Gulf 32
Where to start… I’ll start off saying I think the Gulf 32 is a GREAT boat. But I’m biased, because we own one. That being said, I’ll just share a random string of thoughts on it… but first a disclaimer: we’ve owned this for 7 years but I don’t have a lot to compare it to, and my information / advice is worth only what you’re paying for it:
* First off, take the other forum posts with a decent sized grain of salt. You’ll find some people who claim to know all about it but they’re actually talking about a Gulfstar, not a Gulf, and other people are claiming to know all about the boat just by reading the SA/D numbers off sailboatdata.com. Check into people who have actually owned and sailed these boats. You can check out our blog for some feedback:
http://sailing.pictureofnectar.com
and another great Gulf 32 blog is:
http://gulf32aeolus.blogspot.com
and Cruising World has a little about it in a “Plastic Classic” column:
* To be clear, the Gulf 32 is a completely different animal than the Gulf 29 or Gulf 27. Gulf 32 was designed from keel up by William Garden (I believe he actually built and sold the first few boats in the late 60’s), same designer as Rawson PH among many others. It is 16,000# displacement, full keel heavy cruiser. The G29 and G27 are Gulf 32 style pilothouse cabins plunked on top of fin keel / spade rudder hulls that were Newport 29’s and Newport 27’s.
* Best thing a broker ever said to us, rather casually, was “Hey, this is a 5 knot boat”… yes, we’ve gone faster, at times, but most of our travel for hours and hours has worked out to right around 5 knots. Not bad, we’re fine with it, but just use that as a traveling plan perspective, don’t expect to be knocking out 60nm in 8 hours, it’s just not realistic
* We have a two blade prop, does fine pushing that boat, we do 5.5 knots into wind and current same as we do on flat water. 3 or 4 blade might help with backing though… someone described it as “backing like a drunken elephant”… I personally think that’s offensive to drunken elephants! But you can use prop walk to your advantage, and if you get a little way going backwards and then shift into neutral you get a little better control backing.
* Engine access is actually pretty good, albeit somewhat upside down. The engine is under the pilothouse floor so everything’s below you which can be a pain, but you can get to all sides and front and back of engine. Transmission is a little harder to get to, it’s deep down to the point that there’s a bulge in the hull where the tranny sits.
* Tranny, if it’s stock, is a little on the light side for this boat so you’ll be doing some work to keep it from overheating (only takes about 1/2 liter of ATF fluid to try to keep it cool).
* People will try to call this a motorsailor, I disagree. This is a sailboat with a pilothouse on it. We sail whenever we can, although that’s tough in the PNW for sure (we’re based out of Bellingham), but we bought this to sail with and it’s proven itself a good sailing machine. Doesn’t point super high (some of that is probably old sails for us, and a lot of that is operator error, but for sure some of it is the windage of the pilothouse). Surely isn’t going to ghost along in 3 knots of wind. We reef the main right around 18-20 while keeping the full genoa out, much above that we furl the genoa and put second reef in (so far doesn’t seem to be a big gap between when we first decide to reef and when the second one goes in). She heaves to quite nicely, although she sits on her ear a bit when hove to if you have too much genny out. In heavier wind she goes quite well (not pointing super high obviously) with genoa alone, which surprised me.
* We love the interior. To be able to steer from inside, have a legit chart table, and have all the light and air from the pilothouse windows is great, good weather or bad. Very nice to be able to look out the pilothouse windows while in the galley, but you still get good privacy and a “snugged in” feeling if you’re down below in salon. Highly recommend heat of some sort… we put in Wallas forced air and it has made ALL the difference… no cold spots in the boat, everything dries out, it’s killer.
* That being said, visibility from the interior steering station is not spectacular… you definitely need to keep moving around if you’re cruising from below to make sure you see what’s coming at you, especially debris in the water… boats are relatively easy to see, although even that can be a bit of a challenge when our dinghy is on the foredeck. I think windshield wipers were an option, so far we’ve only wished we had them once (we don’t), we’re going to try some RainX next time see how that works.
* V berth is a bit snug, although has good storage on port side. I’m 6’5″ and can JUST fit squished up tight against the starboard side. If there are two of you in there the person on the port side has to move for the person on the starboard side to get out.
* I believe some (many? a few?) of them originally drained their head sink and head floor drain (i.e. shower) straight into the bilge… ours has a small sump box with its own pump in it that pumps out its own through hull, totally separate from bilge.
* If you go far on looking at one, when you survey be sure to have the rudder foot checked very carefully. Ours looked decent on the outside but the yard manager thought it looked corroded and recommended we replace it; after casting the new one he was able to break the old one in half in his hands… YIKES!
