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LarryR said..
There's a Zeston 40 for sale atm (can't post a link due to being a new member). I've read the limited info available on this and the 36, speaking of their relatively good sailing performance. I'm wondering if this is very relative given their weight and size of rig. Has anyone spent a lot of time on these? Is the engine coming on under 15 knots from anywhere aft? Seems too good to be true if what I've read is to be believed, however the 36's that have sold recently certainly have the price of an impressive yacht.
I've sailed a 36 with nice sails once or twice and from vague memory it was probably a bit quicker overall than a Cole 35/S&S 34/UFO 34 etc and given its motorsailer aspect, definitely a nice performer. There was a 40 hull with different deck that was IMS rated about as fast as a Northshore 38/Swarbrick S111/fast Farr 1104 and I think it was normally mid pack on rating when we raced it; it was Ok when it did the Hobart, where it finished with the Northshore 38s and an 1104 right on schedule. I'm not sure if it had the standard rig but from what I can recall it wasn't too much bigger than the standard rig if at all. So the basic hull shape is as clean and quick as you'd expect from Joe, given the role, displacement and longish keel.
However, both those boats would almost certainly have had good folding/feathering props. From memory the 40 had decent club racing sails and the 36 had top-line fast cruising sails (ie Hood or North with padded luff genoa, full batten main in good dacron or something else top line for the time. With their fairly high wetted surface and probably moderate ballast ratio one would expect the Zestons to suffer significantly if they were mutilated with a saggy baggy roller reefing genoa and a fixed prop or something.
A lot of the time those '80s motor-sailers would probably sail a lot better than many of the modern fat and high "cruiser/racers"! :-)