1970s sailboats

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40 Best Sailboats

• By Cruising World Editors
• Updated: May 24, 2024

Sailors are certainly passionate about their boats, and if you doubt that bold statement, try posting an article dubbed “ 40 Best Sailboats ” and see what happens.

Barely had the list gone live, when one reader responded, “Where do I begin? So many glaring omissions!” Like scores of others, he listed a number of sailboats and brands that we were too stupid to think of, but unlike some, he did sign off on a somewhat upbeat note: “If it weren’t for the presence of the Bermuda 40 in Cruising World’s list, I wouldn’t even have bothered to vote.”

By vote, he means that he, like hundreds of other readers, took the time to click through to an accompanying page where we asked you to help us reshuffle our alphabetical listing of noteworthy production sailboats so that we could rank them instead by popularity. So we ask you to keep in mind that this list of the best sailboats was created by our readers.

The quest to building this list all began with such a simple question, one that’s probably been posed at one time or another in any bar where sailors meet to raise a glass or two: If you had to pick, what’re the best sailboats ever built?

In no time, a dozen or more from a variety of sailboat manufacturers were on the table and the debate was on. And so, having fun with it, we decided to put the same question to a handful of CW ‘s friends: writers and sailors and designers and builders whose opinions we value. Their favorites poured in and soon an inkling of a list began to take shape. To corral things a bit and avoid going all the way back to Joshua Slocum and his venerable Spray —Hell, to Noah and his infamous Ark —we decided to focus our concentration on production monohull sailboats, which literally opened up the sport to anyone who wanted to get out on the water. And since CW is on the verge or turning 40, we decided that would be a nice round number at which to draw the line and usher in our coming ruby anniversary.

If you enjoy scrolling through this list, which includes all types of sailboats, then perhaps you would also be interested in browsing our list of the Best Cruising Sailboats . Check it out and, of course, feel free to add your favorite boat, too. Here at Cruising World , we like nothing better than talking about boats, and it turns out, so do you.

– LEARN THE NAVIGATION RULES – Know the “Rules of the Road” that govern all boat traffic. Be courteous and never assume other boaters can see you. Safety Tip Provided by the U.S. Coast Guard

40. Moore 24

39. Pearson Vanguard

38. Dufour Arpege 30

37. Alerion Express 28

36. Mason 43/44

35. Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43DS

34. Nor’Sea 27

33. Freedom 40

32. Beneteau Sense 50

31. Nonsuch 30

30. Swan 44

29. C&C Landfall 38

28. Gulfstar 50

27. Sabre 36

26. Pearson Triton

– CHECK THE FIT – Follow these guidelines to make sure your life jacket looks good, stays comfortable and works when you need it. Safety Tip Provided by the U.S. Coast Guard

25. Islander 36

24. Gozzard 36

23. Bristol 40

22. Tartan 34

21. Morgan Out Island 41

20. Hylas 49

19. Contessa 26

18. Whitby 42

17. Columbia 50

16. Morris 36

15. Hunter 356

13. Beneteau 423

12. Westsail 32

– CHECK THE WEATHER – The weather changes all the time. Always check the forecast and prepare for the worst case. Safety Tip Provided by the U.S. Coast Guard

10. Alberg 30

9. Island Packet 38

8. Passport 40

7. Tayana 37

6. Peterson 44

5. Pacific Seacraft 37

4. Hallberg-Rassy 42

3. Catalina 30

2. Hinckley Bermuda 40

1. Valiant 40

• More: monohull , Sailboats
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Practical Boat Owner

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Coming of age: the 1970s yacht designs that have stood the test of time

• Rupert Holmes
• February 14, 2020

Sailing in the 1970s was characterised by innovation, enthusiasm, mass participation and home boatbuilding. Rupert Holmes reports

The 1970s saw further rapid advances in boat design, with new boats becoming quickly outclassed. It also coincided with a new rule for rating race boats, the International Offshore Rule (IOR).

This had an enormous effect on yacht design – many cruising yachts also sported the narrow, pinched sterns of the era.

