# island packet 35



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

what do people think of the island packet 35


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Are you trolling or do you want a serious answer? 

In my mind these are over priced, over hyped liveaboards. If you enjoy sailing these are not your boats. If you are looking for a boat that sails well in a wide range of wind speeds these are not you not your boat. If you are looking for a boat that is easy to handle, keep looking. If you want a boat that will handle a chop with alacrity, your in the wrong pew. If you have your heart set on a boat that won''t roll you you to death....well you get my point. Essentially these are motor sailors for people who want a powerboat with a mast. I know that some people really love these boats,but these boats have never made a bit of sense to me.

Jeff


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## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

The reply you got from Jeff_H is a continuation of his very apparent and sometimes irrational extreme hatred and extreme bias of non-race boats. Jeff has been bashing (bordering on slander) IPs for many years. If you want Island Packet info, go to www.iphomeport.com/forum/
As far as his comment on IPs, just consider them to be what they are: an egotistical. self important, mindless and extremely biased rant of unobjective BS.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Obviously, ''No Grudge'' you know nothing about me or about my objectivity. 

Actually, I truly love well designed and engineered cruising boats. I spend most of my time that I am on the water cruising.I love to cruise but I also love to cruise under sail. I have actually sailed on these boats with owners who have had a problem trying to figure out how to make their boat sail well. My comments are based on my own observations of the Island Packet 35 relative to other 35 foot cruising boats that I have sailed. I don''t have a bias against non-race boats. My bias is against boats that do not sail well, are difficult to sail, do not adapt well to changable conditions, and have uncomfortable motions.

Respectfully, 

Jeff


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## JM2 (Jul 25, 2005)

The IP35 is a good boat. She was designed to give you a lot of room in the "basement" - more room than a 35'' boat can give without sacrificing performance. They are, IMO, too much of a compromise on the performance side. I am a "used to race" cruiser and I understand the difficulty in finding the compromise between budget, comfort and performance. I am not looking for high performance, but I do want to be the boat that slips past others rather than the boat that is always being passed. I went with a Bristol. If you get the IP - I''ll be going by you all the time. If you don''t mind, I don''t mind. Get it ? 

Larry


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## bubb2 (Nov 9, 2002)

Jeff, 

I have enjoyed reading your posts and respect your insight and vast knowage, but i feel you are being a little harsh with regards to IP35.

Last March, I was employed by a new onwer of an IP35 to deliver the boat. In 15 to 20 knots of wind I took her down Long Island Sound under full sail(genoa, stay and main). She heeled over less than 10 degrees and dug in. She, started clicking off 7+ knots. We both had smiles and she was in her element and i was in mine. Her motion was that of a train running on a rail, stright as an arrow with no roll to speak of and that was with an 2 to 3 foot chop on the beam. 

All the control lines come back to the cockpit. This boat had roller furling on the genoa and stay sail and conventional reefing on the main. I found the boat easy to handle and could be single handed by any compendent sailor. Yes, it would not be my first pick to race around the bouys. However, It would be on my short list for an good all around cruising in the 35 foot range. Just my 2 cents.


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## TrueBlue (Oct 11, 2004)

I wasn''t going to chime into this thread, since I have no allegiance to IPs, other than through close friends at our marina. However, I think Jeff has been overly brutal with his opinion and I tend to agree with the sentiments expressed regarding the decent sailing abilities of the IP 35. 

We have sailed as guests on our friend''s prior IP 35 and were very impressed by the fit & finish, cabin space, comfort of the cockpit and ease of line handling. Yes, we were passed by racing machines on Narragansett Bay, home to some of the fastest boats under sail. But, we also easily passed other boats of equal size.

Last November, we cruised on their new boat, an IP 420, and were even more impressed. They have been full time liveaboards for the past 10 years in the NE and cruise up & down the coast frequently. Although not a racing machine by any definition, in my opinion, the boat is near-perfect for the purpose intended. 

This viewpoint is from a Nauticat 33 Ketch owner, another one of Jeff''s victims of merciless assault, so take it for what it''s worth.

Steve


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## scottmillington (Nov 17, 2005)

These discussions are why I check this message board every day. I think Jeff really knows what he is talking about. I also think IP''s are great boats for some people. The most important thing is getting out on the water and living the dream. Obviously the IP is not the fastest in the world. Myself, I drive to the Marina 3 hours on weekends at 90mph so I can hoist a sail and average 5mph under sail. The IP''s I''ve been on look to be well built and well suited for liveaboard. Jeff, you should realize that.
IP owners know that their boats are slow, but over a weeklong passage, they may not realize how slow. I would like to know what Jeff''s short list of perfect cruising boats would be in the 40'' range.


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

paul,

I''ve never sailed an Island Packet so I can''t comment personally on how well they sail. 

But I can share my observation that most Island Packets I see are under power, even in moderate wind conditions. Now it could be that their owners really wanted power boats, or it could be that they sail too slowly to get anywhere or even to enjoy... Beats me, I can only observe how they seem to be used...as powerboats.


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## Neicy (May 10, 2005)

Since I am fairly new to sailing and this board I would like to know what Jeff sails and what he does for a living. I do enjoy his comments on just about every subject and from what I have read, seems most everyone looks to his comment as the real thing.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

I had written this for another discussion but hopefully this will answer your question. 

I am an architect (buildings) with my own practice in Annapolis, Maryland. I have a masters degree with a major component in architectural structures which is an architectural degree that includes a major structural engineering component. 

I have informal training as a yacht designer and have designed and built a few boats, and have worked for naval architects and yacht designers at different times in my life, BUT I do not consider myself a professional yacht designer. I have also worked in boat yards and as a consultant to boat and boatyard owners, designing repairs and alterations to yachts. My mother had two companies that built and imported boats from Taiwan, which gave me a lot of insights into the boat building industry. 

