List of the best small 30-35' full keel cruising boats based on traditional designs..

[mercater]

Hi my name Philip and it’s a pity you are not in Australia. I have a gaff rigged cutter timber full keel that was built to sail the world.
The mast is stepped rigged which I believe has merit.
The boat was built around 1940ish with very dried timber which is edge glued to ribs ie no caulking.
Some of the ribs had cracked with age which I have laminated internally with white oak. It’s re engined with yanmar 50 hp. New anchor winch with additional remote control with chain count.
With bow sprit the boat is approx 40 ft.
It’s for sale at what I believe is a give away price as no one seems to be interested In the traditional skills in sailing a gaffer.
Best of luck to you In your search.

[Benz]

I have a home-built gaff rig on my 31' GC, and a good amount of sea miles on it. A couple of thoughts:
There is no need to fear a tabernacle-stepped aluminum mast. If you insist on wood, and perhaps hollow wood, then maybe keel-stepped is better, but only so because you have desired an inferior material.
OPINION ALERT: I think aluminum is a better material for a low-maintenance offshore cruising mast than wood. I also think that while wooden boats are pretty, and heart-string-tugging, there's less failure modes to solid fiberglass, thus less risk of something going wrong, and definitely less maintenance, both short- and long-term.

If designing and building your own gaff rig, remember you need not get stuck in the mindset that weight aloft doesn't matter. You can have a lightweight, easily-handled, well-performing rig if you leverage modern materials to your advantage. My boat has synthetic rigging, composite or aluminum spars, and modern blocks (instead of the heavy carved wooden blocks with galvanized sheaves that so many affect). It sails gorgeously and handles quite easily.
Also don't let people tell you that gaffers are harder to handle: I've had more difficulty winching up the last bit of luff on a marconi sail than I ever had getting peak tension on an 80-foot schooner with no winches. It's just a matter of getting things set up correctly.

[rkarakai21]

I have seen your boat and rig floating around the internet before when I was looking up Gaff rig conversions! I think you created a great blend of old and new tech.

I was definitely planning my rig with big weight savings in mind. The shrouds and stays are going to be either Heat set dyneema, parcelled and served full length, or VETS-198 from whitehill.

https://www.ravenox.com/products/vet...lines-4-strand

My first choice would be the whitehill kevlar. It has been used on one yacht and one sail training vessel that I know of so far, both successful experiments.

Just the gang of standing rigging alone in synthetic will represent significant weight savings. I am too much of a purist to head in the direction of modern blocks however. Ill start with whatever the boat has but ultimately I want to build a set of solid elm blocks, rope stropped, with served synthetic strops, would like to make up the sheaves out of synthetic, maybe delrin, with roller bearings. So in fact they will be much lighter than conventional blocks with steel internal strops and cast sheaves.

The idea is that when all is said and done the boat wouldn't look out of place at a quayside somewhere in europe in the 19th century. Served and tarred synthetic will be almost indistuinguisghable from served hemp shrouds, rope stropped blocks will look the part.

I'm all for subtly combining the beauty of the old days that I love with modern, high performance materials.

Wouldn't mind looking at that Baba 30 down in seattle..

Come on Vaccines, lets go! Get that border open...

[Trawler]

Just saw your post, am not a sailer so maybe I'm way off base here but have you looked at the Fisher 30??