Sailboats 31-35ft

Three of the ‘best from the west,’ these performance sloops have been out of production for 15 years but are still hot because they’re fast and built well enough for blue-water sailing.

Production of this Dave Pedrick design started in 1993 and continues today. An optional package for traditional headsails is a departure from Freedom’s self-tending legacy.

This well-made French cruiser has a fairly contemporary underbody and is strong enough to venture offshore. Finding one is the problem.

A good looking mid-size cruiser that beginners will find comfortable and forgiving.

This innovative family boat typifies Hunter’s design philosophy with its B&R rig, radar arch, circular cockpit and good value, but owners cite numerous niggling problems.

Alan Johnstone’s first design for J Boats is a roomy performance cruiser that suffers only from a lack of organized stowage.

An easy-to-sail sloop, this Freedom 32 with a fair turn of speed, beamy accommodations and surprising offshore capability.

A look at both the 1969 and 1985 designs by Bruce King finds more to like about the later model boat.

Just over 200 Nicholson 35s were built over more than a 10-year period, with production tailing off in the early 1980s. Most boats were sold in England, but a number were built for American owners, and still more found their way to the U.S. during the rampage of the dollar against foreign currencies in the mid 1980s. The Nicholson 35 is a cruising boat, plain and simple. Its proportions are about as common-sense and moderate as you can get. The boat is clean, almost austere in appearance, with very little exterior wood trim.

Best known for his big race boats, Argentinean designer German Frers drew the lines of the Niagara 31. The 35, as noted, was drawn by Mark Ellis, who also designed the Nonsuch line, and more recently, the Northeast 37 motorsailer. The 35 came first, in 1978, and about 300 were built before its run came to an end in 1995. The Niagara 31 was built between 1980 and 1984. A less popular 26-footer also was built, as well as a 42.