Question:
This weekend was gorgeous in Seattle so Stan and I went down to the
yacht brokers on Lake Union and did some looking at boats for sale.
One of the interesting sights was a used Mac26 tied up next to a new
Mac26x.
The Mac26 looked like a real sailboat. What's the story on those?
Anyway, there was a 40 ft center cockpit ketch at this one place. It
was the first center cockpit that Stan had ever been aboard and he
really liked the layout... with the double berth master cabin aft that
had it's own head with stand up shower and even had a desk.
It's too much boat for the two of us however, especially as we are both
novice sailors.
Later, at a different broker, we saw several boats for under 15k.
One was a Coranado 27 (the least expensive boat there)... but as it
wasn't yellow, we didn't even look at it.
There were 3 28 ft boats, an Islander, an Ericson and a Newport. The
Islander was a beautiful boat, but it had LOTS of wood topside including
a wood transom. Won't that mean LOTS of maintenance?
I preferred the Ericson based on how the boat looked and the layout
below. I have no idea how any of them sail and the strengths and
weaknesses of each boat.
There were also two 28 ft center cockpits. They were almost as ugly as
a Mac26x and both had higher freeboard than the Macs.
One was old and not well kept, but the other was in pretty good shape.
It was a center cockpit 1985 Sovereign cutter rigged. Now, to me a
center cockpit on a boat that small seems silly. It looked to me like
the high freeboard was due to the requirement to have a companion way to
the aft cabin that you didn't have to crawl through on your hands and
knees, but even at that I still had to bend almost in half to make it
through.
Stan liked it.
Does anybody know anything about the '85 Sovereign? The broker said it
had a full keel to offset the high freeboard so it still tracked
relatively well.
Would that be enough? Does it sail well? Does anybody know anything
about this type of boat?
How about Ericson Sail Boat?
Answer:
- I have been trying to find a boat like this, very traditional looking
with LOTS of wood(Without buying a wooden boat!). When I read your
post I was interested so I did an alta vista search for "Islander 28"
and while I did find a number of boats, none of them match your
description. Do you think the Islander you looked at was customized by
its owner? Perhaps I am just doing something wrong. Anyway it's a
shame that I live in Connecticut, I would love to see the boat.
- sail it and be sure it is what you want and expect. Lots of
people buy boats without a sea trial--this is not a smart thing to do even if
you have sails lots of different boats.
