Design and Construction
The Cascade 29's hull is solid fiberglass, built without core by Yacht Constructors using thick hand-laid laminate. Her deck is also solid fiberglass rather than the cored construction the builder used on other models. At 7,500 pounds displacement with 2,380 pounds of iron ballast, she shows a 32 percent ballast ratio, a figure higher than only about 10 percent of similar designs. The length-to-beam ratio is 3.26, slimmer than 69 percent of comparable sailboats, and the designer chose a slightly speedier hull form. A bulb fin keel draws roughly 4.75 feet loaded, while the spade rudder and 24-foot waterline yield a theoretical hull speed near 6.6 knots.
Rig and Handling
The Cascade 29 is rigged as a cutter on a modest sail plan of 417 square feet, and she carries more rig than only 4 percent of similar boats, meaning she is significantly underrigged. Mainsail, jib, genoa, and spinnaker halyards all run about 30.8 feet at 5/16 inch, while sheets scale from 29-foot jib and genoa sheets to a 72.5-foot mainsheet, with spinnaker sheets at 63.8 feet. The 247-square-foot wetted surface and 744 pounds-per-inch immersion rate describe a hull that responds to load but settles deeply when provisioned.
Accommodations
A significant portion of Cascade sailboats left the factory as semi-complete kit hulls for owner finishing, so interiors vary widely between examples. Tankage is 33 gallons gasoline and 43 gallons water, served by a Universal-Atomic Atomic 4 gasoline engine of 30 horsepower. The slender beam of 8.17 feet limits cabin breadth relative to later wide-body designs.
Known Issues
The solid fiberglass deck avoids the balsa or plywood coring used elsewhere by the builder, eliminating a typical deck-saturation risk. The gasoline Atomic 4 engine carries the inherent ventilation and vapor-risk considerations of any cabin-mounted gasoline inboard. Given the kit-hull history, individual examples may show non-standard systems and joinery.
Refits and Ownership
Ownership of the marque shifted in 1989 when Yacht Constructors became Cascade Yachts under Hans Geerling, and later custodianship passed to Chinook Composites in 2007 and to Russell in 2008, who planned limited resumption in Seaside, Oregon. The underrigged sail plan invites re-cut sails or a taller rig as an owner upgrade, and the kit-built lineage means a survey should verify how thoroughly each specific hull was finished.
The Verdict
The Cascade 29 is a slender, early-Sixties Robert A. Smith design whose solid fiberglass hull and bulb fin keel make her a straightforward, shallow-draft coastal cruiser with a 355-unit production run. Her low ballast ratio and significantly underrigged sail plan are the clear trade-offs against a speed-oriented narrow hull.
Pros
- Solid, coreless fiberglass hull and deck remove common core-rot failure modes
- Slender 3.26 length-to-beam ratio favored a quicker hull than most peers
- Shallow ~4.75-foot draft broadens anchorage and marina access
- Long builder custodianship preserves plans and mold history
Cons
- 32 percent ballast ratio sits below roughly 90 percent of comparable designs
- Sail area exceeds only 4 percent of similar boats, leaving her underrigged
- Kit-hull heritage produces inconsistent owner-finished interiors and systems
- Gasoline Atomic 4 inboard carries standard gasoline-engine caveats
