Nicely suited for a lazy picnic cruise through the lobster country of Maine, or a hard-charging foray off Washington’s Puget Sound, the C-Dory 22 Cruiser is not about top-end speed. Practicality and durability are its calling cards. It’s the sort of toughness that might lead you to turn over the keys to your grandson 20 years from now.

The commercial boat heritage is evident in the traditional dory design, which features a relatively narrow beam, high bow and nearly flat bottom, as well as the utilitarian look of the interior. In practice, though, the C-Dory is more of a mini-trawler, designed to fit a lot of living space into a minimal amount of boat, and to cover considerable distances on modest amounts of fuel.

The 22 Cruiser runs efficiently, especially with Honda’s stingy new 90 on the transom, yet it’s designed to take experienced skippers through some major waterways. In fact, one of the favorite routines of Seattle C-Dory owners is to cruise to Alaska for the summer — no venue for wimpy boats.

CABIN COMFORTS

Despite a wet, windy test day, we stayed dry inside the cabin. Ventilation is plentiful courtesy of the aft cabin door and a center window and two sliders on the sides. Standard windshield wipers keep spray off the skipper’s shield. A Bomar hatch over the V bunks in the bow provides added venting.

Headroom in the cabin is 6 feet, 2 inches. Inside the V cabin forward, headroom is just 27 inches, adequate for sitting up but no more. The upholstery is basic vinyl — tough and durable but not fancy.

The main cabin includes a teak-trimmed sink/stove assembly. An Orion two-burner alcohol stove is standard, but our test boat had the very interesting Wallas Safeflame diesel-fueled stove and cabin heater. This Finnish stove is t a smooth-top stove that puts out a lot of heat. Plus, there’s no risk of somebody getting burned when you flip down the safety cover to turn the stove into a heater. A blower helps circulate heat through the cabin.

A dinette with fold-up leaves sits to port, with booth-style seating facing fore and aft. The port front seat reverses, allowing a view forward when the boat is under way. There’s plenty of storage under these seats, too.