Okay, if you want an opinion, in thier day, the Coronado 25 was a value oriented, coastal cruiser (think somewhere between Magregor and Catalina 27). At least the couple I knew were poorly assembled and cheaply built with less than ideal materials, and undersized hardware. Almost every piece of hardware was an option and so some were delivered without
winches, others with simple snubbing
winches way too light for their comparatively large genoas, and others with reasonably sized top-action
winches. They were reasonably popular primarily because of their cheap price.
They sailed moderately well for thier day (not quite as well as the similar concept Cal 25 of which they were a knockoff). They did not point very well, partially because of their hull form and partially because the design of the house prevented a good sheet lead angle for the genoa. Thier long waterline gave them a pretty good turn of speed reaching in a breeze.
Coronado's were built by a succession of different companies starting out weak and going down hill from there. The earliest Coronados (1965 or so) were generally reputed to be better built than the later boats, that is until the tooling ended up at Hughes who, it is claimed, improved quality again. It is not clear to me whether Hughes ever built any of the smaller Coronado's even though they showed on their late 1970's literature.
Coronado 25's were known for developing keel bolt and rudder problems sooner than similar boats of that same era, but if I remember right, the keel bolts were a comparatively easy fix. (If I remember correctly, and I may be thinking of the Coronado 23, they had cast iron keels with galvanized iron through bolts through a flange. It was relatively easy to remove the bolts and replace with monel or SS bolts and be good to go for a very long while.) The rudder had a small diameter bronze rudder post that did not fair well over time. The electrical systems were junk but having helped rewire one, access is pretty easy. The hull to deck joint also did not fair well over time being a small contact area, rolled out flange held together primarily with polyester slurry.
The one in question sounds like it has had all of the big things done except keel bolt, hull to deck joint, and rudder replacement. For that price these are not bad boats to mess around in as long as you don't plan to press them too hard.
Respectfully,
Jeff
Linear Mode
