Who designed Southern Cross sailboats?

Naval architect Thomas Gillmer designed all four Southern Cross models -- the 28, 31, 35, and 39. Gillmer was a professor of naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he headed the design department, and his other best-known cruising designs include the Seawind, Seawind II, and the Blue Moon.

Who built Southern Cross sailboats, and where?

C.E. Ryder Corporation, founded by Clarke Ryder in 1969, built every Southern Cross at its yard in Bristol, Rhode Island. The company closed in 1990 after producing more than 280 boats.

Why does the same Southern Cross design sometimes get listed as a 'Gillmer'?

Around 1985, Ryder split the same design into two names: factory-finished boats stayed 'Southern Cross' and carried a bronze builder's medallion, while hulls finished by their owners from a kit were sold as 'Gillmer,' without the medallion. The two names describe who finished the interior, not two different boats.

Why are all Southern Cross models double-enders?

Builder Clarke Ryder said he kept every model a double-ender deliberately -- changing the hull form, in his words, would have undercut the line's whole premise.

How did Ryder come to build the Southern Cross line?

Ryder said that around 1973-1974 he saw how popular the West Coast's Westsail 32 kit boat had become and wanted an East Coast equivalent, which led him to naval architect Thomas Gillmer's designs. He took the first Southern Cross 31 to the 1975 Annapolis Boat Show.

Southern Cross Sailboats

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

Model ↕	Listings ↓	Year Built ↕	LOA (ft) ↕	Beam (ft) ↕	Draft (ft) ↕	Disp. (lbs) ↕	Hull ↕	Designer ↕	Rig ↕	Keel ↕
Southern Cross 39	4 for sale	1981	39 ft	12.08 ft	5.3 ft	21,000 lbs	Monohull	Thomas Gillmer	Cutter	Fin
Southern Cross 31	3 for sale	1975	34.5 ft	9.5 ft	4.58 ft	13,600 lbs	Monohull	Thomas Gillmer	Cutter	Long
Southern Cross 28	2 for sale	1978	30.42 ft	8.5 ft	4.67 ft	8,500 lbs	Monohull	Thomas Gillmer	Cutter	Fin
Southern Cross 35	1 for sale	1978	35.25 ft	11.42 ft	4.92 ft	17,700 lbs	Monohull	Thomas Gillmer	Cutter	Fin
Southern Cross 32	—	1980	32.25 ft	10.75 ft	4.92 ft	11,391 lbs	Monohull	Ken Upham/Mike Price	Cutter	Fin

Southern Cross sailboats: one double-ended line, sold under two names

Southern Cross is a single, tightly focused line of double-ended cruising sailboats -- the 28, 31, 35, and 39 -- all drawn by naval architect Thomas Gillmer and built by one Rhode Island yard across a fifteen-year run. What makes the marque distinctive on paper isn't a family of different designs but a single design sold two ways: a factory-finished boat carried the Southern Cross name, while the identical hull, completed by its owner from a kit, was sold as a "Gillmer" instead.

Origins and ownership

Clarke Ryder created C.E. Ryder Corporation in 1969. Around 1973-1974, he said, he watched the Westsail 32 kit boat build a following on the West Coast and set out to build an East Coast equivalent -- a search that led him to naval architect Thomas Gillmer. Gillmer, a longtime professor of naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy who headed its design department, was among the first designers to recognize fiberglass as a serious boatbuilding material; a Gillmer-designed Seawind became the first fiberglass boat to circumnavigate the globe, and SAIL's account of his career ranks the Southern Cross series among his best-known cruising designs, alongside the Seawind, Seawind II, and the Blue Moon. Ryder took the first Southern Cross 31 to the 1975 Annapolis Boat Show, and all four Southern Cross models that followed -- the 28, 31, 35, and 39 -- carried Gillmer's lines. Every one stayed a double-ender by design: Ryder said changing the hull form would have undercut the whole premise of the line. Owners organized the Southern Cross Owners' Association in 1980, initially to funnel feedback on design and construction back to the builder, which led to at least one concrete change, an improved SC31 deck. Known for its skilled fiberglass work, C.E. Ryder Corp. built more than 280 Southern Cross yachts before closing in 1990.

Construction through the eras

The Southern Cross 31, first into production, set the pattern the later models followed. Gillmer had originally drawn it for wooden construction -- for a vessel called Red Wine -- and its Norwegian "Spitzgatten" heritage still shows in its external rudder, sheer, and stem lines. Ryder's fiberglass version hand-laid the hull with a molded-in stem and sternpost, a half-inch Airex foam core, and 4,100 pounds of lead ballast bonded inside, with an interior finished in oil-rubbed Bruynzeel and Honduras mahogany; reviewing the boat for SAIL in October 1975, Robert Perry called Gillmer one of his favorite designers. From early on, Ryder sold the boats at three levels of completion -- a bare hull, a hull and deck, or a hull and deck with some interior components -- alongside its own factory-finished boats.

Lines and generations

Around 1985, Ryder formalized that split into two names. A factory-finished boat kept the Southern Cross name and carried a bronze builder's medallion; a hull finished by its owner from one of the kit levels was sold as a "Gillmer" instead, without the medallion. A Gillmer 31 and a Southern Cross 31 are the same design underneath -- the name simply records who finished the interior.

Who Southern Cross is for

Southern Cross suits buyers drawn to one deliberately old-fashioned hull form -- Gillmer's canoe-sterned double-ender -- built by a single small yard rather than a marque that reinvented itself model to model. Because the same design left the yard under two different names depending on who finished it, a "Gillmer" and a "Southern Cross" of the same size are the same boat by another name, not separate families to choose between.