IOR severely penalised righting moment, so the bulb keels that had started to gain in popularity in the late 1960s disappeared. Instead, lightly ballasted keels , with their centre of gravity well above the mid point, became the norm.

In my view this set yacht design back by almost two decades. It also had important safety implications in terms of ultimate stability that helped contribute to the Fastnet race disaster at the end of the decade.

Nevertheless yachts became faster and were generally more robust, more reliable and more fun to sail.

For instance, the Macwester 27 of 1972 – a development of the earlier 26 – was one of the first yachts to benefit from tank testing to improve its hydrodynamic efficiency.

The result was significantly deeper bilge keels that were set at more efficient angles and a more effective rudder . This transformed speed and handling and, combined with a new interior, created a desirable yacht.

This was also the heyday of home boatbuilding .

Participation in boating continued to grow at a staggering rate, so the demand for craft far outstripped what the second-hand market could supply.

By contrast, today’s boat buyers reap the benefits of the huge number of boats that were built in the 1970s and now often change hands at very modest prices.

It’s often thought that sensible cruising yachts of this era were built exceptionally strongly.

Incidents today tend to be shared rapidly via social media, but 40 years ago it was easier to keep embarrassing events quiet.

Yet, there were numerous examples of problems, including a near new Westerly Pageant that sank on its tidal mooring in Chichester harbour when one of the keels parted company with the hull.

Similarly, all but a few Westerly GK29s , Fulmars and Konsorts had to have the reinforcement that spreads the keel loads in the bilge replaced with top-hat stringers in place of the original glass-over-plywood frames.

As with 1970s cars, the scale of some problems at this time should not be underestimated – large numbers of near-new boats had to be modified and Westerly was by no means the only manufacturer that suffered.

Fortunately for today’s buyers the appropriate repair procedures were well understood and have usually withstood the test of time well.

Designer profile: Olin Stephens America’s Cup hero and yacht designer Olin Stephens

With a career that started in the 1920s, Olin Stephens was one of the most successful and prolific designers of the 20th century.

In the early and mid-1970s he was still producing craft that excelled at every level in offshore racing and prestigious events including the Rolex Fastnet, Sydney Hobart and Whitbread Round the World races.

His designs also dominated the America’s Cup from its post-war revival in 1958 until 1980.

Stephens’ S&S 34 of 1969 had proved hugely successful, to the extent that former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath owned one in which he won the Sydney Hobart Race.

The design was to continue to prove successful for many years, including winning a heavy weather Round Britain and Ireland Race in the 1990s, and successfully completing several non-stop circumnavigations via the Southern Ocean. It remains a sought after and very capable classic.

This was also the era of Nautor’s early Swan designs, all of which came from the Sparkman & Stephens office until after Olin’s retirement at the age of 70. The best known by far was the Swan 65, thanks to Sayula II taking overall victory in the first Whitbread and second, third and fifth places four years later. Newer S&S designs won the next two races.

The early part of the 1970s was still an era in which successful offshore racing yachts would also make first-class cruisers and many of these boats still ply the world’s oceans.

Tomahawk 25 – 1970

The Alan Hill-designed Tomahawk 25

Marcon grew to become a huge boatbuilder in the 1970s, having been founded with the launch of the Trident 24 in 1960. Other models, including the Cutlass 27 (1967) and Sabre 27 (1968) followed, heralding a period of rapid growth that at one stage saw the company moulding some 15 designs, including the entire Rival range.

As well as laminating bare hull and deck mouldings for other boatbuilders, Marcon also supplied a large number of boats for home completion. While some of these suffered from a clearly DIY level of fit out, a few were completed to an extremely high standard that would have been unaffordable on a commercial basis.

The Tomahawk is an Alan Hill design that was offered in bilge and fin keel formats, both with a skeg hung rudder. This was a spacious design for a boat of its size in this era, both on deck and below.

The cockpit extends almost to the transom, while below decks early boats had a linear galley to port, with a dinette that converted to a double berth opposite. Later models had a more traditional arrangement with two settee berths and a small galley aft. A full-width heads compartment separates the forecabin from the saloon.

