[Jeff_H]

My mother owned an Endeavour 37 and I got to spend a fair amount of time aboard. It is not what I would even vaguely call an offshore cruiser. If ever there was a boat that was poorly "suited to long-distance cruising because of poor sailing characteristics, especially going to weather poorly" it would be the Endeavour 37. I have never experienced a boat with a more uncomfortable motion in a seaway. They were under canvassed in moderate or less wind but were not even able to stand up to their comparatively small sail plan for their drag in a breeze. Pushed hard they really wear you down and will wipe out in larger gusts.

Build quality was quite poor on these boats. While the glass work was Ok but not great, most other aspects of the build quaility were way below mediocre. To be frank, the Hunter 30 that she later owned was a real step up in build quality over the E37.At least the systems were well thought out and installed in accordance with the standards of the day.

Hardware tended to be undersized for the sail plan and so required pretty beefy crew to sail one. Between the undersized winches and high friction blocks, as a fit 20 something year old racer, trimming sails on that boat would grind me down faster than the 40 plus foot race boat that I typically sailed on in those days.

Mom did try to live aboard and cruise Atlantic coast and the Bahamas in hers before moving on after less than two years. I don''t understand why these boat have seemed to have developed a cult following but they were miserable boats as new and they are now 20 some odd years old. They are the poster child why by any objective standard, wide body, shoal draft boats typically are considered to make miserable cruisers.

Respectfully,
Jeff