The Niagara 35 is a Canadian

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

that was designed by Mark Ellis as a

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

and first built in 1978.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 272-273. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Production

The design was built by

Hinterhoeller Yachts Hinterhoeller Yachts was a Canadian boat builder based in St. Catharines, Ontario. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats. The company was originally founded by George Hinterhoeller as Hinterhoeller Limit ...

St Catharines, Ontario St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontario ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and first shown at the

Toronto International Boat Show The Toronto International Boat Show is an annual boat show held in January at the Enercare Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1959, and is the largest indoor show held in North America. In 2019, it featured 550 vendors exhib ...

in 1978. The company built the design from 1978 to 1990, with 260 examples completed. About half the production run went to customers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Design

Ellis explained his design goals for the Niagara 35: "she is a cruising boat that made sense ... Her underwater shape is similar to racing boats of the 1970s ... The spade rudder is balanced and the keel form is a simple NACA foil without deep draught. Her sheer line is moderate and the ends are balanced ... I suppose you could say she is a moderate design, but that sounds dull – I hope the 35 is better than that!" The Niagara 35 is a recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open wat ...

, built predominantly of

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

over a

balsa ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...

core, with

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

wood trim. It has a

masthead sloop A masthead rig on a sailing vessel consists of a forestay and backstay both attached at the top of the mast. The Bermuda rig can be split into two groups: the masthead rig and the fractional rig. The masthead rig has larger and more headsails, ...

rig with

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

spars and a

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestays. The word ''bowsprit'' is thought to originate from the Middle L ...

, a spooned

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, a raised counter

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

, an internally mounted spade-type

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

controlled by a

wheel A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...

and a fixed fin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. It displaces and carries of ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard keel fitted. The boat was factory-fitted with a Universal M24D , or a

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, or a four-cylinder Westerbeke

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

for docking and maneuvering. The fuel tank holds and the fresh water tank has a capacity of . The boat was built with two interior configurations. Initially it had an unconventional arrangement, with two small cabins, a single to starboard and a double to port, on each side of the

companionway In the architecture of a ship, a companion or companionway is a raised and windowed hatchway in the ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins. A companionway may be secured by doors or, commonly in ...

steps, the

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

, with a three-burned

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used a ...

stove,

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrig ...

and sink amidships to port and the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

amidships to starboard, along with a chart table. The main saloon is forward and the forepeak is used for storage space and includes a work bench and access to the foredeck via a large overhead hatch. In 1984 a new interior configuration, called the "Encore", was introduced due to customer demand for a much more conventional arrangement. It has a bow "V"-berth with a head just aft, a main saloon and a "U"-shaped galley, an aft quarter berth and a nav station. In 1985 the boat's bowsprit was extended in length. Ventilation is provided by the bow hatch and hatches above both the gallery and head. There are also four fixed ports and six opening ones. Sail handling includes

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tracks, a dedicated

halyard In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line (rope) that is used to hoist a ladder, sail, flag or yard. The term ''halyard'' comes from the phrase "to haul yards". Halyards, like most other parts of the running rigging, were classically made of n ...

winch mounted on the mast, two cabin-top winches and two mounted on the cockpit coaming. The boat has slab-reefing, a 4:1

boom vang A boom vang (US) or kicking strap (UK) (often shortened to "vang" or "kicker") is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail. The Collins English Dictionary defines it as ...

, a

topping lift The topping lift (more rarely known as an uphaul) is a line which applies upward force on a boom on a sailboat. Part of the running rigging, topping lifts are primarily used to hold a boom up when the sail is lowered. This line would run from ne ...

and an internally-led

outhaul An outhaul is a control line found on a sailboat. It is an element of the running rigging, used to attach the mainsail Parts of a sail#Corners, clew to the boom (sailing), boom and tensions the Sail components#Edges, foot of the sail. It commonly ...

. The design has a

PHRF Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...

racing average handicap of 144.

Operational history

A number of long voyages have been made in Niagara 35s. Gordon McClarity sailed from

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

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Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and back to Vancouver. Pierre Desjardins sailed his Niagara 35 from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

to the

Greek Islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

. Paul Howard, writing in

Canadian Yachting ''Canadian Yachting'' is a bi-monthly (six issues a year) magazine, and boating news website which documents the Canadian yachting scene - from dinghies to keelboats, cruising to racing, youth sailing and around the world events.kerwil.com: "Ab ...

in 1994, described the design, "The Niagara 35 is neither traditional cruiser (the fin keel and spade rudder are modern), nor modern racer/cruiser (the fin keel and spade rudder are too traditional). Indeed, it notable sheer further confuses the matter. The Niagara’s high topsides compare to contemporary designs but its coach house hints at the traditional shapes and trim of older designs." A review in ''Cruising World'' written by Jayne Finn in 2006, stated, "Traditional looks combined with modern features draw frequent compliments for the Niagara 35 ... Under way, the boat is stable and stiff, and we've had the rail of our Niagara 35, Phantasia II, in the water only once, when beating down Lake Huron in 20 knots of wind. On that same trip we hooted and hollered downwind at over 8 knots on a day on which virtually no one else was out. While the boat tracks and maneuvers well, sail trim and the right sail combinations really make or break progress upwind or in light air." In a review Michael McGoldrick wrote, "Many people believe that Mark Ellis (of Nonsuch fame) came very close to setting the standard for the ideal cruising boat in the 35 foot range with the design for the Niagara 35. It seems to have struck a good balance between the requirements for livability and a no-nonsense cruising boat. This, along with its length of 35 feet, means the Niagara 35 is the kind of boat which starts to attract the attention of people who plan to live aboard for extended periods of time." A review in ''Practical Sailor'' magazine concluded, "despite numerous passages to the Caribbean and South Pacific, the Niagara 35 is not really a round-the-world type—among other things, it’s considered too small by many of today’s bluewater sailors."

References

{{Hinterhoeller Yachts Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Sailboat type designs by Mark Ellis Sailboat types built by Hinterhoeller Yachts

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References