 A couple I knew were in the market for a 22 to 24 footer. They had been avid dinghy sailors, but with two children, six and three years of age, they wanted to switch to sailing a ballasted boat. "We can afford $7,000 to $8,000, and a trailerable boat would help keep annual costs down," they advised me. I recommended the CS 22 without reservation for both monetary value and sailing enjoyment. I had crewed on a CS 22 in club races during the early '80s, and knew the design as a comfortable and stable boat with surprisingly good performance. The sails are relatively small, and even spinnaker handling is no big chore. Reef early, keep her sailing flat, and the boat remains dry and comfortable in rough weather. Designed by John Butler of the U.K., this was the first boat for many Canadian sailors during the rapid growth of the sport in the 1970s. More than 500 were built by Canadian Sailcraft (now CS Yachts of Brampton, Ont.) between 1971 and 1976, before production was halted as the builder concentrated on larger models.
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 Are you searching for a second-hand boat for under $20,000, with a diesel inboard, a comfortable interior, standing headroom and good club-racing performance? In my opinion, there are few well-known production boats that meet this description. The Mirage 26/27, for example, has a gas OMC Saildrive inboard; the C&C 27 has the Atomic IV (also gasoline) inboard. And although the Bayfield 25 has an inboard diesel, it falls short on headroom and club performance. Camper and Nicholsons’ design The Cs 27, designed in 1975 by Raymond Wall, is a boat that fits this bill perfectly. Wall, from the respected British design house of Camper and Nicholsons, drew the lines of three cruiser/racers – for CS Yachts Ltd. in Brampton, ON. The first of Wall’s boats for Canadian Sailcraft, the design brief of the 27 called for a family cruiser, with racing performance under the International Offshore Rule (IOR).
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 At Toronto's Dockside in-water boat show September 1989, CS Yachts unveiled its new 34 – so new that it didn't even have an interior. The new Tony Castro design had first been put into production by MG Yachts in England, and CS had yet to sort out its own accommodations plan and detailing. Nonetheless, consumer reaction was positive. Fueled by an innovative marketing concept (introductory price under 90 G's) and some interesting features, the design gained an instant following: ready buyers. (Nothing succeeds like price point.) "We wanted," said newly installed marketing manager Stuart Robertson "a 'show stopper' to introduce what we believe is the only quality 34-footer in today's market at an affordable price. Our strategy was to target second-time owners and at the same time pitch first-time buyers with a true-value bargain. "The strategy appears to have worked and Robertson was happy to display affidavits from satisfied owners championing the qualities of the new yacht, above and below the waterline.
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 It has been more than 10 years since the CS 36 Merlin was first introduced in the boating market, but despite its age, this design is still one of the most popular boats in its class. With the CS 36 Merlin, CS Yachts became one of the first builders to bring the euro-style of yacht design to North America. Large aft cabins and aft cockpits provided good carrying capacity, and a generous beam all the way back to the stern kept the helm spacious and created truly usable swim platforms. The new plumb bows extended waterlines and created better value per foot. All of these changes proved positive for CS, and remain popular with many boat builders and buyers even today.
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 One worry CS founder Paul Tennyson had with the shortening of his company’s name back in 1971 from Canadian Sailcraft Company to CS Yachts was the similarity, in sound anyway, to its chief competition C&C Yachts. Although he has been building boats since 1963 as part of his reinforced plastics business, Tennyson had been solely marketing his 15-foot Canadian Sailcraft Cornice dinghy for several years before deciding on the name change. Tennyson even went so far as to ask C&C principles if they were bothered by the change. Evidently, the reply was negative, as CS dropped dinghy production and began building keelboats under a new name – and became a Canadian tradition that lasted until 1992. In its best year, 1986, CS pumped out 175 30s, 33s, and 36s. That’s roughly a boat every day and a half. However, after increasing its square footage from 60,000 to 100,000 the following year, the company’s production managed to decrease slightly.
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 A yacht can't be all things to all people, but if one listens to Malcolm Stringer, the CS 40 is as near as you can come to the ideal performance cruiser. Stringer is CS' service manager, which might suggest a vested interest in the public perception of this design. Still, it's hard to argue with success.
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 Just when you did not expect it, a surprise comes along that reminds you that underlying yacht design and building, there is a constant evolution. I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived to sail test the Delphia 37; a new brand and a new builder enter the Canadian market. Now Polish craftsmanship is evident in many boats we see now; the Delphia is a great example of the complete package.
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 If you have been a faithful reader of Canadian Yachting, this boat will not appear new to you. I reviewed it in June, 1989, and Paul Howard sailed it across our pages in a performance review in January, 1990. Since my review, over 50 boats have been built. The reason the Dragonfly returns to CY is a very significant design change.
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 If winning the European boat of the year in the Family Cruising category was not enough, the reaction to the prelaunch of Dufour and the pent up demand for these boats in North America must have been a nice surprise. That, coupled with the fact that the team at True North Yachts and Bosuns Yachts in Canada were named dealers, means that Dufour will once again sell it great boats in Canada with solid backup and a strong dealer support.
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 What do you get when you cross an Ideal 18 with a 505...? After two action-packed test-drives on Lake Ontario last summer, my answer is speed, excitement, convenience - and the new Electra Sport 20. Hot of the drawing board of the design team of sailmakers Hubert Raudaschl of St. Wolfgang, Austria, and Heider Funck of Toronto, this sleek sport-boat made its Canadian debut as it screamed around the race course in Toronto's Humber Bay this past summer. Four years ago, Funck began to dream about building a small performance-oriented, One-Design keelboat that would be fast, easy-to-handle and also simple to pack up at the end of a day's racing.
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