choate 37 sailboat review

CF-37 Detailed Review

If you are a boat enthusiast looking to get more information on specs, built, make, etc. of different boats, then here is a complete review of CF-37. Built by Dencho Marine and designed by W. Shad Turner, the boat was first built in 1977. It has a hull type of Fin w/spade rudder and LOA is 11.48. Its sail area/displacement ratio 17.84. Its auxiliary power tank, manufactured by undefined, runs on Diesel.

CF-37 has retained its value as a result of superior building, a solid reputation, and a devoted owner base. Read on to find out more about CF-37 and decide if it is a fit for your boating needs.

Boat Information

Boat specifications, sail boat calculation, auxillary power tank, contributions, who designed the cf-37.

CF-37 was designed by W. Shad Turner.

Who builds CF-37?

CF-37 is built by Dencho Marine.

When was CF-37 first built?

CF-37 was first built in 1977.

How long is CF-37?

CF-37 is 8.84 m in length.

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• Sailboat Guide

1981 Dencho Marine CF 37

• Description

Seller's Description

This 1981 Choate FeoCF37 is a solidly built cruiser-racer. The CF 37s have a history of success on the racecourse, and a reputation for being a very spacious and comfortable boat for cruising and entertaining.

Incredibly spacious interior (12-foot beam!) The interior is the best layout I have found in a boat of this size and really is a pleasure to move through and entertain in.

A large v-berth (sail storage underneath) in the forward cabin with drawers and a hanging locker as well as private access to the head. Second hanging locker across from head. The settee is a booth to port and seats 4 easily. Ample storage in and around. Sofa to starboard. To starboard the galley includes double sink, force 10 gimbaled stove, refrigerator, and LOTS of storage. Across to port is a full size nav table.

This boat can sleep 8 people! Big V berth, a large aft quarter berth to port, the port settee converts into a double berth and to starboard the sofa and above it a berth for port tacks.

This boat just looks fast, and she is! At a fraction of the cost of a Catalina 38 and a very similar layout, this boat is way better built, and faster than the mass produced Catalinas. Look up Dennis Choate. He knew what he was doing when it came to building boats, and is still making amazing custom boats!

Recent maintenance: 300 hour Pathfinder Diesel installed 2016 New refrigerator pump and plate 2016 Lots of coats of bottom paint 2016 (still in great shape!)

Maintenance since I have owned the boat: All new waste plumbing, toilet, macerator 2017 Rig inspection 2017 Spreaders removed and new tips welded 2017 Rig tune 2017 New raw water filter and hoses 2017 New heat exchanger/boots 2017 New 19 gal fuel tank 2018 All new fuel lines, new racor, secondary fuel filter 2018 All cockpit winches serviced 2018 All new house and start batteries 2018 New winde

Equipment: Pathfinder diesel Harken roller furling Auto helm autopilot 19 gal diesel tank 15 gal holding tank 2 @ 30 gal fresh water tanks Spinnaker pole 2 spinnakers 3 mylar racing headsails Furling 120 Mainsail is old but useable

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

The hull of the MARINER is the same as that of the RHODES 19. A fixed keel version was also available for both boats. In 1969, a ‘2+2’ version was introduced that has a slightly larger cuddy/cabin. A modified version (with different cabin design) called the SPRINDRIFT ONE appeared in 1980 after the original molds were sold to Rebel Industries-(Spindrift One-Designs).(76 built). Since 1986, the licensed builder has been Stuart Marine Corp. of Rockland, ME (USA).(Also builder of the RHODES 19).

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• Sailboat Reviews

Dissecting the CSY 37

Peter schmitts cutter tackled bareboating with a dose of tough love..

Photos by Peter Hibbard

Designed by Peter Schmitt, the CSY 37 is the mid-sized boat in the CSY line. Eighty-seven of these raised-deck cutters were built, primarily for the Caribbean bareboat charter trade.

Schmitt has combined some features most often found in traditional boats-the oval stem, raised deck, and semi-clipper bow-with a relatively modern underbody featuring a fairly long fin keel and a skeg-mounted rudder. On paper, the boat looks pretty good. In person, she is rather tubby and high-sided, but that tubbiness means added buoyancy-not such a bad thing to have in a blow.

