Design Brief & Intent
The Sixty Solar Sail is engineered for highly experienced, affluent cruisers who intend to undertake long-range, short-handed passages without sacrificing the domestic comforts of a high-end landbound home. Constructed by Phoenix Marine Manufacturing in Cape Town, South Africa, the yacht features a robust composite layup designed to meet CE Category A certification. The hulls are built using vacuum-infused epoxy vinyl ester resin with multiaxial E-glass reinforcements and a closed-cell Divinycell foam core, with extensive carbon-fiber reinforcement in high-load areas to ensure rigidity without unnecessary weight.
Inside, the character of the vessel is defined by world-class joinery, hand-finished surfaces, and an open-plan layout that integrates the cockpit and saloon into a single, seamless social space. Xquisite offers three distinct interior styling packages to suit different tastes: Cape Town Classic, which features warm, traditional anigre wood; Baltic Modern Fresh, utilizing light silver-gray finishes; and Istanbul Cozy Warm, centered on contemporary light oak. The furniture throughout is constructed using foam-cored panels to further reduce weight aloft while maintaining a premium feel. Standard equipment includes full-sized home appliances, a built-in dishwasher, a vented washer/dryer, a wine chiller, and a multi-zone Fusion Apollo entertainment system. It is a design brief that positions the Sixty Solar Sail not merely as a recreational vessel, but as a highly autonomous, floating apartment capable of crossing oceans in absolute comfort.
Variations & Configurations
While primarily customized for the owner-operator market, the Sixty Solar Sail is offered in several layouts. The most popular configuration is the three-cabin Owner’s version. In this layout, the entire starboard hull is dedicated to a massive, private master suite complete with an athwartships, walk-around king-size bed, a spacious dressing area with a walk-in wardrobe, and a large ensuite head and shower. The port hull houses a luxurious forward VIP suite and a third double guest cabin, both with ensuite heads, alongside optional configurations for a utility workshop or dedicated crew quarters. High-end crewed charter configurations are also available, which balance guest cabins with dedicated crew berths and a specialized commercial-grade galley setup.
The rig features a powerful sail plan with a carbon-fiber boom furling system for the mainsail, a self-tacking jib on the forestay, and options for a larger furling genoa or a Code D gennaker flying from a fixed bowsprit. To maintain structural integrity and a shallow draft of 5.4 feet, the yacht uses twin fixed keels with integrated impact-absorbing crash compartments at their bases, offering both excellent leeway resistance and peace of mind when cruising thin-water regions like the Bahamas.
The defining technical variation of the Sixty Solar Sail lies in its power and propulsion configurations. The standard powertrain consists of twin 110-horsepower Yanmar diesel engines. However, the yacht’s true potential is realized with the optional hybrid-electric setup, which pairs the diesels with twin 15 kW electric motors. This system integrates with a massive 38-panel, deck-mounted solar array capable of producing up to 7 kW of green energy. The solar energy is stored in a heavy-duty 60 kWh lithium-ion battery bank, which allows the vessel to run its high-load domestic systems—including air conditioning, watermakers, and laundry—completely off-grid without requiring a diesel generator.
Sailing Performance & Handling
The Sixty Solar Sail is designed to deliver a reassuringly stable and surprisingly swift ride, even when loaded for extended cruising. This is reflected in the yacht's technical design ratios. Its loaded displacement of 60,627 pounds combined with a powerful sail plan yields a sail area-to-displacement ratio of 24.1. This highly favorable ratio indicates a powerful rig that allows the Sixty Solar Sail to keep moving at satisfying speeds in light-air conditions that would force other heavy cruising multihulls to turn on their engines.
The displacement-to-length ratio of 135.47 marks the vessel as a light-to-moderate displacement cruiser, highlighting that Dixon Yacht Design managed to keep the hulls relatively narrow at the waterline to minimize drag while flaring the hulls higher up to maximize interior volume. The yacht's capsize ratio of 2.98 and comfort ratio of 17.61 reflect an exceptionally stable, sea-kindly platform. In practice, these figures translate to a highly predictable motion in a seaway. The boat’s 29.2-foot beam resists heeling entirely, while the comfort ratio indicates a dampened, comfortable motion that prevents the quick, jerky pitching common in narrower hulls. Under sail, the high bridge deck clearance of 3.44 feet works effectively to eliminate slamming underneath the bridge deck, keeping the ride quiet and dry.