I first started sailing in 1961 and more or less have sailed ever since. I enjoy most types of sailing. I currently sail on the Chesapeake Bay but have sailed on much of the U.S. Atlantic coast. In a given year, I typically will daysail, race (both my own boat and other people’s boats), and cruise (both my own boat and other people’s boats) and can be out on the water as many as 100 days a year. I do a lot of single-handing. While I have cruised offshore, I strongly prefer coastal cruising. While I have raced dinghies and very high performance boats, I prefer racing 22 to 40 foot keelboats. I have owned and restored wooden boats and still enjoy sailing on traditional watercraft. These days I prefer to own modern performance cruisers. 

In a general sense, I have strong preferences for boats that perform well, and that offer a wide range of sailing abilities in a wide range of conditions. I hate to start the motor and so will sail in extremely wide range of conditions, gunkholing under sail, and will sail in and out of slips and anchorages. I really am not a fan of ‘heavy weight offshore boats’ or character boats. I consider them a relic of another time, loaded with the liabilities of heavy displacement but producing boats that neither have the virtues of traditional working watercraft, and which also lack the merits of more modern designs. 

I currently own a Farr 38 (Farr 11.6) which I race (6 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 thirds the last year that we raced her summer), daysail, singlehand and cruise. (For the thirteen years before I bought the Farr 38 I owned, daysailed, cruised, single-handed and raced a Laser 28.) The Farr 11.6 is a hard to classify boats and not exactly your normal off-the-rack cruising boat or racing boat. They were built as fast offshore cruisers but have had a very successful racing record. They also have a remarkable record as short-handed offshore cruisers. For example, my boat was single-handed into the States from Cape Town, South Africa

In my life I have owned over a dozen boats with family members owning over a dozen more. I have raced on a wide variety of boats, have helped out with deliveries, have helped many a new owner ‘sort out’ a boat that is new to them or which they have had a problem figuring out how to sail well, and I enjoy coaching racing crews. All of this has allowed me to sail a bunch of boats back to back which in turn has helped me to understand the relative sailing ability of one boat as compared to the other. I also like sailing up to boats from astern and observing their sailing abilities, meaning relative speed, stability and motion. 

I try to stay current with changes in yocht design theory by reading extensively, and attending yacht design symposiums. 

(Although I have not had a lot of time to do this lately) people will often ask me to help them with some repair problem that they are having on their boat or to help them with a ‘first look’ at a boat that they are considering purchasing. This means that I get to crawl through obscure corners of a bunch of different boats evaluating their construction side by side with other similar boats. Every week or two I get an email that starts, “I am thinking of buying a boat and I am wondering if you can help me……” I have provided second opinions to literally hundreds of folks, perhaps half all the way through the search, negotiations, survey and ultimate purchase and sorting out of their new boat. In some many cases I have gone with them to look at their most likely candidates. This has meant a lot of research with current owners, brokers and surveyors. Many of my friends are yacht designers, sailmakers, and marine surveyors who also give me an inside track when I am researching a topic. (I think that Bruce Farr still cringes when he sees me coming up the aisles at the grocery store.)

All of that combined has given me a set of strongly held opinions about the relative sailing capabilities and build quality. 

AND so for better or worse that is who I am.

Respectfully,
Jeff


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## msl (Jul 4, 2001)

Jeff is a generous person sharing his experiences and ideas to anyone who asks for his help.
He has answered my questions on this, and other sites as well as through personal emails. 
His point of view is always consistent. He is true to himself and us. 
Frequently, less than polite people attack his views, and when that doesn''t deter him, their criticisms become more personal.
Jeff deserves more respect, he certainly has mine.
Thank you, Jeff.
Mark L.


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## kokopelli9 (Aug 16, 2002)

Bulletin boards are a source of gathering info...we all then have the obligation to ourselves and our own needs and likes to take that info and learn from it and act on it.
In the five or so years that I have been reading and or posting on the board, I have NEVER read a post where Jeff lashed out at anyone...his advice has been his own, given out graciously for the taking whether right or wrong for the recipient. 
I have posted questions on this board as well as others and found that I get as many answers back as there are sailors to offer them. It is my responsibility to then take that info and decide for myself what I want...no one can do that for me and it is pointless for me to expect that someone else could tell me exactly what is right for me. 
Whether Jeff''s opinion is biased or not, I don''t believe that his intent is anything other than to offer help. We should all take it with a thank you along with any other input and discover what is right for each of us. The name calling and sarcasm is not attractive.


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## bubb2 (Nov 9, 2002)

kokopelli9 well said 

As for myself, I have found Jeff to be a resource that this board needs and look to Jeff for his comments. regards mike


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## Neicy (May 10, 2005)

Jeff, Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I certainly understand why you are so knowledgable and why your opinion is so valued. If I lived in your area, I would get you to check out any boat I was thinking of purchasing. Thanks!


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## inthebilge (12 mo ago)

Jeff_H said:


> Are you trolling or do you want a serious answer?
> 
> In my mind these are over priced, over hyped liveaboards. If you enjoy sailing these are not your boats. If you are looking for a boat that sails well in a wide range of wind speeds these are not you not your boat. If you are looking for a boat that is easy to handle, keep looking. If you want a boat that will handle a chop with alacrity, your in the wrong pew. If you have your heart set on a boat that won''t roll you you to death....well you get my point. Essentially these are motor sailors for people who want a powerboat with a mast. I know that some people really love these boats,but these boats have never made a bit of sense to me.
> 
> Jeff


Jeff, you mentioned that earlier IP35's had concrete/iron ballast and later had lead. Do you know what year they made that change? I just surveyed a 1989 model. Many thanks!


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