The CSY 37 most closely resembles the Ericson Cruising 36. The styling of both these boats can best be described as ersatz traditional.

Even with the tall rig and deeper keel options, the CSY 37 is no performance cruiser. In our owner surveys, the people most satisfied with the boats performance had tall rigs, but even they agreed that this was an all-out cruising boat. Unfortunately, with her huge cockpit, she is not an ideal sea boat. Rather, she is a boat designed for a specific purpose, bareboat chartering, a purpose which she serves admirably. To expand her appeal to the general sailing public would be difficult, as CSY discovered. The company went under in 1981, a tough period for many builders.

Most CSY 37s went into charter service, usually on lease-back arrangements. The boats have to be strong and reliable-a week out of service for repairs means lost revenue to the charter operator. That the boats can stand up to this constant use and abuse is a credit to both designer and builder.

Deck Layout

With her raised deck amidships, the CSY 37 has an amazing amount of deck space, giving the on-deck impression of a small ship. There is plenty of space on deck to carry a rigid dinghy. Schmitts own CSY 37 carried a beautiful little dory with a varnished transom as a tender; she fit quite neatly on the starboard side and served as a catchall for fenders and lines.

Deck space is important in boats used extensively in the charter trade. Lounging on deck is the primary charter boat activity. In this category, the CSY 37 gets five stars.

Anchor handling is fairly easy with the stub bowsprit. There is, however, only a single bow cleat. This is a Practical Sailor pet peeve, for it greatly complicates anchoring with two anchors, a common practice for cruising boats. The original anchoring package included a good length of stainless-steel chain, if you encounter this ditch it quick; use galvanized instead.

The boat came with a rugged horizontal electric windlass from the Ideal windlass company. Many of these are still in service and worth repairing, but a more practical option may be to replace it with a manual windlass or a newer model (see PS October 2008 online).

Heavy travelers for both the main and the staysail are located on the main deck. Athwartships control lines should really be used with these to get optimum performance from the sails-essential on a boat that must be tweaked to get a reasonable level of performance on the wind.

The cockpit is huge-undesirable for an offshore boat but good for the charter trade. The large cockpit lockers are well divided and are partitioned from the engine space under the cockpit.

The starboard cockpit locker contains the best battery box installation we have seen on a stock boat of this era.

The port locker contains the optional 110-VAC refrigeration compressor. Unfortunately, its wiring is exposed to the weather when the locker lid is opened. The sound-insulated engine room hatch occupies much of the cockpit sole.

There are four large cockpit scuppers, which are imperative to have with the huge cockpit. The companionway sill should be higher if the boat is to be used offshore. Some owners have commented that water backs up through these scuppers, a problem easily remedied by swapping the hoses, so the port scuppers drain to starboard, and vice versa. A fiberglass seahood, protecting the forward end of the companionway slide, is standard equipment.

Two interior arrangements are available, a two-stateroom, two-head plan, and a single-stateroom, single-head plan. The two-stateroom plan is used primarily in the charter trade. It is really too much interior to try to cram in a 29-foot waterline and designer Schmitt was not particularly proud of it.

The single-stateroom layout is also unconventional. It gives over the forward 40 percent of the interior space to a large cabin with built-in double berth and a huge head compartment in the forepeak. The problem with this arrangement is that should you have guests aboard, they must troop through the owners cabin in order to use the head.

The space given over to the head in the single-stateroom model is almost exactly the same space occupied by the forward cabin in the two-stateroom model. With a single-stateroom layout, interior space might have been better utilized with a conventional layout of sleeping quarters forward with the head and hanging lockers dividing the forward cabin from the main cabin. That said, there is some practical aspect to allocating the least comfortable part of the boat to the toilet and shower, which see infrequent use.

The interior volume of the CSY 37 is huge, thanks to the raised deck. There are many well-thought-out interior details, too many to catalog here. The ice box, for example, is divided into two compartments with separate opening traps. The icebox has a minimum of 4 inches of urethane foam insulation, probably more than any other stock boat on the market of this era.

