where are island packet yachts built

Island Packet Yachts: 5 Things You Should Know

The history of Island Packet Yachts

Island Packet Yachts is an American boat-building company, headquartered in Largo, Florida. Bob Johnson, a naval architect founded Island packet in 1979.

Hake Maine, the Parent company of Seaward Yachts purchased Island Packet Yachts in 2016. Besides Seaward Yachts, and Island Packet Yachts, Hake Maine also owns the Blue Jacket line of cruising sailboats.

In 2017, Darrell and Leslie Allen took ownership of the Island Packet Yachts. They are the majority shareholders of Hake Maine LLC. They changed its name to Island packet and Seaward Yachts.

Table of Contents

Is seaward yacht still in business?

Seaward yachts are no longer in business. Seaward yachts consolidated with Island packet yachts in 2016 .

Seaward yachts are famous for their lifting keels, and spacious layout on their models such as 32RK, and 46RK. The designer of this boat is Nick Hake.

Hake Marine, the parent company of Seaward Yachts closed its Stuart, Florida production facility and moved all of its production to the Island Packet Yard facility in Largo, Florida.

Where are Island Packet yachts made?

Island Packet yachts are made at their largo, Florida production facility. This boat production facility occupies 5 acres of ground with 52,000 sq. ft of manufacturing space.

There are four sections of this facility: fiberglass, hull and deck, wood shop, and assembly.

Most people on google give good reviews on this large facility. The people working there are very nice and friendly. It doesn’t matter whether you are going to purchase their boats or not, they are happy to show you around their facility and tell you about their boat-making processes.

Here is a good Island Packet largo factory tour video

Popular models of Island Packet Yachts (IPY)

There are four models of yachts produced by Island Packet Yachts: IP349, IP439, Blue Jacket 40, and 42 motor Sailer. Among these, IP349 and IP439 are the most popular ones.

• IP349 was named Cruising World’s 2019 Domestic Boat of the Year
• Total overall length is 38’3″
• Displacement 20,000lbs
• Fuel Capacity 55gal.
• Water Capacity 100gal.
• Special features include an exclusive full foil keel for exceptional safety, strength, and stability.
• Another highlight of this design is the steps and handrails added when boarding from the deck.
• A new IP349 with standard equipment is priced at $39,9000.
• IP439 model won Cruising World’s 2021 Best Full-Size Cruiser of the Year.
• Total overall length is 47′
• Displacement 32,000lbs
• Fuel Capacity 160gal.
• Water Capacity 220gal.
• Holding Capacity 50gal.
• Many customization options include rig design, rig colors, navigation station or additional storage, interior wood material, etc.
• A new IP439 with standard equipment is priced at $59,9000.

Here is a good video in which the president of IPY Darrell Allen walks you through this custom-designed IP439

• Blue Jacket 40 is a sailboat with an overall length of 39’10”.
• Displacement is 17,900lbs
• Fuel Capacity 40gal.
• Water Capacity 110gal.
• Holding Capacity 25gal.
• The highlight features of Blue jacket 40 are its one-piece hull, and one-piece deck model for superior strength and stiffness.
• A new Blue Jacket 40 with standard equipment at a price of $49,9000.
• IP42 motor sailer is designed for long-distance, offshore cruising.
• Total overall length at 42’5″ with a displacement of 23,000lbs
• Fuel Capacity 320gal.
• Water Capacity 130gal.
• The highlight features of IP42 MS are its 110 HP Yanmar turbo diesel engine, and 320 gallons tankage capacity.
• A new IP42 motor sailer with standard equipment at a price of $69,9000.

Do Island Packet Yachts sail well?

A great number of boat owners said that the Island packet is a sturdy, well-made sailboat that sails slowly.

There is a mixed good and bad review towards Island packets yachts.

Good Reviews

Everybody agrees that Island packet is a sturdy, well-made sailboat. It is very comfortable to live in.

It is noticeable of IP’s craftsmanship, and attention to detail. Some Island Packet’s hulls built in 1985 still shine today.

Full keel, very stable sailboat, with plenty of space, storage, and tankage.

You can get the right parts or supplies that retain the quality and value of your boat.

Bad Reviews

Poor windward performance

Not light air boats

It takes strong wind such as 7 knots for Island Packet to start sailing

Island Packet Yachts is a solid-built, shoal draft, full keel sailboat. People who like the features of a well-made, traditional full keel sailboat would pay a premium price to have one Island packet yacht.

Island Packet Yachts is also great for a family weekend out. It is spacious and roomy, with a lot of storage space, wonderful for a long-distance voyage.

If you prefer racing to comfort then the Island packet may not be a good fit. Quite a few people complained about the speed of Island Packet.

Related Articles

You may also find the following articles helpful on other brands of sailboats

Nautor Swan: 7 Questions Answered (For Beginners)

Catalina Boat: 9 Questions Answered (For Beginners)

Jeanneau Boat: 11 Things You Should Know

Beneteau Boat: 11 Things You Should Know

Everything You Need to Know About J Boats (With Prices)

Hallberg-Rassy: 9 Questions Answered (For Beginners)

www.ipy.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Packet_Yachts

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Island Packet Interview

Posted by Henry Cordova | Reviews , Sailor Profile

Bob Johnson at the helm

Robert K. Johnson, N.A., is the founder, chief designer, and CEO of Island Packet Yachts of Largo, Florida. The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the boatbuilding business, specializing in the construction of high-quality, luxury offshore cruising yachts. Bob Johnson is an imposing gentleman, tall, fit, and of great personal charm and authority. He’s an articulate and intelligent conversationalist. This interview was conducted in his office at the Island Packet facility in Largo, Florida, October 15, 2004.

GOB:  You were originally trained at the University of Florida as a mechanical engineer before you specialized in naval architecture and marine engineering at MIT. Were you always interested in boat design or is it something you picked up along the way?

RKJ:  No, I’ve had the bug ever since I’ve was a boy. I did my ninth grade “My Career” report on Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and wrote letters to Chris-Craft and other companies to find out about careers in the field. My mother still has the folder of my report to the class. It’s been in my genes since I was born. I subscribed to Yachting when I was 8; I bought my own subscription. My dad had a small powerboat in Connecticut that we rebuilt in the garage before we moved to Florida when I was 14, but I always wanted to get into sailing. I wanted a pram, but we lived 50 miles inland in Connecticut and it just wasn’t going to happen when I was 12 or 13 years old.

In 1957, when I was in ninth grade, we moved to Florida and one of the first things I did was plan on building a boat. My parents bought a house on a canal in North Palm Beach. I bought plans from Rudder magazine for a 12-foot catboat, it had hard chines and a V-bottom, and it wasn’t a simple boat to build by any means. My dad was a machinist and an expert woodworker. He made his own machine tools and he was a big help, but it was still very much my project. I lofted it on the living room floor and built it on the carport. I altered the rig, installed a folding mast, and even changed the shape of the hull while I was building it. I put a bowsprit on it (boys love bowsprits because you get more sail area!) and I made it a gaff rig to shorten the mast so I could get under bridges. Before the rig was finished, my brother and I tested the hull by sailing it downwind with a beach umbrella for a sail. I’d never sailed before in my life. I built the boat first and figured I’d learn how to sail once I did.

GOB:  But you started your studies in mechanical engineering?

RKJ:  I wanted to start off with a strong foundation in fundamental engineering principles. I almost went into physics because I loved it, but I’m a nuts-and-bolts, hands-on kind of guy, so I stayed in engineering. I planned on getting a master’s, and between mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering, and naval architecture three quarters of the principles are identical. A lot of it is hydrodynamics and fluid flow. Some of my exams and courses were related to aircraft, submarines, you name it. I feel I’m well rooted in the fundamentals and scientific method. I never took a business course, but there’s no such thing as perpetual motion or perpetual money, you have to account for everything. I would do it the same all over again.

GOB:  I would imagine naval architecture is also broken up into specialties, wouldn’t it be different to design offshore platforms as opposed to, say, oil tankers?

RKJ:  It’s like getting a medical degree. First you learn the body and how it works, from scalp to toe. Then you specialize.

GOB:  Are the principles the same whether you’re building a yacht or a submarine?

RKJ:  Yes and no. MIT didn’t dwell much on the subtleties of sailboat design, but you’re completely prepared to learn and use that information as applied to sailing boats or high-speed powerboats. That’s architecture, not naval engineering. If you want to design a propulsion system it’s going to take so many horsepower to move it, you try it out in the towing tank, you’ll want to determine plate thicknesses so it doesn’t break up in a seaway, that sort of thing. And there was a tremendous amount of published information available, even before the days of computers. That’s the engineering part. The architecture is the art aspect of it. The shape of a hull can’t be fully quantified. Computer programming can help because you can do an awful lot of modeling very quickly, and mathematical models can help you evaluate hull change. But ultimately you have to go out into the real world and try it. I graduated in ’67, 38 years ago, and there’s been a lot of new ideas since then or elaborations of older ideas: hydrofoils, surface-piercing vessels, and many others.

There’s a steady evolution, but new ideas too. Look at high-speed powerboats: Dick Bertram’s and Ray Hunt’s entry in the Miami-Nassau race in the late ’50s — there was no second place. The boat finished hours ahead of Number 2. It had this “wrong” deep V-hull with strakes on it which everybody has nowadays that could go through heavier seas faster without breaking something or hurting anyone. That didn’t come from an academic think tank, it came from an idea these guys had. That’s the art.

