40

With her tugboat profile, fake smokestack, and trolley-car windows, the Pilgrim 40 is a genuine eye-catcher in a sea of look-alike designs. Over fifty of these coastal cruisers were manufactured at Pilgrim Marine in Ontario during her late 1980s production years. She’s built on a full-keel, full-displacement hull with a plumb bow and rounded bilges, and a shallow keel for directional stability. A bow thruster was standard and the prop is fully protected by the deep rudder and skeg. Below, the Pilgrim’s cozy pilothouse—three steps above the salon and galley level—is particularly well arranged with excellent visibility ahead and sliding deck access doors port and starboard. The galley is huge for a 40-footer (there’s a big storage area beneath the galley sole), and the head compartment is just forward of the salon. The cockpit is shaded by the extended flybridge, and 30-inch raised bulwarks provide excellent side deck security around the house. An economical and altogether practical liveaboard cruiser, most Pilgrim 40s were fitted with a 100hp Westerbeke diesel, which provides an 8-knot cruising speed. A flybridge was optional.