Irwin 65 / 68 for world cruising

[AiniA]

Can't imagine why you would want any boat this large. Ignoring quality issues, which of course should not be ignored, such a large boat just complicates the cruising lifestyle unnecessarily in my opinion. Sails, and ground tackle are heavy and harder to deal with. Repair and maintenance costs are high. I found in the Caribbean that our 45' was about average. Once we got to obscure parts of the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic the average was about 40. I think I would stay below 50' with a family. Even for this size make sure that winches, curlers, and windlass are powerful.

[Stillwaterboat]

Originally Posted by Painted Skies

In the 1980's when I was just getting started learning to sail larger sailboats, I often heard tales of Irwins that sank. If I recall correctly, the problem was not with the keel but rather with how the hull was constructed - in two separate halves and then fiberglassed together. Whether or not that is correct - here's a true tale of one that did sink....

I attended my sister's wedding in Arizona in 1986 where I met their best man. This guy and his father lived on, cruised, and crew-chartered their 65' Irwin in the Caribbean. I asked him about the Irwin's reputation for sinking and he just laughed it off. Well, less than six months later they were sailing on passage between the islands when they had a breach in the hull - the two halves were separating... before they could get to shallow enough water, the boat sunk. It wasn't insured; they lost everything.

I would love to hear more about what actually happened, if in fact anything happened at all. First nearly all sailboats are constructed in two molds, the hull and the deck are separate laminations and are joined by various means. Irwin did not glass the hull to deck joint, which in fact is the strongest of all methods, instead they used an overlapping joint with a polyester bonding compound screwed together,, both in the glass below the cap rail and through the cap rail and joint. As a new construction this joint was fabulously strong. It was not until much later that concerns about crevis corrosion and the polyester compound becoming brittle began to arise. Just FYI there is no record of such an incident with any Irwin 65/68, not recorded anywhere, Gene Gammon of Irwin Yachts, the head of the 65/68 platform at the time attests to no such loss. Again this is another bs rumor thrown out by someone who knows nothing about boat construction. Fact is there was one Irwin 65 lost in the Carribean and to a hurricane while tied up to a concrete dock. Yes the dock sustained lots of damage from the behemoth of fiberglass and resin pounding into it. Lol.

Irwin yachts suffers some bad knocks for producing a great and affordable boat in the early 80's that could be had by other than "yachtsman" and that pissed a whole lot of blue bloods off at the time. Irwin is responsible for the modern raised deck saloon among many other fanstadtic innovations. (This pissed off a lot of the crowd as well..imagine the gall of putting big salon windows in a sailboat) Fact is that Irwin manufactured more 65/68' boats than any other manufacturer from that time forward COMBINED!! These big boats have sailed all over the world for more than 30 years. We can get into the specifics on what should be upgraded on an Irwin 65, but for those who've only just heard rumors let's add a little:

The big old Irwin 65 is smoking fast with a powerful ketch rig. Sail area is over 2000sq feet in primary sails alone.
The construction consists of a laminated grid, fully tabbed bulkheads, glassed in hull stiffeners the entire length, all furniture and interior components glassesed into the hull structure, a double hull above the fully encaposated virgin lead ballast keel, her motion comfort ratio is extremely high, livable space is still unparalleled on brand new boats, ventilation Is excellent, ammentities abound. Tankage is unbeleivable with approximated 1000 gallons of water and 620 gallons of desiel. The Perkins engines are reliable workhorses and many came in the 200hp turbo version- nearly indestructible. Storage space is vast, and well thought out and the interior layouts are fabulous for living aboard or intertaining. I could go on...

No question that a 30 plus year old boat needs to be gone through from stem to stern by a knowlegable surveyor and there are areas specific to these boats like the mast steps that need to be given extra attention. In all though the 65 is a very cable world cruiser, strong and fast, albeit a larger boat than most would really "need".

[Stumble]

We had an Irwin 54, a good friend of ours had the 52. In both cases the boats weathered hurricanes, spent years in the carribean, and had families living aboard. In bo cases there is no question the 54/68 is far preferred over the 52/65. The larger are better built and the aft lazarrette on the boats really make a difference in livability.

But all four options are great at what they are. Relatively slow heavy cruisers with a premium on space and comfort. Speed demons they are not.

[Linesledaft]

This is an old thread(sorry mods), but still one of the top when searching.

These boats are now getting old, and having just viewed one I would stay away. Unless you want 65’ headaches. I have looked at a few Irwins. They are what they are. Coastal

[CaptNate]

Originally Posted by Stillwaterboat

I would love to hear more about what actually happened, if in fact anything happened at all. First nearly all sailboats are constructed in two molds, the hull and the deck are separate laminations and are joined by various means. Irwin did not glass the hull to deck joint, which in fact is the strongest of all methods, instead they used an overlapping joint with a polyester bonding compound screwed together,, both in the glass below the cap rail and through the cap rail and joint. As a new construction this joint was fabulously strong. It was not until much later that concerns about crevis corrosion and the polyester compound becoming brittle began to arise. Just FYI there is no record of such an incident with any Irwin 65/68, not recorded anywhere, Gene Gammon of Irwin Yachts, the head of the 65/68 platform at the time attests to no such loss. Again this is another bs rumor thrown out by someone who knows nothing about boat construction. Fact is there was one Irwin 65 lost in the Carribean and to a hurricane while tied up to a concrete dock. Yes the dock sustained lots of damage from the behemoth of fiberglass and resin pounding into it. Lol.

