Cal boats seaworthiness

[grumol]

In the book "Twenty Boats you can take anywhere", the Cal 20 is towards the bottom of the heap, but still, its in the book. And another chart I researched listed the Lapworth 24 as a very stable boat, though I''m not sure how this boat compares to the Cal 24/25 of the late 60''s. Being on a tight budget, I would like to know what opinions there are re: the seaworthiness of both the Cal 20 and the 25 -- thanks, bob adams, cape vincent ny

[Jeff_H]

I race on a Cal 25 quite frequently. These are nice little boats. They can often be found for sale quite inexpensively and nciely equipped. For the dollars there are few small boats that offered a better balance of accomodations, and sailing ability for the dollars. They are really a hoot to race as they are pretty evenly matched in speed between a highly prepped one and one ''off the shelf.

All of that said, in stock form these are really not my idea of a ''boat to go anywhere". There are a number of reasons that I say this but most are related to the risk of downflooding in a knockdown or following sea. There is a big notch in the transom for the outboard that means the risk of flooding the cockpit in a following sea or even a powerboat wake as we have done. When combined with the cockpit sole level companionway and open sail lockers and poptop on some of these boats, Well you get the picture. Obviously these can be corrected but not easily.

Jeff