Any thoughts on/experience with Rangers?

[rjg23]

Looking at purchasing a Ranger 30 and am interested in any thoughts/experiences/opinions anyone might be able to pass along. Use would be mostly cruising Maine coast (family of 5), with some racing possibilities.

Thanks

[KeelHaulin]

I believe that the Rangers were designed by Gary Mull (Designer of Schock Santanas, Rangers, Newport 30&33). He worked for S&S for several years before going off to design hulls for multiple Mfr's including an America's Cup hull.

Check out this link...

http://www.capitalyachts.info/garymull02.pdf

[DynaMeme]

We owned and raced a Ranger 23 and raced on a Ranger 26 from 1973 to 1977. Gary Mull was a genius. These boats handle every point of sail well though they can be a challenge on a quartering spinnaker run. Frankly that had more to do with spinnaker design at the time. My wife and I sailed our 23 across the Gulf of Mexico from Ft Myers to Destin keeping about 20 miles offshore. The only thing that ever concerned us was being rammed by the dinghy we were towing.

Both boats (and their generational counteparts -- San Juan 24 & 26, Pearson s etc) were so effective on the race course, MORC had to change its rating rule to the 4Q version to stop them from winning. Over night, ugly overgrown unsafe dinghies became the boats to beat.

The Ranger 29 performed very well on the course and as a cruising boat. The 30 was not as well known and hit the market when that hull type was rendered non-competitive by the rule change.

Leaky windows were the only flaw we ever found in these boats.

Our 23 has since been owned by two more people. The second owner was t-boned by a Morgan 3/4 ton, and the Ranger had to be lashed to the other boat's bow to keep it from sinking. He had the boat completely rebuilt and renamed "Sudden Impact." The boat is still club racing under PHRF now that all the 4Q boats are landfill.

Oh yes, I believe Good Old Boat may have had an article on Jensen Marine. Also Dan Spurr comments in "Heart of Glass."

[Faster]

Have spent time on a couple of different Ranger 28s, my brother owned one for a while, friends currently own another. They like(d) their boats a lot.
Our son just bought at well maintained 1972 Ranger 29 that seems to have stood the test of time.
We've seen a Ranger 26 perform really well on the race course, a real PHRF sleeper.
As previously noted, these seem to be really well designed, decent all-round boats a notch above your typical used Catalina (though always dependant on the care and attention they have received over the years)

We looked at a Ranger 30 ourselves in the Seattle area two years ago when we were last boat shopping and were tempted. This particular boat had the typical deck leak issues, all the hull liner (carpet-like material) in the forward cabin was quite sodden, it may have just been stanchion bases, but without further investigation we weren't sure. We neverthless gave this boat some serious consideration. In the end we went for something a bit larger. (a family of 5 might crowd this boat, esp when the kids become adult-sized teens)

Definitely not talking top of the line (read expensive) quality, but good general purpose, coastal cruising/racing alternatives with reasonable resale prospects upon the inevitable onset of 2-footitis.

If you are looking at an Atomic 4 model check that it's FWC, much better long term prospects.

.

[paulmcquillan]

There are two that race out here, and both are tough to beat in almost all conditions.