Dear Gerry:

I wanted to bring you up to date on my adventures with “Lazy Jacks”, my Eastsail Offshore 25, Hull #1. As you know I have been cruising the Maine coast, and venturing further offshore on some overnight trips into the Gulf of Maine. I have found the boat perfect for this activity: It is a great “Gunkholer” for the Maine coast, sneaking into harbors bigger boats stay out of, as well as a great offshore performer. I have been very comfortable in it in the open ocean.

The clipper bow sheds waves and provides a dry ride when the waves build, and the cutter rig breaks up the sail plan making reducing sail and balancing the boat easy.

She points well and moves to windward, but bear off a bit onto a beam reach and it doesn’t take much wind to reach hull speed! I’ve added some light air sails for those August calms so characteristic of the Gulf of Maine, and she ghosts along on almost no detectable breeze.

I particularly like the transom hung rudder on the rear of the keel. This design makes so much sense for sailing in the lobster pot infested waters of Maine. No fear of snagging a pot warp with the full keel unlike some fin keel/spade rudder designs so common today. And the transom mounted rudder means the tiller handle is over the lazarette and doesn’t sweep the cockpit every time I want to tack (no sending guest scurrying out of the way like they do with a cockpit mounted tiller).

The large lazarette allows a lot of storage: I keep a small inflatable dinghy there for trips ashore, and even a small outboard motor for the dinghy. The other cockpit lockers let me keep my extra light wind sails handy.

The abundant wood trim, graceful and classic shear line, stout cutter rig, all invite favorable comments from people on the dock, or from passing sailboats and even power boats, both of which often go out of their way to “check it out”. Kayakers are frequently seen on the coast and it is not unusual to have a gaggle of them come over and ask about the boat and its origins. Most people think it is a custom wooden boat and not a production fiberglass boat. They have to knock on the hull to be convinced!

As I said, the cutter rig makes sail reduction easy, plus it allows me to play with the balance of the trim, so that I can steer with an autopilot or even sheet-to-tiller steering when single handing (or even when double handing).

All in all…a very successful design.

Bill