I have to quibble a bit on the well designed and built comment though. Yes the designs are nice, but many of the details are pretty strange. The glass work is beefy, but the overall quality of the work is pretty low. Furthermore, many of the systems were very poorly thought out on my boat. The prime example is the fuel tank on my Allied Princess (hull #8 laid up in November 1972). Allied Princesses came with a 40 gallon fuel tank which allows 60-80 hours of run time at cruising speed (400-500 mile range under power). That is commendable for a world cruiser, but totally overkill for a coastal cruiser in that you will always have old fuel on board. However, the size of the tank isn't really the problem. The early Allied Princesses had fuel tanks made from black iron. That is fine if the tank is located where it will always be dry. However, locating a 40 gallon tank where it will stay dry puts around 300 lbs up high which impacts stability. Arthur Edmonds, the designer, addressed the stability issue by putting the tanks in the aft end of the keel behind the encapsulated lead ballast. The tank extends from under the engine about 2' under the cabin sole. Locating the tank in what would normally be the bilge certainly gets it low. But putting an iron tank in the bilge guarantees that the tank will be wet. In fact, the top of the tank is actually the bottom of the bilge under the engine, so there will ALWAYS be water on top of the tank. Every Princess with a black iron fuel tank that I know of has had the tank rust out The location of the tank under the engine means that removing/replacing the tank can only be done by removing the engine, or by cutting a hole in the side of the keel. Neither in a minor undertaking. I removed mine last year when I had the engine out. That it was a nasty job is a huge understatement.

There are lots of systems on my Allied Princess that are similarly poorly thought out. The boat is hell for stout though.