Re: [Cal_Boats] CAL 35s, Anyone?
David Lyons2005-12-23 12:43 UTC
One additional note on Dave's review is that there
were some significant changes in the Cal35 in 1983/84.
- The MK2 version seems signifianctly brighter below.
I think this is due to some lighter finishes and
addtional hatches and deck plates.
- The MK2 version also has a bolt to keel rather than
an encapselated verison. It is still not as strong
an upwind perfomer as todays designs.
- I think the rudder stock design changed as well.
- David lyons
1984 Cal 35, Windsong
Plymouth MA
--- biggs dave <im… [at] yahoo.com> wrote:
> Charlie,
>
> Ive attached a Practical Sailor review of the Cal
> 35 which was pretty accurate. If it didnt make it
> through, I can e mail it directly.
>
> Some quick pros/cons from me
>
> Cons/things to check:
> - As youve see from the multiple
> headliner questions on the 35, they are all leaking
> at this point if the ports havent been re-bedded or
> replaced.
> - The upper rudder bearing should be
> inspected.
> - The boat is narrow aft and tends to bury
> at speed. She has a very definite terminal velocity
> and doesnt like to surf.
> - Electrical panel location, if water
> every came in the companionway, this could be a
> problem
> - Dodger, the bridgedeck makes entry
> harder with a Dodger. But the bridgedeck also helps
> keep water out from down below if you get pooped.
> - Tender, the encapsulated keel is very
> solid but not the best for getting the keel weight
> low. The boat heavily depends on hull stability in
> a breeze.
> - Hurth 10 transmission. If it hasnt
> been replaced or rebuilt by now, it probably needs
> it.
> - V berth egress is hard. Bunk too high
> - Dark interior. Some people like all the
> teak, not me (except for afternoon naps).
> - Poor Pointing ability. The thick
> encapsulated keel along with the single spreader rig
> (i.e. not the tightest sheeting angles for the jib)
> are culprits here.
> - Tight cockpit. The wheel steals a lot
> of space.
>
>
>
> Pros:
> - Tracks extremely well with a very
> neutral helm (easy on autopilot, sometimes tough for
> beginner helmsman because they cant feel whats
> going on)
> - Light air performance. For an old tank,
> I surprised at how well she performs in winds under
> 10.
> - Stock engine, the Universal 5432 appears
> to be very robust. Mine has 3000+ and my yearly oil
> analysis indicates everything is great.
> - Bow anchor pulpit. Its a strong, nice
> dual anchor set up for a stock system.
> - Rock solid hull. My boat has fallen
> off some tanker wakes that I thought would split her
> in two but she survived fine
> - Halyards. My rig has two main and two
> jib halyards along with a spinnaker halyard. This
> may be heavy but I love the redundancy.
>
>
> Thats my two cents. It may sound harsh, but I've
> had her for 8 years and am still very happy every
> time I'm out with her whether it's blowing 5 or 35.
> So that must show that she has served me well. Tell
> your friend that he may e mail me directly if he has
> anymore questions.
>
> Dave
> 80 Cal 35 MkI, Running Late
> San Mateo, SF Bay
>
>
> Husar Charlie <hu… [at] bah.com> wrote:
> Hi, All. I have a friend who is looking at getting
> a CAL 35 (1983). He was looking for info, and pros
> and cons on the boat.
>
> (Formal Introduction)
> Cheers
> Charlie Husar
> Annapolis, MD
> CAL 25 - 460 Fahrvergnügen
> CAL 25 - 1657 Chicken Little
> CAL 25 - 1845 Hasty
> CAL40 - 58 C-Hawk
>
>
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---------------------------------
Cal 35
We take the
guesswork
out of boat & gear buying
Volume 29
Number 5
March 2003
---------------------------------
Features
Boat Reviews
Editorial
Mailport
PS Advisor
---------------------------------
Cal 35
The more moderate younger sister of the
giant-killing Cal 40 proves a balanced, capable
cruiser. Essential structures are reported to be very
strong, while reviews of the interior finish are
mixed. LOA35'
0LWL28' 9Beam10' 11Draft4' 9 (shoal)
5' 9 (deep)Displacement13,000 lbs.Ballast5,200
lbs.Sail Area596 sq. ft.
