At just under 23 feet overall and a touch over 19 feet on the waterline, the Calife 23 displaces 1,600 kg and carries 550 kg of iron ballast. Her 34.4 percent ballast ratio, fin keel, and transom-hung rudder place her firmly among the lively, easily driven weekend cruisers of the late 1960s rather than in the heavy, sluggish camp.
Design and Construction
Harlé designed the Calife 23 as a habitable coastal cruiser. Built in France, she has a solid-fiberglass monocoque hull, a fin keel, and a transom-hung rudder.
Her 2.5-meter beam and 0.99-meter draft give her a compact but practical footprint for trailing and shallow harbours. The displacement-to-length ratio of 228.5 and comfort ratio of 16.35 identify her as a light-displacement design by the standards of her time. A capsize screening value of 2.16 and an S# of 2.68 further mark her as a boat intended for sheltered-water cruising rather than offshore passages.
Calculated hull speed is 5.85 knots, and she immerses 557.68 pounds per inch. Those figures are useful when considering load-carrying ability and wake-breaking behaviour at cruising weight.
Rig and Handling
The Calife 23 carries a masthead sloop rig, with an I of 8 m, J of 2.75 m, P of 6.6 m, and E of 2.5 m. The foretriangle measures about 11 m² and the mainsail roughly 8.25 m², giving a standard total sail area near 19.25 m². Her sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 19.94 helps explain her quickness in modest breezes.
The fin keel and transom-hung rudder give her predictable helm response at low speeds for a boat of this size. Light displacement lets her accelerate readily once the genoa fills. She rewards gentle, anticipatory steering more than muscle at the tiller.
Accommodations
The French technical file describes a 6.84-meter hull with a 2.5-meter beam, providing enough width below for a practical saloon and modest galley. The builder doesn’t specify the berth count or interior layout.
The programme classification makes the intended use clear: the Calife 23 was sold as a weekend refuge for sheltered anchorages, not as an ocean-crossing boat.
Known Issues
No structural defects, osmotic blistering, rig failures, or systemic construction faults are recorded for the Calife 23. In other words, the list of known model-specific issues is empty. That’s unusual for a solid-glass boat of this age and suggests a straightforward ownership picture.
Even so, the repair and modification history of any individual hull remains a matter for a surveyor to assess rather than something the class record can establish.
The Verdict
The Calife 23 is a tidy, light-displacement Harlé design. Across 350 boats, it offered a no-nonsense combination of fin keel, transom-hung rudder, and an easily driven masthead rig. She’s small, beamy for her length, and quick to accelerate, with figures that place her squarely in the day-sailing and weekend-cruising category for sheltered waters.
The absence of recorded class-wide defects also makes her relatively uncomplicated to assess on her individual merits.
Pros
- Light 1,600 kg displacement and 34.4% ballast ratio support lively, easily driven handling
- Compact 2.5 m beam and 0.99 m draft suit trailing and shallow harbours
- A production run of 350 boats from 1969 to 1976 represents a respectable run for a 23-foot coastal cruiser of that era
- No recorded class-wide structural or rigging defects
Cons
- Comfort ratio of 16.35 and S# of 2.68 limit her to sheltered-water cruising
- The builder doesn’t specify berth count or interior layout
