Sailboats 36-40ft

The smallest Sabre is a performance cruiser with an all-wood interior. It’s done well in some ocean races, though it’s too heavy to be flat-out fast.

This French cruiser has a nice all-wood interior, but a small sail plan for coastal US waters.

In its heyday, the Block Island 40 had a good racing record. In the 1960 Bermuda Race six of the first 11 places were won by BI 40s, and in 1978, the BI 40 Alaris won her class. Its PHRF rating varies between rig (sloop or yawl) and fleet from a low of 156 to a high of 186. The average seems to be 165. It's difficult to make comparisons, but more contemporary boats with similar ratings include the Hunter 33, Irwin 34 Citation and Island Packet 38. But what's the point? The BI 40 is not a round-the-buoys racer. She's a cruising boat displacing 20,000 pounds.

In 1977, the Morgan 382 was introduced, designed by Ted Brewer, Jack Corey and the Morgan Design Team. According to Brewer, the boat was loosely based on the Nelson/Marek-designed Morgan 36 IOR One Ton. The most obvious difference between the 38 and 382 was the elimination of the centerboard and the addition of a cruising fin keel (NACA 64 012 foil) with skeg-mounted rudder. They are two completely different designs from two different eras in yacht design.

As the largest of the Citations, the Irwin Citation 38 is probably the best looking, handling the high-sidedness better than her smaller sisters. The boat has three windows set in the sheer stripe on each side, so they are not very noticeable. Like the other Citations it is distinctly modern-looking not pretty, but not ugly either.

Three decades have passed since Lapworth drew the Cal 40. Today the Cal 40 is a dated design, having been surpassed in her revolutionary features by her descendents. She remains among the esteemed elite of racing yachts, but she is not especially light, long on the waterline, or fast compared to current designs.

Cheoy Lee Shipyards of Hong Kong is one of the first molders of fiberglass boats in Asia. The Cheoy Lee Clipper 36 was built from 1969 to about 1988, if the BUC Research Used Boat Price Guide is to be believed. The Clipper 42 was introduced a year later, in 1970. Eventually both were replaced by the more contemporary designs of David Pedrick. We doubt that very many Clipper series boats were brought into the U.S. during the mid or later 1980s.

The Columbia 36 was in production between 1967 and 1972. One reader estimates that more than 600 were built, making it a very successful model. The Columbia 36 was a pretty slick looking boat in its day, and though its lines have worn reasonably well with time, we're reluctant to call it a "classic."

The Bermuda 40 is a centerboarder, and this is a major reason for its continuing appeal. If shoal draft is a requirement, as it often is in some areas of the U.S., one is forced to consider a centerboard design or, when available, a wing keel.

This is a conservative boat, devoid of construction razzmatazz. The hull is an uncored, solid laminate. For those living in colder climates and wanting more insulation, the boat can be built with either foam or balsa core, but these are added to the normal hull layup, resulting in a somewhat heavier boat with slightly reduced interior volume.