Jeanneau Yachts 55

This is a 55-foot offshore cruiser built for people who like to travel and care about design. She keeps the comfort and performance you'd expect for long passages, but the layout breaks from the usual pattern in some useful ways.

The owner's suite is forward and takes up two-thirds of the interior, so it feels more like a private apartment than a cabin. You reach it through the main companionway, which keeps it to yourselves, and there are plenty of handholds for moving about safely at sea.

Guests get two cabins, each with its own bathroom, and each reached from the cockpit by its own companionway. That means they come and go independently of the owners, which makes a real difference on a longer trip.

On deck, the dual cockpit splits relaxing from sailing. Aft there are two saloons, one U-shaped and one L-shaped, and both convert into sundecks, with a very large hydraulic swim platform behind them. The twin helms sit further forward beside an exterior chart table with a GPS screen and autopilot controls, sheltered by the hard top and a wide wraparound windscreen that gives excellent visibility.