They were built by Ranger boats in Kent,
Washington, which is why there are more of them on
Puget Sound and around
Portland than anywhere else.
In theory they were designed as a quarter-tonner, or more likely Ray Richards slightly adjusted his design so that someone who really wanted to
race the boats in the 70's and 80's could
race in the quarter-ton class.
PHRF certificates give a general idea how boats perform, here are a few rating from the
SF Bay PHRF committee for similar boats.
San Juan 24 - 214
Ranger 24 - 219
Mull custom 1/4 ton - 198
Sprinta Sport (23-footer) - 198
Santana 525 - 189
"Cruisers" like
Cal 24's and 25's rate about 215-220. A J-24 rates about 168, so is significantly faster.
So in other words, in general overall performance, the Ranger 24 should be more or less comparable to more "cruise" and "daysail" oriented 23-25 foot boats of its era. It will be somewhat slower than boats really designed as race boats. I've sailed the Sprinta Sports,
Cal 25's and the Ranger 24 and if I wanted to day-race, or maybe overnight/singlehand and that's it, I'd take the Sprinta Sport. If I wanted to race in the ocean and occasionally
cruise, I'd take the Cal 25. If I wanted to
cruise on
SF Bay and down the coast a bit, *Espeically* if I was going to spend more than one or two nights on the boat, well, the room inside the Ranger 24 is pretty attractive.