Sundowner
Description
The Sundowner designed by John Welsford, a New Zealand-based naval architect known for his innovative and practical small boat designs, is a distinct design from the Phil Bolger Sundowner discussed earlier. John Welsford's Sundowner is a 23-foot (7-meter) trailerable, gaff-rigged cruising yacht crafted for amateur builders using plywood stitch-and-glue construction. Introduced in the early 2000s, it’s designed as a versatile coastal cruiser that balances performance, comfort, and ease of transport, appealing to solo sailors or small families. The Sundowner offers overnight accommodations and a stable platform. It’s not to be confused with the Bolger Sundowner (a cat yawl) or the Rebel Industries Spindrift 24; Welsford’s version is a unique gaff-rigged sloop with a focus on simplicity and seaworthiness. With over 100 sets of plans sold globally (per Welsford’s website updates), the Sundowner has a growing community of builders, particularly in New Zealand, Australia, and the US, who value its seaworthy hull and cozy cabin for short cruises.
The standard boat dimensions
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Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.