* Engine is Universal 5432 / Westerbeke M40, seems reliable enough to me. There’s a charging wiring change you need to make if it hasn’t been done already, check out MaineSail’s site for details. This is a Kubota block, if you can build a list of Kubota comparable part numbers you’ll be much happier ordering those. We had our fresh water pump fail while away from our home marina, Westerbeke part was going to be ~$480 and was out of stock, call to Kubota dealer got it for us (in stock) for ~$150.
* We eventually have plans for going to Alaska, my concerns with this boat right now would be on the open stretches N and S of Queen Charlotte where you’re exposed to full Pacific swell… in very heavy weather the pilothouse windows would be a weak point (although we would be doing our best to avoid that kind of weather), and the v berth hatch is not a watertight hatch it’s just a sliding fiberglass hatch (nifty that part of it isn’t gelcoated so light gets through though) that certainly keeps the rain out but would let water in if you took green water over the bow, and you have to be careful of it when washing the boat.
* Being a pilothouse, be ready to do some duplication of electronics / gauges etc. Everything is down by the interior steering station (water temp, oil pressure, ignition key) so anything you want up in the cockpit you’ll have to repeat / duplicate etc.
* Again, don’t have a lot to compare to, but build quality on our 1988 seems pretty decent. 30 year old boat so that might have more to do with how it was kept up than how it was built, but seems solid, and interior is really quite attractive.
* I agree with the previous post about hobby horsing, although we don’t have enough in the bow as it is we still ride stern heavy because of the two big cockpit lockers (which are NOT sealed off from the interior so another potential “bluewater” issue) and because I store all my tools and stuff under the cockpit or in the quarterberth.
There seem to be quite a few of these around (they made over 400 I believe), going rate is high $20’s to high $30’s although I think the high $30’s is a little overpriced. But they seem to stay at that level and sell at that price over and over, they’re quite well thought of in the PNW.
Feel free to message me if you have specific questions, happy to try to answer if I can.
— Bass
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If you do survey, here are some thoughts I’ve collected looking at them and since we bought ours:
To watch for:
* rudder foot where rudder attaches to keel… no zinc on it so it will corrode eventually, when we replaced ours we broke old one in half by hand… yikes! We had mounting for a zinc added to the new one when it was cast.
* don’t think they came with propane lockers so one will have to have been added
* original was all gate vales on through hulls, we replaced most but still have gate valves on cockpit drains
* look under sink at sink drain throughhull… came FROM FACTORY with a crappy PVC valve setup
* tranny is not the most durable thing ever
* window frames are prone to leaking
* davits are apparently not very burly (ours doesn’t have ’em)
* undersized alternator wire from factory, fire hazard if not replaced already: http://www.pbase.com/mai…/universal_wiring_harness_upgrade
* get someone to take good look at AC wiring, ours was quite undersized, we’ve been slowly upgrading including upgrading all the breakers and the “high draw” wiring to things like water heater
— wiring from shore power inlet to main breakers was VERY undersized… we rewired that with 10AWG and put in a SmartPlug shore power receptacle instead
— surveyor / insurance might ding you on the electrical panel being easy to open and the AC wiring not being covered in there… I did the quick and dirty solution and screwed the door closed and cut up an old Tupperware to velcro over the AC wiring to cover it
* see if there’s an emergency tiller, and check whether it’s usable or not… ours would be pretty challenging, I keep meaning to fab up something that’s more like a water valve “T” wrench than just a tiller than I can barely get to swing past the cockpit lockers / wheel.
* check for double clamps on any hoses below water line, make sure they’re good quality clamps (316SS, non perforated, Aba etc)
* leak test the propane system (assuming it has one)
* floor drain in head (i.e. shower) drained straight into the bilge from factory, best practice is to add a sump box with its own bilge pump so you don’t get hair / soap scum / humidity into the bilge from showering
* ours had no hour meter, I put one in for going forward (replaced the amp meter since I disconnected it based on the pbase.com article above), so I know engine hours since I did that but never knew engine hours pre purchase
* original jib sheet winches were non self tailing… and we have one winch on the cabin top (on port side, not really sure what it’s intended for) that no one can get parts for anymore
* if you have dripless shaft seal they are supposed to be replaced every 5-7 years so check on that too…
Other things we saw when looking (not G32 specific)
* leaking chainplates
* leaks under mast step
General:
* engine is (most likely) a Kubota block, I have never been able to 100% ID what tractor my V1502 block was used in, that helps in ordering parts much cheaper than from Westerbeke
* engine access is surprisingly decent, but get used to wrenching upside down
* forward hatch is not ready for green water over bow