Saucy, comfy, and efficient, the Tayana 37 is the perfect passagemaker. About 600 canoe-sterned, Bob Perry-designed Tayana 37s have been built since 1975, making this one of the most popular offshore passagemaking boats ever. Perry gave the boat a more modern canoe body by not fairing it into the full keel with the wineglass garboard sections normal in such a design. He also narrowed the bilges, cut away the forefoot - all to reduce displacement - and added a tall cutter rig (only 20 of the 37s were built as ketches). A steamlined inboard rudder replaced the traditional outboard one. Despite its matronly appearance, accented by the tumblehome in the stern, the 37 regularly logs 140- to 160-mile days in the trades while tracking beautifully and carrying a cruising cargo. Thanks to a moderately high 17.3 sail area-to-displacement ratio, the boat keeps moving in relatively light air, and when reefed down with staysail set, it will pick its way through breaking seas. The cast-iron ballast is encapsulated in the keel, so there are no keel bolts to fail, but it means that a 37 wont take the ground as well as a boat with external ballast. It would, however, be difficult to hole the 37s solid fiberglass hull: its 3/8 inches think at the sheer. The boat isnt still - sail is generally shortened at about 18 knots - but this initial tenderness contributes to the easy motion in a seaway so essential to an ocean passagemaker. The displacement-to-length ratio of 337, high by todays standards, suggests a hull that can carry the payload needed on an extended voyage and provide an acceptable liveaboard home. Two deck plans were built. The Mark I was designed by Perry; the Mark II, created by Ta Yang, is Perry says, a prettier deck with a better cockpit. Both cockpit designs have high coamings, are comfortable and dry, and are small enough that occasional breaking wave aboard has little effect on the boats stability.