why don't you just post one list of all the boats you're interested in, instead of posting separately for each one............ then you could easily compare them. ]
For what it's worth........ the sailor controls the heeling in the end, but I can understand your reasons for looking for a less tender boat. Good luck.
Thanks for all the good information. I am a bit new to the forum and buying a sailboat! We have fairly good sailing experience and have been bareboat ASA certified. We regularly rent boats in bay waters including the catalina 30 and Freedom 20. We are now ready to get our own boat. Through our sailing instructor, I certainly see how the sailor can make a big difference in the heeling of a boat. I don't really mind some heeling as it is all part of sailing, but it seems like some boats we have taken out consistently require you to hang on for dear life which I don't particularly find relaxing. Of course the Catalina 30 and Freedom 20 are very stable boats in my mind.
We don't really want to get a boat that has too many bells and whistles. i.e. we don't need a head or any major amenities and feel (perhaps incorrectly, that a small outboard would be easier for a first time sailboat owner to maintain over a diesel.) Since most of the boats we can afford are in the 1970's area, we expect a lot of maintenance to occur so the less extra "stuff" that can break the better!
With that said, we found the following boats in our price range that looked like good candidates:
Ranger 23, S2 7.3, C & C 24, C & C 26, Grampian 23 and Morgan 27 (although the Morgan had a head on it which we don't require)
From looking at the data (thanks to referrals from people on this site), it looks like the Ranger 23 and S2 7.3 might be good candidates due to their Bal/Disp ratio at .44 and .40 respectively, but seemed to both have a decent sail/displacement ratio which I assume refers to the boat's speed.
Any suggestions?