Back in the late 1990s, when I firs became serious to live aboard a sailboat, I considered living aboard two different boats at Constitution Marina in Boston Harbor. Neither boat was well suited to liveaboard. True to my preference in sailboats, they were both pure sailing machines. They were sleek and low and fast classic boats. They didn't have many windows or creature comforts. Neither boat had a stall shower. The two boats I looked at were both early 70s racer/cruisers - the Sparkman and Stevens designed Tartan 41 and the Custom Bruckman C&C 43 (seen above).
Both boats I looked at with my father (as we've looked at dozens of boats together). The Tartan, in Milford CT, had been raced hard and barely maintained. The Bruckman C&C, on the other hand, was gorgeous. The one I looked at, unlike the one above, had an aft stateroom. Like the one above it had been repowered (the original power had an insane prop set up off the tailing edge of the keel and a V-drive), but with a Volvo Penta and a Saildrive. The interior wood was rich and inviting - much more so than any other C&C including the C&C 35 Mark 1 one I subsequently owned. The cockpit was well laid out, spacious for a 70s boat and inviting. There was beautiful but sparce teak on the deck and in the cabin. The Bruckman was the first boat I looked at that had real "big boat" rigging and hardware, which was more than I could say for the Tartan 41. I liked the Tartan 41, but I loved the Bruckman.
