Rawson 30- A Blue Water Cruiser?

casey1999 · #1 03-09-2012

Anyone have experience with a Rawson 30? Are they blue water capable? How do they go to windward? Probllem areas? Opinions?
Regards

Faster · #2 03-09-2012

As a fairly rugged full keeled cruiser they are probably what many would consider blue water capable, years back we had one in our club that the owner were fixing up for that purpose. (in the end they came into some money and moved up to a Passport 40!)

As far as sailing, these boats apparently suffered from excess weather helm and many have had short bowsprits added to move the forestay ahead and alleviate the helm issues (they are not alone in that.. many Cat 30s have had the same mods)

I'm not sure that the construction quality is top notch nor if they were as 'heavily built' as they appear.. but I'm quite sure that a good number of them have done offshore passages. I believe some would be owner-finished; I think hull/deck kits were offered.

blt2ski · #3 03-09-2012

The hull IIRC is reasonably bullet proof. As the fish trawlers that company made of fiberglass were very strong! The sailboats were built accordingly. So from that standpoint, it probably would go anywhere with out issues per say.

One of the issues I see with this boat, is being a pilot house, reasonably smaller in size, they could go/break in some bigger waves etc, causing some serious issues. SO that would be something to figure out how to instal some storm boards that one puts over the bigger windows to keep them from breaking.

About a year ago, there was an article in Good Old boat on one of these, if you can find tha article, read it. If not, let me know, I know the writer, and could probably figure out how to get you a pdf/copy of it.

Personal opinion, I would choose a different boat and style if it were me frankly! For here in the NW, as I got older, a pilot house sailboat like this might be in my future, but even still, there are some better/faster sailing boats than this one frankly.

Marty

Faster · #4 03-09-2012

They are not all pilot house, in fact the PH models were relatively rare.

blt2ski · #5 03-09-2012

OOPS, maybe the one reviewed in GOB was a rare PH version........

I remember my step dad looking at buying a hull/deck kit to build, taking a tour of the Rawson plant about 10 miles from us, now a roofing supply place...... They are solid from what some would like to see of a boat to handle anything, but iirc, one of the few boats with a 300+ PHRF rating too! I think we can reasonably say a slooooooooooooow boat.

Now that I relook at the pic above, it is not a PH.........oh well,

Marty

bobperry · #6 03-09-2012

You are going to have to be patient if you try and make a Rawson 30 go to weather. Patient and very forgiving. Yes, they did have exsessive weather helm. But they are built like tanks. Not high on quality but high on quantity. Like any Garden design they are hard not to like but having raced against them when I was a kid I can tell you for sure, they are slow. But, I still like them.

Brent Swain · #7 03-09-2012

They would make a great offshore boat. One can eliminate the weather helm problem and drastically simplify self steering and inside steering, by taking the keel hung rudder off and replacing it with a transom hung rudder on a skeg. The skeg could become a keel cooler for the engine. I'd fair the trailing edge of the keel for that.

casey1999 · #8 03-09-2012

Thanks for the comments. Reason I ask is a friend bought one and is doing work on it then bring it around the island to another slip. I may help him and just curious about how they handle. His is not a pilot house version but here is a Hard dodger version:
1966 Rawson 30 Hard Dodger Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

SloopJonB · #9 03-09-2012

I once saw a PHRF rating of near 300 for the R30.

Faster · #10 03-09-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by SloopJonB

I once saw a PHRF rating of near 300 for the R30.

Yeah.... no speedster