Wendy,
I think I mentioned that we were very pleasantly surprised by the light
air performance of our Tayana. We had expected a real pig. While it's
true, there are lots of faster boats, give Tricia Jean a clean bottom
and she moves right along. Bob Perry did something right when he
designed this one.

One of the things we REALLY like about ours, that no one says much about
is the huge amount of acessible storage. Everywhere you look, there are
more drawers, cupboards and lockers. After owning a Catalina 30, where
whatever you were after, whether it was a spare part or another can of
evaporated milk, you had to dig for it, that is especially sweet. Don't
get me wrong, I'm not bad mouthing the Catalina. We sure loved ours.
But it does make you appreciate boats like the Tayana.

Now that I think about it, one of the best aspects of going through a
few successively larger boats on your way to the "final" one is that you
really appreciate that boat you wind up with more. When we went from a
MacGregor 25 to the Catalina 30, we truely appreciated the size, comfort
and storage the larger boat brought as well as its' ability to handle
the coastal cruising conditions of the CA coast. Now, after having
lived on the Catalina for up to 2 months at a stretch, the Tayana seems
almost like a palace. We hope to move aboard permantly before too long
and had we gone straight from a 4 bedroom house to the Tayana, I can
just imagine how confining it would have felt. As it is, it feels big
and roomy to us.

Fair winds - Dan

Wendy wrote:
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