Ranger 29 Sailboat Review

The Ranger 29: a fun coastal cruiser that can get you there safely

In the Pacific Northwest it seems like everyone has had a friend with one of these boats. I describe them as being "commonly uncommon," but with little to nothing written about them online. The content below has been cobbled together from trolling the internet and talking with other owners, but it is by no means exhaustive.

First Impressions

Designed by Gary Mull, the Ranger 29 is a well-balanced boat that is recognized as a good boat for newcomers to cruising or as a club racer. She is fun, fast, and is considered to be one of the best racing sailboats of the 30ft classic-plastic class. I find that the sheer towards the bow makes a Ranger 29 look a little stern heavy until she's underway, but otherwise, the first impression is that of a modest but sporty boat.

Designer/Builder

Gary Mull, a well-known west coast designer, designed the Ranger 29 in 1968. The boat was drawn as a fast, roomy, multi-purpose sloop. Originally, the boats were built by Ranger Yachts, which was an American boat builder founded by Jack Jensen. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of sailboats for the North American market. Ranger Yachts was formed by Jensen in 1970 to complement his existing west coast business Cal Boats. Jensen had already started Jensen Marine but had an exclusive boat design contract with William Lapworth. Jensen started Ranger Yachts both to serve the east coast American market and also to allow him to contract Gary Mull to design the Ranger boats.

Ranger sailboats were originally built in Costa Mesa, California, but the operation was moved to Tampa, Florida in 1981 to better serve the east coast market. The company went through the typcial acquisition program of glass boat manufacturers in the 70s. It was first acquired by the American conglomerate Bangor Punta in 1973 and then became part of Lear Siegler when it bought out Bangor Punta in 1984. As part of Lear Siegler's restructuring in the late 1980s the Ranger line was discontinued, the design contract with Mull was terminated, and the division was dissolved in 1987. Apparently, Lear Siegler later ordered most of the Ranger boat molds destroyed, so what exists in the world today is all we’ll ever have for Ranger 29s. Ranger Yachts also built a number of other models, including the 22, 23 (used in the movie version of “Dove”), 28, 29, 32, 33 and 37.

My Ranger 29: Great Blue Heron

My boat was built in 1976, which means she would have been built in the original yard in Costa Mesa, California. After going through old receipts I learned that we were probably the 4th owners. The first owner had the boat somewhere in Washington. The second owner used her as a Club Racer on Vancouver Island for a decade. That was the owner that did a serious refit with all the deck fittings re-bedded, new hull paint, and non-skid kiwi grip decks. She was kitted out with lots of sail trim gear and racing sails. The third owner only had her for a year and had to sell the boat before he got to use it much. I bought her in 2015 and we outfitted her in 2017/18 for expedition sailing in remote areas on the BC coast and logged well over 6000 miles before we sold her to buy our current boat Whisky Jack (a Kelly Peterson 44).

Construction

The Ranger 29 has a solid fiberglass hull.  The hull is integral and filled with lead. The rudder is a spade that’s hung behind a half-skeg. A reverse transom flows into modest lines with just a bit of sheer towards the bow. The deck is cored with ½” marine plywood.

What to look for

There’s not much to be found online about Ranger 29s. People love to trash talk the gas Atomic engines they originally came with, so I would expect most boats would have converted to diesel by now.

The boats are known to have a problem with the compression post, where it meets the cabin sole. Look for cracking of the gel coat at the base of the compression post. A previous owner did the work to fix the problem on Great Blue Heron. They cut a rectangular access port into the floor to access the forward section of the bilge and bolted in some ½” aluminum struts to the underside of the cabin sole. It does a good job of spreading the load out across the floor and, as a perk, it gives you access to the front of the bilge for cleaning.

Otherwise, look for soft spots in the hull because of the marine ply deck core. If you are re-bedding hardware the proper way to do it is to 'pot' the hardware with epoxy so the deck is sealed. The toe rail is another spot prone to leaks from old sealant wearing out. Great Blue heron has a few blisters on the keel, maybe 5 or 6 new blisters every time I hauled out. The reverse transom gets a lot of sunlight and is nearly impossible to keep waxed and shiny. I found it was also prone to stains from the exhaust.

