We have a 1991 Gozzard 36
Hull 61 . The
hull is the same as the 1980's versions and didn't change until they revised the hull and called it the 37.
In 91 they just made the aft berth a King sized berth by dropping the
engine a bit to get some additional width. The layout is otherwise the same as the rest of the 80's
boats. If you have seen any of the 1980's boats then you pretty much know what they are all about inside and the construction. Some have a few different options. Many cool things were standard however.
The very worst you can say about the performance would be just a few things and they are minor and some can be dealt with once you know. They are not the best at pointing (few cutters are). Second, the barn door
rudder can get loaded if you heel too much. It makes you think it is
weather helm but it's not. Reducing the heel improves it and my wife likes that. The same problem however means you won't get lee
helm at all. The 37 fixed the
rudder issue a with the new revised hull and the 37 uses some newer high tech materials unavailable then. As I said thats all the worst I can say. It handles well and always had a solid feel to the boat.
I would also agree with all Ron says on the good things. We did a little light air this fall and it did better than I expected, but it's made to carry a lot of stuff and has a 12 ft beam and at a net 13 tons it's not a light weight
race boat but rather a Cruising boat you can carry lots of stuff with.
We took it home from Delaware where we bought it this fall all the way down the Chesapeake 250 miles with 25 - 30
knot winds the whole way and gusts to 40 knots. Thats all I'm willing to test it against on purpose and it did fine and I only had one day experience with it prior to that. I used all my
CSY 33 cutter experience however. It wasn't a piece of cake but the boat behaved quite well. The rig is rock solid and the controls are handy when it's not easy to move around the
cockpit like in these conditions. The big
wood Edson wheel is just plain cool.
As far as being on it and handling lines and being below it's a very nice, attractive, and well designed boat. Lots of little special details you might miss until you start using it for several days at a time.
We looked at three other 36's from the 80's. This one has a few things the others didn't but I think we could have taken any of the others and made them into something great. Considering we could have paid a little less then added a little more they should
work out a good value. We are redoing all
canvas and upholstery as all the ones we looked at didn't wear in that area all that well. Our
survey came back pretty clean and I would expect that to be more typical than not.
We did get to meet Ted Gozzard and the rest of the
family at the
Annapolis boat show this fall as well as a bunch of Gozzard owners. It's just nice to know that a
family owned and operated business can still make it and produce a great product. They all actually
work in capacities critical to the design, construction, and sales. If you bought a used one you would still have access to support services and information from the factory. The warranty of course is expired but many things can be had on a cost plus basis and the information access alone will help with the odd things that do come up with boats.
Ron, are you going to Goderich this May?