LOA: 7.70m (25ft 4in) LWL: 6.10m (20ft 0in) Beam: 2.60m (8ft 6in) Draught (fin keel): 1.40m (4ft 8in) Draught (twin keel): 0.90m (3ft 0in) Displacement: 2,300kg (5,066lb) Ballast: 1,000kg (2,200lb) Price now: £2,500-£7,000 tomahawk25.co.uk

Laser – 1970

Lasers have been hugely popular – with owners ranging from occasional club racers to Olympians

Canadian Bruce Kirby visualised an entirely new type of boat when he first sketched the Laser , a design that was reputedly created on the back of an envelope. It was conceived as a simple car-toppable boat that would be fun to sail, rewarding to race and made use of recent advances in materials.

In some senses this is the ultimate minimal boat – a slender hull with low freeboard, single sail and vestigial cockpit. A key benefit is that, unlike other dinghies of its time, the boat doesn’t need tedious bailing after a capsize. It proved an outstanding success, fleets quickly sprang up around the world and more than 215,000 have now been sold.

For best performance in the standard format the boat needs a big sailor – someone over six feet tall and weighing at least 80kg. Smaller rigs , dubbed Radial and 4.7, were therefore developed for smaller and younger sailors. This further boosted the Laser’s popularity, even though the smaller sails are underpowered relative to the hull weight.

Seven years later the Topper was born of a similar concept, but is a smaller boat of a perfect size for teenagers. It was made of almost indestructible polypropylene and at one time was the biggest injection moulding in the world.

LOA: 4.20m (13ft 9in) LWL: 3.81m (12ft 6in) Beam: 1.39m (4ft 7in) Hull weight: 59kg (130lb) Standard sail area: 7.06m2 (76ft2) Price today: £600-£4,000 laser.org

Contessa 32 – 1971

David Sadler-designed Contessa 32 is still an extremely popular and sought-after yacht

This was the second design from David Sadler to be built by Lymington boat builder Jeremy Rogers, following the long keel Contessa 26 of 1966 . At the time it represented the state of the art, with a separate skeg-hung rudder, high-aspect mainsail and large overlapping genoas.

Low freeboard and narrow beam helped keep total weight in check and contribute to ultimate stability, at the expense of the boat being wet in a seaway and reduced internal volume. The keel-stepped masthead rig is typical of early IOR inspired sail plans, with small mainsails and large overlapping genoas.

Nevertheless the hull shape is excellent for thrashing to windward in a blow and the high angle of vanishing stability – an astonishing 156° – makes for a supremely seaworthy vessel. A Contessa 32 was the smallest boat to finish the 1979 Fastnet race and examples have been sailed all over the globe.

Other designs of the same era have similar shapes, from the Nicholson 55 and Swan 65 to the 22ft Pandora and even the 19ft Squib racing keelboat that evolved into the Hunter 19 and Europa mini cruisers.

LOA: 9.75m (32ft 0in) LWL: 7.31m (24ft 0in) Beam: 3.00m (9ft 10in) Draught: 1.65m (5ft 6in) Displacement: 4,300kg (9,480lb) Ballast: 2,045kg (4,508lb) Sail area: 52.2m2 (562ft2) Price today: £14,000-£40,000 co32.org

Moody 33 – 1973

Wide-bodied Moody 33 was a big leap forward in European yacht design

This this was the first model in a range of Angus Primrose-designed yachts that marked the famous yard’s move from low-volume semi-custom boat building to becoming one of Europe’s most successful new boat sales operations.

Although the original accommodation layout was quite conventional for a centre cockpit boat of the era, it represented a giant step forward in cruising yacht design on this side of the Atlantic.

In particular the wide-beamed hull design was unusual at this time and is even not narrow by today’s standards. The later 333 models adopted a walk through to the aft cabin, albeit with limited headroom, while the 33S had an aft cockpit arrangement with a double quarter cabin.

