Overview
The Niagara 31 is a German Frers design built by Hinterhoeller Yachts in Ontario from 1980 to 1984. Practical Sailor describes it as a club racer from a builder with above-average construction, and sees it as a boat for club racing and coastal cruising rather than its bigger sister, the Niagara 35.
Design and Construction
The 31 has a small fin keel of external lead bolted to a reinforced sump, and a large spade rudder rising to the counter with a partial skeg. Hull and deck are balsa-cored.
Under Sail
With 492 sq ft on a light hull it does well in light air, and an owner says it will outpoint most racer-cruisers. Another owner calls it a technical cruiser-racer, not a boat for a beginner. Several owners say the flat bottom pounds in waves, and one complained of wild mast pumping.
Buyers Notes
Check the deck core (see Known Issues) and the mast and its support.
Practical Sailor gives the 31 a displacement to length ratio of 266 and a sail area to displacement ratio of 18.9, and says owners reef at about 15 knots because of the big rig. The layout is straightforward: V-berth, head, dinette and galley, with a 6 ft 2 in owner reporting standing headroom in the main cabin but a stoop forward. The 31 has no bridgedeck, and the traveler is end-of-boom on some boats and in the cockpit on others. Engines were small: the standard Volvo MD7A was a 13-hp saildrive that owners complained about, with a Westerbeke 21 as an option, and Practical Sailor says saildrive engines can push the boat at hull speed in calm water but lack the power to punch through head seas. One owner criticized the bow roller as inadequate.