Think of high-speed sailing catamarans, guys are building these 30-knot offshore cats, breaking them, and reverse-engineering them to correct the problem. It’s much like the early days of aviation: build it, fly it, fix it, and hopefully survive. Our industry is full of wonderfully creative people who went out and did the wrong thing. Take the Hobie Cat; it can be hard to sail, and one of our dealers likes to tell the story of how he passed up on a chance to sell it because he didn’t think he could give them away. Now they’re a sailing icon. When I was in California making surfboards, Hoyle Schweitzer was the first person to popularize Windsurfers (it was his registered name, he owned that term) and he was able to get past the idea that if surfing is hard, if you put a sail on the board it’s harder still. But he had the vision to see that some people would learn how and he opened up a new market. Hoyle wanted us to make his boards, but we couldn’t see any future in it. Shame on me, and laudits to Hoyle for having that insight. That’s what I love about our industry: there’s always some new, clever idea out there. I’ve got several patents of my own I’d like to try out that I just haven’t had the time to do so. I have an idea for one powerboat that really deserves to be built, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

GOB:  In spite of this excellent background, I gather than your earliest job was working in missiles.

RKJ:  Yes, we were designing anti-ballistic missiles. I worked for McDonnel-Douglas in Culver City: acoustics, shock, and vibrations. Shock and vibration are very important, they determine destructive loads; things don’t usually break under a static load, they shake apart. This proves the broad-based value of an engineering education. I took all the vibration courses (from Den Hartog) I could because they define structural loads and shock loading. My master’s thesis was on damages caused by setting off depth charges near a ship. In structures, you have masses, springs, and dampers. In a ship with water-born shock loads, structures are broken down for convenience into finite elements for analysis. 1966, I worked at a General Electric summer job where they had computer programs determining shock damage to reduction gear trains, but they were very slow, in those days computers were steam-powered. Missiles are designed the same way; I devised a process to show loads on critical components, using finite element analysis, and determining if it made a difference. I worked at M-D for two years,

There was a surfer who worked there with me and I had surfed, so he asked me what could a naval architect do to improve surfboards. I designed and patented an adjustable fin system for surfboards and wound up working for Wave Corporation for five years developing and making high-tech surfboards using aerospace materials. I installed my system and became a minority stockholder in the company. We developed honeycomb core surfboards, in those days, people were very anxious to use high tech materials in recreational products, and we felt we could increase performance by making surfboards lighter and more durable. Our final boards were very good but very expensive, and the market wasn’t really there. The kids who bought them just didn’t care. It was a marketing lesson, a classic case of Marketing 101 — make sure someone out there appreciates the features for value. The company went public, Karl Pope, an electrical engineer and surfer, was president, and I give him a lot of credit. He’s still making surfboards, and we still correspond. But I wanted to go back into boating and to my family back east.

GOB:  Do you feel that your education or experience actually translates directly to your boat features or just as general background knowledge?

RKJ:  Both. It’s an art: you build the type of boat you think the market wants and that you want to build, but our boats are rigorously engineered; they don’t just happen. All design decisions I’ve made have some justification, objective or subjective. My background helps engineer these boats for these uses, and they are very qualified for their intended purpose, cruising. Even the 27 has gone offshore safely. Formal training and my family culture contributed, my father and father-in-law worked at Pratt & Whitney, and at home we always did things in a very thorough manner. We built and fixed stuff around the house, and I got a hands-on perspective on building and maintaining things. For example, at McDonnel-Douglas I always made sketches in addition to blueprints of assemblies to help guide workers. A formal drawing can be pretty intimidating and it sometimes helps to have a simpler preview done from the perspective of the man who is going to do the work to help him get oriented. The same here. From tooling to shipping, I can do everything that we do here, maybe I haven’t done it in a long time, but I can do it; it helps create a bond with our workforce and I hope, create better boats. I love building things, the candy for me is the designing. But you can’t separate the two. The world is full of products which are beautifully conceived but poorly executed. I can avoid this through my practical boating experience in power and sail and my formal training. The consumer benefits.

GOB:  What boats have you built other than for Island Packet?

Island Packet: Into the Sun

RKJ:  There were some one-off boats that no one would know about, followed by the Stamas 44 and then the Endeavour 40. I started working in 1974 for Ted Irwin as a naval architect and did some modifications on existing hull models, the 30 and 33, hulls and rigs, keels and rudders, that sort of thing. I worked on modifying an Irwin one-ton racer inspired by Terrorist (not a name anyone would pick today!). Terrorist was a beautifully built aluminum boat that came from California and was fitted with twin bilge boards and internal ballast. She was a very fast boat. Ted was very creative. He loved boats and I loved working with him. There was another designer at Irwin at the time, Walt Scott, and we all became good friends. I’m not an avid racer, like Ted. I’ve raced, but I don’t cut the handle off a toothbrush to save weight, but he might. His motto could have been, “If it won’t break it’s too heavy.” So I got to work on this boat and I like to make models so we sent one to Stevens Tech for tank testing. This eventually became Voodoo (an evolution of Pantera) with hard chines and triple boards — if two are good then three are better — gybing daggerboard, asymmetrical bilge boards, as a one-ton IOR boat. It didn’t dominate the circuit, but it had its moments, it was clear that it had its advantages.

I ran the plant for Ted for two years then went to work for Endeavour, which was an offshoot of Irwin run by some of his prior employees. Endeavour was just beginning in 1975 and they bought the old abandoned Irwin 32 molds to get started. The two firms were sort of joined at the knee, Endeavour buying materials from Irwin and so on, until Endeavour finally became a competitor to Irwin. I eventually left Irwin, on good terms, and I went to Endeavour so I could design boats with my name on them and run the plant. I designed the Endeavour 43 from scratch. They already had developed the 32 and 37, and a lot of people seem to think I designed them, too, but I didn’t. A fellow called Dennis Robbins evolved them. Then came the 40 which became the 42, both of which were of “Miami Vice” TV fame. It was the real home run for the company.

After that, I went on my own to become an independent designer/builder. By this time, I had a family and two babies. I did a lot of small work: rigs, new keel and interior and deck for Watkins, two complete boats for ComPac, and other odd jobs. I did some work for CSY, also an Irwin spinoff. They were charterers, not builders, and I helped them out with some manufacturing consulting because they were having some trouble. They couldn’t sell enough boats or make money. Basically, I told them they weren’t going to make it, they just weren’t very analytical about running a business; as a chartering outfit they knew what they wanted, but it was too late for them. What they really needed was an infusion of venture capital to keep them going until it all became profitable, and it just didn’t materialize.

George Hahn at Prairie Boat Works was one of my old surfboard dealers and promoters at Wave. He was a delightful guy, and he started off with one of his own designs, the Prairie 32. He had some manufacturing concerns, Prairie was a model of how a boat company should be set up but he still couldn’t make it go. He had a beautiful plant, molds, great new designs by Jack Hargraves, but couldn’t operate profitably and didn’t know why. I still had to put food on the table, so I consulted for two different companies, and did some more odds and ends.

I designed the Lightfoot 21 for my own use, and it got written up and received a lot of attention. It was a combination New Haven sailing sharpie and motor launch, I sold it by plans for plywood construction, but there was also a demand for a glass version, so I made the molds and sold 18 boats. I made the first molds in my carport, probably to the great distress of the neighbors, and then I rented a garage and called the company Traditional Watercraft, working with a lot of fellows in town here who were looking to moonlight a few hours a week.

I marketed the boat and priced it with a dealer in mind but no dealer wanted it, it was too unusual. But it was a great boat, lots of fun. When the SORC was in town at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club for the Boca Grande race, I had my Lightfoot with me and we went to see the start of the race. We motored by with the rig stowed inboard, it had an internal motor well. There were five of us in the boat, my family and Walt Scott, a good friend who’s passed on now. Anyway, the whole pre-race huddle aboard Kialoa, that year’s SORC scratch boat, stops, comes over to the rail and starts asking us questions about the Lightfoot. It was a lot of fun, I wouldn’t take it offshore , but it was trailerable and a good bay boat.

I was also consulting, doing odd designs, but I really wanted to be an independent designer and builder. I was making a living but knew I had complete knowledge of how to build production boats. I had an opportunity to buy molds for a relatively new boat from Bombay Yachts, a local company that was being liquidated. It was founded by two guys who left Irwin: Ross James and Chris Petty. One was production manager and one was sales manager. I bought the molds for the Bombay Express which Walt Scott had designed for them as a beamy cat sloop. Chris Petty had always liked that kind of boat and was the prime mover behind its creation.

That concept (a little history here), in ’74 or ’75 generated the Irwin 10-4 while Chris was Sales Manager at Irwin. A cat sloop is beamy for her length and rigged like a catboat but with a bowsprit and a small jib. With a jib you get rid of some of the difficulties of a big cat. In my opinion, once you get over 22- to 23-feet catboats don’t make a lot sense. If Mark Ellis (Nonsuch) were sitting here he might feel differently, and his 26, particularly with the wishbone boom, seemed to work OK, but the 30, in my estimation, was pushing the limits for a variety of reasons. That’s the art part of naval architecture, the subjectivity of boat design. Everybody liked beamy boats, they’re roomy below, have lots of initial stability, are easy to sail, and to some eyes they look right. Chris Petty convinced Ted to build this boat because he initially didn’t want to do it. It was 25 feet long 10 feet 4′ inches wide, and we called her 10-4, it was the days of citizen’s band radio, and we decided to have a little fun with that. The design got modified, Ted’s idea. He wanted to make her into a sleeper IOR rules racer/cruiser. It made her not quite the same boat; she was initially tender and it made her a little harder for the average sailor to handle. Having said that, hundreds were built. She was roomy, inexpensive, and they’re probably all still floating around.