The boat’s sailing qualities also surprised many at the time of her launch, with her then long waterline length enabling faster passage times than many ostensibly more performance oriented designs of the same length. However, a moderate draught and that wide hull limit progress in light airs and when close-hauled.

LOA: 10.06m (33ft 0in) LWL: 8.69m (28ft 5in) Beam: 3.51m (11ft 5in) Draught: 1.35m (4ft 5in) Displacement: 4,773kg (10,500lb) Ballast: 1,730kg (3,815lb) Sail area: 42.0m2 (452sq ft) Price today: £14,000-£22,000 moodyowners.org

Continues below…

Sail boat rigs: the pros and cons of each popular design

Peter Poland looks at the history of popular rig designs and how the different types affect boat performance

Boat hull design: how it impacts performance

Peter Poland explains how boat hull design has evolved over the years and how it affects boat handling and accommodation

Keel types and how they affect performance

Peter Poland looks at the history of keel design and how the different types affect performance

Jeanneau Melody – 1974

The Melody’s interior layout set the new standard

As well as new hull shapes, builders were also experimenting with new accommodation arrangements. In 1970 Jeanneau had already set new standards in interior space with the 29ft 6in Folie Douce, partly thanks to the boat’s wide beam. Six years later this was updated with an extended coachroof and renamed the Brin de Folie.

However, it was the 34ft Melody that introduced the interior layout that within 10 years would be adopted by almost every other new yacht of this size right up to the present day – the double quarter cabin.

On the Melody this is a little cramped, as the stern sections are narrower than on later designs, but this trend-setting arrangement was immediately copied and improved upon.

Early designs with a quarter cabin were often seen to be lightweight and flighty, but the Melody is a very solid sea boat.

A hefty ballast ratio and deep draught combine to make this a very capable vessel, even in heavy weather, while a powerful rig ensures good progress even in light airs. Around 600 were built.

LOA: 10.25m (33ft 7in) LWL: 8.70m (28ft 6in) Beam: 3.38m (11ft 1in) Draught: 1.90m (6ft 3in) Displacement: 6,000kg (13,228lb) Ballast: 2,900kg (6,400kg) Sail area: 55.3m2 (596ft2) Price today: £12,000-£20,000 jeanneau-owners.com

Quarter Tonners – (1967-1996)

The David Thomas Bolero design

As the decade wore on the rise of the IOR rating rule for racing yachts had an enormous effect on yacht design. The smaller Quarter Ton level rating class gave designers great opportunities to experiment, which resulted in some weird and wonderful shapes including bumps and hollows intended to exploit loopholes in the rule. This test bed also produced some important advances in yacht design.

The rule changed regularly in an attempt to keep up with designers’ creativity, so boats quickly became outclassed. As a result a thriving industry sprang up to build new designs. The class also established the reputations of a slew of designers that are still well known today, including Ron Holland, Ed Dubois , Bruce Farr and Doug Peterson.

These boats were at the forefront of innovation, which was often driven by small companies working in less than ideal conditions. It’s a long time since anything on a similar scale has existed in the UK, although there are hints of it in Poland, which has a long maritime heritage and inexpensive industrial premises.

In the early 1970s Quarter Tonners still had narrow sterns and were short waterline displacement boats, but as the decade progressed transoms broadened, opening the way to surfing, or even planing performance downwind.

Until the mid-1970s designs like Westerly’s GK24, Ron Holland’s Eygthene 24 and the David Thomas-designed Bolero (pictured) also offered tenable accommodation and were often marketed as cruiser racers. However, by the end of the decade freeboard and coachroofs had both diminished in size, with stripped out interiors having minimal volume becoming the norm. After this point high-end racing yachts and performance cruisers continued to diverge.

