I read old "Practical
Boat Owner" magazines (my favourite yachting mag), and was well into the July 1992 when I spied a great Pacific North West
boat (we have lots of rain)
ketch. The boat is a
Fisher 25
motor sailor that is amazingly roomy, built by Northshore Yacht Yards Ltd, out of West Sussex (I don't know if they are still around).
In my opinion, certain types of boats are better for certain areas. The
Fisher 25 is a great boat for "colder wet climates" (sound like the UK?) and would be fabulous for a growing older, young old fart like myself who would like to
single hand something not to complex or overwhelming in the waters around
Washington and
British Columbia, particularly in the off season monsoon rain climate we have here.
The write up in the July 92 Issue of Practical Boat Owner ran for a number of pages, as reviewed by new owners. The owners said they were sail folk more than
power boaters and they were pleasantly surprised at how well the boat handled in lighter winds, up
wind and stiffer breezes; very good for the amount of reduced sail area on this little puppy.
Below are two links with pics, you'll see it is surprisingly roomy for a 25 footer. The one sentences that puzzled me for a second was this: "Perfectly balanced, with
wheel disconnected and tiller shipped (takes but seconds), she'll stand away close-hauled "hands off" for long periods." So I guess you have to manual switch over to tiller sailing, and have to sail outside in the
cockpit.
http://marinedirectory.ybw.com/boat/new/boat_details1.jsp?id=38220&curr_id=1
http://www.apolloduck.ie/feature.phtml?id=38735