Chris Craft 35'' Sail Yacht?

[Amac]

Any thoughts on this boat? Seems to be a reasonably priced heavier (18,000 pound) 35 footer with a full keel...

[Jeff_H]

Chris Craft built two or three diiferent 35 foot sailboats. The first was a 1960''s era center cockpit motorsailor. These were nice boats in a lot of way. They sailed reasonably well for a motorsailor of that era, which is to say that they were capable of sailing in a pretty wide range of conditions, but they were not great sailors compared to non- motorsailor sailboats of that era, and are very poor sailors compared to more modern designs. These boats had fiberglass hulls but the deck and cabin were constructed the way you would build a wooden boat, so careful maintenance would be critical.

In the 1960''s Chris Craft also offered a 35 foot sailboat but I don''t think that many were built because they were pretty close in price to the 37 foot Apache and so I have never actually seen one in the flesh.

The third 35 foot Chris Craft was a motorsailor built in Asia during the 1970''s. These were miserable boats on all counts. I have a fair amount of direct experience with these boats. They were poorly built, poor sailers and miserable to work on.

Good luck,
Jeff

[Amac]

Jeff,

Thanks for the heads up. Indeed, this is the 1963 vintage center cockpit, equipped with a 36 HP Mercedes diesel...

Thanks for the information; there isn''t a lot of information on these vessels available on the web and it''s a good thing to get input from someone who knows them.

[mgiguere]

I just found out that my Apache 37 was built in Salsbury MD. It''s been an outstanding boat over the last twenty years that I have had it and solidly constructed.

Moe

[OCJoe]

Amac: a sistership is a few slips down from me. I don''t think he has computer access. If you have specific questions, ask, and I will try to get answers for you.
Joe

[Amac]

Joe,

Thanks. My questions are mostly just general in nature: are there any particular gotchas or words to the wise when it comes to this model vs. other classic plastic boats of its general vintage?

Having decided that I want a centercockpit boat between 30 and 35 feet with a full keel built before 1972 begins to limit my choices as it is, and this Chris Craft seems to fit the bill nicely.