Storage available on the 26/260
Dave, I own a 1996 H26, which is almost identical to the 260. Dishes, cups, bowls and silverware have built in storage areas on the counter. On my 26, these areas also store my winch handle, hand held GPS, keys, wallet and a couple CD's. Under the galley counter, there is a large storage area with two doors and shelves. We keep our nesting pots, tea kettle, plastic glasses, paper towels, stove fuel, dishsoap and groceries for a weekend. The 2.5 gallon collapsable water bottle for the sink faucet on the 26 also goes here. A second bottle is under the sink in the head. The transom has a small lazerette, accessible from the aft berth by two doors. In this area is my battery box, I do not keep too much in here as the boat tends to squat anyway, so why add more weight aft. There are two lift out hatches in the aft berth, but the area under is shallow, and again it is aft. In the head is an open hanging locker, where we keep jackets and life vests. There is also a deep bin and storage under the counter top. The U shaped settee has 5 removable hatches under the cushions. Since the battery is aft, this area is all storage and we have never used all of it. Under the V Berth is a very deep locker. On the 260, this is where they put the water tank instead of the two bottles under each sink. Even with the water tank in there, this locker will hold a lot of stuff. There really is no bilge storage because of the water ballast tank. There is also no shelves for books, charts, etc. since the settees and cabin go right out to the gunwales. Cockpit storage is also very tight with only one bench locker on the port side. There are several good locations to add hanging nets or pouch type organizers. We have spent many weekends on the boat and have not really had a storage problem for our family of four. Mike Pajewski H26 "Loon"
