The CD 31 Bare Hull Project Boat

[Greg Ross]

A few months ago this link was posted for a 31 bare hull; http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... detail.jsp?&
Several questions arise from my viewing her week before last;
Would ice in the bilge/ bottom/ keel drain open be a concern? Her cockpit seat hatches and companionway are open to the weather and I assume have been for 10 years? His price btw is quite flexible!
MThe second question and considering my faded memory, I recall reading somewhere (Goooogle Search perhaps?) there was a comment on the motion of the CD31 not being all that pleasant as compared to say the CD 30? Carl did or did not design the 31?
The rudder is there/ installed and she has her ballast already in place. The deck is only screwed down to the hull flange/ not bonded yet.
As a sidebar, sitting in the same yard BTW is the mould for the CD 31, still property of RobinHood Marine I gather.

[Greg Ross]

This is truly a bare hull and deck, no engine bed, interior linings/ or other mouldings are there. the deck has not been stiffened/ no end grain or ply stiffening has been fitted.
There are crazing lines in the hull gelcoat just above the rudder/ below the waterline/ related to freezing-I don't know! There are fractures in the deck moulding at the cabin rear corners from handling/ flexing-perhaps?
The seller I spoke with discounted any of these observations as of any major concern! But then the price is flexible!

[Bill Michne]

Greg:

Alberg designed the 31. I have a CD catalog that describes the boats available at the time (1984), and it tells which ones were designed by Alberg. The 270 is the only model that was not, having been designed by Dieter Empacher.

I can't compare the sailing characteristics of the 31 vs. the 30, but during the 5 years that we sailed a 31 on Lake Ontario, the boat sailed beautifully under a wide variety of wind and wave conditions. It was the first boat we owned (we had owned a Venture, a Catalina, and an O'Day previously) on which my wife was never the least bit nervous, even on our many lake crossings, one of which was made under reefed main alone.

The condition of the hull you are considering is quite another matter. Our current CD has had ice in the bilge during the winter. I put antifreeze in the bilge and the small amount of ice that does form has done no damage. It sounds like your situation may not be so benign. I would ask myself two questions. Do I want build or cruise? Would I be better off saving the money I would invest in this hull, and buying a fundamentally seaworthy boat that may only require a few upgrades? It sounds to me like a very ambitious project...

[Greg Ross]

Found the reference again and credit Larry DeMers quoted in a "Good Old Boat" article from 1998.
DeMers said they had sailed many designs including chartering a CD 31 and didn't like the motion. Further, he says Cape Dory modified the Alberg design to create te 31?
I consider a project such as this because;
I'm taking a land locked work assignment for a year ++ and this would be a perfect project while away from home-means transporting twice a substantial distance though!
I see CD 31s' offered in good condition in the $40-50,K range and believe, excluding my sweat equity I can have a like "NEW" boat for a similar investment.
I have found another interior layout I like better and this project boat allows that latitude.
While at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath week before last, in the Gift Shop glancing around the Book Shelf offerings found a dandy publication covering the basics-"How to build a Sailboat-From a Bare Hull" by Ferenc Mate. Good read!
I realize this is a major project and there are probably many of these unfinished projects clogging up driveways and backyards all over the World. I belive, built by my own hand I will have a reliable and maintainable craft to do me the rest of my life. I'm contemplating as well a cold molded effort to a different design.
I'm keenly interested in feedback from CD 31 Owners as Larry's comments greatly concerned me.

[Reed]

I've been living on and cruising a CD31 from Maine to the Bahamas since last July. I haven't sailed a CD30, so I have no basis for comparison. That being said I have studied several CD30's to ascertain the sources for this persistant rumor of "tenderness" etc. I believe it originated because of the considerably taller mast height on the CD31 vs. the CD30. This extra leverage might cause the boat to heel further and faster than the 30 under similar wind conditions. This can be a little unnerving the first few times it happens (say on a short term charter), but once you get used to it you realize that she gets very stiff with the lee rail in or near the water. The biggest problem I have with the cutter rig is slow light wind performance when we envy the sloops with their big gennies pulling them along. We solved this problem with a huge cruising spinnaker whose only drawback is the labor involved in setting it.

My 2 cents, Reed CD31 #51 Mary Alice

[fenixrises]

Hi Greg,

Sounds like a good deal.

Be advised, based on my experience from having built many custom cruising sailboats, that this project is probably more than a talented amature will complete part time in under 3 years and will almost certainly cost more than a finished boat.

The advantage is that you will have a boat built the way you want with mostly all new gear.

Happy building,
Fred B.

