Mike:
You''ll find Schuckers both with and without sailing
rigs. We cruised off & on with a Schucker 40 in the Southern & Western Caribbean this past year, spent time onboard, and offer the following impressions:
1. It doesn''t sail. It''s a sail-assisted motorboat and the
jib & main offer more steadying than propulsion effect.
2. The layout slept 2 folks, unless you can wedge a convertible sofa into the small main cabin. There was no fixed table but instead a ''desk'' behind the helm station & seat.
3. The galley was spacious, the sleeping cabin (forward of the galley) roomy, and the head roomy but very difficult to use underway due to its location in the bow.
4. With an overpowered Yanmar, it easily reached hull speed but the boat rarely made more than 5-5.5 kts (corrected). It was quick to squat and was definitely slower when motoring than I thought it should be.
5. Had tons of storage, much of it in a large engine room and in lockers, all of which was under the cabin sole and therefore a great place for heavy goods.
6. It sailed about at
anchor and the owner of this boat installed a mizzen principally as a riding sail, which made a big difference in blowy anchorages.
Bruce VanSant traded to a Schucker 40 motorboat when skin problems mandated more protection than his sailboat could provide, and he continues to ''commute'' in this boat between the SE U.S. and the Eastern Caribbean. It''s strong and generally roomy but built in a rough fashion. By now, these boats will require a lot of owner attention as parts wear out. There seemed to be an active group of owners who know the marketplace well; you might try to connect with a current owner to find out which boats are about to come on the market and get a better, first-hand report.
Jack