On Deck

The mast is deck stepped and the boats are rigged as a mast head sloop with single spreaders. Great Blue Heron had wood spreaders which were easy to replicate when they needed replacing. The shrouds go to chainplates that are mounted inboard and bolted through the midship bulkhead. The toe-rail is steel with holes cut in it which is nice for nimble rigging of things that aren't super high loads. With tiller steering, the cockpit has lots of space when you’re anchored up for the night. There’s a massive cockpit locker to starboard and you can add a small hatch port-side aft to access the space at the foot of the quarterberth. There’s a stainless bow roller for the anchor. There’s hardware to run all the lines aft to the cockpit and a rigid boomvang (so you don’t need a topping lift). The traveler for the mainsheet is on the back edge of the transom so the cockpit was very safe and clear of heaviliy-loaded sail handling hardware.

Down below

The layout below is pretty standard for the era. Headroom is 6’2’’ throughout the boat. The boat has a fibreglass liner and only the bulkheads are marine ply. Which is nice for the innevitable leaks having a clean run to the bilge and fewer places for rotten wood.  

Starboard at the foot of the companionway is the galley. The stove on Great Blue Heron was a non-pressurized, 2-burner Origo alcohol stove which proved to be a very reliable piece of gear. But, based on the space below the stove, it clearly had something like a Force10 stove with an oven at some point. The floor in the galley has slight slope which is annoying for standing.

Forward of the galley is a long settee with a trotter box where we put a small Engle freezer (on a timer to keep it quiet at night and to reduce the power draw).

To port at the foot of the companionway is a spacious quarter berth. We built in a removable shelf in the quarterberth and turned it into dive gear and science equipment storage. Forward port is a long settee, with a fold down table. There’s a bit of storage in the box that the table folds up against. There is storage in big lockers under the settees and in cabinets along the hull.

Past the main bulkhead to port is the head with a hanging locker behind it, and a sink and small vanity to starboard. There’s a big opening hatch in the roof mid-ship above the head with a solar fan. The v-berth is a comfy bunk for two people if they are both under 6’2’’, with storage shelves that run along both sides. There’s access to the anchor locker at the foot of the v-berth. The holding tank and water tank are under the v-berth. The water tank on Great Blue Heron is made out of gelcoated fibreglass and is built into the framing of the boat itself. 

Engine

The boats were originally outfitted with a 30hp Atomic 4 engine. Ours was replaced somewhere along the way with a Universal M3-20. The engine is a marinized Kubota lawn tractor engine so if you can find the Kubota serial (starboard side, near the dipstick) you can get parts from a tractor store (way cheaper with better delivery times).

Engine access is through the removable steps, as well as a small opening in the cupboard under the galley sink to check the oil and access the fuel filter, a sliding door in the quarter berth lets you get at the exhaust and drive train, and there is a panel that slides out from the cockpit locker to access the starboard side behind the engine. Filter changes are easy enough through the front, but doing work through the side compartments can require some creativity in both flexibility and language.

The fuel tank is slung under the cockpit floor with steel straps and the lift pump and Racor are easily accessed in the cockpit locker. The fuel fill is in the center of the cockpit sole. It’s a short, straight run to the tank so it is easy to empty the tank for seasonal maintenance and cleaning or inspection. The cockpit locker is also home to the solar controllers, shore power battery charger, and fuel tank for the Wallas heater.

Underway

According to the specs the Ranger 29 has a hull speed of 6.43 kn (11.91 km/h). In real life, on a fun day with a fresh breeze on a beam reach, she happily hits 7+ knots. We do our motor passage planning at 5 knots (we usually ran her around 2500 rpm). The fuel tank is 70 liters, and we got about 200 NM or 40 hours to a tank. For expedition life we kept four 20 liter jerrycans on deck.

