Your 27 - 32 ft story...

[My Wind Lass]

The first boat I owned was a 32ft C&C, 1980. It had a shoal draft with a centerboard swing keel. My wife and I purchased it in Solomon's Island in Maryland and sailed it home to Montreal, Quebec. It is quite a fantastic story with many adventures, many great people and sailors along the way. The short version is that we naively thought we could find the boat and leave right away. But boat sales being what they are, it took most of our vacation to close the purchase leaving us the option of shipping our new boat home by truck, which we could not afford anyway, or sailing her up weekend by weekend until we got her to her new home.
We opted for the latter, and the love affair with sailing became sealed over the next eight weeks as we moved the soon to be renamed My Wind Lass marina by yacht club up the Chesapeake, through the Delaware, up the Jersey coast, past New York, up the Hudson, through the Erie canal to Lake Ontario. By then we were into the fall and with limited funds to pay duty to cross over to Canada, we wintered her in Sacket's Harbor NY.

The next spring, after a few weeks of preparation, we departed for Kingston only to run into engine problems half way across Lake Ontario (Broken exhaust elbow). Fearing the worst, we drifted on under full sail but no wind to get out of the shipping channels. We eventually arrived, paid our duty and spent the next week repairing the problem.

We ran the last stretch from Lake Ontario to Montreal over a long weekend arriving anticlimactically in the middle of the night to her new slip in the Pointe-Claire Yacht Club on Lake St-Louis where she is to this day.

We spent the next fifteen years blissfully enjoying the sailing, the friendships, and the great adventures up and down the St-Lawrence to the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario. She has found a new owner this past year, happily in our own club and the same slip, but we are moving on to a new adventure seeking the next boat. This time it will be to travel the world. I only wish for you as great a love affair with your first boat as we had with ours. Life is too short not to try to be as happy as you can be. As sailors, we already have a leg up on the rest;>)

[Lexi22]

Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, Bayfield 32 / 29, Bodega 30, Bristol 27, Cal 28, Caliber 28, Cape Dory 31, Cape George 31, Catalina 30 / 28mkii / 27, C&C 32 / 30 / 27, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Clipper Marine 30, Contessa 32 / 28 / 27, Columbia 29, Compac 27, Endeavour 32, Hullmaster 27, Great Dane 28, Hartley RORC 32, Herreshoff H-28, Hunter 31 / 27, Irwin 27, Islander 32, Island Packet 27, J30, Karmac 30, Kingscruiser 28, Liberty 28, Mariner 28, Mirage 27, Nicholson 32, Nonsuch 30, O'Day 27, Pearson 30, Rawson 30, Sabre 28, Shipman 28, Tartan 27-2, Trintella 1A, US 27, Vancouver 27, Watkins 27, Yankee 30...

[Don C L]

There's also a Vancouver 28.
Pretty soon you'll have them all!

[NYSail]

A bit larger but my first was a Cal 34-III..... great layout solid boat and a joyous well balance sailing machine! Sold her on Craigslist to a Russian who flew over, paid cash and sailed her home...... Long Island to St. Petersburg Russia via the Azores.

Good luck

[Lexi22]

How 'bout not mentioning boats shorter than 27 and longer than 32.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Lexi22

How 'bout not mentioning boats shorter than 27 and longer than 32.

As the OP, that's your call, but some boats on say the lower end of the scale 24'-27' can be almost the exact same with sometimes the 24'r actually having a longer LWL and wider beam

Same on the upper end. It's hard with boats to have an exact cutoff

Also, many if not most full keel boats built by Cape Dory and Bristol from 25' to 35.5' were based on the 25'/26' International Folkboat.

Also, the Contessa 26 is a very close match to the Folkboat.

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/in...ional-folkboat

[Lexi22]

Originally Posted by thomm225

...some boats on say the lower end of the scale 24'-27' can be almost the exact same with sometimes the 24'r actually having a longer LWL and wider beam...

2 many posts. u've filled ur quota. no more posts for u!?

[thomm225]

Since you are still just learning remember the point..........boats are always a compromise whether it be length, displacement, beam, etc.

There are few exacts.

[Lexi22]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Since you are still just learni...

pls, stop! ty.

[billcrowley]

I sail in the SF Bay & it's tributaries. When I was ready to step up from my 23' trailer sailer, I shopped for a long time for something in the 30' range, and finally settled for the Gary Mull-designed Newport 30 by Capital Yachts. Very roomy below, well laid out on deck, and a 4'9" draft that has only gotten me aground once in five years of ownership. I really love this boat, and still believe it is an excellent choice in the 30' range.

