Plastic Classic Forum

Any one know anything about the Reliance 44? I can find very little about this on the net. This has to qualify as a Classic Plastic. To eye, she has beautiful lines. I'm a sucker for a good looking girl.

Also seems to be in the right size range.

Is this the boat your are thinking off?

http://reliance44.com/index.html

I know a bit about them; my brother owned one and I sailed on her a number of times. What would you like to know? There were only a few built, in Ontario by a company called Ocean Cruising Yachts during the 1980's. A number of the ones built were owner finished; some rather crudly inside. The boat my borther owned was built for the owner of OCY and was gorgeous, included a spiral staircase companionway in the main saloon. They are a sweet sailing boat, about 28,000 disp from the builder. They have a keel attached rudder and underwater lines that look surprisingly like a big sister to my Bristol 29.
They have balsa cored decks and topsides with solid glass below the waterline. Tankage is a problem as it is in the keel and unaccessable after the sole is added. They are flush deck aft of the mast where the cabin raises to a doghouse. They have a huge foredeck; wide side decks and a generous cockpit. It is one of the few boats of this size that can be easily singlehanded--which my brother often did. For a reasonable beam sea boat they are huge inside. We did a two week cruise in the Gulf Islands with 6 people aboard and it never felt crowded.

It was rumoured that Hinckley was involved to some degree in the ownership of Ocean Cruising Yachts, but that is not true.

David

Solo,

Where in Canada? In BC? She might be my brother's old boat which would be a real gem to find.

Flag Blue Awlgrip topsides, teak decks, rerigged as a sloop, name was Southern Cross.

David

It's in Vancouver. But I don't think it could be your brother's. I believe it is being sold by a women. I think she's widowed. Is you brother still with us?

I just read the rest of your post. No that's the wrong name.

My brother sold Southern Cross last year to a couple in Vancouver. The name might be different. IF she is rigged as a sloop, all new Shatauer offshore sails, if she has a complete teak interior, and a teak spiral stairway in the saloon, that is my brother's ex boat.

The boat you mention sounds like the Reliance 44 with the piano in her. A sort of famous boat. She was in Vancouver and the elderly couple sailed down the west coast, but the husband passed away on the trip. I had heard that the boat had been sold at that point. I know of only two Reliance 44's in that area, the piano boat and my brother's ex-boat.

David

Bingo. You've got the boat. It does have a piano in it. Did you see this boat? What's the word on it?

I haven't seen the boat, sorry. The piano was installed at the factory before the deck went on. Sailors at anchorages have heard it and it is a bit famous for that reason. I'm sure it is a small piano, but the fact that the boat has a piano onboard speaks to how roomy the Reliance is.

Good luck,

David

I know a bit about them; .........

It was rumoured that Hinckley was involved to some degree in the ownership of Ocean Cruising Yachts, but that is not true. ........

(Sorry. I'm having a problem figuring out quoteing on this system.)


Wow! I used to think that I knew something about this stuff.
So what was the story with this company? I also thought there was a 'Hinckley connection'. Any idea whose design this is? (Reliance 44)

My mistake. I talked to my brother and the boat boat was built by Reliance Yachts in Montreal. The designer was Pierre Meunier. Ocean Cruising Yachts may in fact be Hinckley's venture into the Valiant-type market of offshore passage makers. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the clarification. That's the builder name I had. I also have, for this particular yacht, that 46 were built, which is a pretty good number for a boat of this size. I wish I could remember where that piece of information came from. The designer I didn't have.
I also have a Reliance 12, designed by Steve Killing (originally in-house designer for C&C), by this same builder, and the Reliance 37 by Robert Perry, by another Canadian firm called Markos Yachts. Just wondering if you had heard of any of these other boats.

Thanks.
Randy Browning
Norwalk, CT

I have heard of the Robt Perry Reliance--I think it's just a well found name for sailboats--no other connection. Somewhere I seem to think that about 50 were built of the Reliance 44. The mounting of the chainplates were done very similarly to how Hinckley chainplates are attached--which my be part of the reason for the association with Hinckley.

David

Hank Hinckley was the founder of Ocean Cruising Yachts.