Tayana 52 Aft Cockpit

KATE is a well-kept and experienced blue water cruiser. The Tayana 52 is one of Bob Perry's favorites and deservedly so. She is a bluewater machine and one of the most charming Taiwanese yachts ever built. If you are looking for an aft cockpit, three stateroom sailing machine for a fair price, this design is highly recommended.

This yacht is a passage maker. With its strong diesel engine, boat speed through the water under power is reported as 8 knots. When it's time to outrun a storm or get to your destination, it is important to have the capability to move at speed and cover distance in comfort.

Coastal Cruising Characteristics

The West Coast isn't gentle coastal cruising in the way the Chesapeake or Florida are. Between San Diego and the Strait of Juan de Fuca you're dealing with a largely harborless lee shore, persistent northwesterlies that build steep wind-against-current seas, frequent fog, cold water, long passages between safe inlets (Crescent City to Coos Bay, Cape Mendocino, Point Conception), and the reality that "coastal" often means 50–150 miles offshore to round capes safely. A boat suited for this environment needs to behave more like a passagemaker than a weekender, and that's exactly what the Tayana 52 is.

The Tayana 52 is a heavy-displacement bluewater design (roughly 51,000–55,000 lbs depending on configuration) drawn by Bob Perry. That mass, combined with a moderately long fin keel and skeg-hung rudder, gives it an easy, predictable motion in the short, steep seas you get off Mendocino or Point Conception. Lighter modern 50-footers can feel skittish in those conditions; the Tayana tracks and settles.

KATE carries serious tankage (typically 200+ gallons of fuel and water) and has the storage for the spares, ground tackle, and provisions you need when the next chandlery is two days away. West Coast anchorages are often rolly open roadsteads (Santa Cruz Island, San Simeon, Drakes Bay), so the heavy ground tackle a Tayana can carry without trimming down isn't a luxury.

The Tayana 52's are heavily laid-up hand-built hulls from Ta Yang in Taiwan, with teak interiors and serious hardware. They're not light, but they're built for the kind of pounding the Pacific dishes out, and the deep, dry interior is genuinely livable in cold, wet conditions, which is most of the year north of Point Conception.

Standing Rigging Replaced

Standing rigging replaced in 2019 by GC Rigging and Composites.