Cal 24 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Lapworth drew the Cal 24 as an American trailerable sailboat with a spooned, raked stem and a raised counter, angled transom. The hull is built predominantly of fiberglass with wood trim, and testers praised its graceful lines, springy sheer, and relatively low freeboard, which keeps windage down to a minimum anchor. Below the waterline sits a fixed, stub, modified long keel with a cutaway forefoot and a retractable centerboard, paired with a keel-mounted rudder controlled by a tiller. The retractable board is the key to the boat's dual nature: with it extended the draft is 4.50 feet, but retracted to 2.50 feet the Cal 24 can be loaded on a trailer for ground transport. At 24.39 feet overall on a 20.05-foot waterline, with 8.00-foot beam, the 3,000-pound displacement carries 1,000 pounds of ballast.

Rig and Handling

The Cal 24 carries a fractional sloop rig—a Bermuda sailplan with a 25.50-foot foretriangle height and 8.50-foot base, a 26.50-foot mainsail luff, and 11.50-foot foot. Total sail area comes to roughly 261 square feet, split between a 152-square-foot main and a 108-square-foot jib. As a racing keelboat it posted a PHRF average handicap of 228 and a hull speed of 6.0 knots, figures consistent with a light-displacement MORC design meant to be sailed hard. The narrow 8-foot beam drew criticism from period testers, who found the Space Index the lowest among competitors anchor, but the same compactness is what makes the boat so easily trailered and stored.

Accommodations

Below, the Cal 24 sleeps four. A double V-berth fills the bow cabin, with two straight settee quarter berths in the main cabin and the head tucked under the bow berth. The galley sits to port just aft of the bow cabin with a stove and sink, and cabin headroom measures 54 inches. One owner described lying in the V-berth and passing a mirror through the hatch to keep watch for ships on weekend passages, a detail that captures the intimate scale of the interior. The low headroom and tight beam are the trade for trailerability and a hull that handles well behind a modest tow vehicle.

Known Issues

The boat is not without its age-related faults. Period reviews warned that not all kit-built Cal 24s were finished to an acceptable standard of quality anchor, a relevant caveat since the design was also sold as a kit for amateur construction. Owners report specific failures on surviving examples: a 1963 boat named Foolish Lee came with a delaminated cabintop and a centerboard rusted solid in its trunk, and another owner found the old wood-trimmed windows leaking as the paint wore and gelcoat faded. The centerboard trunk in particular deserves attention, since a rusted board can seize and defeat the retracting mechanism that makes the trailerable draft possible.

Refits and Ownership

Long-term owners have shown the Cal 24 responds well to careful renewal. One restored example received mahogany veneer on the bulkheads, a small pressure-water sink, and an updated electrical panel; its leaking wood-trimmed windows were replaced with stainless steel frames drawn up from CAD patterns. The nearly 60-year-old toerail on a 1963 hull was rebuilt using fine-grain pine sandwiched by African mahogany, each layer set in epoxy under 75 clamps. Original gelcoat was hand-primed and finished with one-part Brightside using a 2-inch watercolor brush, and at one point the mast was unstepped for a year to address corrosion. These are boats whose owners invest by hand, which explains both their scarcity and their durability.

The Verdict

The Cal 24 is a genuine Lapworth MORC design that punches above its 24-foot length as a pocket cruiser, proven by owners who circumnavigated Catalina Island with an infant aboard and by its seaworthy reputation. Its retractable centerboard delivers a rare combination of 4.50-foot sailing draft and 2.50-foot trailering draft. The costs are an exceptionally narrow beam with the lowest Space Index among rivals, kit-boat finish variability noted by period testers, and the usual fiberglass-and-wood decay of a sixty-year-old design.

Pros