Overview
The Islander 29 is a short-lived, almost forgotten link between two better-known names. It was built for only two years, 1968 and 1969, at the moment its builder was mid-transition from the Wayfarer Yacht Corporation name to what would become Islander Yachts of Costa Mesa, California. James Baldwin’s list calls it simply “the Islander 29, also called the Wayfarer 29,” and that double name is really the boat’s whole history in miniature: same yard, same designer, two labels either side of a corporate rename.
History
Joseph McGlasson had been building boats in Costa Mesa since the 1950s, and by 1963 his company had folded into the Wayfarer Yacht Corporation. Wayfarer went bankrupt that same year and was bought out by Ralph Brown and Ben Kanter, who kept McGlasson on as designer and by 1965 were operating under the new name, Islander Yachts. The 29 was drawn during this changeover and built in small numbers as what Good Old Boat’s saildata entry describes as “a compact, seaworthy evolution toward the more popular Islander 30.” It never caught on the way that later boat did. Production stopped after 1969, and Islander Yachts itself, having moved production to Costa Rica in 1984, went bankrupt in 1986.
Construction
The hull is hand-laid solid fiberglass, and the keel is where the sources start to disagree. Good Old Boat’s saildata page describes “a full long keel for exceptional directional stability and tracking” with a skeg-hung rudder, the same shape and rudder protection Baldwin’s list requires of every boat on it. Both sailboatdata.com and sailboat.guide instead classify the hull as a fin keel in their spec tables. Given the boat’s overhangs and moderate draft, this is likely a case of a cutaway, keel-attached shape that different databases bucket differently rather than a true modern spade-and-fin underbody; readers should treat the keel style as somewhat unsettled between sources rather than a hard fact. Ballast is 2,500 lb of lead, a modest 32 percent of the boat’s 7,800 lb displacement. The auxiliary was a Universal Atomic 4 gasoline inboard, standard for the era.
Under Sail
At a waterline of 23.25 ft carrying 392 sq ft of sail, the Islander 29 is a moderately powered boat by the numbers, in keeping with a masthead sloop rig meant for coastal and family cruising rather than racing. The narrow 8.83 ft beam and long overhangs (LOA nearly six feet longer than the waterline) point to an easy motion at sea and the kind of hobby-horsing common to boats of this vintage in a short chop. With aluminum spars and a simple rig, sail handling should be straightforward for a couple.
Buyers Notes
James Baldwin’s own entry flags the two practical issues that matter most to a buyer. On the plus side, he notes nothing in particular stood out to recommend it beyond making his list at all. On the minus side: “Low companionway entrance looks vulnerable to flooding, but can be modified,” and separately, “Atomic 4 gas inboard was standard. Not many produced.” That last point is the real constraint: with a two-year production run and an already obscure name split across two builders, an Islander 29 (or Wayfarer 29, check the builder’s plate before assuming which) will be hard to find and harder to get parts history on. Anyone considering one should budget for a companionway modification if planning offshore passages, treat the Atomic 4 as due for a repower unless recently serviced, and expect to do more of their own research than an owners’ association would normally provide, since none appears to exist for this boat.
