Valiant 40

About the Valiant 40

Researched from public sources for this model. Any individual boat may have been modified or repowered — confirm before relying on any figure.

Builder

Uniflite (Bellingham, WA) 1973-1984; Valiant Yachts (Texas) 1984-1992

Designer

Robert Perry

Length

39.9 ft

Waterline

34 ft

Beam

12.33 ft

Draft

6 ft

Displacement

22,500 lb

Ballast

7,700 lb

Hull

fiberglass

Hull / keel

fin keel

Rig

cutter

Propulsion

inboard

Number built

200

Stern thruster

none

Sources disagree on first year, last year, fuel tank, water tank, engines — left blank rather than guessed.

Credited with starting the performance-cruiser category. Fin keel with skeg-hung rudder (skeg is a foam-filled steel weldment bolted and glassed on), canoe stern, true cutter rig, external lead ballast, engine under the cockpit on a V-drive. Solid hull, balsa-cored deck. Blister-era hulls are roughly numbers 120-249 (hull numbers start at 101), so check the HIN. About 200 built (SpinSheet, Wave Train). Displacement and ballast are from the original builder brochure. Replaced by the Valiant 42.

Known problems for this model

• Fire-retardant (Hetron) resin blistering, roughly hulls 120-249 hull
  Uniflite hulls laminated about 1976-1981 with a fire-retardant resin can blister over the whole hull and deck, not just below the waterline; repairs require peeling and relaminating and blisters have returned on some boats. A surveyor estimated under 20% of the ~200 boats were severely affected and knew of no structural failures.
  spinsheet.com · wavetrain.net · sailboatdata.com
• Balsa-cored deck moisture deck
  The hull is solid but the deck is cored; check for wet core around chainplates, stanchions and deck hardware.
  wavetrain.net · spinsheet.com
• Aging aluminum fuel/water tanks fuel
  Aluminum fuel and water tanks corroded on some boats and have needed replacement.
  wavetrain.net
• Pounding to windward in a short chop hull
  The designer himself noted the flared bow is not at its best in steep chop; owners report hard pounding upwind.
  spinsheet.com
• Undersized chainplates on early boats rigging
  Chainplates on some early boats were undersized and have needed upgrading.
  wavetrain.net

Other Valiant models

• Valiant 32 1976–?
• Valiant 42