BOATOWNER’S BOAT REVIEW
Cal 2-29 By Bridget Lussier Caliente, the author’s first Cal 2-29
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CAL 2-29 SPECS LOA: Beam: LWL: Maximum Draft: Displacement: Ballast: Rig:
29’ 9’ 3” 24’ 4’ 6” 8,000 pounds 3,300 pounds Sloop
Cover: Almost Paradise, the author’s first Cal 2-29, anchored in Beaufort, NC. While the author and her husband were anchored nearby in their current Cal 2-29, Mistral, the husband went to ask the boat’s owners about their Cal—then realized it was their old Cal that they’d sold to these new owners.
f you’re looking for speed, comfort, maneuverability, and economy, try the Cal 2-29. You might recognize them by the racy proportions, four-sided ports and windows, distinct cabin trunk, sloop rig, flat transom, and hatch just forward of the mast. We like them so much we have had two Cal 2-29s in 10 years, both of which were made in 1976. (The “2” is the second design of the 29, and once Jensen started making them, they stopped making the 29.) We sailed ours mostly in Charleston Harbor, lived aboard for years, and cruised from Oriental, NC, down the coast, and then to Georgetown in the Bahamas and back, on three cruises. You will not find a sweeter sailing boat. The modified fin keel, light weight and long waterline give it speed and maneuverability. If you drop a fender or a guest, she circles like a ballroom dancer. She is shoal draft, yet makes progress at five degrees off the wind. In big seas, she surfs and surges with the swells, but stays in control. They are fun boats to sail in all but huge breaking seas. Speed is good even in light winds, if you carry a large genoa. We have cruised in the company of larger boats and multihulls, while keeping a brisk pace yet you can sail over coral heads and shallows and follow trimarans through tricky cuts, thanks to the 4’ 6” draft. The ICW is easy to do, as the shallow draft allows her to tuck into small creek anchorages. The shoal draft lets you dodge channel-hogging kayakers without running aground. The sloop is easy to rig, sail, anchor, and handle in tight quarters due to the narrow beam. They are so simple that the boat’s instruction manual, available online on the owner’s group, is just three pages long. The forward deck has enough space for eight-foot dinghy stowage, and small dinghies can be stored behind the mast. She’s roomy in the cockpit and sleeps six in the V-berth,
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January 2013
SOUTHWINDS
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