can anyone tell me about a 44 CSY

[creekmorerichards]

we are looking at a44 foot csy walkover...can anyone tell me about this boat thanks jan

[Jeff_H]

These boats were produced as charter boats, with a few also going directly into private hands. Carribean Sailing Yachts (CSY) was one of the first companies to use the scheme of selling boats to owners where the owner would make a down payment and take out a loan and then the boat would go into charter for 5 to 7 years with the charter company paying the loan and maintenance.

As originally constructed these boats were robust, a little crude, and simple. They were rigged for the charter industry in the Carribean, meaning small simple sailplans and minimal hardware. The deck hardware, winches and the like were high friction and little undersized for the sail area but was adequate for a week charter aboard. Their sailing ability was pretty mediocre, meaning neither great or poor. Obviously these were not light air boats, and frankly they were not especially great heavy air boats.

The standard engine was reportedly a little undersized and at least two of the CSY's that I came in contact with replaced the engines with larger engines when replacement time came. (There may be a thread around here between these two CSY owners.)

I have spoken to several original owners and most felt that the boats came out of charter quite beat up and in need of major overhaul and upgrade. Since the original owners often opted into these schemes as a way of buying a boat that they could not otherwise afford, they were often not in a position to properly restore these boats when they came out of the trade. On the other hand, some owners did beautiful jobs putting the boats back together replacing anything that was out of date and in need of attention.

In the end these boats tend to be cheap because they were bought cheap, sailing ability is so-so, had mediocre maintenance for at least the first 7 years of thier life and there is a perception that these boats have really been beat up at some point in thier life. The reality is not all that obvious, as this may all be true of some examples, others may have been heavily upgraded and turned into nice boats.

Jeff

[eryka]

jan -
I'll agree with Jeff that CSYs aren't great performance sailing boats, on the other hand several 44s have circumnavigated. They weren't designed to be perfomance sailors, but they do a great job at what they were designed to be, wonderful living-aboard boats, sturdy and built for the tropics (we've been on ours for 7 years). Count on upgrading/modernizing the one you buy unless its already been done - the boat is almost 30 years old. There's an owner's group here: Topica Email List Directory

[funsailthekeys]

I feel when restored they are a beautiful boat. If you don't like the draft there is a cut off point on the keel where you can loose a foot of draft. We have done several here in the keys with little effect on the stability. There is a web site that goes in to this in much greater detail.