Chris and Ross left Irwin to start Bombay Yachts, they did a 31-foot Bombay Clipper designed by Walt Scott from scratch then bought a Canadian mold and converted a 44-footer. Their last boat before they went out of business was the Bombay Express, they built 16 or 17, and some were sold as unfinished boats because they were winding down. They didn’t go bankrupt, but they had sold out to an investor who passed away, and the business was liquidated. I realized an opportunity was before me and it was a boat I related to, a centerboarder with a barndoor rudder, looking like a Cape Cod catboat with 5-foot 9-inch headroom. This was the parent boat for the IP line, the Island Packet 26.

Alden in the ’30s started designing these cat sloops, and Irwin did the 10-4 in the mid 70s. Petty left Irwin for Bombay, and they built the Bombay Express. It was in production for 9 months before Bombay was liquidated. I came on the scene and made an offer to buy the molds, and they sold them. I was still operating out of my house but I had two friends, Pete Pastor and Bob Folks, who owned a company called Marine Innovators. They were building the Sandpiper 32 and the Beachcomber 25, but they also were a tooling company and they had made the plugs and molds for the Bombay Express so they were familiar with it. I redesigned the interior and rig, left the rudder as is, put in a different centerboard, and introduced it as the Island Packet. I incorporated formally as Traditional Watercraft, Inc. in the fall of ’79. We built 16 boats over a year and a half; we were able to estimate the pricing fairly well and sold the boats with classified ads in magazines. Our pricing guesses were spot on, and we sold the first three sight unseen, staged payments, owners never seeing them until they were delivered to their doorsteps.

GOB:  That’s remarkable, what motivated them to take a chance and buy the boat?

Island Packet 26 Mark I Brochure

RKJ:  I did a very thorough brochure, talked to them a lot on the phone, and I knew the boat backward and forward so I could answer their questions. I guess they were comfortable with who I was although they had no reason to be, God love ’em, I couldn’t have gotten started without them and their confidence in me. Their payments financed the construction. Dick Watts of Massachusetts bought the first boat, I built it for a year and a half under contract with Marine Innovators. At that point, the Beachcomber 25 was becoming a pretty popular boat for them, and they couldn’t produce enough of them. I was selling more and more so I realized it was time to take the big step. I rented 4000 square feet, hired five people and started building in-house. I had the glass parts built by one company, the wood parts by another, everything came in ready to put in the boat. Spars, hardware, the same. I built up to about hull 30 then came out with the Mark II, with more headroom, the first Full Foil keel (the original 26 was centerboard and only drafted 2 feet 4 inches with an outboard rudder). The first Island Packet Mark II (not the 26 Mark II yet) was introduced at the Miami boat show in February of ’82 and was bought and called Bubbles. Everyone around Dinner Key seems to know Bubbles; she’s still going strong. (She won the Miami-Key Largo race earlier this year). This doubled our market interest with keel and centerboard options although our business was 90% keel, the rest shoal draft. We built that boat through ’82 and ’83. Then we developed the 31 through the spring of ’83 and in the fall introduced it at Annapolis. I was going to call the 31 the Bermuda Packet or something similar, the company name being Traditional Watercraft, but we went with the name Island Packet 31 because of the name recognition we had achieved. Retroactively, the first two boats became the 26 and 26 Mark II in the fall of ’83. In ’84 we released the 27, which was actually a Mark III 26. The 27 eventually wound up with 6-foot 1-inch headroom by increasing the freeboard. The 31 was the “do or die boat,” I bet everything on it, financially and emotionally, and it was a completely new boat, from the ground up, not an evolution of an earlier design. We sold a lot of 31s right off the bat, it must have hit a nerve in the market. It had an aft cabin with a foldaway door and an articulating chart table, she was a good boat that was both roomy and a good sailer.

GOB:  Was this a coastal cruiser?

Island Packet 27

RKJ: There was a battle in the early years: are these or are they not bluewater boats? They weren’t designed as rigorously as they are today, but nothing was done casually: scantlings, laminates, stability calculations – what constitutes a safe stability range – they were as good as anything in the industry at the time. In the ’90s I wound up working on an international stability standard for sailboats when the European Union decided on CE standards for all products, cars, film, cigarettes, everything. They created an International Standards Organization (ISO) effort and the National Marine Manufacturers Association asked me to participate. It took 8 years to hammer one out. It meant going back to the roots and fundamentals of naval architecture and marine engineering, what do we know, think we know, what don’t we know, what do we really know. We came up with, I think, the first holistic approach to a stability assessment for a boat. Our 27’s performance and history is well documented and was one of the validations of this assessment. We studied boats that had gone through “stability events,” one 27 free-fell off a wave on a passage to Bermuda and then rolled over; it took the rig right off of her, (not good) but it righted, even without the rig.

You need to have some weight aloft for resistance to capsize, galleons used to hoist cannon into the rigging in bad weather and beam seas, so light-weight rigs aren’t necessarily a good thing for cruising although they’re certainly useful for racing. The 27 was right on the cusp between Category A (the most seaworthy) and B and today only a few tweaks would be necessary to make it Category A.

All designers have their own standards, particularly for stability, but people couldn’t agree, especially the French, because they design extreme boats; and that is not a criticism of them, it’s a compliment. You also have to factor in that often it’s the mariner’s skill that helps keep a marginal boat afloat, so we had to quantify stability empirically, from actual histories and records. There’s a lot of science involved, but a lot of interpretation, too. When assessing something as complex as a motion of a yacht in a seaway you have to rely on real world experience to develop a numerical rating. This number is the result of a formula, a composite of 7 factors or variables, and we compare this number with documented events. Actual incidents are used to adjust these variables and assign a category based on that number and actual stability statistics. All of my boats now rate as Category A, certified for ocean use.

Competent designers usually find their boats already meet these requirements but in Europe you have to certify that your boats meet these requirements and you must publish them. It was an international work group and the numbers that came up already correlated with boats of known good performance. Island Packet meets these considerations. But you don’t work backward from the rule, to a design. You evaluate the design according to the rule. After all, you can create abberations just to beat a rule, IOR did that, and they have been disparaged for it. All my design work wound up as Category A, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most reputable designers specifically designing for real ocean use would meet the standard already without deliberately trying. We’re known as “America’s cruising yacht leader,” and our boats have nicely complied with those standards.

GOB:  What is it about Island Packet that makes them an expressly offshore boat and that makes them different, that defines the niche in the market that you feel you fill competitively?

Island Packet 26

RKJ:  In a word, cruising. Quality, safe, dependable cruising. A good turn of speed but not built with that focus. All boats are compromises, and that’s what we favor. Our motto is “First in cruising.” We improved the cutter rig, employ roller furling on all sails, a Hoyt Boom staysail, and a full keel in profile only, that is, a long fin keel, not a wineglass section. All the ballast is in the bottom of the keel — very low and elongated and internal with a low center of gravity. It acts as a backbone to the yacht and adds strength. One fell off a jacknifed trailer at highway speeds and skidded along an Interstate highway and survived with only minor damage. It was essentialy intact; you could have sailed it away.

The keel is something that’s at the heart of an Island Packet, it’s something I’ve never wavered from. It’s been noted that we’re the only full-keel manufacturer although I prefer to think of it as a fin keel that’s morphed to a long fin keel, not a full keel morphed down to what we have. I call it a Full Foil Keel. It’s a 6 1/2 to 7 percent thickness airfoil, which is relatively thin with a modest amount of frontal area for its size. It’s thick because it’s so long, but water doesn’t care; it’s going around a relatively slim blade. We have all the ballast down low and a nice sump for any bilge water to collect in. One of the major advantages to it is that the keel is not fastened to the boat, it is part of the hull, everything is internal and the ballast is capped so we have a double bottom. You could take a chain saw and remove all the glass around the keel and nothing would happen; you’d still have full watertight integrity. You don’t have to have access to keel bolts so tankage can be placed under the sole, below the waterline in the middle of the boat, adding to stability. The tanks are heavy when they’re full. And whether they’re full or empty it doesn’t change the trim much. With no keel bolts you don’t need to have access to them; they don’t need to be periodically tightened. In the event of a hard grounding you don’t have to worry about all the shock being absorbed by a handful of steel bolts, leading to leaks or even structural failure.

The ballast fits inside the keel, and keel and hull are molded in one piece with the ballast ingots — lead or iron in past boats — but mostly lead now, secured in place with cement and resin. The keel is part of the hull, molded in one piece, the angle between the hull and keel is actually a radius, not a right angle, reinforced inside with a series of floor timbers (the garboard on a wooden boat, this is a highly stressed part of the hull) and we have double overlaps and local reinforcement there. One of the things that’s hard to quantify, but easy, I think, to appreciate, is that a hull in a seaway is subject to a variety of motions and forces as the turbulence of this heavy, viscous fluid (water) acts on it. These confused motions reach way below the surface, and a long keel tends to average out and damp these loads in a way a fin keel and a separated rudder cannot. Fin keels give you a much livelier boat, and if you want to go racing, engage in tacking duels and such, that’s exactly what you design for, but you pay a price for that attribute. There are ways to mitigate this but, in general, every effort to shorten the length of that keel is going to require either more draft or more control. You want a boat that’s easy to steer for long periods of time so your autopilot doesn’t have to work its lungs out to steer a straight course. And a cruising boat wants to be able to sail itself without a lot of work. And you certainly don’t want it to broach. Cruising sailors like the wind over their shoulders, and that’s when you have quartering or following seas. You don’t want a cruising boat to get easily knocked off course or broach and roll over.