When you create a boat that's universally celebrated
as "the most successful production raceboat ever,"
what do you do for an encore? In 1966 the Cal 40
capped a famous string of grand prix victories when
Thunderbird (with designer Bill Lapworth and America's
Cup helmsman Bus Mosbacher aboard) won the
Newport-Bermuda Race while sister ships placed
1-3-4-5-6 in Class D. Coming as it did after three
successive TransPac victories and an SORC title, the
performance confirmed the 40-footer as the hottest
thing around, inspired a "Stamp out Cal 40s"
movement, and offered an off-the-shelf way to win in a
league where only custom designs had been able to
play.
For designer Lapworth and builder Jack Jensen there
followed an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" string
of racer/cruisers built on Cal 40 principles. Some of
Jensen Marine's many boats (at least 20 models over
the years) have been full-cruising "performance
motorsailers" like the Cal 46, but the vast majority
were racer/cruisers. Virtually all of those were
descended very directly from the boat that fueled the
company's success, the famous Cal 40.
Bill Lapworth's 1979 Cal 35 design kept some features
of the IOR-inspired '70s, like the transom shape, but
in other areas forged into the brave new worldnote
the double anchor-roller. She has a good racer/cruiser
layout, a bulletproof hull-deck joint, and is
handsome.
By 1979, when Lapworth and Jensen collaborated (for
what turned out to be their final time) on the Cal 35
, the world where once the Cal 40 ruled had changed.
The International Offshore Rule (IOR) was no longer
the only game in town, spars were spindlier, fins were
more blade-like, and racing boats had changed a lot.
Sunroofs, swim decks, hull ports, anchor pulpits, and
cockpit tables had also, in the meantime, arrived to
add new dimensions to cruising. The ideal of a
"dual-purpose" boat for racing and cruising was still
alive, but the forces driving racers and cruisers
apart may never have been so strong.
You only need to read the first sentence of the press
release announcing the Cal 35's debut to see that
Jensen Marine saw its new 35 as a balanced,
conservative response to those forces of upheaval:
"She is quite 'establishment' in her attitude toward
rewarding sailing but quite 'individualistic' in her
solution to offshore and dockside accommodations."
In creating the 35, Jensen Marine stuck with the
formula that served it well from the Cal 40 forward:
"moderately light displacement, waterlines on the
longish side, fin keel, and high-efficiency rudder."
To suit the boat to the times, the publicist adds, "In
all candor, however, the new Cal 35 is weighted toward
high-performance cruisingreal sailors' cruising."
While she never won much as a racer, she succeeded in
fulfilling that "fast-cruising" formula. That is what
has kept her alive on the used-boat market, and why
sailors might do worse than to look at her as a
couple's cruiser.
"You can't please everyone." Almost 100 Cal 35s were
built in the early '80s, however, and as a designer
friend of ours says, "Those stodgy traditional looks
seem to get better and better the more time goes by."
She's well-built, sails well, and seems in many ways
to justify the premium price that's attached to the
Cal name.
"I sailed the hell out of mine for 18 years and I've
never had a boat that I loved more," one owner told
us.
Design
Nathanael Herreshoff was among the first to design a
spade rudder, but offshore racers didn't get to steer
with them until Lapworth came forward with the Cal 40.
We can remember the "night and day" experience of our
first trick at the tiller of one of the Jensen Marine
boats. The helm combined sensitivity and control in
amounts that were astounding. "The spade" made
keel-hung rudders seem as outmoded as cotton sails. We
couldn't help but notice, however, that the balance
on those early rudders was overlargeunder power they
seemed to exercise a mind of their own; keeping the
boat tracking with the engine pushing her took
full-time concentration.
