Mini-Cruiser Madness: Half of Round 1 Complete

Here's a recap...

The first round of the left-hand bracket is complete. Before we move on to the much-anticipated right-hand bracket, let’s recap the action so far:

• The venerable O’Day Mariner did a horizon job on the Aquarius 23 bargain-cruiser. Expect the Mariner to encounter more resistance next round when it battles the Potter 15.

• The Potter 15 captured 62% of the votes vs the Peep Hen. Some argued the Peep Hen was a “better Potter,” but the famous P-15 won out.

• In a feature match-up the Sea Pearl barely edged "(55%) the less common but highly-regarded Ranger 20. Will the Sea Pearl—which was criticized for its being unrecoverable from capsize—stand a chance against the Com-Pac 16?

• In arguably the biggest round-one mismatch, the Com-Pac 16 sunk the Mac 26X(M). Comments on the controversial Mac were especially biting. Reader Jonathan Lewis wrote: “I always thought the MacGregor was a boat for someone who didn’t understand boating,” and Joel Bergen put an even finer point on it, “Waterskiing behind a sailboat is an abomination of nature.”

• The quirky but beloved San Francisco Pelican cruised to an easy victory against the Canadian cruiser Tanzer 22, whose weight and size seemed to turn readers off.

• SCAMP slipped past a strong challenge from the versatile San Juan 21. But how will SCAMP fare against the more similar Pelican? We were happy to see some of you saw the value in this little exercise we call Mini-Cruiser Madness, as at least one reader commented that after reading the comments he’s going to put the SJ-21 on his list of next boats.

• A few of you were tormented by this match-up, not wanting to knock either from the contest, but the popular Monty 17 outlasted the salty Halman 20.

• In the closest match-up yet (was tied 50/50 after 56 votes) the P-165 rallied to beat the San Juan 23. Oddmakers don’t give the P-165 much chance to advance though with the Mongomery 17 rested and tugging at her docklines.

Were there any upsets or big surprises? Not really. There are more upsets in that other March Madness thing, but we can see some hearts are definitely going be broken in round two! In the meantime we will start the right-hand bracket with a great match-up—the Drascombe Lugger vs the Montgomery 15. Stay tuned. —Eds