Lancer 30-4 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

The 30-4 is a monohull of fiberglass construction, built predominantly of fiberglass, with wood trim, and described plainly as a recreational keelboat. Its profile carries a raked stem and a raised counter reverse transom, with an internally mounted spade-type rudder and a fixed fin keel — the latter drawing 5.18 feet with the standard keel or 4.18 feet with the optional shoal draft keel. Because the hull came from the C&C 30 molds, the 30-4 inherits a C&C-derived hull form within Lancer's production context. That construction baseline, paired with the fin keel and spade rudder, defines a moderate-displacement cruiser rather than a lightweight racer.

Rig and Handling

The boat is rigged as a masthead sloop with a Bermuda rig, its sail plan built around a 35.00-foot I foretriangle height and a 12.83-foot J foretriangle base, with a 29.00-foot mainsail luff and a 10.00-foot mainsail foot. The resulting areas are 145.00 square feet in the mainsail, 224.53 square feet in the jib or genoa, and a total sail area of 369.53 square feet. Against 8,200 pounds of displacement that total yields a sail-area-to-displacement ratio near 15, enough to drive the hull to its 6.57-knot hull speed without dependence on extreme sail loads. The internally mounted spade-type rudder and fixed fin keel give predictable steering geometry for a cruiser of this size, while the fitted inboard engine provides docking and maneuvering assist rather than primary propulsion.

Accommodations

Sleeping accommodation is for four people, split between a double "V"-berth in the bow cabin and an aft cabin with a double berth on the port side. The galley sits on the starboard side just forward of the companionway ladder and is an open L-shaped arrangement equipped with a two-burner stove and a double sink, while a navigation station stands opposite the galley on the port side. The head is located at the companionway on the starboard side. This layout places the working stations — galley and head — on the starboard approach line and the quiet berths and nav station to port, a conventional cruiser split that keeps the companionway-adjacent services compact.

Known Issues

The source record for the Lancer 30-4 contains no documented structural defects, flooding paths, or systemic known issues; the published descriptions instead establish the boat's construction and equipment as plain fact. Owners shopping with an eye to the usual fiberglass-boat concerns will find no authority-cited defect list here, which means inspection must fall back on the model's stated build — solid fiberglass with wood trim, internally mounted spade rudder, and fin keel — rather than any named weakness in the literature.

Refits and Ownership

As an out-of-production 1978–1985 cruiser, the 30-4 enters ownership as a used boat whose original equipment included an inboard engine for docking and maneuvering and a masthead sloop rig. The C&C 30 mold lineage suggests a stable hull platform, and the four-berth interior with L-shaped galley and opposite nav station remains a serviceable coastal cruiser layout. No builder-claimed upgrade paths or period refit programs are documented in the source material.

The Verdict

The Lancer 30-4 is a C&C-designed fiberglass cruiser with a clear lineage from the C&C 30 molds, a moderate 8,200-pound displacement, and a four-berth interior arranged around a starboard galley and portside nav station. Its masthead sloop rig and 369.53 square feet of sail drive a 6.57-knot hull speed, and the optional shoal keel broadens inshore access. The documented record is silent on defects, leaving condition assessment to standard used-boat survey.

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