Anyone have any first hand experience with this boat?
Went and looked at one that a friend is buying the other day. Pretty neat boat. Thing comes off as a much larger boat, since it is a CENTER COCKPIT 26'er.
You could hold ball room dance classes below, there is a full queen size bed aft, and a useable v-berth fwd. Get this, there is a passage between the fwd and aft state rooms, on a 26' boat!
The inboard (Yanmar 2GM20) was accessable from 4 sides, and it has a deep bilge. Owners principal complaint was the lack of a lazarette locker, requiring the storage of things like fenders to go to the anchor locker.
The boat has LOTS of opening ports, many on the upper edge of the hull (like an OI41).
The boat has a different look about it, but it was not ugly, just different (IMHO).
There are some things about it that are not my preference, (wheel steering, high freeboard) but it looked to be about the perfect boat for my friend. She is going to sail it, before she makes her final decision but it looks like a great liveaboard / crusier for her.
If someone were looking for a
Craig -
I did some canvas and brightwork on one last year. It would be a great boat for island hopping and coastwise cruising IMO, but all that freeboard? I wouldn't want to have that 'out there' in a blow. :)
I think they are probably a bit undercanvassed, due to the height of the mast base, and the need to keep the stick kind of short in order to have as low as possible CG.
But the plusses: Very roomy below, amazingly roomy for a 26'er. You are right about the engine access, and the aft stateroom. Full head, too, and a nicely laid-out galley. Almost like a small houseboat. :)
Those forward-facing ports on the cabin trunk do catch a nice breeze.
Anyone have the code to break into what these guys are talking about??? :-\
S2 is the builder....8.0M is the length and model that is being discussed.Not a bad builder and very roomy ,but real high freeboard and kinda ugly...OOPS did I say that...sorry.
And Capn'K was touching up the wood varnish (brightwork). And they describe the boat as huge on the interior volume, mainly due to having lots of freeboard... in other words, the deck is far from the water and if you fall in, you'll need a ladder or a rope to get back on board.
Houseboat is generally not a very kind term when it comes to describing sailboats. ;)
The sale of the boat fell through, I understand it sold.
Here are a couple of links for anyone interested;
Link to add with pictures and specs on the S-2 8.0 (http://dmayle.freewebpage.org/index.html)
(http://www.sailblogs.com/member/ashiya/images/Weblog_Header_03.jpg) Link to their Blog with more info (http://www.sailblogs.com/member/ashiya/?show=profile)