Com-Pac Yachts, Clearwater's Trailerable Pocket Cruisers After the Closure

An inventor turns to small sailboats

Les Hutchins started out as a farmer and a tool and die maker, became an inventor with patents in automotive parts, and established his first company, a metal-stamping and fabrication business, in St. Louis. In 1970 he decided to diversify into boatbuilding, aiming at retirees moving to Florida who wanted a small, inexpensive sailboat they could keep on a trailer in the garage. The first boat was the Clark Mills designed Com-Pac 16 of 1972, followed by Mills's Com-Pac 23 in 1978.

The range grew to include the Com-Pac 19, drawn by Bob Johnson of Island Packet, and the Com-Pac 35 of 1990, a Charley Morgan design and the biggest boat the family ever sold. From 1999 Com-Pac found a new market in small catboats with folding mast systems for quick launching. Hulls and spars were built by subcontractors, and production stayed at a few hundred boats a year. Sons Gerry and Richard Hutchins took over from their father and by 2021 offered 12 designs.

The Com-Pac 23 and its long run

The Com-Pac 23 is the boat we profile in depth, and it mirrors the company's whole philosophy. Clark Mills drew it in 1978 as a step up from the 16, and the Hutchins family kept refining rather than replacing it for almost half a century, through successive Mark versions and a Pilothouse variant introduced in 2011 that collected a SAIL Best Boats honor the following year. Its shoal fixed keel, modest weight and 8-foot beam made it the kind of cruiser a retiree could tow home and keep in the driveway, exactly the buyer Les Hutchins had in mind. Dimensions, the differences between each mark and the rare inboard option are on the model page.

Buying a Com-Pac now that the factory is closed

Gerry Hutchins died and his brother Richard retired, and the Hutchins company, Com-Pac Yachts included, shut down as of May 1, 2025. That makes every Com-Pac a used boat. The shutdown notice named dealers still able to provide service, yet parts unique to the brand, from rudders and bowsprits to trailers, now have to be found in remaining dealer inventory, bought from fellow owners or made to order.

Prices stay accessible and demand from trailer sailors is steady; our model page puts most Com-Pac 23s somewhere between $6,000 and $32,000. Buy the most complete boat you can find, with its trailer, manuals and good sails.

• Inspect the bowsprit, stem fitting and bobstay for corrosion.
• Check the outboard rudder on the transom and its hinge hardware for wear.
• Sound the deck near the mast base and the chainplates.
• Look for grounding damage on the shoal keel.
• Confirm the trailer has a title, an adequate axle rating, working brakes and young tires.