Знакомство с проектом Tayana 37' Pilot House. With several hundred boats sailing the seas of the world, the Tayana 37 has been one of the most successful products of the U.S.s Taiwan-built boat invasion that began in the early 1970s. Its shapely Baltic stern, scribed plank seams molded into the glass hull, and lavish use of teak above and belowdecks have come to epitomize the image associated with Oriental boats. Not all thoughts of Far Eastern boats are pleasant, however. To some, Taiwan-built boats mean poor workmanship, overly heavy hulls, unbedded hardware of dubious heritage, wooden spars that delaminate, and builder-modified boats lightyears removed from the plans provided by the designer. Add to that a serious language barrier and the inevitable logistical problems of dealing with a boatyard halfway around the world, and you have a readymade nightmare for the boat buyer. To the credit of the builder, the designer, the primary importer, and a powerful owners association, the Tayana 37 has weathered an astounding production run while making steady improvements and maintaining a steady output with about 600 boats in existence. Washington-based boat designer Bob Perry had just hung out his own shingle when he designed Tayana 37 in the early 70s. The Sherman-tank Westsail 32 had just come lumbering onto the scene, bringing with it a resurgence of interest in the double-ended hull form, and more people than ever before were beginning to have the dream of chucking it all and sailing away to a tropical paradise. Perry has become an enormously successful designer of cruising boats, from traditional, full-keel designs such as the Tayana 37 to modern, fin-keel cruisers such as the Nordic 40, GoldenWave 42, and the Valiant 40. A remarkable number of his designs have been built in the Orient, in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Perry conceived the Tayana 37 as a cruising boat of traditional appearance above the water, with moderately heavy displacement, a long waterline, and a reasonably efficient cutter rig of modern proportions. (A ketch rig was also available). Below the water, the forefoot of the long keel has been cut away, and a Constellation-type rudder was utilized rather than a more traditional barn door. Perry sought to cash in on the popularity of the double-ended hull while keeping displacement moderate and performance reasonable, avoiding the plight of boats such as the Westsail 32-the inability to go to windward and sluggish performance in anything short of a moderate gale. The stern design of the Tayana 37 borrows heavily from the well-known Aage Nielsen-designed ketch, the Holger Danske, winner of the 1980 Bermuda Race. It is one of the more handsome Baltic-type sterns on any production sailboat. The Tayana 37 began life as the CT 37. In 1979, the boat became known as the Tayana 37, named for Ta Yang Yacht Building Co. While some snobbishness exists among owners who own the CT version, Perry has insisted that this is illusory. According to the designer, the CT 37 and the Tayana 37 are the same boat, built by the same men in the same yard. In much the same way that the early Swans imported by Palmer Johnson were known by the name of the importer-the names Nautor and Swan were unknown here in the late 1960s-early Tayanas were known as CTs because the name CT had already become known in this country. Perry, who worked with many yards in the Far East, considers Ta Yang one of the best. The yard always was very responsive to input from both dealers and owners. Over the years, this resulted in steady improvement in the quality of the boat. The Tayana 37 was built as a ketch or cutter, with wood spars or aluminum, with mast-stepped on deck or on the keel. Few builders have offered so many options. The standard rig is a masthead cutter with wooden spars; the mast is stepped on deck and supported by a substantial compression column. The designer strongly recommended the aluminum cutter rig, and we heartily concur. The wooden mast is poorly proportioned, with a massive section and extremely thick sidewalls. One mast we looked at had a large knot on the forward side of the mast just at spreader level. Despite the huge mast section, we feel the knot could weaken the mast significantly. The Tayana 37 is both typical and atypical of Taiwanese boats. It is typical in the problems that existed due to the builders inexperience with seagoing yachts, common with communication and language problems. The total cost of a well-equipped Tayana 37 with most of the desirable options compares very favorably with other boats of her size, type, and displacement. The Tayana 37 would make an excellent retirement cruiser for the experienced sailing couple. Properly handled and equipped, she could take you anywhere with confidence and reasonable dispatch. #Tayana37 #BobPerry #yacht
