Design and Construction
The Endeavour 32's hull is molded as a single unit of polyester resin with fiberglass woven roving and multidirectional chopped strand fiber, while the deck and cockpit are molded as a single matching unit of the same materials, with plywood coring between fiberglass layers in the cabin top, deck, seat, and cockpit sole areas to add stiffness. The keel is molded integrally with the hull and all 5,000 pounds of lead ballast is contained inside, and the hull-to-deck joint is a flange type liberally coated with adhesive-sealant during assembly and fastened with stainless steel thru-bolts. The rudder is a single piece of solid high density foam with a fiberglass skin and gelcoat finish, its solid stainless steel post molded integrally and welded to an interior steel blade. The exterior is pigmented gelcoat molded onto the fiberglass, with boot and sheer stripes also gelcoat molded permanently into the hull and non-skid molded into the deck.
The interior is a molded fiberglass unit with bulkheads and cabinetry fastened by screws, bolts, and adhesives, pre-assembled outside the boat and then dropped into a hull with ballast and engine already in place. Finished with varnished teak and soft white overheads, the cabin sole is teak parquet. The original stepped cabin trunk—an Irwin trademark—was replaced mid-production with a more modern, slightly tapered trunk, and early boats carried six opening and four large fixed ports before the standardized layout of ten Beckson opening ports and two Atkins-Hoyle aluminum hatches with 3/4-inch Lexan.
Rig and Handling
The Endeavour 32 carries a simple single-spreader masthead sloop rig, with Kenyon extruded aluminum 6061-T6 spars and a mast stepped on deck over an interior supporting post. Standing rigging is stainless steel wire—1/4-inch for forestay, backstay, and uppers, 3/16-inch for lowers—with chainplates through-bolted at the deck edge and additional fiberglass reinforcement molded into the hull at those points. Halyards were originally stainless wire rope with Dacron tails run externally to #32 Lewmar winches on the mast, while sheets lead to #40 Lewmar self-tailers in the cockpit, their lead blocks clipping to the toerail and the main traveler mounted on the companionway bridge deck.
Test sailors found the E32 relatively narrow and quick to heel, which extends the waterline and, as wind passes ten knots, stretches the effective hull length and builds speed; her narrow beam gives good directional stability and keeps the bow from digging in as wider-sterned boats tend to. The outboard shroud placement and lack of inboard tracks trade away some close-winded performance, yet she regularly sails as close as 45 degrees in a breeze and loves reaching, designed as she was for the Florida Keys, Bahamas, and Caribbean. The hull almost never pounds in a seaway, can be easily handled by a small crew, and has shown seven knots routinely with ten while surfing down four-to-six-foot swells, though she grows squirrely downwind and the curvy stern with shallow fins increases the tendency to lose steerage when overtaken by waves.
Accommodations
Below, the Endeavour 32 sleeps six with a V-berth forward, head to port and lockers to starboard dividing it from a main salon with a fold-up dining table; the port settee pulls out to a double while starboard is a single, and aft to port lies a pilot berth with the galley to starboard originally fitted with an icebox and a gimbaled three-burner alcohol or gas stove with oven. Headroom runs 6 feet 3 inches, there is no door between main and forward cabins though a privacy curtain was optional, and the biggest interior criticism remains the absence of any navigation station or chart table. The icebox is about ten cubic feet, three sea berths are legitimate—both main settees and the port quarterberth—and the companionway drops to seat height about twelve inches above the cockpit sole with three drop boards, the electrical panel immediately beneath.
Known Issues
Practical Sailor's survey of owners found a higher than average number of complaints about gelcoat, including one report of flaking inside the integral fiberglass water tank under the forward berths and another of extensive deck delamination, while a surveyor noted loose tabbing around a forward bulkhead. Older boats have no deck fill for that forward water tank, and there are no deck scuppers to shed cockpit or deck water. Centerboard versions draw specific criticism for an exposed pennant: with the board down, about three feet of wire hangs vulnerable below the boat, and several owners complain of the exposure itself.
Refits and Ownership
Every Endeavour 32 left the factory with a diesel, the 1975–77 standard being a 12-horsepower Yanmar 1QM with some sistership period boats carrying a Westerbeke L-25 or Yanmar 2QM20, the bigger Yanmar becoming standard in 1978 and a roughly 24-horsepower three-cylinder Universal optional late. Yanmar's GM series replaced the QM line in the early 1980s, the 2GMD supplanting the 2QM and a 3GMD added. The engine compartment has no sound insulation, and the standard 16-inch two-blade prop (three-blade optional) turns on a 1-inch stainless shaft through a stuffing box with a cutless bearing in a cast bronze strut, exhausted through a Vernalift muffler. Wiring is 10-gauge stranded copper, color-coded and largely high and accessible under side-deck panels, with below-waterline metals bonded by 8-gauge copper to the common ground.
The Verdict
The Endeavour 32 is a pragmatic descendant of a pre-IOR cruiser-racer, reworked by Dennis Robbins into a narrower, slightly longer coastal cruiser whose integral-keel construction, molded gelcoat detailing, and pre-built interior unit speak to a straightforward production ethos. She rewards a breeze and a reaching course more than light-air punch or close-winded racing, and her accommodations are honest if flawed by the missing chart table and forward-cabin door.
Pros
- Integral molded keel with all lead ballast inside and a flange hull-deck joint with thru-bolts
- Narrow beam and early heel extend waterline for speed gain once wind tops ten knots
- Easily handled by a small crew; hull almost never pounds in a seaway
- Pre-assembled fiberglass interior unit and accessible high wiring simplify ownership
Cons
- Underpowered below ten knots; outboard shrouds and no inboard tracks hurt close-winded sailing
- No deck scuppers; older boats lack forward water-tank deck fill
- Centerboard pennant exposes about three feet of vulnerable wire below the hull
- Higher-than-average gelcoat complaints, including flaking in the forward tank and deck delamination
