Here is the hot skippy about Buccaneer and US. Yachts. First of all, I don''t recall ever crawling through a US Yacht that was chopped glass, though I have only been inside two of them. Both were hand laid with roven woving, as was my Buccaneer. US Yachts are actually a step above the Buccaneer
line, which was poorly designed for perfomance in order to place large boat living accomidations in a small boat. Which they did!
I sail and 1975 Buccaneer 270. I do not sail offshore, but have been in some considerable weather on the Puget Sound. I am not completely comfortable with the size of the
rigging and with the placement of the ballast, but the boat holds up surprisingly well in a blow. Most of my uncertainty about the boat likely stems from the considerable amount of heresay and bashing that has gone on regarding these boats.
Whether you were "had" or not depends on what you paid for your Buccaneer. The resale value of them has been increasing in the northwest, but you can still have a US Yacht in good condition in the 27 foot ranger for under 10 grand and closer to about 6.
These boats have been sailed offshore and I haven''t seen any design horror stories, but I don''t really want to go there either. If you checked on my website you saw a link to other Buccaneer Websites. One of them is the Buccaneer Homeport, which is run by a fellow named Jeff who sails a Buccaneer 280 out in the ocean off of Long Is. NY.