Your 27 - 32 ft story...

[mawtty]

In 1980 I restored a 26 n foot plywood Bilge keeler. A british designed Eventide.
I took it mackarel fishing on the Great Barrier Reef for three years then took some backpackers from Cairns to Papua New Guinea. Very 'hands to mouth' lifestyle . I returned to new Guinea the following year and in all spent 12 months cruising. No money. Very satisfying adventure. Yearning to get back after 30 years land based.
Tulku Tim

[sepharad]

Mine is a Vancouver 27. I looked for many months and found the ideal boat in Denmark. Bought it. Returned home. I planned on sailing it each summer. That first summer I had a 2 month guest. Then came covid.

I have never sailed my boat, which sits on the dry in Denmark. The borders are closed.

This was my first boat and possibly my last. I'm ageing out. So much for the dream retirement. Some nights I wake and think of the boat...and curse. Theres a lesson there.

[Sailmonkey]

I started with a 32’ 1966 Pearson vanguard, then moved to a 32’ 1976 allied seawind II ketch. Both of these boats worked(work) well for me, similar in size, but the allied feels much larger than the Pearson ever did.

[mait]

I used to crew on 40ft racers before I stepped into sailboat owner status.

After some 15yrs of more or less successful round the cans racing I was ready to make the move. I was going to buy an Albin Vega because:
A - there are plenty for sale in Scandinavia
B - they are proven small cruisers that have even crossed oceans
C - they are very cheap in Sweden and my budget was very limited

We made a deal with one seller over the phone and I jumped onto the ferry for a 10h passage to the neighbouring country to check the boat in person and buy it. According to the ad it was a nice one with newish diesel engine installed. While on the ferry on our way to Sweden I (un)luckily received an e-mail from the owner that the Vega had been sold to someone else. So I took a quick look on the ads and checked other boats in Stockholm area. I ended up buying a Shipman 28 (a 29ft boat indeed). And in the end I am happy the Vega was sold before I reached it.
I've been day-sailing and week-cruising the Shipman 28 in local waters for 3 seasons but who knows where's the limit... we all dream, don't we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UREg2iOTUMw&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5u7QJyEb0&t=6s

[Lexi22]

Catalina 30 / 27 / 25, Rawson 30, Watkins 27, Herreshoff H-28, Caliber 28, Endeavour 32, Nicholson 32, Bodega 30, Cape Dory 31 / 25D, Whitby 25, Yankee 30, Great Dane 28, US 27, Mariner 28, Irwin 27, Cape George 31, J30, Kingscruiser 28, Islander 32, Cal 25, Bristol 27, Hunter 31, Columbia 29, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Karmac 30, Pearson 323 / 30 / 26, Tartan 27-2, Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, MacGregor 25, Hartley RORC 32, CSY 33, Alajuela 33, Vancouver 27, Thunderbird 26, Eventide 26, Shipman 28...
Thank you!

[Kelkara]

If you're collecting a list of awesome little boats ... I'm going to have to plug the Hullmaster 27 ... I got her 4 years ago with no experience, and I've not left the coast yet, but she's taken me 1000s of miles up and down the coast of BC and Alaska, inside and outside waters ... and any mistakes have all been mine not the boat's ... I'm still in love with my little boat.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Lexi22

Catalina 30 / 27 / 25, Rawson 30, Watkins 27, Herreshoff H-28, Caliber 28, Endeavour 32, Nicholson 32, Bodega 30, Cape Dory 31 / 25D, Whitby 25, Yankee 30, Great Dane 28, US 27, Mariner 28, Irwin 27, Cape George 31, J30, Kingscruiser 28, Islander 32, Cal 25, Bristol 27, Hunter 31, Columbia 29, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Karmac 30, Pearson 323 / 30 / 26, Tartan 27-2, Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, MacGregor 25, Hartley RORC 32, CSY 33, Alajuela 33, Vancouver 27, Thunderbird 26, Eventide 26, Shipman 28...
Thank you!

And, you can get some pretty good deals on most of those boats these days. Even some that don't need much work.

[nightowle]

I'm putting in a plug for my first sailboat, a 1975 O'Day 27 that I bought without too much thought in 2006 here in Seattle. It showed some age on the non-skid but was a well cared for boat through 3 ownerships. As they say, you don't know what you don't know - so almost every moment was a learning experience and it gave me insight for I'd want in a next boat. I'd buy this same one all over again, though. It had tiller steering, hank on foresails and an Atomic 4 engine. I quickly learned to appreciate the tiller, revel in the ease of maintaining the A-4 engine (and learning online lots about it), as well as getting to learn and understand the advantages of hoisting different foresails. It had a porta-potty which made sanitation oh so easy. I added a water pump and new faucet which helped with its livability. The cabin layout was great. It performed very well in light and robust winds. I took off the summer of '09 and traveled north through the San Juans and into Canadian waters single-handed. It was the perfect boat for that. I sold her in 2017 and do miss her. She treated me kindly.