[Bill Oyster]

I think you have to consider the source when reading Larry's article. The article was, after all, about how the CD30 (his boat) is pretty much the greatest boat ever. I've never owned a boat that WASN'T the greatest boat ever (and I've owned some real crap!) so I certainly see where he's coming from. I think that the 31's "tender" reputation is an outright crock and I have owned one and sailed others in varied conditions. Part of the "problem" I think is that many owners replace the stock yankee jib with a big old 135 jenny or more to try to give it more sloop like performance. In 15 knots of wind with an oversized genoa on a cutter rigged boat you SHOULD have a healthy angle of heel or your sail plan just isn't big enough. I think that one article written by Larry is almost single handedly responsible for making the Alberg designed CD 31 one of the best values in strong, seaworthy, stable boats on the market!

Just my humble opinion,
Bill

[Phil Shedd]

Greg;


All though I am not a 100 % sure I think I have the only CD31 in the area. So if you would like to come over to Rothesay NB some day and have a look please feel welcome. We should be in the water by mid May any time after that we can go for a sail.

Phil

[Walter Gains]

i guess i should open a new thread, but i'm not finished searching the archives yet. i currently sail a pearson ariel.

i am interested in a cd 31 or a 30. unsure regarding the heritage of the 31 from what i've read here and heard from brokers. i called robinhood marine at the suggestion of a broker but nobody was available to answer any questions about the 31.

i like the looks of the 30 better than the 31. is it me or does the 31 have more freeboard than the 30, like almost the same as the 36?

i like the interior layout and placement of the head of the 31 though, and i like the amount of sail area and storage. i don't like the v-drive of the 30.

i've heard the 30 had an alternate interior layout but haven't seen one yet.

[Tom]

As I recall in a later post Larry figured out that he was talking about a CD 32 which was designed by Clive Dent rather than Alberg. Check the archives for some subsequent posts. My 31 certainly isn't tender and is wonderfully sea kindly. Much more storage, bigger engine "room", and getting to the stuffing box, impellar, etc is much easier than on the 30. I recommend you sail one before you invest this kind of time and money in building one. The cutter rig is a great cuising rig, if you're planning to race you probably don't want a cutter or a Cape Dory. If you're planning to cruise, she's hard to beat.

[Ann and David Brownlee]

The 31 is in every sense a bigger boat than the 30. Tender? Well, not more than the other Cape Dories (25 and 27) that we have owned. Building up from a bare hull is a big project! And a used Cape Dory, with everything in place, is a great value, imho.

[bottomscraper]

The specifications for most if not all CD's can be found here including the name of the designer. Looks like the Typhoon and larger sailboats except for the 25, 270, 30MkII, 300MS and the Intrepid line were designed by Alberg.

25 : George Stadel
270: Dieter Empacher
30MkII: Clive M. Dent
300MS: Clive M. Dent
Intrepid 28, 9m, 40: ????
Intrepid 35 : McCurdy and Rhodes



http://www.capedory.org/cdinfo.html#specs

[Stan W.]

A 30 has a SA/D ratio of 15.06. A 31 has a SA/D ratio of 15.83. All other things being equal, a 31 is supposed to heel more than a 30.

[Russell Turpin]

Putting the head aft has several advantages in a small boat. It opens up the cabin and allows better ventilation. When you come down in wet foulies, you can step into the head without tracking water the length of the cabin. It allows a nice U-shaped galley, as the 31 has, while still giving two settees, symmetrically located, that make nice sea berths. If I were building a 31 from scratch, I would make only minor changes to the interior layout. (1) Make the main bulkhead an arch, instead of a door to the side, to provide more air flow from the forward hatch. (2) Put the toilet where the sink is, and put a wetlocker aft or outboard. We have a wetlocker aft of the head in our Dana, and it is a nice feature. (3) Give the companion way steps enough run that you can walk down them forward. I think this makes a big difference when you're spending lots of time aboard. (4) Everyone has their druthers, but I'd sure put a tiller in this boat. It's easier and cheaper to make, the result is more reliable, it opens up the cockpit, it makes for better sailling, and it simplifies installation of an autopilot.

BTW, this is a large project. I think it would be optimistic to estimate anything less than two man years, which means over four calendar years working half time. If you do this, everything you do to keep weight low will make the boat sail better. I'd be tempted to find a way to put a battery box beneath the companionway steps.

[Greg Ross]

Russell,
Thanks for the positive reinforcement and practical suggestions,
Fred B.
Thanks for the Private Message/ again practical thoughts on layout,
and
Phil,
Thanks for the invite to Rothesay for a sail.