GOB:  Every boat is a compromise. What’s the price you pay for these cruising virtues?

RKJ:  More wetted surface, and slightly slower response to the helm. It’s like comparing a Corvette to a Chevy Surburban. If you want a hot rod that surfs off the waves and does 15 knots, that comes with a price. But in your more conservative cruising boats with a large capacity for stores and fuel, the price you pay for stowage, accommodations and so forth will impact performance but still in a pretty minor way. The proof of this can be measured by numerous Island Packet offshore race victories often competing against “performance-oriented designs.”

GOB:  I imagine that one of the factors you consider in design is accessibility, that is, how easy is it to get to critical points for maintenance and inspection, providing room to maneuver tools and for replacing parts and moving things around. Could you comment on this?

Island Packet 31

RKJ:  Having built boats, owned boats, and sailed boats my whole life, I do give this a lot of thought. Also, being a guy who’s over 6 feet tall, I design around my own stature. Most people who walk around in an Island Packet are pretty comfortable no matter what compartment they go into because I’m comfortable when I go there. People who are a lot bigger than I am are probably already resigned to the fact that the world is too small for them anyway. There is an important ergonomic element of getting to things, sleeping in a bed that’s comfortable, room to turn a wrench, and so forth. Of course, if different people designed a boat, a fiberglass laminator, a woodworker, a mechanic, each would get a caricature of a design that reflected their priorities. Every designer has to balance these extremes as best he can. You’re going to have to get the engine out of the boat someday, you’re going to have to change the oil much more often, and so on. But sometimes making it real easy to replace the water pump means you can’t have a nice nav station next to the engine because it’s in the way. Those are choices you have to make on every boat, but we do try in every case to make everything as accessible as possible. It’s for safety too. If you have a clogged fuel filter it has to be readily accessible. Ours is mounted right on the engine compartment door where you can’t miss it.

GOB: What are the basic similarities all IP yachts have in common, in other words, what market niche are you aimed at, what is your mission statement, if you like? And how do the different models differ within that mission design?

Island Packet 26 Mark II Brochure

RKJ:  In a phrase, safe cruising boats. It’s hard to quantify or reduce to a sentence, but they all have an identical philosophy. Full Foil keel, cutter rig, geared steering system, laminates, chain plate installations, and spar geometries that are suitable for the same uses. The old 26 and the MK II today might be called a Category B boat, but with only minor modifications, such as to the companionway opening, they could easily be Category A. If you were contemplating a trip to Ireland, I would suggest the bigger the boat the better, all other things being equal, size DOES matter. But our 29 made it just fine, 150-mile days under bare poles, they took the northern route. There is no fundamental philosophical difference in anything we build other than size and cockpit location.

GOB:  I’ve noticed that you currently have four models in production, all roughly the same size, in spite of the fact that your firm has had a history of manufacturing yachts of a wide range of sizes. Is there a particular reason for this?

Island Packet 370 Floor Plan

RKJ:  That’s true, but most buyers would realize that there is a quite a distinct difference between those yachts besides their size. In the house vernacular, you’re looking at two bedroom, one bath, two bedroom, two bath, etc. Our 370 is a two-stateroom, one-head boat. The 420 has an additional head. The 445, which has just been introduced, is similar, but it’s a mid-cockpit boat which alters the entire interior layout. There are those who love it and those who don’t . . . who prefer the traditional aft cockpit. We build them both, and we don’t care which you prefer, we have one of each. The 485 is a three-stateroom, two-head arrangement. Those are the division points. Could we build a 42-footer with three staterooms and two heads? Sure, but as in building a house, it comes down to how many bedrooms and baths, how many square feet. It determines whether each stateroom is going to be small or big, and we have ideas on how big a stateroom should be, plus we have to factor in a saloon, a navigation station, a galley, and so on. The French, not too many years ago, would build a boat with four staterooms and one head, and that was OK with them, but that’s not the American style. I’ll grant you our sizes don’t sound very far apart but from a marketing standpoint they fall into very distinct niches.

GOB:  As far as their overall mission and design characteristics, do they all follow the same philosophy? You’re not specializing in a specific performance market, for example, one isn’t a cruiser/racer while another is an Arctic explorer?

Island Packet 370 Sail Plan

RKJ:  No, they’re all offshore cruisers, but they’re equally suitable for just sailing on the bay. They’re comfortable, fun to sail, and easily handled by just a couple, which is an important consideration for us. We want Mom and Pop to be able to go sailing together without needing anyone else. Everything is set up for that and it’s getting easier and easier. We have roller furling, main and foresails roll right up like window shades. Bow thrusters are available on all models, and they’re wonderful. Almost everybody puts one on, it’s like having power steering. It’s powered by a little 7-horsepower electric motor. The ease of handling for a couple, the ability to handle pretty much anything that might come up, safety, quality, and manufacturer’s reputation are all a high priority. Performance is on the list, too, but it’s never Number One. Having said that, we’ve had a number of owners who have gone racing. I’ve done two Annapolis-Bermuda races in Island Packets. In the second we took first in class and second overall. One of our more recent ads list a lot of the Island Packet victories, and just recently, our 420 won the Isla Mujeres race. Most of our owners are not avid racers, they’re eminently qualified to take their boats anywhere they want to go, but they’re not looking for that last 2 percent of performance you need to race successfully or the two-tenths of a percent you need to win consistently. To me, sailing has always been a wonderful escape and release from everyday life and racing, especially if you’re on a keenly campaigned yacht, can sometimes take the fun out of it. I build boats for my philosophy, an Island Packet is first and foremost a cruiser. I like boats that are fun to sail, and it sails very well. If people like to sail and want to go cruising, Island Packet will be a great boat for them.

This performance thing has been beaten to death. People are being sold carbon fiber, they’re being sold epoxy, Kevlar, you name it. First of all, your local boatyard may not have access to these materials, and if they do, they probably don’t know how to work with them. Our boats are literally all over the world, we have a host of circumnavigations, and we make practical choices in design and construction based on the fact that our boat may have to be repaired somewhere very far away where materials, facilities, and skills may be hard to come by. We don’t go overboard with this, but we try to keep it in mind.

GOB:  You currently offer four successful models, all with roughly the same mission. On the other hand, your literature lists many different production lines, now discontinued, all with an average build cycle of about five years. Are these evolutionary steps, have you gotten everything out of them you can and you’ve moved on to something else? Or are they driven by market conditions and reacting to them?

Island Packet 445 nav station

RKJ:  Both. It’s like any other consumer product. Some builders will build the same boat for 20 years. We have a dealer network that goes from Seattle to San Diego, Maine to Florida, Great Lakes to Gulf Coast, 20 in the U.S., and we have dealers in Europe and Australia. They need — for their and our business to be viable — a continuously evolving product. People want the latest improvements, and we see the need for hidden changes in construction materials and techniques. We’ve just introduced a new model, the 445, and it’s exactly how I want it. Five years from now I’ll have a list of changes two pages long I’ll want to make or that the customers have asked for. A lot of these things get incorporated into the boat during its production cycle. Our Island Packet 35 was introduced in ’88 or ’89, and I remember being asked back then what would I change on it. That boat was everything I thought a cruising boat should be, but in five years we evolved that boat considerably. We put platforms on the stern, we made changes inside that people had expressed an interest in and construction technology changed: we’ve gone from woven rovings to knitted fabrics, amongst other things. After five years, and one or two hundred boats, the first owners start thinking about moving to another yacht and they may have informed ideas now on exactly what it is they want in a new boat. We start to get impacted by our own success when we find a used Island Packet current model on the market. Five years down the road, those same models, maybe with a few evolutionary changes, start competing with our new boats for sales. Five years is a good run for a boat, could we go 10? Sure, but we factor in the effect of the used boats on the market, and in five years we learn a lot about what the customer wants and about what we can do.

Fifteen years ago we were having discussions about whether roller furler jibs were appropriate for cruising. But we’ve made it standard over the years, first the jib, then the staysail, and now the main. The main furls right into the mast, not the boom (we don’t think all the bugs are out of that yet). You pay a small price in performance but no battens, no reef points, no problems. We gave it a lot of thought and told our spar manufacturer that if there were any problems he would have to replace them, but we’re still doing business with him. An occasional buyer wants a standard rig, so we sell it to him. We have a Hoyt boom on our staysail (so named because it was designed by Garry Hoyt), it’s sort of a club-footed boom except it pivots at the forward end, it is self-vanging and self-tacking and adds a lot of power and simplifies control for the staysail. We have 2,000 boats out there today and a very active and vocal group of owners, we have a newsletter, there are internet news groups, numerous rendezvous. People keep in touch with us and help us evolve the boat. We know what our customers want.

GOB:  What parts of your boats do you sub out to contractors?

