Cheoy Lee Offshore 31 Dangerous and slow?

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Thackaringa

I have owned a Cheoy lee Offshore 31 in Australia. I bought the boat from an American who had sailed it solo across the Pacific without incident. I had never crossed oceans in it but I had been in some very bad weather at times when I wished that I was somewhere else. The boat never failed to return me to port undamaged, unhurt and unassisted. It never flooded the cockpit or put the mast in the water. Though it did live up to its nickname of Cheoy Leekie. I think this was due to all the timber paneling which made it hard to find where leaks where getting in. They are not fast but if I was in a hurry I would buy a power boat. I have NEVER read a journalists review of any boat, car or washing machine as far as that goes where an owner of such devices has agreed with the journalists opinion. They are notoriously wrong. I now own a Cheoy Lee Clipper 42 but I still have very fond memories of the Offshore 31. L. Francis Herreshoff was a excellent boat designer but he too can be wrong. Is he not the one that said fibreglass had no future and was nothing but frozen snot. Well just look around you. It outlived him.

Hmmm... that sounds like Seaya! Welcome to CF, Mate.

Cheers,

Jim

[Thackaringa]

Hi Jim, Yes "SEAYA" it is.

[Panaseaya]

I sold my Cheoy Lee 31 to 'Thackaringa' a few years back and we are still good mates. I also have many fond memories of SEAYA. (G'day K!) (G'day J & A!) I logged over 20k ocean miles on Seaya and she never failed to make port unassisted. I can confirm that the decks are cored with teak, I can confirm that the water drains out of the cockpit pretty fast (only ever got pooped twice), and that she is reasonably fast for a small heavy displacement Ketch if you're not in too much of a hurry.

[dsholmesjr]

I've been a small boat coastal sailor since 1980, with "offshore" experience limited to island-hopping in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean on bare boat charters (sloops) up to 44 ft. My wife and I have been sailing a 1965 Cheoy Lee Bermuda 30 ketch since 2002, the last 13 years in Maine. At 5 tons, and with a full keel and 24 ft waterline, she's not fast. However, she points reasonably well, will sail effectively in as little as 5 kt of wind, and is quite manageable in 25 kt with sails appropriately set and trimmed. She's definitely not tender; we have never come close to a knockdown in the strongest gusts that we've encountered.

She's very pretty (in the eyes of these beholders), does NOT pick up lobster traps due to her keel design (which makes for far more relaxed sailing in down east Maine than a fin keel does), and is a pleasure to take on short (3-5 day) excursions. She also draws only 3' 8" which increases our gunkholing options. We know folks who have taken their Bermuda 30 ketch to England and back twice. Not something we would ever contemplate as dyed-in-the-wool coastal sailors, but still some sort of testimony to the basic abilities of the design.

So slow, perhaps -- but then she's an old style cruising sailboat, so that's not unexpected. As to danger, all boats are "dangerous" in relation to how they are maintained and sailed (or motored). In our experience, this design is not any more dangerous than most boats of similar size, and certainly less so than others.

[dsholmesjr]

Guess I should have mentioned that we have glass decks cored with solid teak, so she's not one of the Cheoy Leaks.

[Butler]

Good to see the real experience with these boats.
A reading "problem" I think as it is something I can be guilty of. There was something made of the seaworthiness of the CL 31s after the loss of Daisy in one of the Farralon races. and as far as others of theirs the Frisco Flyer comes to mind as it was written up as a version of the Folkboat and I almost bought one of tyhe early glass ones. I thought is was very pretty inside and out but decided against it because the specs were not right to me...ballast/displacement ratio wasn't as good, I think the dimensions were off a bit from a Folkboat. I also did not like the unsealed concreat and steel ballast.
I may have missed a perfectly sturdy, good sailing boat but the "book-learnin'" said no.
The books are fine but the going is better.

[zeehag]

from what i have seen up close and in my face, the original cheoy lees were japanese (?) build of solid teak. omy saints alive and beeholed.
the ones i have seen in desert drying to death have confirmed this. so did the dutch rn i met in san diego in 1995? 6?? or so who sailed one from caribbean to san diego.. beautiful boats.
leaky teakies are formosas and taiwanese builds. there are some yokohama made formosas that are awesome... not many left.

[dsholmesjr]

They were built in Hong Kong.