Paceship 17 Daysailer

Description

The Paceship 17 is a Canadian-built fiberglass daysailer designed by the acclaimed C&C Design firm and first produced in 1966 by Paceship Yachts Ltd. in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, as a lightweight, trailerable centerboard dinghy emphasizing exhilarating responsiveness, beginner-friendly simplicity, and effortless portability for family outings or casual club racing on protected lakes, bays, or coastal waters under its fractional sloop rig. With no ballast for pure agility and a displacement of just 525 pounds, it measures 17.33 feet LOA, 15.20 feet LWL, 6.92 feet beam, and drafts 0.67 feet board-up to 4.16 feet board-down, delivering a hull speed of about 5.22 knots and 134 square feet of sail area via aluminum spars and a responsive Bermuda mainsail/jib setup, typically without an auxiliary engine to preserve its unadulterated sailing purity. Renowned for its buoyant planing hull enabling quick acceleration in light breezes, expansive self-bailing open cockpit seating up to four with tiller steering, and minimalistic construction sans cabin for focused daysailing thrills, the Paceship 17 was produced briefly through the late 1960s with a modest run of units amid the fiberglass revolution's early days before Paceship shifted to larger models, enduring as an affordable, low-maintenance rarity for nostalgic enthusiasts seeking uncompromised fun, forgiving stability, and hassle-free trailering in a compact sub-18-foot package where velocity and virtue eclipse versatility.