Island Packet 485

RKJ:  Spars, sails, cushions. We do all the glass and woodwork here. In the early days everything was subbed out, we just assembled the components here. Glasswork and woodwork were done by separate firms. We brought the mill in-house and the same firm that worked for Hutchins, Arjay Industries, did glass work for us. I wound up buying the assets of that company, it was right across the street, and I brought it all over, people, equipment, everything . . . and he got out of the lamination business. Our glasswork was overdue to be brought in-house, from the standpoint of the type of control we wanted to exercise over it. Bob Cottrell, owner of Arjay Industries, was not your basic glass business owner, he was a Harvard MBA and a chemical engineer, and he took a very methodical approach to fiberglass construction. One of the things he developed was a spray core decking material that eliminates foam or balsa or plywood. You get the Oreo cookie concept of glass, lightweight filler and more glass. We won’t use it on the hull because it reduces puncture and impact resistance, but it makes for a very stiff, lightweight deck. On the hull we use fiberglass, one laminate after another. We bought that technology also and brought it over as well. So we have a 10-year warranty on our deck against rot or delamination. No one else can do that, balsa and plywood core decks will eventually deteriorate. Some other companies do spray core also, but I don’t know who they are; but there is a company out there that sells a similar process (ours is a home-built process, internally developed). If you buy a 15-year old Island Packet, you will not have that core material rot. It can’t. It’s microspheres in resin. It will be just as good as the glass around it.

GOB:  Your boats are built in a traditional way, a hull and a liner and a deck. Are there variations or fundamental construction differences in the different models?

Island Packet 35

RKJ:  No. They’re pretty much the same. We have a big commitment to tooling, we have a fiberglass liner on the deck, nothing to rot, no fabrics or plywood. That’s why our boats hold their value so well, you can find a 1991 35 for $120,000 or so and that’s what it cost brand-new. It’s one of the reasons we’ve gotten two Best Value awards from Cruising World because when you go to resell it’s going to sell for about what you paid for it. We also have a three-year warranty; no one else does. The cost of ownership, especially in that three-year period, is probably as low as anything out there. You can’t buy a new Island Packet for under $250,000-$300,000, and there’s a lot of good used ones out there more reasonably priced. But keep in mind, if you’re going to do anything more than just run around the bay in it you need to know that boat’s history and inventory it carefully. A 10-year-old boat is probably going to need some work on the engine, sails, rigging, the electronics, it will need extensive refitting for cruising. You aren’t going to be able to match the retailer’s ability to purchase materials and parts, and it’s going to cost you time and money. In the long run, it may wind up cheaper to just invest the money in a new boat, get that peace of mind and warranty and when you’re done sell it and get part or all of your money back. It’s like buying a house, it’s a good investment because you can enjoy it everyday, as long as you’re not house-poor and can’t afford a pair of socks. So a used boat may end up costing more than you think. We’re in the new boat business, I had to put that pitch in there.

Island Packet 35 interior

If you really want to understand something as complex and multifaceted as our company, you really need to talk to Island Packet owners. There’s an Internet chat room. It’s been a very positive thing for us because our owners are so supportive and enthusiastic. We sell more boats through word-of-mouth than anything else we do, and we spend a lot of money on advertising and boat shows every year. Our used boats and our owners say more for us than anything we could say for ourselves. We have rendezvous where we get together, and they’re great! They’re not just polite, they genuinely enjoy their boats. It’s not a hammer-the-factory session, they’re out having fun. They’re a fabulous array of people, company presidents, corporation executives, retired schoolteachers . . . and they have a fabulous history. The boats are cruised widely, and they have a background to them that they share on these rendezvous, the newsletter, and the chat room. The British have embraced our boats . . . after 12 years of getting our foot in the door in the UK through boat shows and so on. And now we’re a household name in the marketplace there, and we’re doing very well. A declining dollar helps, but a lot of other things have gone our way as well. We have a great dealer there, and their economy is doing well. They were our largest dealer in 2004.

GOB:  A final question, one I hesitate to ask but which I would be remiss if I didn’t. It’s my understanding that you were involved in a legal controversy with Cruising World concerning some reviews of one of your boats. Could you elaborate on this?

Island Packet 611

RKJ: That’s ancient history now and has long since been resolved. That had to do with a disparaging remark by a Boat of the Year judge about our stability, an unqualified and incorrect assessment, a broad brush, “I think this boat may not be suitable . . .” comment. I paraphrase, of course, that’s not exactly what he said. It was so unfounded and misinformed, I sued them. I’ve got my entire blood, soul, and financial future wrapped up in this business. You can’t make incorrect, flip comments like that without consequences. I thought long and hard about that because I was good friends with the editors in those days, Bernadette Bernon and Patience Wales of Sail magazine, (both retired now) and still am, but I took the magazine to task, and we resolved the issue and I made my point. It’s been a long-term campaign of mine that the magazines be more technically competent, more sensitive to the power of the printed word, and more communicative with the boat building industry, not a self-appointed boat police. I’ve written the magazines as many letters about reviews of other companies’ boats as I have about ours. It’s almost as if the sailing press has a mission to find critical comments to validate some of their reviews. There seems to be an adversarial position often taken in boat reviews. I think they’ve improved a lot now, but I still am a bit of an activist in this area. I returned one Boat of the Year award that we won because the review was so unflattering, and we had won! It’s strange, in powerboat magazines it’s all flowers and candy; you read sailing magazines and they question your competence.

GOB:  Bob, we’ve been talking for two hours now and I’ve collected an enormous amount of material, and I know you have other commitments. I would like to thank you very much for your hospitality and your time.

RKJ: It’s been a pleasure, Henry.

Island Packet Yachts  1979 Wild Acres Road Largo, FL 33771 727-535-6431 [email protected]

IP Home Port Devoted to Island Packet owners and owner wannabes

About The Author

Henry Cordova

is a geographer/cartographer who has been a sailor of the military persuasion (U.S. Naval Reserve on the USS Dewey) and of the recreational variety (a San Francisco Pelican and a MacGregor 22) for most of his life.

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• Island Packet 439: Best Full-Size Cruiser
• By Herb McCormick
• Updated: December 8, 2020

Our second dedicated category for 2021 was the Full-Size Cruiser class, with a quartet of dedicated, long-range cruising boats capable of extended voyaging and living aboard, including three very substantial nominees: the Southerly 480 (which, at a cost of over a million dollars, was also considered in our Luxury Cruising class deliberations), Dufour 530 and the Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 54. As with the Performance Cruiser division, however, for the winner we chose the boat we felt best served its stated purpose: a capable cruiser with robust displacement for an experienced couple of retirement age. That yacht also happened to be the lone entry for 2021 built in the United States: the Island Packet 439.

Under previous ownership, Murphy said, “the company built 25 boats on this same hull, the IP 440. And then there was a model called a 460 that was also on the same hull, with minor modifications. There were 12 of those built. So as we talk about themes within this year’s Boat of the Year contest, there are companies that brought us full-on innovations, either in hull form or with features such as deck layouts and interior plans and things like that. And there are others that are very much evolutionary. This 439 goes squarely in the evolutionary category.

“The original Island Packet brand was very much built on the image of its founder, Bob Johnson, who had very, very strong opinions about many features in the boats, and there wasn’t a lot of variation,” Murphy added. “So I was curious when talking with Darrell Allen (a former dealer who now owns the company with his wife, Leslie) about his visions for the future, to what degree he felt like he was constrained by the legacy of the brand that he bought. You know, it’s a legacy with strong customer loyalty in a lot of ways. And basically, I thought he had a very refreshing attitude toward the whole idea of not fundamentally changing the things that were really working, but also being willing to change things that were within that Island Packet framework they could change.”

2021 Boat of the Year Winners at a Glance

• Excess 11: Boat of the Year
• X-Yacht’s X4 0 : Best Performance Cruiser
• HH 50: Best Luxury Cruiser
• Hylas 60: Best Luxury Cruiser
• Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 54: Honorable Mention
• Corsair 880: Best Sport Boat
• 5 New Sailboats That Were Nominees

Lead ballast in the full keel is one of those major changes. Subtler ones include the option of swapping the self-tacking Hoyt jib boom on the foredeck for a traditional staysail (our collective judging panel, unanimously, are not fans of the sweeping boom forward) or opting for a different hull color than the traditional ivory. And we all loved the Solent rig with the Code Zero-type reaching headsail, which turned our sea trials into a delightfully unexpected outing—a sail so fine that it definitely influenced our ­decisions—on Tampa Bay.

“I really liked the layout of our test boat,” Pillsbury added. “It was a two-cabin, two-head boat, and there was this unbelievable workspace on the starboard side aft (you could also get a third cabin in that space). There was a washer and vented dryer with standing headroom for doing laundry, a workbench and all sorts of storage. Inboard, there’s a 6 kW Northern Lights genset with a little stool. It was sort of like the ultimate MacGyver man cave. The saloon was kind of a mini living room with a pair swiveling captain’s chairs. Topside, the furling main was handled by the new Selden SMF synchronized main furling system, which was very nifty and made sailhandling very manageable. Of the boats in this class, if I were picking a boat for the missus and me to go off on for an extended cruise, it would be the Island Packet, without a doubt.”

Allen left us with a lasting impression, about the ­constant input he seeks from previous owners. Murphy said: “He gathers them together regularly, he listens to them, and then he actually ­incorporates what they say into his next line of boats. The other thing he said that was interesting was, ‘Every one of our new boats is better than the last one.’”

After visiting the yard and then sailing the 439, we believe that to be true. Which, if you’re ­contemplating a new Island Packet, is exactly what you wish to hear.

• More: 2021 Boat of the Year , Boat of the Year , BOTY 2021 , Island Packet 439 , Sailboats
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Island Packet 31

A beamy, shoal-draft cruiser whose fanatical followers find little wrong except upwind sluggishness..

In the 13 years since naval architect Bob Johnson founded Island Packet Yachts, he’s developed quite a following. We’ve had many requests to review one of his boats, mostly from satisfied owners. The others have come from couples considering the boat for living aboard and cruising. In a period when most boatbuilders are foundering, Island Packet has found a niche and is servicing it admirably.

