Welcome!

The Lancer 27 has proven to be a very versatile design .  Whether you want a 'go fast' boat, a small but very roomy live aboard, a great week-ender, or acoastal cruiser, the 27 does a pretty good job at filling those needs.   The 27's production run was short lived.From 1983 until 1985, when Lancer Yachts, like many other yacht builders of that era, closed it's doors.  The 27 was off the drawing boards of NA Jerry David.   The 27 configuration, or style if you will, also came in a 25 and a very rare 29, both of which were made in the last year of production.  We have only been aware of 2 or 3 of the 29's surfacing for sale in the last 10 years.  Both in the L.A. Ca. area.  There is a strong hint that the 27 was originally styled off the C&C 30 mold as was the Lancer 30 after Lancer bought those molds from C&C. Lancer Yachts seemed to be able to take tooling from other manufactures and 'redesign' it into something other than it's original intended use.

From information garnered from ex-employees and brokers that were around during that era, the 27 was marketed as a cruising fleet tax right-off for those that needed such things, and retailed for $38,000 to $40,000.   A different crowd from the folks we run with...

After we purchased Hind Sight we spent money like we had it, and replaced the low-end oem Cruiser Design roller furling with a Harken '0' unit.   The furler along with a new furling jib, cruising spinnaker, and canvas dodger took some serious bites out of our boating kitty.  But, what the heck, we were happy.

The pics above, below, and to the left show some of the canvas work we had done.  We chose a dark 'captain's navy' sunbrella® because, to us, it brought a certain touch of class.  (And because of the big OB hanging on the transom, she really did need help in that department.)  Of the original equipment that's been replaced, we'll do our best to make a comparison with pics.  The canvas was a great improvement over the brown dodger we originally found on her.  To keep the binnacle and it's electronics out of the weather we added a complete binnacle cover, and a full set of weather cloths to surround the cockpit, which certainly helped cut the wind during the winter months on SF Bay.  We more or less kept a local canvas shop busy for about 6 months with ad ons. 

One thing we did almost immediately was add a set of Harken 32.2STA's to the combing.  The boat originally came with a set of Lewmar 16ST's on the cabin top.  The combings were bare.  A glimpse of one at the right covered by the only canvas covers on the boat that aren't the darker blue.   (The covers came out of the West Marine Bargain Bin (our favorite place to shop, and were cheep.)

When we finally took a look behind the original panel we found fuses pulling double duty because of the lack of an adequate number of circuts. This messy area has been completely redone. It's still messy, but the original VHF has been replaced with a  smaller foot print ICOM M58, and the OEM power distribution panel has been removed and replaced with a larger higher quality unit of our design.  The shelf was also added.  A great place to store do-dads and make messy again.

The original engine control panel, like most all Lancer panels, started to disintegrate almost from the get-go.  We replaced it with  one we designed and had  built by TAP plastics.  We thought it was pretty good.  After about 3 years it fell apart too. While on the hard we decided to do it right.   The result is the panel shown in this picture.  The backing is Honduran mahogany ply and the raised frame is teak.  The panel face is completely sealed with epoxy resin, and the teak is finished off with 3 coats of Armada.  (Similar to Cetol, but without the 'orangy' cast.)  There's a stainless piano wire hinge along the bottom to facilitate access to the back of the panel.  With the two screws removed the panel tilts forward giving access to the wiring. The back face of the panel is sealed to the combing bulkhead with 1/8" by 1" automotive foam weather seal. After 3 years it hasn't leaked a drop, and we're happy to report the the panel is surviving.   We also incorporated navigational light switches in the panel.  They are wired into the ground circuit off the main panel in the cabin.   This gives the helms-person the ability to control the nav-lights at the helm instead of having someone go below and try to figure out which toggle to throw.  It also gives the crew the ability to turn off any lights that may have been inadvertently left on from the main panal without crawling back out on deck after you're already snuggled in for the night.

Another major undertaking was to build a trailer. She was long overdue for a bottom job, but we decided to put the money into a trailer instead of paying a boat yard $600- $700 bucks.  We then could do the bottom job at our leisure.   We spent a little more, but the end result was well worth it.   The trailer is an all galvanized tandem axle 10,000GVW unit that pulls like a dream.  The 2x6 channel came from an old PG&E tower that was sold to Reno Salvage in Nevada.  The pair of 6000 lb. axles and wheels came out of a garage sale, and the remainder of the accessories, fenders and couplers and such, where purchased from Northern Tool and Equipment Co.  A good friend in Reno put it together in his welding shop. 

The first time we put Hind Sight on the trailer, it was terrifying.  The fear turned out to be unfounded, as she behaved like a pussy cat while traveling down the highway.

I don't suggest doing this when buying a boat, but we never had a survey done before purchasing Hind Sight.  The reason being that the boat had already been in escrow and the previous buyer did a bottom job done.  Althyough we weren't able to see the bottom (we did have a diver check it out).   The fact that the job had been done was a good indication that the boat had not shown any major problems.  (The first buyers reasons for pulling out of the sale were wife related... not covered in the boat survey).  We also called the boat yard that had performed the work, and they reinforced our feelings that the bottom was OK.

After we hauled Hind Sight and put her on the trailer for the first time, this is what we found. A deep balanced spade rudder and deep fiberglass encapsulated fin keel.  The keel was not bolted to the hull as other fins are, but encapsulated with 1/2 inch of glass and resin.   The combination gave her a light and responsive wheel, and no worry about keel bolts rusting.  It also caused shear panic when doing a sharp high speed turn at 11knots with the big 115 Johnson at WOT. Rodeo time!!  It happened once.  Never again.

We replaced the factory tabernacle for the deck stepped mast with a custom made one with a higher pivot point from Ballenger Spars in Santa Cruz, Ca.  we had it built taller than the original in order to clear the companion way turtle when the mast was dropped to the horizontal. 

The mast was completly stripped and gutted of all parts before repainting with 2-part InterLux Brightside paint. After which all electrical and wiring were redone.  Deck floods were added to the spreaders. A new anchor light as well as new steaming/foredeck light were added.  There was no way a freighter would miss us while doing an offshore passage. 

~CONTINUED Later~

"PRICE JUST REDUCED! Sloop rigged sailboat that converts to a power boat planing hull by dropping the transom with hydraulics. With her 175 hp Johnson engine, this boat will do 15 knots under power. Interior has 6' headroom and sleeps 4. Just contact the office of Blue Pacific Yachts for complete details or an appointment to view. "