[sandy stone]

When we decided to move up from our Pearson 26 One-Design, to get things like room to stand up inside and an inboard engine, I was delighted to find a Pearson 32. This was the '70's era cruiser-racer, not the Vanguard mentioned above.
Bill Shaw could design some really nice-sailing boats, and Pearson built them as bulletproof as you could reasonably expect. I had some great times sailing and racing that boat, and it always took care of me when I wasn't careful enough with the weather. I was even lucky enough to find one that had been repowered with a 2-cyl Yanmar.
Although it was quite an upgrade from the P26, it was still kind of like camping out when cruising. It had foot pumps for the sinks, no hot water (obviously no shower), and a non-pressurized alcohol stove. Plus, with the head forward, there was not a lot of privacy between it and the V-berth.
So, after some good years, we finally decided to upgrade one more time to our current boat. But for somebody looking for a well-built and good sailing boat at a reasonable price, you couldn't go far wrong. Of course, now that they're getting older, be sure to check for all the usual stuff.

[Don C L]

In my album I have a shot of a local boat, a Trintella 1A, which is a sweet little boat, and also born of the Folkboat heritage I think. But I'd say to include a Cal 28, which seems a LOT bigger than the typical old school 28 when you first look at it. But that was another boat on my list when I was looking.

[Hene]

In the late '70's we sailed a Pearson Coaster, a Bill Shaw 30 foot sloop. She had a full keel and cutaway forefoot; the east coast version generally had a centerboard and was called a Wanderer. We lived in San Pedro, and made many trips to Catalina, and then made the 100 mile trek to the northern Channel Islands at least once a year for several years, the first time when our daughter was a few months old. She was a fairly tender boat, but handled the northern trip well. Engine access was a little difficult for some jobs.

She had more bunks than storage space, so we took our friends along often. In fact, we had so much fun with that boat that we got an old Cheoy Lee Offshore 40 and went cruising for 17 years. Either side of 30 feet is a nice, handy size, and usually simple enough to need way less maintenance than a bigger boat (which always seems to be more complicated). I read in Latitude 38 last year that someone else has owned our old Coaster for 30 years now--she's a sweet boat. My new-to-me boat is a 1975 Atkin Tern (designed 1932) that was re-rigged as a junk by the previous owner--and she's a 30 footer.
When I was a child, I pored over my father's collection of Rudder and Yachting magazines, looking at boat plans. I hope you enjoy your search!

[Connemara]

Read through the thread expecting that someone would mention the Mirage 26/27, designed by Bob Perry. The 26 came first and a few years later Bob reversed the transom and came up with an extra foot or so of waterline. Connemara is hull 413 of the 27s, bullt in '82 and still going strong. Lots of fun to sail with no vices and comfortable for a couple of people for a few weeks.

The other boat doesn't fit the specs.

Connemara

[PineyWoodsPete]

Originally Posted by Lexi22

So far...
Catalina 30, Rawson 30, Watkins 27, Herreshoff H-28, Caliber 28, Endeavour 32, Nicholson 32, Bodega 30, Cape Dory 31, Whitby '25,' Yankee 30, Geaat Dane 28, US 27, Mariner 28, Irwin 27, 31' Cape George, J30, Kingscruiser 28, Islander 32, Cape Dory '25D,' Cal '25,' Hunter 31, Columbia 29, Catalina 27, Cheoy Lee Luders 30...
A great list! Thank you, everyone.

We've owned both an '77 Endeavour 32 keel/CB, on which we took a 9 mo cruise in '79 with our age 11 and 14 gals, and 16 y.o. son for the summer. The boat - with adequate but not exiting performance with it's conservative sail plan and CB with a 3' 6" draft board up. We did break the CB on the FL E coast ICW necessitating haul out. The cabin layout was typical of the times with two seat berths and a tight quarter berth, smallish galley.


OTOH, the '83 Catalina 30 w/wheel steering and RF 120 genoa we bought on Monterey Bay in '15 sailed much better and had a WONDERFUL layout as pictured below. It's only flaw was it's 2-cyl. Universal diesel of 14HP I believe, which was borderline getting out Moss Landing against the usual 15-20kn WNW summer winds, or in over the standing waves of a brisk ebb current. The Universal 3-cyl M-20 or -25 is what most have.

[Lexi22]

Another sleepless night. Tired.
Catalina 30 / 28mkii / 27 / 25, Rawson 30, Watkins 27, Herreshoff H-28, Caliber 28, Endeavour 32, Nicholson 32, Bodega 30, Cape Dory 31 / 25D, Whitby 25, Yankee 30, Great Dane 28, US 27, Mariner 28, Irwin 27, Cape George 31, J30, Kingscruiser 28, Islander 32, Cal 28 / 25, Bristol 27, Hunter 31 / 27, Columbia 29, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Karmac 30, Pearson 323 / 30 / 26, Tartan 27-2, Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, MacGregor 25, Hartley RORC 32, CSY 33, Alajuela 33, Vancouver 27, Thunderbird 26, Eventide 26, Shipman 28, Hullmaster 27, O'Day 27, Trintella 1A, Mirage 27 / 26...

[Lexi22]

There was a guy who owned a Compac 27 and then a Catalina 315. I hope he'll see this thread...