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Help me find a boat for next year

4K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  bobmcgov 
#1 ·
Hi. Next year I am going to get a bigger boat and I would like to start dreaming. Here are some things I would like the boat o hve and maybe ou guys can send me some favorites so I can start looking online.

Less than $20k

Over 28 feet

The less stuff that can break the better. So I really don't want alot of complex electric halyards or whatever

Sturdier than a coastal but doesn't have to be full blue water

Easy to set up windvane. Tracks very well

No gas inboard. Reliable make of engine. Very high priority.

Fin keel

Not a tall rig, handles heavy weather well

Crisp, clean spacious interior. I would rather have a smaller newer boat than a shabby out of style one, but I find alot of 70's-80's boats attractive.

No huge freeboard so it looks like a whale. I would like it to look sleek and racy but will not race so it doesn't have to be a race boat

No canoe transom

Mid to high beam

No center cockpit
 
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#7 ·
I wouldn't say a "lot of overhang".

If you are referring to double enders, i.e. boats with points on both ends then there is no "transom".

A canoe stern is one form of double ender.
All canoe stern boats are double enders.
All double enders do not have canoe sterns.

That's how I see it. I have designed a number of canoe sterned boats and I am pretty comfortable with my definitions. But its just my opinion.

Faster made a good suggestion. The Ranger 33 is a great sailing boat.
 
#12 ·
Yankee 30
Tartan 30

Both of these are very similar boats. They sail really well and are built very well. Yankee 30s are mostly on the west coast, I don't know where you'll be shopping. They have a huge B/D and are very stiff boats in a breeze, but move pretty well in light air. A couple of my friends have them and they are lots of fun to sail. Yankee 30 has chainplates going to fiberglass knees, which is a huge plus in my book.

Albin Ballad

There is a nice one of these with a repower that has been for sale on my dock for a long time. You could probably get it for a song at this point. Smallish interior, strongly built, no liner which is good in a lot of ways.

Pearson 28-2
Pearson 31-2

Huge freeboard comes with that clean spacious interior much of the time. If you are looking on the east coast I'd say that it is worth looking out for a mid-80s Pearson 31-2. I have the 28-2 and am impressed with the construction quality and how it sails. It's a bit freeboardish, but the 31-2 (which is 30.5 vs 28.5 feet) should diminish that a little bit. The cockpit on my 28-2 is ergonomic and great for singlehanding, I love the interior space, and the boat sails very nicely balanced in a variety of conditions. 28-2 has chainplates going to fiberglass knees, I haven't looked at how this is done on the 31-2. Both of these came with the Yanmar 2GM20F, which is a robust little engine.

There are lots of other great options to consider like C&C 29, 30, 32, Islander 30 and 32, Cal 31, Erickson, etc. I just wanted to mention a few that are perhaps less common.
 
#20 ·
Yankee 30
Albin Ballad

There is a nice one of these with a repower that has been for sale on my dock for a long time. You could probably get it for a song at this point. Smallish interior, strongly built, no liner which is good in a lot of ways.
Yeah -- gutting one to the bare hull takes a couple hours with a screwdriver. Why you would need to do so is a discussion unto itself.;)

tank1

Not sure it fits the OP's criteria, tho. Certainly an attractive boat, coastal w/ offshore ability, and available at bargain prices. But it is a small 30'er, very small. 5'10" headroom, teensy head, cramped berths, and little light or ventilation. It ain't a Hunter. And as for freeboard ... not a feature. It belongs to the 'submarine with sails' design philosophy:



Upwind monster; you will get wet. Ballads came with Volvo Pentas, not a beloved powerplant. The Ranger 33, BTW, generally had the A4. Some have been repowered. These will cost more.

Hard to go too wrong with a Catalina 30, either. They are roomy and well-behaved. J/boats made a few in this range, and Islander.
 
#15 ·
I wouldn't take it around Cape Horn. I don't know what my limit is yet, except that I haven't found it. In 20-25 knot winds and 4-6 foot wind waves it's a lot of fun to sail close hauled and close reach.

My boat isn't provisioned to fly reduced enough sail to point well in winds 30 knots or higher. My only option is to reef the main and run on main only. The boat sails pretty well on main only, but won't point higher than 40 degrees apparent. With a second reef and a heavy weather jib I'd feel comfortable taking it around the west coast of Vancouver Island where I can time weather somewhat, but need to prepared for bigger conditions. The same would be true for a run to the Bahamas.

It doesn't have the tankage (25 gallons water is the main limitation) for me to consider doing something like sailing to Hawaii in it. It is certainly a more robust boat than many of that have done that voyage though.

In my experience the Yankee 30 is more fun to sail is big conditions than the Pearson 28-2. It's heavy displacement (2000lbs + heavier) and less flat bottom and skeg makes it get blown around less when running downwind. When the conditions get big enough the flatter bottom after of the keel will get the Pearson surfing (exciting and fast, but requires a lot of attention) where I think it would take truly massive conditions to get the Yankee surfing. I've had the Pearson surfing to 9 knots in 3-4' waves and 20 knots of wind.

The Pearson has a larger interior than the Yankee, but both are more than enough for one or two people. On the Pearson we use the V-berth for sail storage and sleep in the "aft cabin" (really a very large quarterberth). On the Yankee you'd use cockpit lockers for sail storage and sleep in the V-berth or maybe the lowered dinette (but converting that every day would get old).

Both of them have better than average engine access, but the Yankee is a little better. It is in the center of the boat and the cabinets on pretty much all sides come off, giving you nearly 360 degree access. On the Pearson the cabinets on front, top, and behind come off, but you have more limited access to the sides.

The Yankee came with an awful set of original engines (Atomic 4 or underpowered and rare diesels), but many of them have been repowered. I have two friends with Yankee 30s, one has no engine at all, the other has a Beta 2 cylinder. Another one that was for sale here had an Atomic 4. Pearson came stock with 2GM20F.

The Yankee's achillies heel is that the decks are built with core all the way to the hull deck joint. You need to check carefully for core issues. The right fix is annoying but already done on many of them, which is to dig out the core along the edge and replace it with glass. I don't know if the similar Tartan 30 (same designer, almost same design, different builder) has the same issue or other details of how it is built (like what the chainplates are attached to). I've been impressed with the construction details and design of my Pearson. The bedding compound used has been durable, they beveled all deck holes which makes the bedding last a lot longer, the hull/deck joint is really easy to service, chainplates are inboard but go right into the hull, rigging seems oversized.

They are very different boats, but both are good boats. I'd recommend sailing or checking out both of them if you have the chance.
 
#16 ·
Ok. Both sound like good choices. Now that I think about I did tour but not sail a Yankee 30 that was across from me this summer on Stuart. He had come up from portland and had raced the swiftsure some years but not this one. It looked really good.

Also do you remember when I was last boat shopping there was one for $4000 in Seattle that the lady was having an open house Saturday. I never was willing to bet it was a steal enough to come look.

Other names I am coming across are Bristol, and southern cross. But southern cross are probably too expensive. Also there's the cal 30. Everyone loves cal.
 
#17 ·
Cal came in 29 and 31 I think, not a 30.

I don't love the Cal. They are good, but I think there are better boats out there.

Yes, the $4000 boat was a Yankee 30. It turned into an auction from what I saw on CL. Not sure what it finally went for. Yankee 30 doesn't look that special when you see one, it's just a very nice sailing boat that is well built and that you can get for a reasonable price.
 
#18 ·
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