The boat has a PHRF racing average handicap of 186 with a high of 195 and low of 180. The Ranger 29 has always been competitive when well sailed and these boats are still competitive in modern club racing. I’ve found one claim in the forums of someone doing a Single-Handed Trans Pac race in a Ranger 29, but otherwise, she is happiest coastal cruising and club racing.
 
She’s a bit tender and can get overpowered quickly, which is fun if your racing but as cruisers who do 6 month expeditions we prefer a flat boat so we reef early and we reef often. We have a main sail with full battens and 3 reefs. We find for cruising we’re happy with just a jib for a headsail. It slows us down a bit when the wind is light (maybe) but makes tacking easier and the jib reefs way better on the roller furler than the genoa. If the wind is steady but light we pull out the cruising spinnaker. For expeditions we kept a smaller heavy weather jib for those long stretches of bad weather and as a spare headsail. The boat came with a lot of sails (most of them we didn't use): a fully-battened cruising main, a deep footed powerful racing main, a heavy weather jib, a working jib, a dacron 120 genoa, a mylar 120 genoa, and a cruising spinnaker.

Upgrades

Great Blue Heron was well maintained by all of her previous owners and had a lot of upgrades too. The hull was painted with a two-part polyurethane paint by Endura, and it looks so good with an annual cut and polish. The non-skid was kiwi-grip in a modest and light Matterhorn blue. The boat had Bomar windows and opening portlights up front in the head and one added in next to the galley that opens out into the cockpit (which is great for some crew who tend to cook on high heat).

The ancient Hurth transmission finally gave out and I replaced it with a new PRM gearbox. Because the new gearbox was slightly different dimensions I had to pull an re-mount the engine. In a classic case of sailboat project creep, while all that was happening I put in a new shaft and PSS shaft seal, pressure tested and serviced the heat exchanger, and put in a new exhaust riser and lift muffler.

To transform the boat from a club racer into an expedition boat we installed a lovely new compass on the bulkhead in the cockpit, new electronics (Humminbird plotter with integrated radar); a Wallas forced-air diesel heater with it's own fuel tank; an Engel freezer; a new freshwater water pump for the sinks; a Rocna anchor + 50ft chain + 250ft rope rode; a new VHF antenna up on the top of the mast; 300W of flexible solar panels with Victoron charge controllers; and two house batteries plus some equipment to charge both the house and start banks off solar or the alternator.

Changes I would Make

The scuppers can make the cockpit wet when there’s a big following sea. I saw a snazzy race boat in the shipyard that had a simple set of rubber flaps secured under stainless straps that act as one-way valves on the scuppers.

I’d replace the rear hatch with one that dogs down better. Water leaked through the hatch when I got a little too eager washing the deck.

A few things could use some cosmetic upgrades. I think she would benefit from new non-skid paint in the cockpit. The windows are starting to craze and could be replaced, so could the vinyl windows on the dodger.

I always thought it would be nice to have two cleats on the bow and a set of mid-ship cleats. I’ve seen a slick project online where someone cut the toe rails flush and mounted a set of mid-ship cleats right on the top of the toerail.

Otherwise, after 5 years and 6000 miles I was still really happy with the boat. I am proud of myself for choosing an awesome first boat when I still had so much to learn about sailboats and voyaging at sea. I would heartily recommend a Ranger 29 to anyone buying their firt boat or anyone wanting to go coastal cruising.

Conclusion

The Ranger 29 is a sweet little boat that is seaworthy and solidly constructed. It is comfortable to cruise, holds a surprising amount of gear, and is really fun to sail.
Specs

• LOA 28'7"
• LWL 23'
• Beam 9'4"
• Draft 4'5"
• Displacement 6700 lbs.
• Ballast 3130 lbs.
• Sail Area 429 sq. ft.
• Cruising Speed: 6 knots @ 2400 RPM
• Maximum Speed: 7 knots
• Headroom: 6 ft 2 in
• Built: 1970 to 1975