Passport Yacht Experience

[ontherocks83]

I haven't been able to find much first hand knowledge about Passport Yachts so I want to ask if anyone has some insight about them? When we go to buy in a few years, I found that I can get a used Passport for the same price as some new boats.

Does anyone have experience about their quality, sea handling nature, reputation etc?

Thanks all

[DDabs]

Great boats, great quality, proven passagemakers. Sorry, not much detail, but all I have to say really.

There is a Passport 41 in my marina that is one of the most beautiful sailboats I've ever seen. Extremely functional and well-thought out design.

[SV DestinyAscen]

They're proof that it isn't where it is made - but how you utilize the labor pool.

[rockDAWG]

I don't know much about the newer ones that make in China. But the older ones from Taiwan were well made and solid. I have sailed and worked on it for years. A bit slow, but it comes with the territory.

[Cheechako]

I had a 47 . Great boats, very well built. In about.. early 90's ....they changed manufacturers. I think the earlier ones were a better builder, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the later ones. They do some things (not sure about what years) like using small squares in the deck layup to avoid migration of water if the core gets set from a fitting screw leak etc. Add to that the Bob Perry design etc, as well as the wonderful interior work and it's hard to go wrong really.
The 41 was the later build,new manufacturer, the 40 the earlier build. There's also a lesser known 37 very similar to the 40, and bigger ones too.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

I haven't been able to find much first hand knowledge about Passport Yachts so I want to ask if anyone has some insight about them? When we go to buy in a few years, I found that I can get a used Passport for the same price as some new boats.

Does anyone have experience about their quality, sea handling nature, reputation etc?

Thanks all

Very pretty, beautifully fitted out, sea kindly, old fashioned, slow.

[HankOnthewater]

I found there was a quite diverse menu on the passport table:
Passport 40 40.0 Perry
Passport 41 41.0 Perry
Passport 42 42.0 Huntingford
Passport 44 43.0 Perry
Passport 45 45.0 Doug Peterson/Huntingford
Passport 456 45.0 perry
Passport 47 47.0 Perry
Passport 49 49.0 Perry
Passport 50 50.0 Huntingford
Main source of above info is "sailboat data".

And then I have seen and been on others that were derivates built in strip-plank or even steel. The ones I have sailed (Slocum 43, which is same hull as Passport 42, and the 45/458) were well built boats, sailing wonderfully well once in the groove. None, well none that I have been on, were racing boats, just built for comfort.

BTW the '45' model was imported and marketed initially by the Passport company, but later sold as the Liberty 458, which in turn has a lot of things common with the Kelly Peterson 46.......

'Sailboatdata' gives a good overview, but states that all boats were built in Taiwan by their ‘yard’. I seem to remember that more than one builder was used by Passport and maybe even one in China, but that is only going on memory.
Sailboatdata.com is the worlds largest sailboat database.
and type in, next to 'boat': :"passport"

Or, if you have any questions, ask the company:
http://passportyachts.com/about/
hmmm, of course the answers could be biased toward their brand......

[Steadman Uhlich]

More discussions about "Passport" boats in CF. dig some, overlook the threads about passport documents. There are many discussions about the boat.

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=011403...ort&gsc.page=1

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Very pretty, beautifully fitted out, sea kindly, old fashioned, slow.

Slow as compared to what? Versus boats of the same size, or? And under what circumstances? As for cruisers, the rating on the 40' & some others are decent.

[brookiesailor]

My husband and I have been smitten with the new passports for a while but have not been in a position to buy one. Thom the owner of passports say that the 515 will do a 200 mm day. Take that at face value. Two things I have noticed over the years. The newer 515 ones sell quickly at about half their purchase price eight years later. Some go on the market as soon as two year after purchase, especially the 47 footers and those stay on the market a long time and in my opinion are over priced at the same price as the 515. People buy the new ones to sail far and wide and rarely do at least the ones for sale. I am always told that is due to medical reasons.

I am unsure of people that have taken them far and wide and would be interested in their experience too. Thanks for posting this.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Slow as compared to what? Versus boats of the same size, or? And under what circumstances? As for cruisers, the rating on the 40' & some others are decent.

It's all relative I guess, and the Passport 40 I sailed was NOT slow compared to our pig-like Pearson 365

But slow, very slow compared to other boats the OP might be considering, in my experience, certainly almost anything made since the 2000's.

You might expect that looking at the underbody form:



PASSPORT 40 sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com

Also it's heavy with nearly 300 D/L


But it's all relative, and it sure doesn't mean it's a bad boat. What makes it slow will make it sea kindly and strong. A lot of people like that kind of boat, and I would never try to tell anyone what kind of boat they should like

[JimsCAL]

Friends have a 41 they have owned since new. They have put over 50,000 nm on it - Labrador to Curacao. Beautiful inside, heavy for it's size compared to modern coastal cruisers, slow in light air. They have nothing but bad things to say about the dealer in MD.

[Jim Cate]

Re Passport 40 speed under sail:

When romancing a boat to go long term cruising, back in 1984, I became enamored of the fairly newly introduced p/p 40. The SF area dealer set up a "p/p 40 gathering", featuring an informal race. They would try to get interested folks on one as crew, so we asked to join in. But, there were not enough crew slots for us, so we "entered" the race in our current ride, a Yankee-30 (oldish S&S design). It was fairly light airs for SF bay that day, with winds <15 knots. We simply sailed away from them all in our 30 footer... not even close.

This terminated my interest in the design, for light air ability is, to me, a very important feature in a cruising boat.

Jim

[exMaggieDrum]

They have a good reputation in the PNW. They are gorgeous inside with stunning woodwork. I did not like the location of the engine in my friend's 40' PP. I also did not like the head in the bow and the pullman berth. But you can decide what you think of those. I know they had a variety of cabin layouts, even in the same model. My friend loved his and thought it sailed very well. Lots of them offshore.

[Cheechako]

My PP had the head in the bow. I really that, but hated a Pullman berth. I'm sure to some people a Valiant 40 is slow, I would imagine it and the PP are about the same speed... or acceleration we should say, given decent wind the waterline will dictate the speed, or the skipper's willingness to put up sail.