I was invited to sail a Tayana 37 Saturday; some of you will remember this
is one of the boats on my short list. I have to say I was a bit more
impressed with the boat than I thought I would be. It was a light-air day
on upper Galveston Bay; winds were in the 8-10kt range. I expected the
boat- with its 22,000 lb displacement- to be a bit ponderous, but she
performed quite nicely. We averaged 4.5 kts (on the GPS) on close and broad
reaches. We did not use the staysail; I do not know if this would have
increased the boat's performance or not (I have absolutely zero experience
with cutters). I don't think it would be too wildly optimistic to expect,
under the right (but not necessarily optimum) conditions, that a Tayana 37
would do 125-mile days. Some days more, some days less, certainly- but
still and all, this boat is a traveller. This particular boat had a slight
weather helm, but it wasn't something I had to fight. I was told the wind
vane steers her very nicely. While tacking she was docile enough; no
quirks. It was a great experience, and I have to thank my new-found friends
for the invitation. (This boat is not for sale, btw.)

Today I looked over another Tayana 37 offered for sale by the owner, and she
is a very nicely maintained boat- the best I have seen so far (I've looked
at several!). Interestingly enough, she is one hull number different than
the boat I sailed on. She needs more gadgets- a radar would be the first
thing I'd add, followed by a wind vane- but she's an immaculately clean 1986
model ready to move aboard. It's probably a good thing I didn't have the
cash in hand

Wendy