We had a Cheoy Lee Offshore 41 in the late 70's, early 80's, Ray Richards design. It was a truly gorgeous boat with some nagging problems.
The toerail and port
lights leaked from almost day 1. All of the deck hardware and
winches were made by CL, and were decidedly undersized and inferior. I pulled a turning block out of the toerail going upwind in moderate conditions. We ended up replacing the
winches, blocks, traveler, etc. with domestic.
Also - the mast was deck-stepped and, to accomodate the enormous circular saloon table, there was no bulkhead in way of the chainplates. Because of this, the hull flexed a lot underway, and there was no way to keep the
rigging tight. When underway, a lot of the cabinetry would shift around because it was not tabbed to the hull. Etc., etc.
Something that was not really an issue then, but might be today, was that the engine was under the cabin sole, actually down in the keel sump, without a pan, so any leaks would go straight to the bilge water.
That said, I think a lot of boats built in the late 70's were not as good as boats that came earlier or later, and I think a lot of the earlier CL's deserve their reputation for better quality than what we saw. The later 70's were just not a great time for lots of things - remember AMC Pacer's and Gremlins?
Again, these comments are specific to this boat, not to the earlier Rhodes Reliant and Robb designs, which are well regarded. If I was looking at a late 70's Cheoy Lee, I would hire a skeptical surveyor and listen to him.
Part of our issue was that we dicided to do some PHRF racing in the cruising canvas classes, and so may have subjected the
rig and hardware to stresses CL didn't anticipate, but still, when we went looking for a replacement, CL was not on the list.
