Balboa 24

The Balboa 24 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by W. Shad Turner and William Downing as a racer-cruiser and first built in 1981.

The Balboa 24 is a development of the similar 1980 Laguna 24S.

Production
The design was built in the United States by Coastal Recreation, Inc in Costa Mesa, California and Laguna Yachts of Stanton, California, which bought out Coastal Recreation. The boat is now out of production.

Design
The Balboa 24 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fiberglass, with wood trim. It has a 7/8 fractional sloop rig with anodized aluminum spars. A masthead rig was optional. The hull has a raked stem, a plumb transom, a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed fin shoal draft keel. The cabin is equipped with a "pop-top". It has a 26.50 ft mast, displaces 2600 lb and carries 900 lb of ballast. An optional tall rig version with a 28.00 ft mast and a masthead rig displaces 2800 lb and carries 1100 lb of ballast.

The boat has a draft of 2.92 ft with the standard shoal draft keel. It is normally fitted with a small outboard motor for docking and maneuvering.

The design has sleeping accommodation for five people, with a double "V"-berth in the bow cabin, a straight settee in the main cabin and an aft berth on the port side. The galley is located on the starboard side just forward of the companionway ladder. The galley is L-shaped and is equipped with a two-burner, alcohol-fired stove, an ice box and a sink. The head is located just aft of the bow cabin on the starboard side. The interior is trimmed with teak.

Ventilation is provided by a plexiglass hatch on the foredeck and a cabin pop-top that also provides 6 ft of headroom when in the open position.

For sailing the design is equipped with a spinnaker of 360 sqft or 462 sqft for the tall rig version.

The design has a Portsmouth Yardstick DP-N racing average handicap of 99.0, a PHRF of 186 and is raced with a crew of two sailors.

Operational history
In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "Two rigs are available for this sloop. The first has a 26 1/2-foot mast; the taller rig has a 28-foot mast and 200 additional pounds of ballast. The latter is the better rig for racing."

In a 2010 review Steve Henkel noted that the boat has only 47 in of cabin headroom and a short keel that may reduce upwind performance.