Xan-à-Deux is a 1973 Tanzer 28, hull #4 of that line. She is a big sister to the Tanzer 22 which is also a great boat which engenders a fiercely loyal fleet. Our best source of information was (and is) the Tanzer 22 Class Association who has a very well-done newsletter, a web page and a quite-active newslist.

Johann Tanzer built a beauty that was well ahead of her time. She is a flush-deck design which opens up both the interior and exterior considerably. Couple that with the extra beam carried back to the transom and you get an enormous boat. We haven't found many 32' boats that match our space -- and those are nearly flush-deck themselves and considerably more expensive.

The extra beam and wide transom translate into extra speed. While our hull speed should be 6.65 knots (1.34 * sqrt (lwl)), steady winds of about 10-15 knots drive us easily over 8 knots. We average 7 knots over a good afternoon. (See the knot meter picture above, and that wasn’t our highest speed that day.) Downwind, of course, we surf and have seen speeds over 11 knots for short periods. We don't point as well as I'd like, but that improved when we replaced 20 year-old sails. The addition of a traveler in 1998 has improved our speed a bit more in light and heavy winds, and the control it gives us when the wind pipes up makes us much more comfortable.

With her flatish bottom, I would have expected that we'd pound in waves. Not! The first day of our first 5-day cruise put 20+knot winds and the upper Chesapeake's square waves right on our bow as we motored out of the Sassafras river in the company of an obviously long-distance 38-footer complete with all the goodies and gear on deck. We watched as they buried their bow on every third wave, green water roiling down the deck and splashing into the cockpit. Everyone on deck was in oilskins and looking a bit unhappy. We, on the other hand would go "bounce, bounce, shussssssh", ride over the 4th wave and start the cycle again. The "shussssh" was a sound like a car lift as the air is let out and the effect the same: the bow gradually and gently lowered. We got a bit of spray so wore our wind breakers, but were generally comfortable. After awhile, I decided that we could come up to full cruising power and then passed our companion. The expression on the other captain's face was priceless, as if to say: "What am I doing wrong?" This has happened countless times in the dozen or so seasons we've sailed her.

We have no wind gauge, but some reliable nearby reports in '98 had us sailing relatively comfortably in winds above 25 knots. One day, several boats in the harbor reported 25 knots with gusts over 35 and up to 8 foot waves. (My estimate was 6 feet.) That afternoon we covered 30 nm in 4 hours on a close reach, an average of 7.5 knots.

The only failing we've found on the Tanzer line (all of them as far as we can tell) is that Johann liked a swept-back scimitar shaped rudder which creates incredible tiller pressure at all times -- unbearable when the boat is heeled more than 20 degrees. Luckily, the transom-mounted rudder is simple to re-create in a more modern style and many owners have either built their own —as we did— or purchased one through the T-22 class association.

The only other trouble we've had were leaks, the major one being through the companionway hatch -- through the dorade vent drains. Wind-driven rain is actually pushed into the boat. Took a couple of years to figure it out, though we still have a nagging drip.

The old leaks caused some bulkhead damage. It dropped slightly and twisted outboard. That’s about as bad a job as it gets, but I repaired it in one weekend See the Bulkhead page for pics.