T r u e Good News for Sailors - Cape Dory

T ried & true

Good News for Sailors

Designed for old-style seaworthiness and grace, the Cape Dory 27
is a sloop that’s popular with singlehanders and cruising couples.

by Joe Myerson

Tom Croke Photos

With sails slack in the light breeze, owner Ted Rose, left, brings Good News IV, his Cape Dory 27 sloop, onto Buzzards Bay under power.
The author sits in the cockpit. Like most Cape Dory sailboats, the 27 has the unmistakable lines of a Carl Alberg design.

I t’s not surprising that Ted Rose set- Buzzards Bay, which meant a full keel In 1967 Vavolotis purchased the
tled on a Cape Dory 27 sloop as Good with attached rudder. It’s an Alberg molds for the Alberg-designed Typhoon,
News IV, the boat for his retirement. design. What more can I say?” a 19-footer that became one of the most
A lifelong sailor, Rose spent more than popular sailboats of its time (Cape Dory
two decades as a yacht broker, helping Design and Construction built more than 2,000 of them). Five
others find the boats they wanted. With In 1963 Andrew Vavolotis started build- years later, buoyed by the Typhoon’s
his children grown and his wife opt- ing 10-foot fiberglass sailing and row- success, Vavolotis had Alberg design a
ing out of cruising, he needed a smaller ing dinghies (the original Cape Dory 28-foot cruising sloop for his company.
boat than Good News II, his beloved 10) in a garage in East Taunton, Mas- During the next decade Alberg designed
36-foot Allied Seabreeze yawl. Rose sachusetts, not far from Buzzards Bay. 10 sailboats for Cape Dory. He never
wanted to sail in comfort, often by him- Between then and 1990, when the com- deviated far from the traditional con-
self, on windy, choppy Buzzards Bay, pany fell victim to a general recession cept that a yacht’s beam should never
Massachusetts, but he also wanted a in the boatbuilding industry, Cape Dory exceed one-third of its overall length—
boat that he could be proud of. He briefly Yachts manufactured more than 8,500 even when Vavolotis asked for some-
owned a 23-foot Seasprite, a graceful boats (37 different models). Most of thing different. In a frequently quoted
daysailer designed by Carl Alberg that these were sailboats ranging in size from interview, Vavolotis recounted how
had the full keel and classic lines he 10 to 45 feet, although the company he would repeatedly ask for beamier,
wanted. But Good News III proved too also produced two fishing boats and a shallower designs, but Alberg always
small, with no standing headroom and a line of power trawlers. The majority of gave him plans for full-keel, classi-
narrow, sometimes wet, cockpit. Cape Dory’s sailboats were designed by cally narrow boats. Dave Perry, who
Alberg, a Swedish-born New Englander was national sales manager for Cape
When he found a Cape Dory 27 on whose conservative, full-keeled boats are Dory Yachts for 10 years and is now
the market, it was good news indeed. still revered for their head-turning lines the yacht broker at Vavolotis’s current
Ten years later, Rose still feels the same and rugged seaworthiness. business, Robinhood Marine Center in
way: “I wanted a boat that could handle

26 Offshore | August 2007

Tried & true When looking aft in the main cabin, the galley sink is to the left and the cooking space is to
the right. Access to the diesel engine is gained by removing the wooden panel and compan-
at a glance ionway steps in the center of this photograph.

Cape Dory 27 below the waterline and end-grain capedory.org), cautioned that the heavy
balsa core in the decks, cabin tops and use of gelcoat, especially on deck, make
Builder: Cape Dory Yachts other horizontal surfaces above the the boats susceptible to surface crack-
East Taunton, MA waterline. In the case of the 27-footer, ing. Water penetration can soften the
(no longer in business) 3,000 pounds of lead ballast were deck’s balsa core, particularly around
encapsulated in the full-length keel. inadequately bedded hardware. Other
Designer: Carl Alberg Built from one-piece molds, the deck owners reported finding soft spots on
was chemically bonded to an internal the foredeck, around the rudder post
Details flange at the top of the hull. Chain- and sometimes in the cockpit sole. The
Production............................................................ 1976–1984 plates, deck stanchions and genoa Cape Dory 27’s mast is stepped on the
LOA.....................................................................................27’ 1” tracks were all through-bolted, and cabin top, with the force carried to the
LWL. .........................................................................................20’ teak toe rails were screwed into the keel via a compression post, and at least
Beam....................................................................................8’ 6” hull-to-deck joint with self-tapping fas- one owner cautions to check for com-
Draft.......................................................................................... 4’ teners. Deck cleats, chocks and other pression cracks and possible distortion
Displ............................................................................7,500 lbs. hardware were cast from solid bronze, of underlying structure.
Ballast........................................................................ 3,000 lbs. and the cabin was built with six cast-
Sail area....................................................................365 sq. ft. bronze opening ports. (These bronze Belowdecks
Mast height..................................................................... 38’ 6” components are still available from Though narrow by modern standards,
Fuel.................................................................................12 gals. Spartan Marine, a company owned by the main cabin of the Cape Dory 27
Water..............................................................................12 gals. Vavolotis at Robinhood Marine, where offers plenty of comfort for a boat of its
Waste..............................................................................15 gals. the Robinhood 36 and 40 are custom- age and size, with standing headroom,
Price range............................................... $14,000–$25,000 built from Cape Dory molds.) ventilation provided by six opening
ports plus a forward hatch and read-
Georgetown, Maine, verifies the story. The solid construction and encap- ily accessible grab rails. An off-white
In fact, he recalls, when the company sulated keel help explain why so many fiberglass headliner conceals wiring and
wanted to build the shallow-draft Cape Cape Dory sailboats are still on the other internal features, while trim—
Dory 270, the boat that eventually water: The boats can withstand hard except on the earliest models—is of teak
replaced the 27, “Andy [Vavolotis] went groundings and even some collisions veneer. A door separates the forward V-
to Carl [Alberg] to see about a keel-cen- with submerged objects. However, sev- berth (just abaft the chain locker) from
terboard design, and Carl sent him to eral Cape Dory 27 owners, contacted the enclosed head to port and wet and
Dieter Empacher [another Marblehead- via the Cape Dory Sailboat Owners’ dry hanging lockers to starboard. Far-
based designer]. He just wouldn’t do it.” Association’s very active website (www.