There are, however, lapses in this good design. Galley countertops in our test boat were covered with a slate-like laminate, difficult to clean and too bumpy for a good work surface. Head counters and some shelves were covered with marble-grained plastic, looking more like a slice out of a multicolored bowling ball than real marble.

The mixture of excellent design details, strange lapses in taste, and irregular execution is difficult to evaluate reasonably. It was pleasing to see, that after years of using teak-grained, mica-covered bulkheads, CSY switched to real oak-faced bulkheads.

As could be expected of a boat designed for the Caribbean charter trade, ventilation of the interior is excellent. There are six opening hatches or skylights in addition to the companionway. Some dorade boxes, however, might be welcome in steamy climates with frequent rain. One could spend a great deal of time analyzing the interior details, primarily because a lot of thought has gone into them. Both of the interior layouts are unusual, and each will have adherents and detractors.

Construction

There are really only two words to describe the construction of the CSY 37: massive overkill. This is a mixed blessing. It means you have a strong, heavy hull. It often also means that you end up with a boat that is under canvassed in light air. Very often, such an approach means a boat that has a fairly low ballast-to-displacement ratio.

Forty percent of the CSY 37s advertised displacement is in the ballast keel. With a 29-foot waterline, the displacement of about 20,000 pounds is average by traditional standards, heavy by modern standards.

The hull is an extraordinarily heavy, solid-glass layup, as is the deck-almost never seen today. No core materials are used anywhere. Without coring such as balsa or Airex, a glass hull can sweat in a cold climate and be excessively warm in a hot, humid climate.

The hull-to-deck joint is simple and effective. The hull and deck flanges, which overlap to form a molded rail, are bedded in 3M 5200 and through bolted with stainless-steel machine screws on 4-inch centers. The ubiquitous 3M 5200 is a tenacious adhesive sealant, and hull-deck leaks do not seem to be an issue with this boat.

Keel construction is unusual. The cast-lead keel is glassed into the hollow keel molding, any voids being filled with fiberglass slurry. This is then glassed over to form a double bottom and to keep the ballast in place. This ballast arrangement is identical in both the shoal and deep-draft versions. The deep-draft boat, however, has a 16-inch deep keel extension filled with about 600 pounds of cast concrete. A few CSY 37s have undergone a do-it-yourself keel-ectomy in which this extension is cut off. The shoal draft boat with less lateral plane will, of course, make more leeway.

The hull is molded in two pieces, then joined in the middle with heavy overlapping layers of mat and roving. This allows some flexibility in hull design, making possible such features as a molded-in rubbing strake and a stern with substantial tumble home.

Installation of hardware is excellent. This is one of the few production boats from this era we have ever seen with through-bolted bronze seacocks. Backing plates are used on deck hardware such as cleats and winches.

The rudder stock is a solid 2-inch round bronze bar. The cast-bronze rudder heel fitting would look more at home on a 60-foot boat than on a 37-footer. The rudder straps are also bronze, rendering the boat immune from the problems with encapsulated 304 stainless steel found in some rudders of this era.

The bow fitting is a massive stainless steel weldment, incorporating an anchor roller, a welded chock, and the headstay chainplate. The edges of the bow chock are not rounded, and could easily chafe an unprotected anchor rode. This bow fitting could double as an effective battering ram. We suspect that the dock boys in the West Indies were pretty wary every time an inexperienced charterer brought one of the CSY charter boats into the slip.

The chainplates are heavy stainless-steel flat bars with load-distributing welded webs through-bolted to the hull. The hull layup is further reinforced in the way of the chainplates, an almost extraneous precaution, given the extreme heaviness of the regular hull layup.

Interior bulkheads are heavy waterproof plywood, attached to the hull with solid and neatly made fillets. Airex pads along the outboard edges of the bulkheads distribute the bulkhead stresses on the inside of the hull, preventing hard spots.

Cabin sole supports are clear fir. The teak-faced cabin sole is screwed to these bearers, with only limited access openings to the bilge. Practical Sailor would prefer that most of the cabin sole be removable, providing access to the bilge spaces in an emergency. CSY appeared to be counting on the massiveness of the hull construction to prevent holing. This conceit could backfire. Remember the Titanic?

