A Yachting Monthly survey captured her lasting appeal, describing the T7 as a popular family cruiser. The production total, achieved during a short two-year run, suggests she found her audience quickly.
Design and Construction
The T7 measures 6.70 metres overall, with a 6.23-metre waterline and a beam of 2.50 metres. Her length-to-beam ratio of 2.81 makes her roomy for her length relative to comparable sailboat designs.
The hull is solid fiberglass, and Yachting Monthly describes the boat as lightly constructed—a description consistent with her recorded displacement of 2,360 lb. Ballast accounts for 40 percent of that figure, a proportion that the comparison data places above 54 percent of similar boats.
Dufour offered the iron keel in several forms. As well as a lifting keel that reduced minimum draught to about a foot, buyers could choose either a swing keel or a fin keel, both made of iron. Depending on load, the swing-keel version could sail in 0.30 to 0.40 metre of water. The fin-keel version drew about 1.05 to 1.15 metre.
A wetted area of nearly 18 square metres and an immersion rate of around 103 kg per centimetre round out a hull that is small but sensibly proportioned for its intended role.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
The T7 carries a fractional-sloop rig. The standing-rigging notes specify 7.0-metre jib and genoa sheets of 10 mm diameter, a 17.5-metre mainsheet, and 15.4-metre spinnaker sheets, also 10 mm. These dimensions indicate modest control loads and a straightforward deck layout for short-handed sailing.
Yachting Monthly calls the T7 a good performer. Her theoretical hull speed is about 6.1 knots for a displacement hull of this length.
With the lifting keel raised, she can sail close to a beach. That shallow-draught capability is a genuine advantage in the rocky anchorages and drying harbours that a 22-footer often visits.
Accommodation
What sets the T7 apart from most boats of her size is her centre-cockpit arrangement, with an aftercabin reached through the cockpit. The saloon provides two berths, while the aftercabin adds another two, giving four sleeping places in a boat barely more than 20 feet long on the waterline.
Headroom is close to full standing height at 1.8 metres—just over six feet. That is remarkable in this class and helps explain the T7’s reputation as a family cruiser. Separating the aftercabin from the main saloon also provides a degree of privacy that pocket cruisers of the period rarely attempted.
Verdict
The Dufour T7 is a curious and rather clever small cruiser: a centre-cockpit 22-footer with standing headroom, four berths, and a keel system that can turn her from a sailboat drawing 4 feet 6 inches into a beachable, shallow-draught tender.
She is small and lightly built, but her proportions are generous and her layout is genuinely unusual for the length. For a couple or young family looking for a simple, trailerable coastal cruiser with a proper cabin aft, she remains a distinctive answer.
Pros
- Centre-cockpit design with an aftercabin accessed from the cockpit—rare in a 22-foot boat
- Nearly full standing headroom of 1.8 metres
- Lifting or swing keel provides a minimum draught of about one foot for beaching and shallow harbours
- Roomy for her length, with a length-to-beam ratio of 2.81
- Four berths divided between the saloon and aftercabin
Cons
- Lightly constructed hull
- Small overall; her size and 6.1-knot theoretical hull speed limit her to coastal and sheltered-water cruising
- Raising the keel for shallow-draught sailing introduces grounding and pivot-load considerations that fixed-keel boats don’t have
