I have noticed while sailing with my son on our Hunter 26.5, the vessel seems to heel beyond what the seas and wind on a particular day should produce. I have noticed in the slip when we climb on board there is excessive roll for the weight of us. We have compared this roll to instances when we step onboard 1980's Capris, Odays, Catalinas. My son and I have discussed this and we have come to opposing views. I have always felt that the design of this particular boat has too high of a mast, too much sail area for the displacement. It results in a boat that seems to have been designed for more speed than cruising. Even reefed with only a main we pass other boats under full sail. A friend of mine who sails a 34 Morgan cruising with us commented on the speed of the boat that if his Morgan was this fast he would sail more frequently with just a main. In an forum article on heeling on this site, I read a response by Cherubini Jr. to a forum article on heeling where he states that some of his fathers designs caused heeling soon and too easily, the result of more sail than needed and less weight than others out there. We have even noticed the vessel heels with no sails up and motoring in moderate winds. Was the mid-80's 26.5 a Cherubini design? Any 26.5 owners out there who have noticed this. We both love the boat but disagree on amount of sail required on particular days to get performance without the excessive heel that sacrifices speed.
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A couple of things
I beleave the 26.5 was designed more for a racer cruiser than a cruiser. We had a 25.5 and the 2 boats are so very different. It does have allot of sail area for it's size. It is a very fast boat as you have found out. Allot of healing can be a few things sail shape and how old are the sail's?? ANother thing on these boats is T track placement for the head sail. It needs to be inboard next to the cabin but on the deck. This controls the sheeting angle. We had a 23 with the wing keel diffetent keel but pretty much the same boat but smaller. Great boat!! The 26.5 is a performance minded boat with allot of sail area and when sailing in puffs needs to have it set up to trim the traveler from the rail as you are driving. We now have a 28.5 and are wanting to down size to a 26.5. It is not the Cherubini design. Also the smaller Hunter boats all seem to be tender at the dock for some reason but stiffin up under sail. Our 25.5 was the same way but would crush Catalinas, Odays and most all same design boats in its size. Cliff
I beleave the 26.5 was designed more for a racer cruiser than a cruiser. We had a 25.5 and the 2 boats are so very different. It does have allot of sail area for it's size. It is a very fast boat as you have found out. Allot of healing can be a few things sail shape and how old are the sail's?? ANother thing on these boats is T track placement for the head sail. It needs to be inboard next to the cabin but on the deck. This controls the sheeting angle. We had a 23 with the wing keel diffetent keel but pretty much the same boat but smaller. Great boat!! The 26.5 is a performance minded boat with allot of sail area and when sailing in puffs needs to have it set up to trim the traveler from the rail as you are driving. We now have a 28.5 and are wanting to down size to a 26.5. It is not the Cherubini design. Also the smaller Hunter boats all seem to be tender at the dock for some reason but stiffin up under sail. Our 25.5 was the same way but would crush Catalinas, Odays and most all same design boats in its size. Cliff
26.5's and Heeling...
Barry, Hope your summer went well. We should talk as I just bought my new motor. Back to the question. I have noticed that the 26.5 does heel early and is quite tender at the dock. My wife actually noticed the heeling thing... I have come to use the traditional depowering techniques often as not to set off the "wife alarm". I flatten the main often using the backstay adjuster and outhaul. I also find that I end up sheeting with the traveler a lot. This keeps the wife alarm quiet and I still end up smoking all the cruising boats upwind. As far as the speed of this boat. Check the PHRF rating of the 26.5 against that of a J24. Out here, the J-boat is only rated eight seconds faster. That is moving... The one thing that brought me to the boat was that my wife wanted a cruising boat, and I wanted a fast boat. We ended up with a fast cruiser
I have found that the reserve stability of the 26.5 settles the boat down at about 15-18 degrees of heel. The keel starts working, along with the buoyancy of the beam and this seems to create a very stable platform, albeit an angled platform. Hope this helps, Clayton
Barry, Hope your summer went well. We should talk as I just bought my new motor. Back to the question. I have noticed that the 26.5 does heel early and is quite tender at the dock. My wife actually noticed the heeling thing... I have come to use the traditional depowering techniques often as not to set off the "wife alarm". I flatten the main often using the backstay adjuster and outhaul. I also find that I end up sheeting with the traveler a lot. This keeps the wife alarm quiet and I still end up smoking all the cruising boats upwind. As far as the speed of this boat. Check the PHRF rating of the 26.5 against that of a J24. Out here, the J-boat is only rated eight seconds faster. That is moving... The one thing that brought me to the boat was that my wife wanted a cruising boat, and I wanted a fast boat. We ended up with a fast cruiser
I have found that the reserve stability of the 26.5 settles the boat down at about 15-18 degrees of heel. The keel starts working, along with the buoyancy of the beam and this seems to create a very stable platform, albeit an angled platform. Hope this helps, Clayton- Status