Boat Review: SageCat / Sage 15

This exciting new microcruiser is available with a choice of rigs.

In our review of the Sage 17 back in issue # 75, we talked about how few production sailboat companies remain. At boat shows in the 1970s and early 80s, the golden era for little plastic boats, you’d see multiple small-boat builders—many with competing models in a variety of classes. But various factors such as rising oil prices, government regulation, the boom-and-bust nature of the economy, and to some extent the extraordinary durability of fiberglass boats themselves, has made the manufacture of small sailboats less lucrative than it once was.

So it was remarkable when Gail and Sal Glesser decided to venture into the market with their own brand of trailersailer. They wisely avoided the biggest risk—building a poor design—by asking recognized and accomplished small boat designer Jerry Montgomery to draw their boats. Montgomery had, in a previous life, designed a fleet of small boats with which most of you are no doubt familiar—his Montgomery 15 and Montgomery 23 being among the most notable, along with his Montgomery 17 designed by mentor Lyle Hess.

Sage proceeded cautiously at first, focusing on a single design. But following the positive reception and steady sales of the Sage 17, they decided to launch the next boats in the line, the Sage 15 sloop and the SageCat. These two 15-footers share a common hull and look, at a glance, much like the original Montgomery 15, but as with their Sage 17, Jerry Montgomery and Sage were largely trying build a refined version of an already-winning concept, as opposed to starting out with a blank sheet of paper.

“The biggest concern folks had about Jerry’s prior 15-foot design,” says Sage Marine Sales Manager Dave Scobie, “was her cramped interior and lack of sitting headroom below. Both the Sage 15 and the SageCat have two seats with sitting headroom—as much headroom as the Sage 17 in fact.”