Cruising in an S2 9.2?

[lbdavis]

I'm looking for a boat to cruise the coast of Maine, Canadian Maritimes, and then one day a little further. Generally, I have only really considered modified full keeled designs, but the quality of workmanship, headroom, and the price, keeps luring me to S2's when they cross my path.

Personally, I don't think they are very pretty, but I've read a few places that she is a true blue water cruiser. Is this true?

Two big things I see:

A lack of reserve buoyancy in the bow
A large cockpit with no real bridge deck to stop any down-flow when you're pooped.

Are these really legitimate cruisers?

Thanks,
Afraid of grounding a fin keel on granite.

[BarryL]

Hello,

The S2 9.2A is a standard production type 30 sailboat. No better (or worse) than any other standard 30 type boat like Catalina, Islander, Newport, O'day, C&C, Tartan, Saber, etc.

Compare the numbers on them and you will see that they are all basically the same. Fine for coastal cruising, not something I would want to be far offshore in.

Regarding the build quality of S2 I must state that I am not impressed. In 2004 I was looking for a 30 coastal cruiser / racer. I heard good things about the S2 9.2A so I looked at a number of them. They ALL had bad leaks around the chainplates. Of the 5 boats I looked at, they all had rotted bulkheads from the leaks. NONE of the Catalina 30's I looked at had that problem. The S2 is also slow.

Personally I would look for something else.

Barry

[sailingdog]

An Alberg 30 or Cape Dory 28 is going to be far more seaworthy a boat and probably not all that much different in price.