Overview
The Kaufman 47 was built by Kha Shing in Taiwan from 1986 to 1988. Quetzal matters here because of who has sailed her, and how far. John Kretschmer, a professional delivery captain, longtime Sailing Magazine contributing editor, and author of seven books on offshore sailing, has owned hull #3, the first of the design imported to the US, as his primary vessel for roughly two decades of paid offshore training passages and personal ocean crossings.
History
Kretschmer’s own sailing career began long before Quetzal, delivering yachts professionally out of Fort Lauderdale to Japan, Indonesia, and the Baltic, work that eventually totaled 26 Atlantic crossings and 2 Pacific crossings on other people’s boats, including the widely told 1984 passage of a Contessa 32 from New York to San Francisco the wrong way around Cape Horn. Quetzal came later: by his own account in a 2020 interview, he sailed her at least 8,000 nautical miles every year for at least 16 years running, a figure that includes 10 transatlantic crossings made specifically aboard this hull, separate from his earlier delivery-career total. By 2026, Quetzal had completed about 200 training passages, carrying hundreds of people to sea.
Design and Construction
The Kaufman 47 is a cutter-rigged fiberglass cruiser designed by F. Michael Kaufman (Kaufman & Ladd) and built in Taiwan during the mid-1980s IOR-influenced era. Sailboatdata classifies her hull as a fin keel with the rudder hung on a skeg. Displacement is 30,000 lb on a 40’2” waterline, with 10,700 lb of ballast (a 35.67% ratio) and a 1,002 sq ft working sail plan. Below, she carries three private cabins and two heads, one with a separate shower, laid out in teak.
Under Sail
The record supports treating Quetzal as a hard-used example of the design. A 2022 SAILING Magazine rigging article reports that Kretschmer normally puts 5,000 to 10,000 miles a year on her in transitional weather across a wide range of latitudes. The same article records a corrected aft-lower shroud lead on this particular boat. In 2024, after a 1,000-mile Canary Islands to Cape Verde training passage, a starboard forward chainplate failed and Quetzal was dismasted. Kretschmer and crew returned safely. That account is a reminder to inspect an individual boat’s rigging and chainplates; it does not establish a general fault across every Kaufman 47.
Buyers Notes
Quetzal is Kretschmer’s working training vessel, not a representative listing. She shows what one heavily maintained Kaufman 47 has done. Her records include a hull peel and relamination for blisters, a teak-deck replacement, a full rig refit, and a later chainplate failure. These are Quetzal-specific repair records, not a fleet-wide defect list. A buyer should inspect standing rigging, chainplates, rig geometry, deck and hull repairs, and all later modifications. Quetzal’s self-steering, refitted rig, tankage, and other equipment may not match another hull.