Bob Johnson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before founding Island Packet Yachts he worked as a designer for Endeavour Yachts and Irwin Yachts. In 1979 he launched his own company, Traditional Watercraft, with the 21-foot Lightfoot. A year later he followed with the beamy 26-foot Island Packet (originally called the Bombay Express). Its catboat lines, complete with barn door rudder, caught everyone’s attention. But it was the completely redesigned Mark II version that really catapulted the company to success.

In 1983 Johnson followed with the Island Packet 31. Orders for 14 were taken at that year’s U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis. It remained in production until 1989, after 262 boats had been built. The 31 was replaced with the Island Packet 32. In case you hadn’t noticed, successful builders must at some point introduce new models, even if only a foot shorter or longer, so as not to compete with their own used boats. At present, the company builds a 27, 29, 32 and 35, though, like most owners of boats with bowsprits, you’ll find owners referring to the same models as 30, 32, 35 and 38, generously adding the three-foot length of their bowsprits for LOA (length overall). This is where you need to add LOD (length on deck) to the specifications.

In 1990, the company enjoyed its best year, building  163 boats. At a time when most are losing ground,Traditional Watercraft continues to prosper.

The entire Island Packet line springs from that first catboat-like 26. You’ll rarely see other boats with the beam of an Island Packet. The overhangs are very short, and the bottom is what the company calls “Ushaped.” The bow is almost plumb and the stern is vertical, in line with the trailing edge of the keel attached rudder. Add a coachroof parallel with the waterline and a cutter rig and you have all the makings of a traditional looking yacht. There is no doubt that this look has found favor with the boatbuying public, and to a large degree is responsible for the company’s success.

Let’s discuss, for a moment, the wide beam of the 31. At 11′ 6″, it exceeds many other boats of this length. The reasons for it are several. First, a boat derives its stability from two sources—ballast and beam. Both help resist heeling. Johnson obviouslystarted his design with the premise that the boat would be a shoal-draft cruiser. The centerboard version draws just 3′ 0″ board up, and the fixed keel draws just 4′ 0″. With either configuration (about half built were centerboards), it isn’t possible to concentrate ballast very low in the boat, especially since iron ingots set in concrete are used (in the deep keel model only) instead of the customary lead, which has a much higher specific gravity.

Given the shallow draft, additional stability is achieved by adding to the beam. This brings us to the second reason for the wide beam—greater volume, which is always desirable in a live-aboard boat.

There is nothing inherently wrong with shallow draft and wide beam, assuming you know what you’re trading off. In this case, it’s upwind sailing performance and the increased possibility of achieving inverse stability, that is, the tendency of a hull form to remain upside down and not right itself. Beamy, shallow boats have a greater potential to  achieve inverse stability than narrow hulls with deep, heavy keels.

On the face of it, all this suggests that the Island Packet 31 is a fine coastal cruiser, but is less suited to severe offshore work than a narrower hull with a deep, heavy keel.

Few remarks seem to vex readers more than our stating a boat design is best suited to coastal sailing. “What do you mean I can’t take this boat offshore?” they say, incredulous.

We didn’t say you couldn’t. The operative phrase is “best suited.” People have crossed oceans in rowboats, sailboards and mini-boats that were hardly more than bathtubs with decks and spars. Sure you can take this boat offshore (the definition of which is yet another semantical quagmire. For the purposes of this argument, let’s say offshore is anywhere away from the coast from which one cannot make harbor at the approach of severe conditions). And probably do so quite happily.

All the talk of capsize screening formulas and righting moment and the like are essentially responses to yachting disasters, such as the famous 1979 Fastnet Race, in which racing boats were damaged by heavy storm conditions, sometimes with the loss of life. Often poor engineering and construction (in the pursuit of light weight) is to blame. In some instances it’s design. Good seamanship probably is more important than either engineering or design.

That said, the Island Packet 31 is a handsome, rugged boat that is, according to readers, a delight to sail, well built, and emminently suited to the cruising life.

Construction

The Island Packet hull is solid fiberglass, using triaxial cloth and polyester resin. The deck is “cored” with a mixture of polyester resin and microballoons (called by the company PolyCore) that the company says weighs about the same as a deck with 1/2-inch balsa core. The intent of this innovative method is to avoid using the more common end-grain balsa. This makes for a chemically coupled deck structure without possibility of delamination, common in older boats with balsa cores. No readers have reported problems with their decks. Similarly, we do not have any reported cases of blisters.

The interior is developed by means of a PolyCore liner tabbed to the hull. We are not fond of such liners, because they do not absorb sound as well as wooden soles, make modification of the layout much more difficult, and, if the builder hasn’t carefully planned his tooling, they can obstruct access to some parts of the hull (always imagine that if you struck an object in such and such location, could you reach the hole to plug it). However, Johnson has done a nice job tooling his liners. We like especially the fact that the liner isn’t brought up to window level, but terminates at the backrest of settees so that wood and fabrics hold the eye at mid-heights rather than large, austere panels of fiberglass. The liner also incorporates structural stringers that are bonded to the hull. The sand color of all Island Packet interior and exterior moldings is a trademark, and if you had to commit to one color, this one is easy on the eyes.

The ballast, as mentioned, is encapsulated in the keel cavity. The rudderstock is 1 1/2-inch stainless steel. The semi-balanced rudder has a high-density foam core and is covered with fiberglass. A stainless steel box functions as a “lobster strap.” This connects the keel to the rudder and prevents lines from riding up into the propeller. The centerboard is built essentially the same way, with some lead at the tip.

A 22-hp Yanmar diesel was standard in the 1984 boats, which one owner said was inadequate power. The next year a 27-hp Yanmar was installed, which provided better power. Island Packet owners cited few problems with their Yanmars.

Hardware is for the most part of good quality—Edson rack and pinion steering, Ronstan blocks, Isomat spar, etc. One owner complained of his Par toilet. Few builders can justify installing expensive models—no one buys a boat for its toilet, despite the fact that malfunctions with the toilet are one of the most onerous repair jobs imaginable. We think the investment in a top quality toilet is repaid many times over.

Readers report overall construction as excellent. Many said that the company pays close attention to detail. Nearly all report good response from Bob Johnson and his staff in resolving problems.

Performance

The Island Packet 31 was offered as a cutter or sloop. Most owners seemed to have chosen the cutter. One reader wrote: “The boat is not a true cutter, but a double-headsail sloop with a 110-percent lapper and a free-set staysail. I recommend either a staysail stay and a hanked-on staysail or disposing with the staysail and sailing her as a proper sloop with roller reefing 150-percent genoa.”

This is technically correct, though the line between cutter and double-headsail sloop is not always clear. On a cutter, the mast is usually stepped near the center of the boat.

On a double-headsail sloop, the mast is stepped farther forward, which is the case with the Island Packet 31. There are no running backstays, but the company says the Isomat spar was engineered to withstand the loads of the inner forestay without additional support.

Owners report being very happy with the cutter rig. Some admit to having to learn the nuances of proper trim of the staysail and jib. While not necessarily as efficient as a large genoa on a sloop, the advantage of two sails occupying essentially the same area is that trimming is easier, and when the wind pipes up, the jib can be dropped altogether.

Not surprisingly, the Island Packet 31’s best point of sail is a reach. Owners say she’s quite fast. Upwind is a different story. One reader said, “Forward wide beam slows boat in seas.” Another said she’s slow in light air, fast in heavy air.” Several reported difficulty tacking through the wind, finding it easy to end up in irons. Full-keel boats don’t tack as readily as fin keel boats, but on the Island Packet this tendency seems to be exacerbated by the wide beam forward.

The boat balances well. Readers say she will steer herself for miles with little attention to the helm. One wrote: “Sometimes we thought the autopilot was on and then discovered she was just tracking on her own.” And she is stiff. “I can’t intentionally wet the rail,” said one reader.

Performance under power is rated as good, as is engine accessibility and reliability.

The only complaint is control in reverse, which is to be expected of a full keel design with the propeller in an aperture. But for a serious cruising boat, that’s exactly where you want the prop—backing down be damned.

Besides looks and quality, many readers chose the Island Packet for its voluminous interior.

There’s nothing particularly unusual about the layout, which is fine. It works. There are 6′ 6″ Vberths forward, a generous head compartment with shower, settees in the main cabin, a doubled quarter berth aft to starboard, and a U shaped galley in the port quarter.

The quarter berth doubles as a nav station, and can be enclosed by a folding door. Headroom in the cabin is 6′ 3″.

“The icebox is huge and exceptionally well insulated (we have Adler-Barbour refrigeration),” wrote one owner. “Used as an icebox it is also great. The interior design is user friendly.”

We have reviewed few boats whose owners are more uniformly enthusiastic. This applies to the company as well as the boat itself.

“Ask any owner how they feel about their boat,” wrote one owner. “All Island Packet owners are the sales force of the company. Sit aboard one for an hour, sail one and it’s yours.”

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Island Packet 380: The best liveaboard cruiser out there?

• Rachael Sprot
• June 17, 2022

When it comes to liveaboard credentials, is the Island Packet the cream of the crop? Rachael Sprot went to find out...

Product Overview

With their ivory colour and tall, rounded coachroof, the Island Packets are nothing if not distinctive and the Island Packet 380 is a fine example of the popular marque.

Designed and built in Florida, they’re sought after across the pond for blue-water cruising but a few of them have migrated to colder climes.

I joined Jalan Jalan , an Island Packet 380, to find out how they perform in our northern waters.

The first Island Packet was built in 1979. Designed by Bob Johnson, it was a 26-footer with a cutter rig, long keel and 10ft beam!