Lapworth has no patent on the other signature element
of the Cal 40the fin keel. But, married with the
balanced spade, it cut underbodies loose from
long-keel bondage and opened the way for
lift-producing foils and struts to follow. It made
surfing a way of life, and opened up the offshore
world to dinghy-like standards of performance and
speed.
The underwater elements of the Cal 35, however, don't
show much advancement beyond the pioneering Cal 40
underbody. While European and American naval
architects of the late '70s and early '80s shaved
wetted surface and made their foils higher aspect
(thus more efficient at producing lift) the Cal 35
took a middle route, somewhat in keeping with the
boat's "please everybody" mission, with a
conservatively thick section, long chord length, and
low aspect-ratio planform. She thus has plenty of
get-up when the wind is free and strong but is at her
worst upwind in light air and/or chop.
Lapworth always championed light boats. Some West
Coast featherweights may have been more extreme, but
his "get the lead out" efforts were another big
reason why his Cals were so hard to beat. The Cal 35,
however, displaces just 2,000 pounds less than the Cal
40. Comparing sail area/displacement numbers shows
that the newer, smaller boat looks better on the
calculator (18.2 versus the Cal 40's 17.7) but in a
racing world where spade rudders and fin keels are old
hat, and where the push for speed potential is
constant, such a small gain seems very little to show
for 20 years' worth of design development.
Lapworth did concentrate on finer bows with his later
designs. The entry on the 35 (and the designs that
directly preceded her) was sharpened materially "to
help the boat in slop and chop." The clean sweep of
the waterlines, and the flat deadrise aft, make her
surf relatively easily, but when you compare her to
the virtual planing shapes of her dishier modern
competitors, it's a case of obsolescence at best.
The 35 has a ballast/displacement ratio of 40%. That
is robust, but modern racers push that
stability-producing number higher. The J/35, for
instance, carries a figure of 45%. Despite carrying a
lot of lead, the Cal 35, like all the Cal boats, has
it encapsulated in a resin matrix within a fiberglass
keel. That effectively reduces the density of the fin
and accounts in good measure for her performance
review as "somewhat tender."
Another reason why she has to reef before her
competitors is that her hull shape, although clean and
surf-ready, is a bit narrower and has softer chines
than the majority of the boats that came after her.
Cals were never beauty queens. Their aesthetic has a
lot to do with function. The short-ended, lean and
mean look of the Cal 40 derived much of its appeal
from her place in the winners' circle. The Cal 35 is
cut from the same cloth, but, because of her emphasis
on the cruising side of the ideal, she has softer,
prettier styling than her ruthless forebear.
Her sheer is straight without being knife-edge, her
stem is elongated and more delicate than the 40's, she
has almost no counter, and her transom is delicately
reversed. The house is broken out into big windows and
little ports. Dorade boxes on either side of the
companionway form part of her look. She's as
middle-of-the-road in appearance as she was meant to
be in function.
Construction
When Jack Jensen, a mechanical engineer with little or
no background in boats, established Jensen Marine and
started building Lapworth designs in 1958, there
weren't many other production builders around. His
thought, it's been written, was "that production-line
construction of small fiberglass auxiliaries would
work." Starting with the Cal 24 (an immediate success)
and the Cal 20 (over 1,700 sold) he and Lapworth
confirmed that wisdom.
Cal 35 - Mark II Layout
Early in the company's evolution Jensen developed some
of the basics that remained his hallmarks. Rather than
use a fiberglass pan as a structural grid or locater
for interior furniture, Cal built the entire interior
outside the hull. There were some efficiencies with
the technique, but the prime virtue was that (once the
wooden framework was dropped into place) it allowed
access all around the interior so that it could be
taped to the hull in a number of different places
rather than being left to "float" as it would be in
the areas beneath a pan. This building method exposes
a significantly greater amount of wood in the bilge,
but high-quality plywood and careful taping have kept
rot problems to a minimum.