Irwin yachts suffers some bad knocks for producing a great and affordable boat in the early 80's that could be had by other than "yachtsman" and that pissed a whole lot of blue bloods off at the time. Irwin is responsible for the modern raised deck saloon among many other fanstadtic innovations. (This pissed off a lot of the crowd as well..imagine the gall of putting big salon windows in a sailboat) Fact is that Irwin manufactured more 65/68' boats than any other manufacturer from that time forward COMBINED!! These big boats have sailed all over the world for more than 30 years. We can get into the specifics on what should be upgraded on an Irwin 65, but for those who've only just heard rumors let's add a little:

The big old Irwin 65 is smoking fast with a powerful ketch rig. Sail area is over 2000sq feet in primary sails alone.
The construction consists of a laminated grid, fully tabbed bulkheads, glassed in hull stiffeners the entire length, all furniture and interior components glassesed into the hull structure, a double hull above the fully encaposated virgin lead ballast keel, her motion comfort ratio is extremely high, livable space is still unparalleled on brand new boats, ventilation Is excellent, ammentities abound. Tankage is unbeleivable with approximated 1000 gallons of water and 620 gallons of desiel. The Perkins engines are reliable workhorses and many came in the 200hp turbo version- nearly indestructible. Storage space is vast, and well thought out and the interior layouts are fabulous for living aboard or intertaining. I could go on...
.

Although you are correct about it being a fast boat and a great layout and having a huge sail plan. Everyone else is also correct about the problems with these boats. I know I own one and all of them are true.
The hull to deck joint is a problem. I am working to glass that in. The entire upper deck balsa core is a problem. Mine has been cut out and use Coosa board. The mast step is a problem and rots out. Replaced mine. The tabbing throughout the boat is a problem and it breaks away from the bulkheads. Working on that. While sanding the bottom of my boat I found that a massive repair had been done at the front of the keel where it meets up with the hull. Talk to the previous owner and he said a large crack had developed there and he had to do an emergency haul out and repair. I drilled through the front of the keel and found it to be about 1” thick. Not 3” thick as stated. I believe the crack happened where the thick part of the keel meets the thin part of the hull. While replacing all my through hulls I found that most of the hull is only 3/8” thick. Much less than advertised. My boat has been around the world, but still these problems and more do exist and they are real!
I feel that Gene and other Irwin supporters have gone to great lengths to hide the truth about these boats.

[CMH]

As a current Irwin owner I’m compelled to respond to this thread which has been going on for over eight years.

My wife and I along with our two small dogs have been, except for the holidays, living full time on our 1984 Irwin 65 cutter-rigged owner’s version ketch for nearly three years now. While minuscule to some or most of you, we’ve put 4000 miles under her keel and all the while generally thrilled with her and the fabulous life experience she has allowed us. Have we had issues? Boy have we! But our boat is 40 years old and every 40 year old boat on the planet will come with issues.

Here’s a little bit about the Blue Pearl: she is hull #23 of 51 and is most certainly a big girl weighing in at 80,000 lbs. Her 23,000 lbs of ballast is of cast lead. Sail area is 2400 SF after a recent trimming of the Genoa. She doesn’t point very high, but we’ve seen more than hull speed when reaching. She was originally fitted with a six cylinder Perkins diesel engine and this same original engine still purrs like a kitten while moving the boat at 7.5 knots at 1800 RPM. She mashes through the bumps like nobody’s business. Her comfort ratio is 46.9 and her capsize ratio is 1.6. To say she is safe and comfortable is a huge understatement, and she’s is a head-turner wherever we go.

Of course every boat has issues, and the Irwin is no exception. The following are the Irwin issues you will usually hear about:
1). Original mast steps were of ferrous steel for some horrible reason. Thankfully ours had been replaced with SS prior to our purchase.
2). Originally our boat came with the drop-down center board option which proved to be problematic. Apparently when the board stuck, it would stick in the down position preventing marina entry. Thankfully, the board on our boat had been eliminated and the trunk covered over with a steel plate.
3). AFAIK all (?) Irwin’s have hidden and inaccessible chain plates. It wasn’t until years after construction of these boats ( and others like the Island Packet) was it discovered that Type 304 stainless steel could suffer corrosion if buried in a non-oxygenated environment. Type 316 stainless should have been used.
4). A boat this size should have come with a bow thruster. Thankfully the previous owner had one installed on ours.

Repeated BS I have heard on this and other sites:
1. The bulkheads are not properly secured to the hull. All our bulkheads are in fine shape and I know every inch of my boat. I know two other Irwin owners and have met two more. None of these owners have an issue with bulkheads.
2. The deck to hull connection below the cap rail is lag-screwed and fastened with adhesive instead of being fiberglassed together. I’ve seen no indication whatsoever that this is a problem and the person who claimed it to be an issue didn’t own an Irwin. Hearsay again.
3. The hardware is of RV parts. I call BS on this. My wife and I RV’d full time for three years before buying a boat and I’ve refurbished three travel trailers and one fifth wheel. There is no “RV” hardware on our boat.
4. Standing rigging is light weight. This is an absurd statement. The rigging is massive on my boat. If it were too light-weight it would have been broken by now.
5. The boat is too flexible. I don’t know how to respond to this except to say that I’ve not felt hill flex but definitely would expect some since the boat is made of fiberglass. Perhaps the person who came up with this is used to sailing a ferrocement boat.

To wrap up this too long post, some folks say on here that the smaller Irwins were built less robust than the larger units. I can’t speak to that. But I will say that our Irwin is a hell of a boat. She’s safe and comfortable, her storage is vast, her tankage is outstanding, we never get wet because of her wonderful freeboard, and my wife and I have absolutely no problem sailing her by ourselves.

Chris and Jessica on Blue Pearl