The yard soon made a name for itself producing well-built, spacious cruising yachts. From the outset, safety and stability were front and foremost in the design.

The 380’s wide beam gives her plenty of stability with a relatively low angle of heel. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

The Island Packet 380 came along some 20 years later and was a highly successful model – 169 were built between 1998 and 2004.

My first impression of the boat was just how much boat there is – she dwarfed the Sigma 38 next-door.

The bow platform and davits mean she’s about a metre longer than her 38ft title suggests, and with a 4m beam she considerably out-girths her rivals too.

The result is a boat with a huge interior volume. Unlike other boats of these proportions though, she has the underwater profile to match.

The ‘full foil’ keel, which Johnson espoused, means there’s a lot more going on below the surface than meets the eye.

Forwards visibility is restricted due to the large sprayhood. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

The keel-hung rudder is well-protected from encounters with floating objects and the encapsulated keel is another sound feature for blue-water cruising.

Despite her substantial size, the hull itself has a nice touch of sheer emphasised by the rubbing streak, and the stern has a wineglass shape which counterbalances the boxy coachroof.

Simple solutions

There’s seamanship in evidence in much of the design: the bow platform has twin bow rollers as standard, and the chain locker below is split in two thereby accommodating both sets of chain.

A sloping shelf beneath the hawse pipe helps the chain to self-stow and there’s easy access through the forward cabin if it doesn’t.

It’s the kind of simple, practical solution which comes from a designer who goes cruising himself.

There are five mooring cleats on each side, each one with a stainless chafe protector guarding the teak toerail beneath.

The self-tacking staysail makes the cutter rig easy to handle on the Island Packet 380. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

The low-profile toerail is attractive but I’d have liked a more substantial brace on an ocean-going yacht.

The high coachroof has an excellent handrail which gives good security on the side decks though.

Four full-size dorades with storm blanks provide good ventilation below and there’s room for a liferaft or rolled up dinghy under the boom.

Safety over sportiness

The cockpit is carried all the way aft to the pushpit. It’s a big space, which is exactly what you want in the lower latitudes where you spend more time outdoors, but it feels wide when heeled.

There are two huge lockers under the cockpit seats and there’s space beneath the cockpit sole for a generator.

A split backstay and small sugar scoop makes getting on and off the transom easy.

The wheel is fairly small and because the sprayhood is necessarily wide to take in the big coachroof, forwards visibility is restricted.

The Island Packet 380 is ideal for blue-water cruising, with a keel-hung rudder and encapsulated keel. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

We found ourselves standing with a foot on either cockpit bench in order to keep a proper lookout.

A bigger wheel would have made it easier to steer and peer around the side of the sprayhood. However, it does mean there’s good access when berthed stern-to.

Davits and solar panels are easily accommodated, and her volume means she copes well with all the cruising gear.

The companionway hatch is a heavy duty, GRP moulding which can be bolted into position to secure the washboards beneath.

It’s a reassuring feature on an ocean sailing boat – you may encounter green water before arriving at your blue-water cruising grounds.

The short traveller forward of the companionway is another feature which prioritises safety over sportiness.

No back rest makes the chart table impractical at sea. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

Island Packet pride themselves on their superior construction standards.

The hull is solid laminate, which is heavier than a cored hull, but this means damage is easily repaired.

The trademarked Polyclad 2 gelcoat system below the waterline is reported to offer better protection against osmosis, and above the waterline Durashield gives a high-gloss finish.

The hull is a single moulding, as is the deck, and they’re bolted and bonded together.

The deck is cored with Polycore, which is supposed to be impervious to rot.

The davits, solar panels and sprayhood add windage. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

The chain plates are another example of robust design: the single spreader rig is stayed with forward and aft lowers and together with the cap shrouds are terminated to three separate chain plates.

The separate chain plates are welded and braced together with a framework that locks into the hull to deck joint before being glassed to the hull – very much a belts and braces solution.

It’s below decks that the Island Packet 380 wins her admirers, though.

The high coachroof gives an unparalleled sense of space, feeling more like a 42-footer. The saloon is bright and comfortable with lots of natural light.

There’s a mixture of solid teak joinery and GRP mouldings which gives a feeling of excellent quality without making them prohibitively expensive.

Sturdy structure

There’s a structural ‘pan’ which forms the sole, and the bulkheads, structural webbings and many of the bunks and seats are bonded to the hull to give more rigidity.

It’s a more labour-intensive process than the ‘tray’ style construction of many production boats, but the result is a much stronger structure.

The headlining is a single moulding, which is durable and easy to maintain. It also means the underside of the deck is well insulated and during the cold March nights I spent on board the only condensation was on the hatches and portlights.

The portlights themselves are a window into Island Packet’s philosophy.

Twin bow rollers point to the Island Packet 380’s seaworthiness. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

The stainless steel frame has two threaded lock nuts to clamp them shut, in the moulding above there’s a perfectly positioned hook to hold them open.

They’re simple, tough and functional, with no friction hinges or plastic catches to wear out.

The fold-up table is versatile, creating lots of floor space when you need to get the tools out or for morning yoga sessions, although it’s a shame it doesn’t have a fiddle.

A small, aft-facing chart table utilises the end of the starboard saloon berth, maximising the seating in the saloon, but making it impractical at sea: there’s no back rest and nothing to stop the charts from sliding off the top.

It’s a strange oversight on what is otherwise a well-thought-out interior.

The deck of the Island Packet 380 feels secure, with plenty of hand holds. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

For many though, the vast U-shaped galley makes up for any shortcomings.

It’s a fantastic area with a double sink, lots of locker space and plenty of surface area for food prep.

The top-loading fridge and freezer are bigger than most boats’ cockpit lockers.

There’s a roomy master cabin in the forepeak with an island bed which allows you to get up in the middle of the night without disturbing the other person – a nice feature for a liveaboard.

The heads is also vast with two access doors, one to the forward cabin and one to the saloon.

Access on and off the Island Packet 380 is easy with a split backstay and small sugar scoop. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

It would be nice to see some sort of wet-locker arrangement or hanging rail though, especially in our colder, wetter climes.

The aft cabin is also a generous double which runs athwartships. Beneath it there’s excellent access to the gearbox, stern gland and back of the engine .

The front and sides of the engine box have access panels too.

However, it looked like removing the engine entirely would involve dismantling some of the joinery.

Spotless condition

Despite Jalan Jalan ’s fairly high mileage, there wasn’t so much as a scuff in the gelcoat or joinery.

They’re the kind of boats that attract conscientious owners and many of the examples on the market have been well looked after.

The accommodation on offer is as much about what you don’t see as what you do see.

The deep bilges are cleverly compartmentalised and the storage space extends well below the waterline.

The high coachroof makes the saloon feel roomy. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

I managed to extract a cruising chute, spinnaker sheets and storm jib from underneath one corner of the port seating!

The Packet boats of the 18th and 19th centuries were originally designed to take cargo, passengers and mail up and down the coast, and the Island Packet 380 pays more than a nod to this heritage.

The flip side to this is the windage.

Jalan Jalan ’s sprayhood doesn’t fold down easily, and once you’ve added in davits and solar panels she’s challenging in confined spaces.

The long keel helps to stabilise her, so she doesn’t skate around as much as a fin-keeled yacht, but she’s hard to turn in strong winds.

The 56hp Yanmar is hefty for a boat of this displacement, but with the large wetted surface area and drag from the superstructure, she needed 2,500rpm to achieve 6 knots in calm conditions, which doesn’t leave a lot of headroom for when it’s windy.

With a little help from the bow-thruster she did follow her rudder in astern, although she was slow to respond to helm inputs.

A 4 metre beam means there is plenty of space in the master cabin. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

As with most long-keeled boats, steerage in reverse is a privilege and not a right, and it’s one which may be withdrawn at short notice.

The million-dollar question though, is how does she sail? The answer is: better than you think.

She doesn’t want for sail area: there’s a 16 per cent sail area/displacement ratio just taking the mainsail and fore triangle into account.

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If you add in an overlapping genoa and the staysail, it pushes up to 18 per cent.

The headsail track is on the toerail and with her 1.4m draught, it is an early indicator that she isn’t designed to be close-winded.

The heads can be accessed from the saloon and forward cabin. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

She likes to be sailed ‘full and by’ according to the manual.

Apparent wind angles of 50-55° were optimum where she made a comfortable 5.5-6 knots upwind in a Force 4 and above.

A slab reefing main instead of in-mast furling , and some crisp new sails would have given better performance.

Impressive in light airs

The self-tacking staysail sheets are closer to the centreline, so in stronger winds you’d achieve better tacking angles from this.

Off the wind we reached along at 6.5-7 knots in blustery Force 6, but there was a law of diminishing returns above that.

In light airs she was impressive though, managing 3.5-4 knots in 6-8 knots breeze, which is valuable on long passages where you don’t want to reach for the throttle every time the wind drops.

The Polycore deck should last, and it is reported to be impervious to rot. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

Thanks to her beam she has plenty of form stability, keeping the angle of heel relatively low. She’s also well ballasted and forgiving in gusty conditions.

The large rudder gripped the water even when a 30-knot squall hit, never threatening to round up.

With in-mast furling it was easy to balance the sail plan to minimise weather helm.

She’s never going to point like a Sigma 38, and she needs to be sailed accordingly, giving lee shores a wider margin, but blue-water sailing is best done by tortoises, not hares.

The Island Packet 380 is superbly well adapted for tradewind sailing, exploring shallow atolls and spending long periods of time afloat.

