Bristol 35.5

The Bristol 35.5 is a 35 ft 6 in masthead-sloop cruiser-racer drawn by Ted Hood's office and built by Bristol Yachts of Bristol, Rhode Island from 1978 to 1996, with about 183 hulls completed. It was sold in two underbodies: the keel/centerboard 'Bristol 35.5C', drawing 3 ft 9 in with the board up, and a fixed deep-keel 'Bristol 35.5' drawing 5 ft 9 in, both with a skeg-hung rudder. Medium displacement (15,000 lb), solid fibreglass construction and a high standard of joinery made it one of Bristol's best-regarded and longest-lived models.

Bristol's first generation of the 1960s and early 1970s were traditional Alberg and Herreshoff designs; under pressure for more modern styling and accommodation the company introduced the Hood-designed 29.9 and 35.5 in late 1977, and the first boats were built as 1978 models. The 35.5 stayed in the catalogue for nearly twenty years: SpinSheet noted it was still available new in April 1997, and database records give 1996 as the last year built, just before the company closed in bankruptcy in 1997. Practical Sailor's own long-term test boat was a 1978 centerboarder, and Hood owned a 35.5 himself. The earlier Bristol 35 of the 1960s is a different, first-generation hull and is not part of this family.

The hull is a development of Hood's 'whale bottom' form — steep deadrise that lets the lead ballast sit low in a shallow stub keel, so the centerboard adds lateral area rather than stability. Beam is a narrow 10 ft 10 in for the length and the displacement/length ratio of 322 is heavy by modern standards, with a modest sail area/displacement ratio of 15.5 on a 47 ft foretriangle (I 47, J 15, P 40.75, E 12.25). Construction is solid hand-laid fibreglass, moulded in two halves and joined on the centreline, with an inward-turning hull flange bolted to a balsa-cored deck through the teak toerail; bulkheads are plywood bonded to the hull rather than a liner. Bristol fitted top-tier components as standard (Edson steering, Lewmar winches, Bomar hatches, Schaefer hardware).

Practical Sailor calls the 35.5C lively and quick in any air, pointing well and notably faster than most boats of its size in light wind, without demanding constant attention at the helm. Like most centerboarders it is initially tender and quick to heel; the boat reaches its polar optimums with a single 120–130% furling jib, and larger genoas simply overpower it. USYRU polars give 3.9 kn close-hauled in 6 kn true at 5° of heel and just over 8 kn broad-reaching in 20 kn. Owners report that with the board partly down the boat is easier to control when docking in a crosswind.

The layout is conventional: V-berth forward, a head with integral shower (usable standing by anyone under about 6 ft 2 in), opposing settees with pull-out extensions in the saloon, a navigation station and a large quarter berth to port, and the galley to starboard with an unusually big and well-insulated icebox. Headroom is listed at 6 ft 3 in. Practical Sailor praises the fold-down table, counter space and the wood-sheathed cabins with a teak-and-ash sole, and criticises the lack of a wet locker and the engine compartment, which is reached only by removing drawers and the companionway step or through a panel in the quarter berth.

Both underbodies share one hull, deck and rig, so the deep keel is modelled as a keel option rather than a generation. The centerboard boat is treated as the base configuration because Hood's second-generation Bristols were designed around the keel/centerboard, the builder distinguished the centerboarder with a 'C' suffix, and the magazine reviews and most listings describe that version; buyers should note that database spec sheets (Good Old Boat, sailboatdata-derived sites) quote the deep-keel boat, with 5 ft 9 in draft and 6,500 lb ballast. Interiors were customised to order, and a few boats have pilot berths. There is no Mk II; the 35.5 replaced the unrelated first-generation Bristol 35.

Practical Sailor warns against a 1978 boat without the modified centerboard, since the first few hulls were built before Bristol changed the board; the board is worked by a coachroof winch through a fully enclosed cable making three turns, so cable, pin and turning-block problems are awkward to reach, and SpinSheet notes the board sits loosely in its trunk with up to 3 in of side play. Engine access is poor on every boat, and the two-cylinder Yanmar 2QM20 fitted to some cannot reach hull speed. The balsa-cored deck should be sounded around fittings as on any boat of this era. Sources disagree on sail area (589 sq ft in Practical Sailor's spec box against 602 sq ft in database records) and Good Old Boat's 5,500 lb ballast figure does not match any other source.

Because relatively few were built, prices stayed firm; Practical Sailor found 1981 boats the value point, with later hulls carrying a premium and a typical asking price around $60,000 at the time of its round-up. Prefer a Westerbeke or the three-cylinder 24 hp Universal (M5424) over the Yanmar 2QM20, and have the centerboard, its pennant and pivot pin inspected — owners budget for cable and pin work every one to two decades. Confirm whether the boat is a centerboard 35.5C or the deep-keel 35.5, and check the deck core, chainplates and the interior wood (cherry and teak interiors were costly options). Do not pay extra for a large sail inventory: one good furling jib is what the boat wants.