Good News IV was built in 1982, hull
number 218 out of 277 Cape Dory 27s
produced between 1976 and 1984. She
carries the hallmarks of an Alberg boat:
Her eight-foot, six-inch beam is less
than one-third of her 27-foot length,
and she has graceful bow and stern
overhangs, a full keel with attached
rudder and a wineglass-shaped cross
section. The Cape Dory 27 was a favor-
ite, even among those who built them.
“The 27 was the best-looking sailboat
we ever built,” commented Hunter
Scott, a former production manager
for Cape Dory Yachts who now builds
semicustom powerboats. Scott owned
a 27, as did Perry, who said, “It gave
me everything I wanted or needed in a
sailboat, and it was small enough that I
could afford it.”

Cape Dory Yachts built its sailboats
with solid layers of hand-laid fiberglass

28 Offshore | August 2007

Tried & true Pedestal steering makes Good News IV bronze winches to handle the foresail,
unusual among Cape Dory 27s, creating but many owners have upgraded to
ther aft, the dinette settee to port con- additional room for passengers in a cockpit larger, self-tailing models.
verts to a full-length berth, as does the considered spacious in its day.
starboard settee. There’s a small galley Under Sail
counter abaft the dinette, to port of the Like many boats built in the 1970s With its heavy keel, solid construction
companionway steps, with a built-in ice and ’80s, Cape Dory 27s came with two and only 365 square feet of sail area
box (with insufficient built-in insulation, 12-volt batteries and a wiring system carried in a high-aspect-ratio rig typi-
owners say) and space for a stove. The that was adequate for little more than cal of the decades when it was built, the
sink is to port of the companionway. navigational and interior lighting. A Cape Dory 27 is not a fast boat, espe-
Original equipment included a Kenyon number of owners have rewired their cially in light air. Alberg designed his
two-burner pressurized-alcohol stove, boats to accommodate additional appli- boats for heavy weather, and once the
which many owners have replaced, ances and electronics. wind picks up and the boat heels at
either with nonpressurized alcohol or between 10 and 15 degrees, the Cape
propane. Good News IV is equipped with On Deck Dory 27 is in its element. “If the wind is
a two-burner camping stove that uses If they don’t shift their weight with really honking,” comments Mark Yas-
small propane bottles readily available every tack (and they don’t have to hinsky of White Plains, New York, “I
at most hardware stores. under most conditions), four adults can catch larger, more modern boats
can ride comfortably in the cockpit of a because they start reefing earlier and
The boat does not have a dedicated Cape Dory 27, especially if it’s one of the deeper than me.”
nav station, although many owners use small number of boats, like Good News
the galley area or the cabin table for IV, with pedestal steering. An aft laza- Last October, on the day of my test
that purpose. The plywood cabin sole ret and lockers under the port and star- sail and the photo shoot for this article,
is covered with a thin teak-and-holly board benches provide plenty of storage the wind was abnormally light on Buz-
veneer which, though attractive, tends in the cockpit. The boat has ample exte- zards Bay, but I’ve sailed on Good News
to delaminate over time. Some owners rior teak trim, which adds to the tradi- IV under more typical conditions and
have protected it with various finishes, tional look but also requires additional found her easy to balance and quick to
but others find it necessary to replace maintenance. respond; she’s also a boat that one per-
the sole. son can handle. Like any full-keeled
The deck hardware and rigging boat, she performs best upwind.
Removing the wooden panel and are rugged, but the foredeck would
companionway steps allows access to seem narrow by modern standards. Price and Availability
the diesel engine, which is mounted Several owners, including Rose, have For boats of their age, Cape Dory 27s
underneath the cockpit sole. This added anchor rollers to the bow. Origi- hold their value well, and they’ve
arrangement makes anything other nal equipment included high-quality attracted an enthusiastic following. A
than routine servicing difficult but was quick Web search turned up seven boats
not unusual for sailboats built at this recently for sale on the East and Gulf
time. Cape Dory put several small die- Coasts, ranging in price from $14,000
sel engines into the 27, most commonly to $25,000, depending on age, engine
the eight-horsepower, raw-water-cooled and upgrades. As owner Ray Garcia
one-cylinder Yanmar YSM8. puts it, “Our CD27 was hand-assembled
with pride and quality as evidenced by
“While a little loud and slightly the condition she is in after 25 years.
underpowered,” writes Duncan Maio, If Cape Dory 27s were still being made
the owner of a 1977 Cape Dory 27, “[the today, the purchase price would turn
YSM8] has about six moving parts and away buyers.”
is as simple as an anvil—and as reliable
as an anvil.” In the interest of full disclosure, it should
be pointed out that the author, Offshore
The previous owner of Good News senior editor Joe Myerson, sails his own
IV replaced the original “one-lunger” 25-year-old Cape Dory sloop, a smaller
with a 16-horsepower, two-cylinder, 25D, out of Squeteague Harbor, Massachu-
freshwater-cooled Yanmar that gives setts, on Buzzards Bay.
Rose all the power he needs. Like all
full-keeled boats with attached rudders,
backing a Cape Dory 27 under power
can be difficult enough that one owner
called it “a crap shoot.”

30 Offshore | August 2007