Hi Chuck,
I've been looking at the older 30ft Willards w/o the flybridge. They
look like a solid basic cruiser. What's your opinion on them?
Mark (Gimpy Wannabe) Williams

Willard builds one heck of a boat.
They build a lot of motor lifeboats for the armed forces. As a result, much of
what they build for pleasure boating is put together to mil specs.

Their hulls are laid up in a continuous shift, "wet" process.

Willards are exclusively or almost exclusively full displacement hulls, rather
than the semi-displacement design that most similar size vessels would employ.
There is no finer sea boat than a well found displacement hull when things get
seriously snotty, and I always say you pick a boat for the *worst* (not the
average) conditions you will encounter.

The downside to a displacement hull is that it is "busier" in a calm to
moderate sea than a semi-displacement hull.
We spent one night at Friday Harbor last week, and the WA State ferry is, for
some reason, really hot-footing it into the adjoining ferry dock these days. We
were berthed next to a Krogen, 4 feet longer and quite a bit heavier than our
boat. The full displacement Krogen rocked violently in the broadside ferry
wake, while immediately next door our semi-displacement hull stayed relatively
level as it just rode up and over the swell.

However, if I were halfway across the Strait of Georgia and it started blowing
40-knots I'd much rather be aboard that Krogen.

A lot of the full displacement boats use outriggers and stabilizers. WESMAR
makes some very good electronically controlled active fin stabilizers, and some
other companies might as well. I think that
I'd reserve a few bucks in the budget to add stabilizers after a season or so
if we didn't acclimate comfortably to the busier ride.

But at last check, that 40-foot Willard pilothouse is about 1/2 a million
bucks.
Assuming for a moment that we had the option to rearrange priorities enough to
invest (no, make that spend) that much money for a boat I'm not sure I'd want
to.

Boating fun does *not* increase proportionately to the amount spent for a boat-
once one gets to the point where a safe and functional boat is attainable.

Example: Is the family in the $100k boat having 5 times as much fun as the
family in in a $20k boat? Of course not. Is the family in the $2mm boat having
20 times as much fun as the family in the $100k boat? No, again. Sometimes, the
great big boats are *less* fun than just a knock-around 30-40 foot family
cruiser that is easily operated by a couple.

If you want a slow, economically operated, seaworthy boat, a Willard would
certainly be among your options.