check the older post on this issue on the Peterson website where you will also find photos etc.  You are a part of a debate it seems that preceeds my involvement with the board.  I have an F46 and I am pleased with it and have not found substatial quality issues with construction.  The construction compairs to other boats of the same vintage.  Are the interiors as nice as say a Hans Christian 42, no.  The 44/46  seem to be a nice compromise between a heavy bulky cruiser and much lighter go fast but uncomfortable boats.   She points better than the Garden designs that were and are for some still popular.  I have seen other Formosas (I am no expert) and helped a friend redo his Formosa 35 Garden design.  It seems those Formosa's 35,41,51 all seemed to have the same construction problems in oddly similar areas which makes this untrained non professional think some of the problems were design problems combined with construction problems.  Other suggest merely construction, and I have no idea.  My boat had the teak decks removed and the person that did it did a nice job doing the decks thereafter.  I have seen similar problems on many "well made" boats over 20 years old.  So I am not sure you can knock the design or construction of the 44/46 for that reason. Some have complained about weather helm on the boat, but having owned a westsail 32 before this boat, I have not noticed it being much of a problem.  There is a site about a boat called Redwings and their sail across the atlantic. There is a discussion of both the refit, but sail and sailing characteristics of the F46.  Jeff on this board  and others are a good source of information, more so than the westsail group I was once a member of years ago.  One thing is missing however.  The westsail group has a guy that worked on the Westsails years ago in their yard, and is a source of replacement parts and construction information.  One postive that attracted me to these boats (in addition to the fact that there were several near the price range I was looking for when trying to buy smaller boats) was after sailing a westsail 32 for years, (and I liked the boat a lot but did not like that it did not point so well (you could in lighter winds if you pinched a lot) I noticed something interesting. First the boom was close to length of the westsail 32. Mast as we know is much taller.  I also looked at the foretriangle of the westsail and remember sailing with a large 155 genoa solo many times and sometimes when the wind picked up it was a bear to handle.  Though the  F46 has a much larger sail area, oddly it is easier to sail than my old westsail.  This is in part because on my boat as it seems on many others, the winches were the right size for the rig, and one can properly position ones self to more easily winch in a larger sail like the 150 Genoa I currently have on my boat.  The admiral could not handle many of the headsails on the westsail nor could she roll in the head sail on the W32.  She can handle the winch on the F46 and can roll in the headsail as well.  (she is small) Also, if you compare boats of similar lengths, the tend to have wider beams, taller rigs (or some are cutter ketches- i like the latter) higher freeboards, just larger than the f46.      I tell people it is a small big boat if you get my drift.  I was at first not interested in the boat because I thought it too big to sail alone with and that is often how I sail.  Thus far I have had no problem sailing or docking the boat.  That said I have not been in a 40-50 knot blow either.  The center cockpit is also nice as it gives one the feeling that one is sailing a smaller boat (since you are not looking at 46 feet of boat from an aft cockpit.  I am told the F46 is a foot or so longer than the 44.  Others say no.  The F46 has a pilot berth in the compainonway going aft, that could be the most comfortable sea berth on the boat, though no standing head room.  The Peterson 44 has storage there and I can not knock that as there is never enough storage on most boats if you want to sail off one day.  I think the designs are an interesting compromise between the fin keel types (that sail fast and point well and are lighter- can not knock them as I think at least Benneteau seems to have in the last 10 years found a way to make a fin keel boat that I would feel sailing blue water with) and heavy, beamy full keel boats that do not point well but are very comfortable.  They are all old boats and like old houses need work. As for which is better constructed I have no idea as from what I have read over the past few years I see people reporting similar construction issues and other just maintenance issues for both boats.  The general feeling is that the F46 is more poorly constructed.  I am not sure about that and it appears that as with many early constructions of any boats, they sort of work out the kinks as they go on.  I like the F46 because of the option of using the pilot berth as I find the main cabin on both boats a bit narrow as it is not on the widest part of the boat as is the case with most center cockpit boats.  That is one of the compromises.  The starboard berth in the main cabin is narrow for a anything other than a smaller person, which I am not.  The v berth is very narrow (even the westsail 32 had a much wider  v berth) but the it is really beautiful to see the fine entry of the bow when the boat is out of the water, and one can see why she points rather well and sails well too.  For me from sailing what some might call a tub to this boat it was pleasant and I think if you are use to sailing a lighter go faster boat, that these boats might give you a shock as the boat is rather nimble for her size and weight. There are many more people in this group that have more experience working on boats and sailing this design than I, so I am sure they can offer much more than I, certainly Jeff.  Some of the negatives I noticed  before I got the boat were embedded chain plates (glassed in thus no way to inspect an pain to replace)  and the 44 seems to not have an embedded aft chain plate.  I did not like the forestay connection to the hull on either design though I have not seem any major  reports of failures of either the Peterson 44 or F46 but there are pictures and narratives of some issues there.  Most boats their size have massive chain plates bent around the top of the bow then down about 6-10 inches with heavy bolts through the chain plates to the hull.  