LOA: 7.80m (25ft 7in) LWL :6.80m (22ft 4in) Beam: 2.50m (8ft 4in) Draught: 1.40m (4ft 8in) Displacement: 1,272kg (4,170lb) Price today: £3,000-£25,000 quartertonclass.org

The Drascombe story

The enduringly popular Drascombe Lugger (Alamy stock photo)

Those who preferred more leisurely sailing in smaller boats were also well catered for. Although the Drascombe Lugger pre-dates the 1970s, this was the decade in which the popularity of the designs took off and some 4,500 from 14-22ft have now been built across more than a dozen different models.

The original 18ft Lugger, built in wood by designer John Watkinson in 1965, was an undecked open daysailer with an easily handled loose footed yawl rig.

Watkinson took his first wooden production model to the 1968 London boat show, where it proved unexpectedly popular – he took an order within half an hour of the show opening, plus a further ten before the show ended.

That led to him licensing Honnor Marine to build the boats in fibreglass . When they exhibited the first boat in 1969 sales took off.

Large families loved the big cockpit that meant children could bring their friends sailing and there was heaps of space for picnics. The outboard engine is mounted well aft to keep noise as far away from the crew as possible.

Further designs soon followed, with the 22ft Longboat unveiled in 1970. Unlike the Lugger , this was also offered with a small two-berth cabin, giving additional flexibility.

Yet the boat weighs only 480kg, so it can be towed by a relatively small car, while the simple rig with short masts makes for quick and easy launching and recovery. A clear measure of the success of the concept is the Drascombes are one of a handful of designs from their era that are still in build today.

LOA: 5.72m (18ft 9in) Beam: 1.90m (6ft 3in) Displacement: 340kg (748lb) Sail area: 12.26m2 (132ft2) Price today: £2,500-£6,500 drascombe-association.org.uk

Sigma 33 – 1979

Sigma 33 design was influenced by the IOR

This David Thomas design was conceived as a fast one-design cruiser racer. It was an instant hit with the racing community and before long the class had a 70-strong fleet competing at Cowes Week.

Much had changed in design terms since the launch of the Contessa 32 eight years earlier. The Sigma has the feel of a larger yacht – a factor that’s also reflected in the accommodation volume. Thomas stayed with a traditional layout, but greater beam and higher freeboard dramatically increases the accommodation volume.

Under water the boat is a fundamentally different shape, with a shallower canoe body and broader transom, yet proportionately less wetted surface area.

The large balanced spade rudder improves control, especially in a quartering sea, while the increased form stability and broader aft sections markedly reduce rolling when sailing downwind.

Today, the Sigma 33 is seen as a moderate design by cruisers and heavy and sluggish among the racing community.

How did it score in the seaworthiness stakes?

The Sigma 33 doesn’t benefit from the Contessa 32’s high angle of vanishing stability (AVS), but it’s still well proven. The prototype lost a coachroof window in the 1979 Fastnet race storm, when the aperture widened as the structure distorted on a big wave. Nevertheless, it became one of the smallest boats to finish the race, albeit in very experienced hands. Subsequent boats have two separate windows, with structure between them, in place of the prototype’s long single window.

Even though the Sigma 33 was not intended as an IOR design key features were still influenced by the rule and Thomas later remarked that the keel would be more effective if it was bolted on upside down!

LOA: 9.90m (32ft 9in) LWL: 8.00m (26ft 3in) Beam: 3.20m (10ft 6in) Draught: 1.70m (5ft 7in) Displacement: 4,000kg (8,820lb) Ballast: 1,680kg (3,704lb) Price today: £15,000-£26,000 sigma33.co.uk

1979 Fastnet disaster

14 August 1979. Irish Sea. A lone yachtsman aboard Camargue – eight survivors were plucked from this yacht by Royal Navy rescue helicopter (Alamy/AJAXNETPHOTO)

The decade ended with one of the biggest disasters ever to hit the boating world.

Three days into the 600-mile race winds built unexpectedly to a sustained Force 10, with some competitors recording gusts above 70 knots.

In all 24 yachts were abandoned, five of which sank, 15 competitors lost their lives, and a further six people on non-racing yachts in the area also died. That toll was the UK’s largest ever peacetime rescue mission, involving some 4,000 people.

