[1][3][4] The Cape Dory 25 is a development of the Allied Boat Company's Greenwich 24, using the same hull, but a new deck and coach house.

It has a masthead sloop rig with a deck-stepped mast; a spooned, raked stem, a raised counter, angled transom; a keel-mounted rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed long keel.

[3] The boat is supported by an active class club that organizes racing events, the Cape Dory Sailboat Owners Association.

[8] In a 2000 review in Practical Sailor, Darrell Nicholson wrote, "the Cape Dory 25 is really a daysailing and weekending boat.

The story goes that founder Andy Vavolotis got a hold of the molds for the Greenwich 24 from Allied Boat Company in 1972 and raised her freeboard to improve headroom, thereby adding seven inches to her length.

The design is quite dated but traditionalist[s] will love the classic lines and underwater profile, and of course true to Cape Dory tradition, the construction is bulletproof.