[gamayun]

My first (and only) sailboat is a Freedom 38 for 8 years now, but I'd originally planned to get the Freedom 32. They're easy and fun boats to sail -- especially so in big wind.

[PineyWoodsPete]

Originally Posted by RRJames

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When my younger brother died an untimely death, I inherited his 1968 Liberty 28 which he had built from a bare hull and deck in 2 years while in our parents' front yard. It has a heavily laminated fiberglass hull, standing rigging appropriate for a 45 footer, and is cutter rigged. Displaces 14,000 lbs. It's a heavy displacement, blue water cruiser. It has no prop in the water and did 10.2 knots the first day it was in the water and still does 10.2 knots. He won many bets about 10.2 knots.

Again, does not drag a prop. It's sisters probably all do.

It sailed from Florida to Granada in hurricane season (dodging 3 hurricanes), bounced off a few coral heads and rocks with only scratches. Which were repaired with Marine-Tex epoxy.

I suggest adding Liberty 28s to your list of boats. Though the rest of them probably have inboards and a prop. And are not cutter rigged. They're long out of production, but I do believe this one will be in service into the next century. Easily.

RR, I mean no disrespect to your deceased brother or to you, but this "10.2 knots" is pure fiction for a very beamy double-ender Colin Archer type design with a hull speed of 6.6kn for it's 24' waterline length. The boat was designed as a bowsprit cutter, as have been the several I've seen over the years, and the effect of an aligned 2-blade prop in the rudder aperture might be a tenth of a knot or two speed penalty.

To achieve a displacement speed of 10.2 kn requires a 58' waterline length with the formula 1.34 X (sq. root of LWL) for traditional hulls, and I'll bet there are few on this forum who could claim it for their sailboats.

Attempting to tow your boat to that speed would swamp her in the watery hole she dug long before reaching it...

[Lexi22]

Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, Bayfield 32 / 29, Bodega 30, Bristol 27, Cal 28, Caliber 28, Cape Dory 31, Cape George 31, Catalina 30 / 28mkii / 27, C&C 32 / 30 / 27, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Clipper Marine 30, Contessa 32 / 28 / 27, Columbia 29, Compac 27, Endeavour 32, Ericson 28, Freedom 32, Hullmaster 27, Great Dane 28, Hartley RORC 32, Herreshoff H-28, Hunter 31 / 27, Irwin 27, Islander 32, Island Packet 27, J30, Karmac 30, Kingscruiser 28, Liberty 28, Mariner 28, Mirage 27, Newport 30, Nicholson 32, Nonsuch 30, O'Day 27, Pearson 30, Rawson 30, Sabre 28, Shipman 28, Tartan 27-2, Trintella 1A, US 27, Vancouver 28 / 27, Watkins 27, Yankee 30...

Some bluewater, some coastal... Some fin, some full, some centerboard... Some fast, some slow... Upto what you wanna do with ur boat...

[gonesail]

you should also add the Cape Dory 30 MKII to your list. there aren't many of them around but this one has everything you could want in an easily handled sailboat. they are just approaching 30 years of age so can be in really nice condition with just enough teak below to steal your heart.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Lexi22

Allied Seawind Mk II ketch 32, Bayfield 32 / 29, Bodega 30, Bristol 27, Cal 28, Caliber 28, Cape Dory 31, Cape George 31, Catalina 30 / 28mkii / 27, C&C 32 / 30 / 27, Cheoy Lee Luders 30, Clipper Marine 30, Contessa 32 / 28 / 27, Columbia 29, Compac 27, Endeavour 32, Ericson 28, Freedom 32, Hullmaster 27, Great Dane 28, Hartley RORC 32, Herreshoff H-28, Hunter 31 / 27, Irwin 27, Islander 32, Island Packet 27, J30, Karmac 30, Kingscruiser 28, Liberty 28, Mariner 28, Mirage 27, Newport 30, Nicholson 32, Nonsuch 30, O'Day 27, Pearson 30, Rawson 30, Sabre 28, Shipman 28, Tartan 27-2, Trintella 1A, US 27, Vancouver 28 / 27, Watkins 27, Yankee 30...

Some bluewater, some coastal... Some fin, some full, some centerboard... Some fast, some slow... Upto what you wanna do with ur boat...

some good, some bad ok, just kidding
add Cape Dory 27 and 28 in there with the 30s