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What's the sweetest boat you've ever sailed on?

10K views 56 replies 48 participants last post by  156680 
#1 ·
By that I mean, a boat that is well balanced, can be easily trimmed to hold a course on her own, without an autopilot or a hand on the rudder. A boat that doesn't pound in sloppy seas. A boat that sets her shoulder in a blow, and then politely holds it.

A boat that is simply sweet, well-mannered, a pleasure to sail on. As opposed to some that have a very narrow notch where they are well-trimmed, or need constant tending on the helm (like a J/24).

I'd have to say the most well-mannered one I've sailed on yet has been the Islander28, which even Bob Perry said was a wonderful surprise in terms of how mannerly it was. (And the basis for a number of his later and larger designs, for that reason.) It may be relatively heavy, and the builders did tamper with the design (changing the keel-stepped mast to a kludged deck-stepped one with an offset support), but it balances quite easily and then continues to sail itself, with no one on the helm. Something I haven't seen done on any number of boats from any number of makers, both larger and smaller.

So what boat has particularly impressed you? Not for being fast, not for being any one thing, but for being so well-mannered that it puts others to shame, and shows how boat design really is an arcane art.
 
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#30 ·
The square topsail schooner Shenandoah. Bob Douglas drew her lines based on the revenue cutter Joe Lane. You can sail that boat all day long without ever touching the helm. She points as high as most full keeled cruising boats and she can sail onto a dock with the best of them. (she doesn't have an engine)
 
#32 ·
What I love is when I pass a 45' monohull sailboat in my little 28' trimaran... :) I wave to them, but they almost never never wave back. ;)
 
#34 ·
For me, Oh Joy is the sweetest thus far. She has an easy motion even in the nastiest seas, puts the rail at the water and moves out smartly and has plenty of sail combination's to fit the conditions. The fact that she's a gorgeous old classic doesn't hurt. While I'm sure there are sweeter sailing boats out there, I haven't sailed one yet.

YouTube - Northern Century Sequence
 
#49 ·
Sweetest, best behaved boat I ever sailed on was a Hinckley Bermuda 40. Wish I could own one of these beauties.
Warren, I could not agree more!!! Throughout my teen years and off and on thereafter I sailed with my parents on Lola, their black-hulled Hinckley B40. We sailed her everywhere - I sailed with my dad and his sailing buddies on three Marion to Hamilton races, and when my dad retired and it came time to ship or sail her down to the Alabama coast, we sailed her - offshore almost all the way, only put into port once down in the Keys - one of the most enjoyable sails I've ever been on and the last time I sailed with my dad.
 
#46 ·
Agree. Unbelievable power that boat has even without the full sail she can carry. I would have bought the pics to prove it, but I was laying next to the mainsheet coffee grinder, along with another 50 y.o. marshmello. We were both gasping for air and trying to hold our hearts in our chest cavities as the pics were taken. :D We won also.:)

One extreme to the other...I owned a Cape Dory Typhoon and for an 18'er, she had a most pleasing motion for a boat that only weighted 2k lbs. Carl Alberg balanced her well. After trimming the sails I could lock down the tiller, walk to the bow and shift my weight to keep her down the middle of the ICW 'til the cows came home.

I only kept her for about a year after the restoration before I sold her...that boat always made me smile. I'm an Idiot!! :eek:
 
#47 ·
I became the owner of an Islander 28 last year. "A deal I couldn't refuse". I did not "shop for the boat" and was not considering one. I was looking for a comfortable, simple and fun boat to introduce my wife to sailing along the Maine coast. I was thinking about a full keel. Your description of Perry's Islander 28 is right on. What a nice surprise!! What a well behaved boat! My wife has no other reference points. If we decide to buy a larger boat it is going to be hard and necessary to match this boats manners.

Another kind of "sweet boat" is the 15" Marshall cat we enjoy. What a fun boat. It can be a little wet if you sail it hard above 10 knots of wind but with its huge sail and the board up it seems to fly down wind. I like being that close to the water. The gaff rig allows you to depower quickly and with the wide beam and the shallow rudder it doesn't "trip" when it gets hit with a powerful gust, it just rounds up when the rudder is lifted out of the water. It can be sailed with water at the coaming and I can feel it hunting for the "sweet spot" when sailing "close hauled". Cat boats don't sail very close to the wind but with no keel hanging down, running can be very exciting.
 
#50 ·
Sweetest Boat

My vote for the sweetest boat I've ever sailed on is a 1968 53 foot Gallant ketch, designed by Van de Stadt and constructed by Southern Shipyards, "Alaunt", chartered for a day-sail out of Red Hook, St. Thomas, USVI. This boat originally belonged to the Royal Governor of Bermuda and was used by him in trans-oceanic races. We sailed to St. John with one reef in a fresh breeze and the boat cut through the waves like a hot knife through butter - "sea kindly" doesn't begin to describe how it shouldered its way through a considerable chop. The fit and finish both above deck and below were impeccable.
But for the Chesapeake, where I sail, I'll take my own boat with a 5ft. draft, as "Alaunt", and her 52 sisters, have a draft of 7ft which would limit access in skinny water.
 
#52 ·
If you must know

The most amazing boat I ever sailed on was a 51' Bud Mcintosh designed wooden schooner name Pisces. She was owned by the parents of one of my friends and we sailed her all over the North East in good and bad weather. It took the whole family to sail her, plus guests.

She sailed like you can only dream about and even did well in light air. She sailed the way only a woodie can. If you've never sailed a wooden boat then you can;t and will never understand... She had that musty but nautical cologne like smell that only a wood can develop and I can still smell it.

Pisces was lost on an uncharted reef down south. Word is she was recovered and restored but to this day we don't know what her new name is or where she is.

This is the closest sister ship to her though Pisces had even more pleasing lines and a little more beam sail plan and deck layout were virtually identical though (Photo courtesy Panbo):


Larger Picture (LINK)
 
#54 ·
Sadler 32 - smallest boat I ever sailed...easy to single hand, F A S T! Screamed through from Seychelles to Richards Bay in South Africa in under 7 days in av. of 25-32 knots. Hung on by my fingernails, hardly touched the sails and helm and could have kept going. Performance sailboat with a reputation built on transatlantics and a number of circumnavigations. Most well know in the UK and amongst South Africans and New Zealanders. Thanks for the thread, haven't thought of that trip in years.
 
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