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Reliance Sailboats

Explore Reliance sailboats and the details behind each model. If you are shopping for a Reliance sailboat, we keep an eye out for Used Reliance Sailboats.

Model ↕Listings ↓Year Built ↕LOA (ft) ↕Beam (ft) ↕Draft (ft) ↕Disp. (lbs) ↕Hull ↕Designer ↕Rig ↕Keel ↕
Reliance 4415 for sale197244.33 ft11.67 ft6.16 ft28,000 lbsMonohullPierre MeunierKetchLong
Reliance 121 for sale198739.33 ft8.33 ft6.08 ft8,900 lbsMonohullSteve KillingFractional SloopBulb
Reliance 37—198137 ft11.33 ft6.25 ft17,200 lbsMonohullRobert PerryMasthead SloopFin

Reliance sailboats: a Montreal cruiser and its twelve-metre-styled daysailer sibling

Reliance's small catalog holds two boats with little in common beyond a Montreal address: a full-keel cruising ketch built for owners who lived aboard, and, more than a decade later, a lean daysailer styled after America's Cup racing yachts. Both trace to one owner-builder working out of the same yard.

Origins and ownership

Pierre Meunier was the owner, builder, and driving force behind Reliance Sailing Craft Co. Ltd. of Montreal, Quebec. He designed the Reliance 44, a classic ketch-rigged cruiser, in 1967; the first hull launched in 1973, and Meunier had originally intended to build only that single boat for himself, to run as a Caribbean charter vessel. Instead the design found a market, and Meunier kept building it for years. Only later, enamoured with the long, low, sleek lines of the America's Cup boats of the era, did he set out to translate those same visuals into a smaller boat with a simple interior and a slim hull. In 1984 he brought in designer Steve Killing to draw that boat, the Reliance 12M.

Construction through the eras

The Reliance 44's hull is cored with balsa sandwiched between layers of fiberglass above the waterline, transitioning to solid fiberglass below it and thickening further toward the bottom of the keel. Meunier was among the first builders anywhere to control temperature and humidity during hull layup, a practice credited with keeping the model free of the delamination problems that troubled contemporaries.

Lines and generations

Although the Reliance 44 was drawn as a ketch, some buyers asked for a cutter rig instead, and eighteen hulls were ultimately completed that way. The Reliance 12M answered a different kind of demand entirely: Meunier had been hearing increasingly from customers who wanted a big daysailer along the lines of an up-to-date 8-Metre, an Etchells 22, or a small 12-Metre, rather than another full cruiser, and Killing was brought on with a brief that the boat simply had to look fast and be fast. Killing gave it a fractional rig with an optional self-tacking blade jib, putting most of the sail area into an easily controlled mainsail, and chose a heavier displacement over a lighter ULDB configuration specifically to preserve the feel of an old Meter boat. The lineup also carries a Reliance 37, though its build history is thinly documented.

Who Reliance is for

The Reliance 44 drew dedicated, diehard pleasure sailors who generally lived aboard rather than daysailed. The 12M is a different proposition: an owner who wants twelve-metre proportions, a fast look, and simple systems, without needing an actual America's Cup-scale racing yacht to get there.

Frequently asked questions

01Who built Reliance sailboats?+
Reliance Sailing Craft Co. Ltd., a small yard in Montreal, Quebec, run by owner-builder Pierre Meunier. Meunier both designed and built the company's original model, the Reliance 44, before later commissioning a second, very different boat from designer Steve Killing.
02Who designed the Reliance 44, and when?+
Pierre Meunier, the Montreal builder himself, designed the Reliance 44 in 1967. The first hull launched in 1973, and it went on to become the yard's main production model.
03What is the Reliance 12M, and is it a genuine 12-Metre racing yacht?+
It's genuinely 12 metres long, but it is not a 12-Metre in the America's Cup racing-class sense. Designer Steve Killing styled it in 1984 to capture the long, low, sleek visual lines of America's Cup boats of that era in a smaller daysailer with a simple interior and a slim hull.
04Did the Reliance 44 come in more than one rig configuration?+
Yes. Although Meunier designed it as a ketch, some buyers requested a cutter rig instead, and eighteen hulls were ultimately completed that way.
05What made the Reliance 44's fiberglass construction distinctive?+
Above the waterline the hull carries a balsa core sandwiched between layers of fiberglass, transitioning to solid fiberglass below the waterline and thickening further toward the bottom of the keel. Meunier was among the first builders to control temperature and humidity during layup, a practice credited with the model's freedom from delamination problems.