The 35's hull is solid glass. A sailor who bought his
Cal 35 in 1980 wrote: "Mine was one of the very last
boats laid up in Costa Mesa. I've heard that the boats
built later in Tampa had blistering (and some other
problems). I'd advise anyone looking at Cals built
after 1982 (when the move to Tampa occurred) to check
this out."
Moderate blistering was reported by a handful of
owners from our survey.
The deck is plywood cored. Said one owner of a 1983
boat, "The only problem I've had was having to take up
a 12-square-foot section of deck and replace the
plywood coring." A number of others however, report
gelcoat crazing at corners and stress points.
Cal decks have been joined to the hull in several
ways, but the method evolved with the 35 has earned
several owner reports that they've had no leaks
through season after season. The hull is built with an
inward-turning flange. The deck, built with a
down-turning flange, is dropped over the hull and the
joint is bedded with sealant. The edge is then capped
with a perforated aluminum toerail that is bolted both
horizontally and vertically to anchor the joint. No
one came forward to report deck leaks, though some
owners have had their boats for 20 years or more.
One Long Island owner wrote that, "My boat took on
major water due to the design of her anchor locker
drains, as well as the mounting for the cutless
bearing strut." He concluded that his Cal 35 was "a
beautiful sailing boat that was rather poorly built."
That owner's report, however, seems to be an
aberration. We've received testimony from a good
number of owners who confirm that the "well-built"
reputation Cals have earned over the years is
well-deserved.
Accommodations
Though brochures called the Cal 35 "what may be the
most thoroughly thought-out performance cruising yacht
ever offered the sailing world," there isn't much
below that you haven't seen before. Part of the
thinking, in fact, was to redesign her interior after
only 50 boats were sold in the first three years of
productiona molasses-like pace for Cal at the time.
The boat originally had a head aft and galley
opposite. "I have the original layout," says one owner
from 1981. "I still think it makes an excellent
couples boat. Who needs all of those bunks anyway?"
The "Mark II" version is more standard. The 6'4"
headroom hasn't changed, but the floorplan has. The
Mark II setup offers a quarter berth aft, two settee
berths in the saloon, and a substantial platform
double in the forepeak. The arrangement showcases a
truly well-designed head/shower with maximum elbow
room, light, and ventilation. It is sited in the
"traditional" spot forward of the saloon. Double sinks
on the centerline are another good addition.
There's a distinctively traditional handling of teak
and holly in the sole through teak accents, as well as
teak cabinet fronts, ceiling panels, and bunk bases.
One owner told us, "The 35 isn't a boat you'd buy for
the furniturethey did cut some corners here and there
below."
As is typical in galleys on boats this size, the
bottom of the icebox is hardly accessible if you're
not six feet tall. And, complained one owner of a boat
new in 1980, "the icebox is large but not
well-insulated." A second agreed. Though access was a
critical problem, he removed the foam battens from
around the box and foamed the entire cavity. "I'm very
happy with the upgrade," he said.
The drop-leaf table in the saloon is a big improvement
over the clumsy mast-mounted table that it replaces.
The electronics storage seems very minimal when
measured by modern standards. Ventilation is better
than average thanks to the well-sited (for air, not
sail-handling) Dorade vents, six opening ports, and
opening overhead hatch. The standard hatch in the
forepeak, however, leaks. Stowage includes a pleasing
number of drawers.
Performance
One place where the 35's clean lines, long waterline,
and moderate displacement really shine is under power.
The standard Universal 32-hp four-cylinder diesel
consistently pushes her past her 7-knot hull speed and
consumption at cruising speed is less than a gallon
per hour. "I have a Martec prop," one owner says. "I
like it for sailing, but it sometimes doesn't open
fully when I change gears."