More than a third of the fleet experienced a knock-down to 90° and a quarter beyond that, including many boats that fully inverted or pitch poled.

Part of the problem was that the IOR rule penalised righting moment and encouraged low ballast ratios.

This effectively banned low centre of gravity keels, which made knockdowns and inversions more likely. The problem was further exacerbated by the trend towards wide hulls that are more stable in the inverted position.

Since many new cruising designs of the day were based on a successful IOR hull, there’s also a raft of cruising designs that have less than ideal ultimate stability.

For cruising sailors the legacy of IOR means many thousands of affordable boats built during one of the most active ever periods of boatbuilding lack the stability they could have.

The effects of this are two-fold. In moderate conditions reduced stability means a more tender boat that needs reefing earlier and more frequently, and one that will respond to gusts in a more dramatic manner.

In extremis, if caught in severe weather lack of stability makes it easier for wave action to capsize a boat. And if it rolls to 180°, a design with a low AVS will have less chance of being righted in a timely manner.

On a positive note, the subsequent inquiry led to important improvements in lifejacket , safety harness and liferaft design.

One other important point is rarely made in this context.

The accuracy of medium term weather forecasts has been improving at a rate of around one day per decade since the late 1970s. In other words the six-day forecast now has similar accuracy to the 48-hour forecast in 1979.

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• Sailboat Reviews

With over 1,300 built, there should be plenty to choose from--but be sure to check out the later boats first.

In the sailboat industry Ericson Yachts was somewhat of the archetypal production boatbuilder: trendy, performance oriented, colorfully advertised, and, for the most part, successful. The Ericson line started in 1965 with the enduring 32 and 35, simple and stylized boats that sold mostly to West Coast buyers. The model line then grew, aimed largely at racing sailors, but with models successively introduced to fill in the line and keep Ericson buyers in that builder’s boats, eventually reaching a high degree of acceptance throughout the country.

In the intervening years Ericson Yachts sold a lot of boats, and with them the firm developed a reputation for good quality and finish. The accolade is but partly deserved, at least in terms of other production builders such as Pearson Yachts and Cal Boats with whom Ericson can be compared.

The longtime designer of Ericson boats is California designer Bruce King with a brief Ericson foray into the racy designs of Ron Holland. When Ericson stayed with the contemporary style, the builder prospered. Two ersatz traditional designs, the Independence (nee Classic) 31 and 36 were busts as were the Holland race boats.

A Close Look at the Boat

In a number of ways the Ericson 27 can be considered an excellent representative of the Ericson line throughout the 1970s. Introduced in 1971, the 27 remained in production for nine years. In all, 1302 were built, making the 27 among the leaders in number of production boats built.

Initially the 27 was, per the fashion of the early ’70s, marketed to a price as a stripped boat, simple and plain with an outboard engine as standard and virtually all gear but the essentials available only as options.

Typically the 27 was sold with tiller steering and a conventional interior layout as a boat purportedly competitive under the then-young IOR but more popular with buyers looking for reasonable performance and comfort in a small cruising boat.

Auxiliary power was an outboard mounted in a cut-out on the centerline of the transom at the end of a longish straight cockpit. The interior decor was primarily mahogany plywood and boasted an enclosed head and reasonable headroom, two highly attractive features for early 1970s buyers finding many boats of comparable size more cramped.

In late 1974 Ericson began an upgrade of its entire line, changing to an interior teak finish, making much of the gear that had been optional standard, and appealing to a higher priced buyer. In that upgrade the 27 received a redesigned deck and cockpit with a ventilation hatch amidships, a Tshaped helmsman’s station with pedestal steering aft. The transom cutout was eliminated and the mainsheet traveler moved from over the companionway to the cockpit.

At 27′ and well over 6,000 pounds of displacement, the 27 begged for inboard auxiliary power, and in all about 80% of those built were delivered with an inboard. For most of that run the engine was the Atomic Four, although on occasion other engines such as the Bukh/Westerbeke Pilot 10 and Volvo MD6A were installed per buyers’ desires. In the last year of production the standard engine was the Yanmar 8D diesel.

