Axopar 29 XC Cross Cabin

The XC — for Cross Cabin — is the version of the Axopar formula built for weather. A fully enclosed wheelhouse with opening side doors sits amidships, so the helm stays dry in a squall and you still walk through to the aft deck without going outside. The CE category B rating is unusual at 29 feet and tells you what the hull is for: the boat is meant to cross open water in conditions that would send a comparable bowrider home. Range is the other argument — 400 litres of fuel and a hull efficient enough to cruise at 27 knots gives well over 200 nautical miles, enough to plan a Corsica crossing rather than improvise one. It sleeps two comfortably or four at a push. Think of it less as a day-boat with a cabin than as a small, fast, all-weather cruiser that happens to be outboard-powered.