Hatches are molded fiberglass with translucent panels. They have good gasketing and good hold-downs, but a short person will have trouble reaching overhead to open the hatches due to the tremendous headroom.

The boats exterior finish is of good stock boat quality. Joinerwork is clean with the exception of an awkward transition from the caprail on top of the raised deck to the sheer-level railcap in the foredeck well.

The molded fiberglass trailboards are shielded below the bow by a somewhat awkward molded glass panel. This became standard after a number of CSY boats lost their trailboards in heavy seas.

Handling Under Power

With such high topsides, the Perkins 4-108 is the smallest engine we would want in the boat. As it is, handling at slow speeds in a crosswind can be tricky. A great deal of practice is required to handle such a high-sided boat under power in a breeze.

The turning radius of the CSY 37 is substantially larger than with a shorter-keeled boat. With her heavy displacement, acceleration is not exactly neck snapping. She should have enough power to get out of tight spots, however.

Handling in reverse is tricky. The boat does not go where you aim it until you learn to use a combination of rudder and bursts of throttle.

Engine access through the large cockpit hatch is good, but the heavy hatch should have a more positive means of holding it in the upright position. If it fell on your head, youd remember it, if you were lucky enough to then remember anything.

To those who have been spoiled by the handling under power of some modern boats, the CSY 37 may be a disappointment.

Handling Under Sail

The CSY 37 was available in two keel configurations, and with two rigs. The four possible combinations offer very different performance characteristics.

Most boats were delivered with the standard short rig. In areas of normally heavy air, such as the West Indies in winter, the normal rig is adequate. In light air with the short rig, the boat is a slug. The engine will come in handy under these circumstances.

Performance is greatly enhanced by the tall rig, which is about 8 feet taller than the standard rig and incorporates two sets of spreaders.

With the chainplates set at the outboard edge of the hull, the sheeting base is excessively wide. Sheeting a genoa in tight enough to go to windward effectively is difficult.

To avoid the necessity for running backstays, the intermediate and after lower shrouds are attached to the deck several feet aft of the mast and the upper shrouds. Unfortunately, when broad reaching, the boom and main fetch up on these shrouds far too soon. This is ironic in a boat whose best point of sail is off the wind.

Our test boat had the tall rig and the shoal-draft keel. This is not the combination we would choose to own. Performance with the tall rig is greatly enhanced. However, the higher sail plan does make the boat more tender, and with the cut-down keel, combines to produce a boat that makes excessive leeway when heeled more than about 20 degrees. We would prefer to combine the tall rig with the deep keel.

Our test boat was overpowered with full main, staysail, and large yankee by gusts of a little over 15 knots over the deck, sailing hard on the wind. She also made substantial leeway. With a reef in, the helm eased, the boat stood up, and leeway was less.

Off the wind, the CSY 37 comes into her own. She is stable, and visions of long tradewind passages instantly come to mind. Under those conditions, she would shine if you had plenty of chafe protection on those aft-leading shrouds.

Halyard winches are mounted on the keel-stepped, painted aluminum mast. The boom does not overhang the cockpit, and has a well-made boom gallows, which provides a good handhold on deck as well as an excellent place to store the boom when at rest, or when sailing under the storm jib alone in heavy weather.

Conclusions

CSY was an unusual company, and the CSY 37 is certainly an unconventional boat. The boat is strongly built-overly built, in fact. The price may seem high, until you consider that this is a well-equipped 20,000-pound boat. Hot and cold pressure water, Edson pedestal steering, and gimballed propane stove were all standard, for example.

CSY boats were probably the strongest production boats ever marketed. They may be ungainly, and not the hottest performers under sail, but they are tough. Thats an important consideration if youre trying to get the most for your money.

Editors note: This review is an updated and expanded version of one first published in 1998.

• Heavy-duty Hull Gets High Praise

• CSY Owners Association
• CSY sailboats Blog

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Take me back to the 70s. So many cool sailboats to choose from. Truly the golden age.

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