Klacko Marine is proud to be chosen as the marine metal fabricator for a complete restoration of a Tayana 37 in Upstate New York. From bow to stern, new hardware was custom built to replicate the original manufacturer’s design combined with some modern updates. 316L Stainless Steel was used throughout and mirror polished to the high standards of our client. The project progressed over 5 yrs and proved to be a great partnership between Klacko and the Builder. In fact, the builder’s measurements and jigs were so good, we never had to step foot on the boat.
From BlueWaterBoats.org:
The Tayana 37 is perhaps the most successful semi-custom cruising yacht to be built. It was designed by Bob Perry and introduced in 1975 as a response to the Westsail 32 which were selling in enormous numbers. Today looking back, with the boat still in production with a boat count of 588, most still sailing, and an active and owners community, it’s very apparent that Perry has succeeded.
One could say the yacht was designed to ignite imaginations of tropical sunsets in exotic locations; think oodles of teak and a beautiful custom interior, wrapped into traditional double-ender hull with a full keel. Beneath the alluring romance, you’ll find a boat that is solidly built, and indeed many Tayana 37s can be found on the blue water cruising circuit around the world.
History
When in June of 1973 Time Magazine featured a four page spread on the “cruising life” with a photo of the Westsail 32 it was clear that this diminutive boat had caught the imagination of a generation. They sold like hotcakes and the cruising life came out of the fringes and into the mainstream. Meanwhile, fresh from the success of his groundbreaking Valiant 40 and having more recently designed the CT 54 Perry was approached by Bob Berg, former owner of Flying Dutchman Yachts in Seattle, to design a boat to capitalize on the success of the Westsail. It is said that the success of the Westsail was not that it was the right boat at the right time, it was also the right style; it was exactly what Americans thought a cruising boat should look like. This may explain the Tayana’s copious amounts of teak, her traditional full keel, and double ender style.
The boatyard that was originally selected to build the boat was Ta Chaio Brothers of Taiwan, builders of CT yachts. Interestingly, they declined thinking the boat would not be a commercial success. Thus the contract to build the boat was passed to Ta Yang, another high quality Taiwanese boatbuilding concern.
The boat, which was first known as the “CT 37”, was introduced in 1975 and offered as a semi-custom boat, with all manner of internal options and layouts. The rig was offered with options of cutter or ketch, however cutters were the fashion of the day and only 20 boats were built as ketches. In 1979 the CT 37 name was discontinued, instead boat inherited an offshoot of the Ta Yang name, changing to the Tayana 37.
The Tayana 37 continues to be in production today in very low numbers, they have declined in sales as buyer tastes have favored boats with more expansive interiors, stern entry, and avoidance of higher maintenance teak on the exterior. However the Tayana 37 remains popular in the used boat market, at the time of writing the Tayana Owners Association reports the latest hull number is 588 or 589.