About Us

Steadfast

A 1997 Com-Pac 27/2, Steadfast seems to us to be the perfect coastal cruiser, roomy enough for two but still easy enough to singlehand.

Designed by Bob Johnson, N.A., she was built in the traditional style of the Hutchins Company of Clearwater, FL, (http://www.com-pacyachts.com) with bronze ports and deck hardware, extensive teak and well-thought-out, no nonsense features.

The 6′ 10″ cockpit gives you room to stretch out when at anchor (or with someone else at the helm).  The port and starboard seat lockers are cavernous and allow good access to the engine (you know, given that it’s still a sailboat).

She has as much room below as many 30-footers, with 6′ 1″ standing headroom (more if you stand under a hatch), five berths and a good-sized enclosed head with hot water shower; a full galley with food lockers; hanging locker and loads of storage space everywhere.  We particularly appreciate the three large hatches and eight opening ports that allow ample ventilation and give the cabin a bright, airy atmosphere.  There’s plenty of teak below, too, and the fit and finish are impressive.

Underway, she tracks straight, maneuvers tightly, and will lift her skirts before a puff but also does well in light air. She turns within her own length, backs smartly and motors as well as she sails.  “Little Red,” the two cylinder, fresh water-cooled Westerbeke diesel, proved her mettle on the 2,000 NM roundtrip to Maine in the summer of 2012.

All in all, she’s a solid little yacht that has served–and continues to serve–us well.

Kate & Bill

Steadfast & crew at home in Hallieford

A brief overnight together on a Catalina 30 was Kate’s introduction to keelboat sailing.  That was twenty years ago and we’ve sailed together since.  A Kentucky girl by birth, Kate first learned the joys of wind and wave during her college years in Florida.  Now she’s cleared the decks landside, closing her business to ship-out on a planned year-long coastal cruise from Virginia to Maine this summer (2014), then south in the fall to Florida.

Bill’s boyhood in Rhode Island included frequent trips to Newport and Narragansett, and one idyllic summer as a teen on an island in Mount Hope Bay.  That summer, seeing new Bristols and Pearsons on the mainland, watching classic yachts on the East Passage, and he knew he needed to sail.  It was the mid-80s before he took the tiller of the first boat, a Newport 17, which was followed by an S-2 8.0C, the Catalina, Bristol 24 and, since ’03, the CP27 Steadfast.  Bill retired in ’12 from a career in senior housing and now spends as much time on board as possible and, when the wind’s right, underway.