Handling is optimized for shorthanded couples through a centralized, elevated flybridge helm station. All sheets, halyards, and furling lines are routed directly to this single command pod, where electric winches, hydraulic furlers, and digital controls allow a lone watchkeeper to tack, gybe, and reef the sails at the touch of a button. Although visibility directly forward and to the sides is excellent from the helm, the central positioning can make the far aft corners of the hulls difficult to see when docking; to mitigate this, the builder integrates a high-definition masthead camera that displays blind spots directly on the helm's dual multi-function chartplotters.
Market Snapshot & Economics
Because the Sixty Solar Sail only entered production in 2023, it occupies a highly exclusive and niche position on the global brokerage market. Since each hull is built on a semi-custom basis with a high level of personalized fit-out, production rates remain low, making any pre-owned model an exceptionally rare find. The boat commands a significant premium over production multihulls of similar length due to its high-tech hybrid systems, carbon-fiber reinforced construction, and unmatched manufacturer-direct support.
For owners looking at the economics of the Sixty Solar Sail, standard restoration refit costs are not a primary concern; instead, the financial landscape is dominated by the maintenance of its sophisticated onboard electronics. While the composite hull and solid build structure are designed to endure decades of ocean voyaging, the long-term cost of ownership must account for the replacement of the lithium-ion battery cells, servicing the complex hybrid electric motors, and maintaining the efficiency of the deck-integrated solar panels. Fortunately, the high residual value of Xquisite yachts on the brokerage market typically offsets these ongoing maintenance investments, making them a relatively secure asset in the luxury cruiser class.
System Complexity & Maintenance Triage
Unlike older fiberglass yachts, the Sixty Solar Sail has no history of structural failures such as wet balsa decks or structural delamination, thanks to the precision of its modern vacuum-infused epoxy build. Instead, the primary challenges are rooted in its extreme systemic complexity. Managing a high-voltage hybrid propulsion system, up to 7 kW of solar generation, a large lithium battery bank, and a fully integrated CZone digital switching network requires a steep learning curve for owners.
The primary "triage" scenario on a boat like the Sixty Solar Sail involves digital bus faults or sensor errors. Because almost every system on the yacht is digitally networked, a single broken connection on an NMEA 2000 or CAN-bus backbone can occasionally cause communication errors across unrelated systems. Veteran owners recommend carrying spare network terminators, keeping digital system firmware updated, and familiarizing oneself with the physical manual bypasses built into the CZone modules.
To address these highly specialized needs, Xquisite Yachts implements a unique owner support model that includes real-time remote telemetry. Whenever the yacht connects to the internet, its onboard computer uploads diagnostic data directly to the factory. Furthermore, the company offers a dedicated maintenance plan where factory-trained technicians fly directly to the boat anywhere in the world to perform intensive seven-day diagnostic checks and preventive system maintenance, ensuring that the vessel's advanced systems remain fully operational during remote world cruises.
The Verdict
The Xquisite Sixty Solar Sail is an elite, highly capable bluewater cruising catamaran that successfully merges luxury living with high-performance, sustainable sailing. It is designed for affluent owners who demand a self-sufficient lifestyle at sea and possess the technical aptitude to manage its state-of-the-art hybrid systems. While its extreme complexity and premium price tag may deter minimalist sailors, those seeking a highly autonomous passagemaker will find it to be one of the most thoroughly engineered and comfortable multihulls ever built.
Pros
- Exceptional off-grid self-sufficiency provided by up to 7 kW of solar power and a 60 kWh lithium-ion battery bank.
- True single-handed sailing capability with all sail controls, electric winches, and hydraulic furlers managed from a single helm station.
- Top-tier build quality using vacuum-infused epoxy resin and carbon-fiber reinforcements, yielding a highly rigid, CE Category A certified hull.
- High bridge deck clearance of 3.44 feet that virtually eliminates slamming in rough seas.
- Comprehensive, manufacturer-direct global support program featuring remote telemetry and flying factory technicians 5.
Cons
- Extreme system complexity requires owners to possess a high level of technical and digital system literacy.
- Elevated flybridge helm station can present blind spots at the aft corners during docking maneuvers.
- Premium price point and limited production capacity mean long wait times for new builds and scarce availability on the pre-owned market.
- High long-term maintenance costs associated with replacing high-capacity lithium batteries and servicing specialized hybrid drivetrains.
