Precision 165 vs San Juan 23

A Round 1 Mini-Cruiser Madness Match-up

Well, here we are halfway through the first round match-ups! Next we’ll move on to the right-hand bracket.

Neither of these boats has been featured especially often in Small Craft Advisor, but both have loyal followings—and for good reason. Yes, it’s another “apples and oranges” based on size, but again, our only parameters were “popular trailerable sailboats used for camping and cruising.” Your judging criteria?

• Performance

• Seaworthiness

• Accommodations (suitability for camp-cruising)

• Trailerability (and rigging, launching ease)

• Appearance

• Quality/Value

Precision 165 designer, Jim Taylor, considered his popular Precision 18 “the smallest boat that could be practically cruised, and still be easily trailered by a relatively small car.” He describes her smaller sister, the P-165, as a “crossover—a daysailer with the ‘get out of the weather’ cuddy cabin and on-board toilet facilities of a small cruiser.” SCA readers, many of whom regularly cruise boats a foot or more shorter, would likely see the P-165 as a full-fledged cruiser for their purposes.

Writing about her performance during our test sail we wrote: With 20-knot winds rushing down the canyons and out across the desert lake we motored out and set a reefed main and working jib. As we bashed up and over the steep swells rolling in from just beyond the harbor mouth, our photography chase boat decided conditions were a little too exciting and turned back.