, stepping aboard the Bill Dixon-designed Sixty Solar with wide eyes was like entering some sort of otherworldly, waterborne version of The Matrix. In Annapolis this past October, there was simply nothing else remotely like it.
It starts with the aesthetics. When we had our first gander at that original X5, I got a chuckle when a judging panelist said that the boat’s profile reminded him of a Nike basketball sneaker—all white and rounded, with massive freeboard, and black windows and accents that looked like a shoe’s markings. (He wasn’t wrong.) Perhaps it’s the extra waterline length, but the Sixty has shed any semblance of awkwardness. It has the sleek, streamlined, contemporary appearance of a nautical Starship Enterprise.
The reverse bows and integral sprit give the forward entry a powerful, purposeful mien. A long, slashing window in the topside pairs nicely with an arrow-shaped window in the low-slung, streamlined coachroof, which is further accented by the black, hydraulic, carbon-fiber “Park Avenue” boom and spar above it. The generous raised steering station, to starboard, has its own windshield and is adjacent to a sweet upper-deck lounge, both accessed via a spiral staircase from the cockpit (it opens into the main salon, creating a seamless indoor/outdoor floor plan with the doors opened).
The roomy cockpit is covered and protected by a hard Bimini top. Just abaft that, a sloping, beam-width arch from port to starboard hovers over the entire shooting match, and serves as the station for one of the boat’s four separate banks of solar arrays (there are almost 40 individual panels altogether). Aft, an optional hydraulic boarding platform doubles as a sort of back porch, and is flanked in the hulls by two sets of stairs leading from the waterline to the cockpit. Stainless-steel handrails running the length of the boat are a nice visual touch and offer extra security. To say there’s a lot going on is an understatement.
The 7 kW package of solar panels, 60kWh lithium battery bank and 48-volt electrical system are designed to cover all house loads at anchor, including air conditioning, which negates the need for an onboard diesel generator. For propulsion, the Sixty has an optional hybrid setup with a pair of 110 hp Yanmar diesel engines with sail drives, and a set of 15 kW electric motors/generators that can run in regeneration mode under sail or propel the boat under power for extended stints before the diesels kick in to drive the boat and the high-output alternators.
The vacuum-infused foam-core laminate incorporates vinylester resin throughout and is laid up by hand above the waterline. Tankage is stashed under raised soles in the hulls, which have the added benefit of widening the volume in the staterooms. The grand owner’s hull, to port, has a king-size berth; a lounging area with a couch and desk; loads of stowage; and an en suite head and shower forward. A pair of guest staterooms with athwartships berths and attached heads are to starboard.
The main salon has a dining table that converts to a coffee table or a berth. There’s a 50-inch smart TV, and a galley with a full-size fridge, a convection stovetop and an oven. There’s also a cooking station in the cockpit, as well as a locker for stowing paddleboards. Under the cockpit stairs is a compartment for scuba tanks and a compressor.
Throughout the boat, electric hatches can open for natural ventilation. And with the Sixty’s digital-switching system, owners can monitor batteries, charging rates and tankage levels from a laptop computer. They can even transfer fuel, and can access digital manuals that cover all gear, maintenance and systems.
For all its complexity, though, the Sixty is still a sailboat, and Hamor is mindful of building one that can be operated by a couple; after all, that’s how he and his wife got started. On a boat as powerful as the Sixty, this thinking means an electric traveler and furlers for the square-topped North Sails main, genoa, self-tacking jib (which doubles as a storm sail) and code 65 headsail; a hydraulic vang; and several cameras that provide visuals of all maneuvers from the helm station.
We sailed the boat on a moderate Chesapeake Bay afternoon in breeze hovering around 8 to 12 knots with a small army of workers and technicians who were sorting out the boat (the Sixty might be set up ideally for a couple, but it will accommodate a crowd). We started off with the big code sail on a beam reach and effortlessly glided along at just over 10 knots. Switching down to the genoa, we sheeted in everything and still clocked a respectable 7-plus knots. On the Sixty, it was clear that making rapid miles will never be an issue.
Like the chap in that suds ad who didn’t always drink beer, the owners of Xquisite Yachts might not always be cruising to far-flung destinations across long stretches of blue water. But when they do, they will set sail in one of the most innovative, interesting catamarans traversing any ocean.
CW Editor-at-Large Herb McCormick was a 2025 Boat of the Year judge.
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PRICE: $3.6 million (as tested)
Website: xquisiteyachts.com
From Adversity to Innovation: How a Lost Rig Sparked a Global Boatbuilding Brand
Appropriately enough, Tamas Hamor’s personal journey of running a boatbuilding enterprise began aboard a cruising boat. Hamor and his wife, Sara, were crossing the Pacific aboard their Leopard cat when they were dismasted off French Polynesia. They stepped a new spar and continued on to Australia, where they put the boat up for sale. With their cruising dreams unfulfilled, however, they purchased a new boat from a South African builder, Dean Catamarans, that unfortunately went out of business before its completion. The resilient Hamors got the boat finished, and the team that helped them became the manufacturing and financial foundation for Xquisite. Today, Xquisite’s boats continue to be built in South Africa, which has become one the world’s major exporters of cruising catamarans.
South Africa remains the firm’s manufacturing center (coupled with a brokerage business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida), but for all intents and purposes, Xquisite is now based in the Bahamian city of Freeport, where it runs a full-service marina and resort that charters, commissions, and refits new and used cats with a staff of instructors and technicians. New and prospective owners can test-sail or charter an Xquisite, and there’s a sailing school to bring sailors up to speed on the intricacies of catamaran sailing. To that end, Xquisite commissioned and built a cool 30-foot beach cat—the trailerable, beachable Xquisite 30 Sportcat—for training and instruction.