Several owners rated noise and vibration as "very
smooth and quiet." Some also felt that the Cal 35
"walked" excessively (backed to port) in reverse. "But
the big spade rudder and smallish fin give her a very
small turning circle."
If you take the Cal 35 onto most race courses you
won't be as dominant as the early Cal 40s. For one
thing, 13,000 pounds hardly qualifies as even
"moderately light" these days. In the world of
drop-keeled rockets and winged speed merchants you
might call something like a J/105 (just 6 inches
shorter than the Cal 35) "moderately light." Weighing
in at 7,750 pounds, that modern J has a
displacement/length ratio of 135. (The lower the
number, the lighter the boat.) Compare that to the Cal
35's D/L of 242 and you can see how much the whole
concept of light displacement has changed.
One Chesapeake sailor who calls his boat an excellent
cruiser/racer said, "I have tried to turn her into a
racer/cruiser under PHRF. It worked for two to three
years, but after the measurers lowered my rating and
new lightweight boats came into the area, I don't feel
that I can continue to compete. I'm going to try IMS
next season, add a full-battened mainsail, and install
a Hall Quik Vang to keep the sail from getting chewed
up by the topping lift."
While there is variation from fleet to fleet, the Cal
35 rates around 160 under PHRF. Neither a "sleeper"
like some re-vamped '80s boats, nor a rocket like the
original 40, capable of running away from her
competitors no matter what the rating, the Cal 35's
racing success has been middling at best. However, in
terms of efficient, mannerly, seakindly sailing of the
sort that makes for superlative cruising, this old
boat delivers the goods. While her relatively bluff
bow puts her at a disadvantage in light air with
waves, her full entry helps the boat ride high and
dry, especially while surfing down waves. Flat
sections forward of the keel can cause pounding, but
they are also a key to the boat's crisp and
surprisingly fluid motion. Chopped off at the transom
she maxes out her waterline; high-sided forward she is
dry on deck.
Though her mainsail is, in the fashion of the '80s,
smaller than her foretriangle, it is large enough to
make main- alone sailing not only possible but
pleasurable.
Like the Cals before her, the 35 has inboard shrouds
to facilitate tight sheeting angles as well as let
people walk the side decks with ease.
Several owners felt the need to relocate the pedestal
4 inches forward and install a 36-inch wheel in place
of the standard 28-incher. "The Barient 25s that came
with the boat were too small," said a sailor from the
Great Lakes. "I took them off and installed 28s."
The mainsheet arrangement called for a number of parts
and what amounted to two travelers, one on the
housetop and the other on a horse over the
companionway. Several sailors found the set-up "poorly
designed" and over-complicated.
Conclusions
Whoever wrote the brochure back in 1980 had it
rightthe Cal 35 is more of a cruiser than a racer.
It's impossible, though, to dissociate the Cal name
from the fin-keeled surfing machine that grabbed all
of the headlines back in the '60s.
The good things about buying into a racing family seem
to us to include the satisfaction that your boat is,
in at least one sense, pedigreed for performance.
There comes an association with people who are at the
top of the sport, and no company exemplifies the
halcyon days of the racer/cruiser (or cruiser/racer,
whichever you prefer) than Cal.
Among the shortcomings of this set-up are the
possibility that you're paying for reputation and
prestige instead of solid value; that the people at
the top are so worried about staying there that they
have little time for their customers, and that
competitive excellence can sometimes provide a screen
that hides corners that have been cut. We don't think
this is true in any serious way about the Cal 35.
She's a solid chip off the Cal block.
At press time, Internet asking prices for used Cal
35s average around $43,000, not including one 1985
Mark II boat offered in what appears to be pristine
condition at $70,000.
After changing hands several times, Cal finally folded
in 1989. For more on the Cal 35 and Cal boats in
general, try joining the Cal owners' e-mail discussion
list at www.sailnet.com.
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