Sailboats 21-30ft

Hunter Marine began building auxiliary sailboats in 1974, largely as the result of the first oil embargo and the new energy consciousness that followed. Founded by Warren Luhrs, Hunter began as a division of the powerboat-maker Silverton Yachts, which was interested in expanding its offerings and taking advantage of the new interest in saving fuel.

In its 10th anniversary issue in 1980, Sail magazine named the Catalina 22 the boat that had represented the "breakthrough" in "trailer/cruisers" in those 10 years. We might quibble with its selection over more out-and-out trailerable boats such as the Ventures, but there is no denying the popularity of the Catalina: more than 10,000 have been built and sales continue to be strong.For many buyers the Catalina 22 is their first "big" boat and an introduction to the Catalina line. Many remain with Catalina and buy up within that line.

No one buys a Cape Dory looking for a flashy speedster. The original ketch rig has a lot of windage, and relatively small, inefficient sails. The rig does, however, give the boat a distinctly "shippy" traditional appearance.

More than a few years ago my wife Carey and I were looking to move up from our O’Day 25 to something a little...

MacGregor 26 has been a staple in the trailerable sailboat market for decades, and company literature claimed more than 7,000 of the original model...

I was single handed on our Islander Bahama 30 on a spectacular fall afternoon, white caps dancing on the blue waters of Plumper Sound...

The Pearson 303 is a big 30-footer, intended for safe coastal cruising. She admirably succeeds in doing what she was designed to do. The only risk accrues to those who mistake her for something she is not -- an offshore, passage-making boat. While it’s easy to overlook the Pearson 303 as another member of a fleet that looks depressingly similar and lacking in pizzazz, the 303 is a wholesome family cruiser with a workable, traditional interior, acceptable performance and above average construction. Hey, what’s not to like?

The first fiberglass auxiliary sailboats were built in the late 1950s. The burgeoning industry reached full bloom in the early 1970s, but the 1960s saw a rapid increase in the number of builders hoping to cash in on the new miracle material of fiberglass. No seams, no rot, no water absorption...or so we thought. Still, the claims were largely accurate, and even though the ad agencies were quick with hyperbole, the public bought it. By 1961, a handful of European builders were also working with woven glass fibers and polyester resin, laying up hulls in female molds. In Canada, one of the first was Grampian Marine Limited of Oakville, Ontario.

Two of the newest 27-foot cruising boat designs are from Beneteau and Catalina, both huge builders. Checking out both boats at a recent show, we noticed that the base list price of the Beneteau First 265 with inboard ($38,050) was less than 10 percent above the base for the Catalina 270 LE ($34,775). Their Euro-styled interior layouts were at least superficially similar as well, as were hull and sail plan dimensions. Which boat, we wondered, is the better buy, and for whom?

The recent release of Steve Wystrachs outstanding documentary film Manry at Sea about Robert Manry, the former copy editor who sailed across the Atlantic in a 13-foot sailboat, got me thinking again about the virtues of small cruising boats. In my view, there are at least four main types of pocket cruisers. Manrys modified lake boat fits somewhere in between the first two.