The Ericson 27, for all of her other possible virtues, does not boast much performance. Heavy (with inboard, a displacement to length ratio of 363), short rigged (sail area to displacement 14.1) and a bit squirrely in sloppy conditions with her spade rudder, the 27 has much to overcome. Under PHRF her rating is 225-230 putting her on a boat-for-boat basis with such smaller rivals as the O’Day 25, Catalina 25, and so-so performance boats as the Cape Dory 27 and Tartan 27. Ratings for 27s without inboard power are about the same, in part because of the similar displacement of the two versions (the outboard boats have 275 pounds of inside ballast to offset engine weight).

A handful of 27s were delivered with tall rigs, about 2′ higher than standard, but the boat does not have the inherent stability to reap much benefit from the greater sail area.

As a cruiser the 27 is comfortable for a couple, cramped for more despite its five berths. The forward cabin is pointy, the quarterberth is a “cave,” and the settee berths are a tad narrow. Ventilation is wretched, although better on later 27s with the midships hatch, and over the years many owners have retrofitted improvements.

Clearly the upgraded cockpit with wheel steering is also an improvement over the original. Ordinarily wheel steering in a 27-footer is a goodie, not a necessity. The Ericson 27 is an exception.

The 27 is not much fun to steer under power with wheel or tiller. The combination of the spade rudder and off center prop shaft keeps one’s attention at the helm. With a tiller this means constant offsetting pressure. A wheel makes it easier although the infernal backstay prevents standing upright aft of the wheel. Worse still is that the 27 can develop considerable weather helm if pressed in a breeze. A number of owners report making rudder modifications (making the post vertical and/or increasing size) to improve handling.

What to Look For

There seems to be no question that the Ericson 27 was adequately built. Problems with even the earliest hulls are more apt to be cosmetic than structural, according to 27 owners.

The problems that do occur tend to be those typical of boats of similar vintage: leaky ports, gate valves in need of replacement, spar corrosion, etc. that a professional survey should turn up. Check the engine; a faulty exhaust fitting (replaced by Ericson on recall) resulted in water backing into some engines.

Buyers should give thought to which version of the 27 is most worth shopping for. We would look hardest for a post-1974 model, with its improved finish, redesigned cockpit, and more commonly found inboard auxiliary engine, paying particular attention to the condition of the engine.

Clearly the 27 can benefit from upgrading original equipment including winches, traveler, reefing gear, galley stove and icebox, increasing water tankage, etc. Retrofitting wheel steering is difficult and of dubious recoverable expense.

Generally condition, not age per se, is the most valid determinant of the value of a production boat over 6 to 8 years old. Not so with the Ericson 27. To our minds the improvements in the latter half of the production run—wheel steering (standard beginning with hull #754), the dressier and more heavily constructed interior, more standard equipment, etc.—are well worth what we find is the typical difference in selling prices between older and younger Ericson 27s.

Given the steady changes in the 27, especially the deck/cockpit redesign, there should be a much more notable difference in price, perhaps as much as several thousand dollars. Certainly it would behoove any prospective buyer to check the later 27s before committing to an earlier boat, unless the price of the older is much lower.

Conclusions

There seems no question that the Ericson 27 has some drawbacks that are crucial concerns to prospective buyers: sluggish performance, steering effort, too many berths, etc. Still, it can be a most attractive boat to buyers wanting reasonable cruising amenities in a moderate size boat for a modest price. The 27 is truly a small cruising boat with more to offer (at least in later models) than such boats of comparable vintage as the Catalina 27 or the Hunter 27, albeit typically at somewhat higher prices.

To the advantage of the potential buyer, there are a lot of 27s on the market from which to choose, more so in the West than the East. The key is to spend some time looking for the best deal in a later model with the desired features, especially inboard power and wheel steering. Then the conservative styling of the 27 and its basic ruggedness should work to preserve the boat’s value, especially if the engine is maintained, the boat kept spiffy (and refinished when needed), and sails periodically replaced.

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