Valiant 40

The Valiant 40 is Robert Perry's 1973 double-ended cutter, widely credited with creating the 'performance cruiser' category by pairing a moderate-displacement hull, a long fin keel with a cutaway forefoot and a skeg-hung rudder with a traditional canoe stern. About 200 were built between 1973 and 1992, first by Uniflite in Bellingham, Washington, then by Valiant Yachts in Gordonville, Texas. It was inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1997 and has more solo and short-handed ocean voyages to its name than almost any production cruiser of its size.

Nathan Rothman commissioned the design from the 28-year-old Perry and had the boats built by Uniflite, a Bellingham powerboat and military-craft yard that used fire-retardant polyester resin exclusively. From around 1976 to 1981 that Hetron resin caused severe laminate blistering above and below the waterline on a large share of hulls (Wikipedia gives hulls 120–249). Litigation and a slumping market followed; Uniflite was sold in 1984 and Texas dealer Rich Worstell bought the moulds, built a few boats in Washington and then moved production to Lake Texoma, switching to isophthalic resin and gelcoat. Valiant Yachts kept the 40 in production until the Valiant 42 replaced it in 1992, and closed in January 2011.

Perry drew a 34-foot waterline under a 39'10" hull with a flared bow and tumblehome canoe stern; displacement is 22,500 lb on a 7,700 lb external lead keel (D/L about 255, SA/D about 15). The rig is a masthead cutter with a removable inner forestay, fixed intermediates rather than running backstays, and on most boats a Spar-Tech mast; the hollow rudder hangs on a foam-filled steel-cored skeg. Reviewers agree she is fast for a cruiser and exceptionally seakindly, with the caveat (SpinSheet) that she is not at her best beating into a short chop.

Cruising World (Schrader) puts the Uniflite total at 159 boats, numbered from hull 101, with the first Texas-built boat hull #267 and Texas production running through about #300; Good Old Boat and SpinSheet both give roughly 200 boats in total through 1992, which agrees with the hull-number range. A handful of hulls between #259 and #267 appear to have been finished in Washington by Worstell before the move, so the Texas count is not stated separately by any source. Wikipedia describes the 40 as slightly redesigned to become the Valiant 42, which stayed in production until 2011.

The Valiant 42 (1992/93 onward) is deliberately not modelled as a generation of the Valiant 40 here. It shares the hull mould, but Practical Sailor describes it as "not an identical hull": new keel with about 1,800 lb more ballast, redesigned deck and cockpit, taller double-spreader rig with a bowsprit and five interior plans, sold under its own name for nearly twenty years. Buyers search for it as a Valiant 42, so it belongs in its own family file; a future researcher could reasonably set its parent to valiant-40 given the shared hull. The only factory option recorded for the 40 itself is the shoal-draft keel; the cutter could be sailed as a sloop with the inner forestay released, which is a rig feature rather than a configuration.

Blistering is the defining issue: Uniflite-era boats laid up in fire-retardant resin (roughly 1976–1981) developed blisters up to eight inches across, above and below the waterline, and SpinSheet reports early repairs costing well over $12,000 often failed within two years. A Texas-built boat, or a Uniflite boat with a documented peel-and-epoxy job, commands a premium. Practical Sailor also flags the ball-valve seacocks screwed directly onto through-hulls, an undersized standard bilge pump, a jam-prone PVC chain pipe, and the Volvo 2003 Turbo fitted to some boats. Tankage figures vary widely between sources and between boats, so verify on the individual boat.

Establish which yard built the boat from the hull number: Uniflite hulls are roughly #101–259, Texas boats #267 onward. On a Uniflite boat insist on a survey with moisture readings above and below the waterline and paperwork for any blister repair. Check the skeg-to-hull joint, rudder bearings and the through-hull seacocks, and ask which engine is fitted; the Perkins 4-108, Westerbeke and Volvo were all used across the run. The design's reputation keeps prices high relative to other 1970s 40-footers, particularly for Texas-built examples.

Bill and Mary Black circumnavigated in hull #107 (1975–79); Francis Stokes raced hull #122 (Mooneshine) in the 1976 and 1980 OSTAR; Dan Byrne sailed hull #101 in the 1982–83 BOC Challenge; and Mark Schrader completed a solo circumnavigation via the Southern Ocean in a Valiant 40 in 1983 before racing a Valiant 47 in the 1986–87 BOC.