The galley has plenty of stowage and has decent fridge and freezer space. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

There’s a trend these days to pair high volume interiors with a flat, racy bottom and deep fin keel.

Comfort and performance: it’s a seductive mixture, but like all good cocktails the innocuous first impression could leave you with a headache offshore.

Not this boat – it is unapologetically safe, sensible and seaworthy.

The Island Packet 380 is a Marmite kind of a boat, but like it or loathe it, there’s a lot to admire in the design, not least that it isn’t trying to be something it’s not.

Expert opinion on the Island Packet 380

Ben Sutcliffe-Davies, Marine Surveyor and full member of the Yacht Brokers Designers & Surveyors Association (YDSA) www.bensutcliffemarine.co.uk

Over the years I’ve surveyed several of these for both pre-purchase and insurance claims.

Ben Sutcliffe- Davies has been in the marine industry for over 40 years as a long- time boat builder, has been surveying craft for over 20 years and is a Full Member of the YDSA.

These vessels have a distinctive off-white/cream hull moulding colour; while attractive, it can be a headache for yards to colour match when damaged.

When viewing, look carefully for areas of repair. The strength of the hull is unquestionably reliable.

I’ve surveyed several which have been bounced on the bottom, against rocks or quay sides, and the boat has upheld the stresses surprisingly well.

I am not keen on the method of laying the ballast into the keel moulding.

During hammer testing the keel moulding arrangements, I have had a couple where the ballast is not very tight within the moulding.

Surveying two Island Packet 380s after groundings, I have found water was able to easily ingress into the keel void and soften the lean mix of sand and cement used around the lead ingots.

The Island Packet 380 is ideal for living aboard long term and tradewind sailing. Credit: Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

This has been a very hard job to sort and in both cases quite expensive to deal with.

Protect the boat’s teak cappings before liftout as they can be damaged.

Have some carpeted blocks made and place below the strakes to stop the strops lifting the cappings off under load.

Lastly, be aware of the skeg fitting fastenings that can weep into the keel void, the security of her deck fittings and, most importantly, moisture in the deck core around fittings, especially around winches and the portlights.

Alternatives to the Island Packet 380

Moody 38 mk1.

All controls on the Moody 38 lead aft. Credit: David Harding

Moody was to the British what Island Packet was to the Americans: reliable, solidly built cruising boats.

They had a prodigious output, over 160 Mk 1 Moody 38s came out of the mould in the 1990s, and a further 37 of the Mk 2 version in the 2000s.

Owing to the centre cockpit, the master cabin is aft rather than forwards.

Described by the original Yachting Monthly review in 1992 as ‘truly splendid’, it’s still impressive today with lots of stowage and a portlight in the transom.

Like many centre-cockpit boats the cockpit lockers are sacrificed, with two deep but narrow lazarettes in each quarter instead.

Another compromise is that the companionway steps descend quite steeply.

Forwards there’s a generous V berth and second heads – useful if you’re cruising as more than a couple.

There’s a proper, forward-facing chart table to keep the fuddy-duddies (like me) happy too.

The 38 came with a masthead rig with double spreaders and fixed backstay as standard. Credit: David Harding

Below the waterline there’s a stout fin keel and semi-balanced rudder on a partial skeg. The masthead rig has the least sail area of all the boats in this selection.

The small mainsail area is partly because they came with in-mast furling as standard and they were also designed to have a generous genoa.

Once you add an overlapping headsail into the equation she has a better sail/area:displacement ratio. The smaller main will also make her easier to handle in a blow.

The modest draught will slightly limit upwind performance, but most cruisers aren’t concerned about losing a few degrees of pointing and it gives better access to tidal harbours.

The hull is solid laminate but the deck is balsa-cored, so you’ll need to watch out for moisture ingress.

The Plymouth-built hulls met Lloyd’s construction standards so should stand the test of time.

Although Moody didn’t splurge out on the joinery, they didn’t skimp on it either: the fit-out is good.

If you’re looking for an affordable fin-keeler with plenty of space but that’s easy to handle under power and sail, this is a great option.

Nauticat 39

A deep forefoot means the Nauticat 39 handles well in heavy weather. Credit: David Harding

Nauticat is not a name you normally associate with handsome sailing yachts.

They’re better known for their quirky motor sailors but in the 1980s and 1990s a touch of thoroughbred was introduced to the stables of the Finnish design team.

A series of much more athletic boats appeared, including the Nauticat 39.

With a narrow beam, relatively light displacement and large sail area she’ll likely outsail her contemporaries, especially upwind.

The deep forefoot makes her sea-kindly in heavy weather and the bulbed fin keel is substantial, giving better than average directional stability.

The joinery below decks is of Scandinavian quality with all teak sourced from the same trunk so that the colour and grain matches.

The master aft cabin has an en suite heads, with a second heads forward to serve the V berth and single cabin down the port side.

The major selling point of the boat is the wheelhouse, where you can sip a gin and tonic, enjoying the sunset in whichever beauty spot you’ve arrived in.

It’s quite ambitious to fit one of these on a boat under 40ft, so the seating area of the raised saloon is smaller than that of a conventional saloon.

It also means that the galley is buried in the belly of the boat which, whilst snug in heavy weather, is a bit lonely when the rest of the crew are enjoying sundowners on deck.

The interior helm station will appeal to anyone missing those working-from-home pyjama days – with a throttle control and hydraulic steering link you can wear your slippers on watch.

With her performance credentials, though, she’ll reward those who want to play on deck too.

Hunter Legend 41

The Legend 41 was designed for easy handling shorthanded. Credit: Graham Snook

Another American cruiser which has been popular in Europe is the Hunter Legend 41.

Like the Island Packet 380, it’s broad-shouldered and beamy with high topsides. The interior is voluminous.

The B&R rig is a trademark feature of the Hunter brand.

Originally designed by Swedish engineers Lars Bergstrom and Sven Ridder, it removes the need for a backstay by substituting aggressively swept back spreaders and a web of reverse diagonals.

The result is a sail plan that’s heavily weighted in favour of the mainsail, thanks to a big roach and small foretriangle.

It’s intended to make sail handling easier because there’s no large headsail to sheet in.

However, careful mainsail management may be required in order to reduce weather helm close-hauled.

The stainless-steel cockpit arch keeps the mainsheet clear of the crew yet still within reach of the helm.

Innovative rig design aside, the deck layout is fairly standard for this type of cruising yacht.

Accommodation-wise there’s little to fault.

The L-shaped galley has acres of work-space and a full-height storage locker. The saloon seating wraps around the table and could easily accommodate eight.

Big overhead windows let in lots of natural light. There are two big double cabins, one forward, one aft, both with an en suite heads.

A deck saloon version gives 7ft of headroom in the saloon! The shoal draught version comes with a bulb keel, whilst the full-fin keel will give better upwind performance.

She’s flighty for tricky offshore sailing, but would make a comfortable island-hopping liveaboard.

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• Sailboat Guide

Island Packet 26 MKI

Island Packet 26 MKI is a 29 ′ 11 ″ / 9.1 m monohull sailboat designed by Walter Scott and Robert K. Johnson and built by Island Packet Yachts between 1980 and 1982.

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)

Originally called simply ISLAND PACKET and built by Traditional Watercraft, a company founded by Bob Johnson. Johnson had purchased the original tooling for the BOMBAY EXPRESS 26. A significantly modified version, the ISLAND PACKET MKII, (later ISLAND PACKET 26 MKII) was introduced in 1982 when Bob Johnson and partners formed Island Packet Yachts.

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Bombay Express 26

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A Legend. REINVENTED!

Island Packet Yachts have long been known for their excellence and value.  Under new ownership since January 2017, our commitment to these standards has only increased, as evidenced by Island Packet Yachts’ winning of Cruising World Magazine’s 2019 Boat of the Year Award for our 349 model, and 2021 Boat of the Year Award for our 439 model!

Rebuilding A Legend

Upon taking over the company, the Allen’s and their investors undertook an immediate effort to substantially reduce overhead by consolidating 2 facilities into one. This move, along with being debt free and having our very small executive team wear many hats, allowed us to lower prices while maintaining and even increasing excellence. Having been on the retail side of things as Island Packet Dealers, the Allen’s recognized the need for competitive pricing in the marketplace.

Next Generation Materials

• Coosa board in place of marine plywood
• Superior HK Research Hydrashield Premium gelcoat
• Highest quality resins
• Solid wood soles, doors and trim
• (4) coats satin varnish on interior wood
• Dovetail drawer construction
• Cedar-lined hanging lockers w/ automatic lighting upon opening
• Triaxial woven roving
• Divinycell coring
• Premium marine grade hoses and tinned wiring
• Grohe faucets
• Belt and suspender bonded chainplates, 316L annealed
• Skeg hung rudder
• Molded non-skid
• All Harken hardware on deck

A New Island Packet Yachts

We are no longer a production boat company. Our goal is not to build our boats to a price point, instead, we build the best boat possible at a great value. We do not build hundreds of boats each year. Our team of master craftsmen treats each yacht as a custom piece of art. As a result, the market is not flooded with used models, and Island Packet Yachts’ retains their value in a manner unrivaled by other brands. When you start with the highest quality components, those components wear well over time, and our owners are known for meticulous and diligent care of their boats.

Superior Quality AND Value

We are proudly featured in Ferenc Mate’s book, “The World’s Best Sailboats II”. Of our peers in this book, Island Packet Yachts is clearly the best value in terms of price. This is just another example of Island Packet’s leadership in value throughout the sailing industry as a whole.