Caliber 35

[jbachman]

Hope this is the right place for this request. Looking at a used Caliber 35 for use as a Chesapeake Bay cruising boat. Anyone with experience in this environment -- especially:

• how does it perform in light air
• upwind performance.

Any other comments welcome.

regards,

Jim

[Pblais]

I know of one. Caliber is a boat that I think exceeds it's prices range. Not by a lot but they are known to be good boats. A a Bay boat I think you have a deal. They actually are not a bad blue water boat either. In used boats they are as you find them. Cruising boats these days are a a buyers market.

[gonesail]

i own a 33 which is the earlier version of the 35 without the reverse transom. yes they do OK in light air with a 135 or 150 genoa. these boats are built for upwind performance and tack easily and quickly. the keel is 47% of the total weight of the boat so it should be pretty stable in a storm. the all teak interior is also nice.

[jbachman]

thanks for your replies.

gonesail -- a follow up question. Some boats (e.g. Catalina for example) require a lot of brute force to control due to the relatively high mast height and significant weather helm. W have found rigs like that physically demanding and not to our likeing.

I would think that the high weight distribution in the keel and what seems like more moderate mast height vs. LOA would make the Caliber track better on its own and not require as much of this "brute force". Is that your experience?

Not sure if I am explaining it that well. The reason I bring this up is that we are in our mid-50s and recent experience with some boats like the Catalina, fin-keeled Pearson and similar rigs were physically very demanding.

[Ex-Calif]

Open for discussion - I notice a lot of people tend to carry a lot of sail for the conditions. A lot of the older (80's) mid-size boats (~30-35 feet) around here have been modified with roller furling and 150% gennys, including ours.

When just cruising around, I find that as soon as the wind tops 10kts steady if I furl in the genny to about 100% everyone has a better ride and we don't lose much speed. Less boat heel and need to monitor every gust etc. Also balancing the sail plan helps a ton with weather helm. We notice that at higher wind speeds (15-20kts) our ST1000 autopilot will struggle unless we are well balanced, but at those wind speeds we are doing it all ourselves anyway. When cruising we'll take in a reef when the wind is at 20kts and we are already furled to 100%.

Much above that we'll take in a second reef and furl in to about 80%. If we get anything higher than 25 we are probably having a thunderstorm and we are at the club drinking beer - LOL.

When it's just me, my partner and the boys we let it all hang out and ride the rails.