Pearson Yachts

[roverhi]

You need to click on 'Impatient' in the lower right hand area to keep the site from looping on the initial page.

[belizesailor]

I've sailed the Pearson 36 (cutter rig & ketch rigs) and I really like this little boat. Taught two generations of new owners to sail the same one in fact.

The last two sales of these boats I was around they went for about $40-45K so they are in your budget and I think a good value for the $.

"Wont go to windward" is an overstatement. They have respectable windward performance for a cruising boat. While they won't out point my H33 (at 28 degrees apparent close hauled, there are no "cruising" boats that will), their windward ability is fine for a smaller cruising boat.

My 2c on rig preferences. Of the three options (sloop, cutter, ketch) I would go with the cutter. It gives you more sail plan options for offshore/heavy weather work, and for redundancy, but does not clutter up the cockpit with the mizzen mast etc. The cockpit of the Person 36 ketch tends to be a bit crowed with the mizzen stepped in the middle of it. However, I sure do like having a mizzen for certain circumstances. If the staysail stay bugs you then rig it to be "convertible" with a big pelican hook, but don't take it off the boat -- it is the most useful sail aboard.

Traditional, but quite serviceable, layout below. As pointed out by others, engine access is not great, but few monos of this era are.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Really? wow thats surprising. At any rate a cutter is defined by the placement of the mast..... much further back than a sloop.

I have a Pearson 422 cutter rig. Met an owner with the sloop rig and confirmed my mast is stepped several feet further aft. Not sure about the other Pearson models.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by timc

This is what I was referring too.... why would the sloop have better upwind than the cutter on same hull???

Generally, although the ketch version has a slight sail area advantage, upwind the efficiency advantage of the sloop more than makes up for that. From a high beam reach/low close reach down almost to a run the ketch will have the advantage. Generally this evens out as can be seen in that fact that sloop and mizzen boats generally have very similar PHRF ratings.

34
PEARSON 34 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-147
7000lb 'structural' weight

36.2
PEARSON 36-2 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-126
9800lb 'structural' weight
This is not the boat that several other folks have been discussing, which is the 365 that went out of production in 1982 so it is not in the age range you were asking about.

37
PEARSON 37 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-102
7100lb 'structural' weight

'structural' weight is total displacement minus ballast. If you assume similar proportion of weight went into hull, deck, rigging and furniture and there was similar quality of workmanship, then you can make an educated guess as to which boats are stronger.

Adjusting for length and beam the 34 & 36.2 are just about the same in structural weight. The 37 is a lot lighter, but for coastal cruising no so light that I would worry about it.

The 37 has a fairly classic though not excessive IOR shape, wide beam with pinched stern, so there might be some minor mis-behaviors but nothing that would dissuade me from coastal cruising.

All 3 have fairly deep and relatively pointy fins, meaning the center of gravity for the fin won't be as deep as I would like for offshore, but for coastal would be acceptable.

I would find the baby stay annoying instead of double lowers, but again coastal sailing.

The 36 looks the best for living aboard with limited overnight sailing.

If you were going to overnight sail regularly the 34 or 37 would be better. If you were going to overnight with extra crew regularly then I would go with the 37, but if normally just you and the Mrs. then the 34.

[timc]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Generally, although the ketch version has a slight sail area advantage, upwind the efficiency advantage of the sloop more than makes up for that. From a high beam reach/low close reach down almost to a run the ketch will have the advantage. Generally this evens out as can be seen in that fact that sloop and mizzen boats generally have very similar PHRF ratings.

34
PEARSON 34 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-147
7000lb 'structural' weight

36.2
PEARSON 36-2 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-126
9800lb 'structural' weight
This is not the boat that several other folks have been discussing, which is the 365 that went out of production in 1982 so it is not in the age range you were asking about.

37
PEARSON 37 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-102
7100lb 'structural' weight

'structural' weight is total displacement minus ballast. If you assume similar proportion of weight went into hull, deck, rigging and furniture and there was similar quality of workmanship, then you can make an educated guess as to which boats are stronger.

Adjusting for length and beam the 34 & 36.2 are just about the same in structural weight. The 37 is a lot lighter, but for coastal cruising no so light that I would worry about it.

The 37 has a fairly classic though not excessive IOR shape, wide beam with pinched stern, so there might be some minor mis-behaviors but nothing that would dissuade me from coastal cruising.

All 3 have fairly deep and relatively pointy fins, meaning the center of gravity for the fin won't be as deep as I would like for offshore, but for coastal would be acceptable.

I would find the baby stay annoying instead of double lowers, but again coastal sailing.

The 36 looks the best for living aboard with limited overnight sailing.

If you were going to overnight sail regularly the 34 or 37 would be better. If you were going to overnight with extra crew regularly then I would go with the 37, but if normally just you and the Mrs. then the 34.

Very interesting thoughts on the 34, thank you.

[timc]

Originally Posted by Adelie

34
PEARSON 34 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
PHRF-147
7000lb 'structural' weight


'structural' weight is total displacement minus ballast. If you assume similar proportion of weight went into hull, deck, rigging and furniture and there was similar quality of workmanship, then you can make an educated guess as to which boats are stronger.

If you were going to overnight sail regularly the 34 or 37 would be better. If you were going to overnight with extra crew regularly then I would go with the 37, but if normally just you and the Mrs. then the 34.

Interesting looking at Structural weights, as the O'Day 34 and the Catalina 34 both are the same as the Pearson 34, approx 7000lbs.

[Cheechako]

Yes, looking at the link, that Pearson 37 is the one my friends had. Really just a production boat like a Catalina, Oday etc. The 365 leans more toward being a "blue water" boat in my opinion.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by timc

Interesting looking at Structural weights, as the O'Day 34 and the Catalina 34 both are the same as the Pearson 34, approx 7000lbs.

Understand this a pretty approximate comparison, it assumes similar design as well as workmanship. By design I mean the relative amount of weight in liners and in coring. Comparing a boat with a lot of liner that is not well bonded to one with lots of bulkheads and no liners or a cored boat and an un-cored boat would not be very good comparisons.

Adjusting for differences in beam and length and ignoring design differences I would say that the O'Day is built slightly lighter than the Pearson and the Catalina is somewhat lighter.

[timc]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Understand this a pretty approximate comparison, it assumes similar design as well as workmanship. By design I mean the relative amount of weight in liners and in coring. Comparing a boat with a lot of liner that is not well bonded to one with lots of bulkheads and no liners or a cored boat and an un-cored boat would not be very good comparisons.

Adjusting for differences in beam and length and ignoring design differences I would say that the O'Day is built slightly lighter than the Pearson and the Catalina is somewhat lighter.

Yeah, I do. Just interesting observation.