The 44 seems to have on long bolt aft of the furthest point on the bow that is glassed in. There are pics on the site.  Just did not seem substantial enough for me. The F 46 has a massive deck plate with about 8 bolts through the deck with washers and nuts attaching it to the deck.  There are port and starboard bolts that are through the gunnels with a nut and washer on the ends to fix them to the hull.   This appears to be an effort to assure that the deck plate is direclty attached in some fashion to the hull and not just the deck.  Call me scary if you like but that did not work for me given the size of the rig and weight of the boat.  My deck plate had NO BACKING PLATE under it and was there with just washers and nuts pressed deeply into the glass below.  It just seemed to me that the deck would be taking more of the load than the hull where the load should be in my opinion. (again there are those on the board with much more experience and ability than I that may have different and perhaps more accurate opinons on this)  So I had constructed a stainless backing plate that it under the deck plate with a pad eye under it.   So the deck plate had a mirror backing plate below the decks for the first time.  (and one owner has sailed the boat from Canada to the Bahamas several times with no issue it appears without modifications)  I then had an exterior bow plate that rapped around the bow below the tip of the bow in a straight line from the forestay to the exterior of the bow with a pad eye inboard (on the revers side of the bow plate)  Then I used a turn buckle and wire to tension the deck plate to the hull thus putting the energy directly on the exterior of the hull in addition to what was there already.  May be overkill, but I think it was a good idea.  Read one report of the F46 deck and hull having a separation problem because of the design, but heard only one such story and I am not sure that the bolts port and starboard were not up to the job.  In some ways the f46 forestay design (that was still not up to par for me) seems more substantial than the Peterson 44 design.  But I am no expert.  Some have reinforced the baby stay.  I have not.  I am not sure that additional support is needed there as I do not see that area taking as much energy given.   Mine seems to do the job fine with no issue.   But if a fix is needed it is relatively simple.  This was longer than I expected, but had the time, and others on the board were very kind to answer many of my sometimes silly questions about the design before I got the F46 i now own.  Now finding the time to enjoy it more is the challenge. good luck terry Seatime
Hi all...It seems to come up on this group about every few years...the subject of which boat is which. This is the short version...Jack Kelly hired Doug Peterson to design a vessel that fit certain parameters. This became the Peterson 44 and the construction was begun in Taiwan in the mid-70's. They eventually constructed 200 boats, some of whichdid go into the charter trade, and the rest were purchased by individualbuyers for their own enjoyment. Jack Kelly and Doug Peterson later decidedto modernize the boat and created the Kelly-Peterson 46...essentially the same hull with some extension and tweaking andconsiderable redoing of the interior. Sometime during this period their office was burglarized and line drawings disappeared. A while later another yard started makingboats from a mold that was essentially identical to the Kelly-Peterson; but not of their hand. The plans for those vessels had been created from stolen material. Certainly not a new occurance in the region, to say the least. Jack Kelly, since past on, andthe designer DougPeterson, have publicly disputed any tie whatsoever to the Formosa 46 or the Spindrift 46. They even went to the point of burning molds in Taiwan to make sure that their designs did not venture to others intent on any copies. With that all stated; disregarding the genesis of the the knock-offs, there are without doubt some wellmade boats of this exceptional design that have served their owners very well and will continue to do so. Most of the comments of comparison have nothing to do with sailing ability or seaworthiness...they are more along the lines of quality control, pricing, and detail stuff.We own the last P-44 built(#299) and we love her and she takes super care of us. We still admire well taken-care-of Formosa and Spi44ndrift 46's and of course, the KP 46's. The devil is always in the details....they can all be super cruising boats. Barritt and Renee...Serendipitykp44 #299
Hi Clifford I have been on quite a few KP44s and feel qualified to comment on the construction. Basically they are a strongly built, solid fibreglass hull. By today's standards they are overbuilt - construction methods and materials have advanced in the 30+ years since my own boat was new. How the boats have been maintained since then will create the differences today. I bought a boat that had been basically left to rot - with no protective coatings on the bulkheads and after 25+ years in Hawaii, I was able to vacuum plywood veneers away from the bulkheads. There was a lot of delaminated bulkhead to hull joints. The reason I mention this is that I sailed the boat, in that condition, from Hawaii to New Zealand - it stayed in one (leaking) piece because of the underlying strength of construction. Other KP44s I have been on look as they did when they came out of the factory and are a credit to the builders and the subsequent owners. I have only been on one F46 and it was a poor example, closely resembling my boat with regards to the lack of maintenance and its overall state. No doubt there are far better examples around. I believe you will not find a "Peterson" owner, KP44, KP46, F46, Sprindrift 46, etc etc, who is unimpressed with the design. You will find boats that are spread over the range with regard to maintenance, I guess the trick is to work out where you are comfortable along that range and then look for boats that suit your plan. This group is a hugely useful resource, before I bought my boat I actually read all the old posts (2-300 per night - better than TV!) and once I had done that I really did feel I had a handle on all the relevant issues. Everyone has a different opinion but they are all worthwhile.