Cobra 850 and Mirage 28

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SailorAleksi

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Hello everybody !

New on the forum and about to buy my first boat, I am currently investigating the market of bilge keel boats. Not to start a debate about bilge keel versus others, I could find plenty of informations about the Mirage 28, but very little about her sister the Cobra 850. Therefore, if anybody has first hand information about this old boat, building qualities, sailing performance and so on, I'd be very thanksfull. Any informations, books, review, magazine, etc is welcome 'cause I really couldn't find much on internet.
Thanks everybody !

Aleksi
 
There was a series of articles about the cobra 850 in PBO,some chap lived aboard with partner seemed a handy boat.The Design who believe was the late David Feltham was very good at bilge keelers
 
SailorAleksi said:
Hello everybody !

New on the forum and about to buy my first boat, I am currently investigating the market of bilge keel boats. Not to start a debate about bilge keel versus others, I could find plenty of informations about the Mirage 28, but very little about her sister the Cobra 850. Therefore, if anybody has first hand information about this old boat, building qualities, sailing performance and so on, I'd be very thanksfull. Any informations, books, review, magazine, etc is welcome 'cause I really couldn't find much on internet.
Thanks everybody !

Aleksi
Click to expand...
Sorry this is a useless reply as I am only going to comment on the mirage, but I have a particular affection for them. First boat I crossed the channel on, heavy and solid, interior quality varies as the fit out was done by various yards or even owners. Not fast but dependable, feels as solid as a bigger boat.
 
David Feltham was a prolific designer. His work includes a range of Cobras and Seawolfs, Mirages, Snapdragon and a Prout catamaran. You won't go far wrong with one of his designs although many are now quite old and condition will depend on how they have been treated.

A large number of Cobra 850s were built. I believe a lot went to the Mediterranean charter fleets. As such, they were competent cruising boats and, as has been mentioned, David Feltham was particularly good at designing bilge keelers. They won't excel at racing around the cans but will provide reasonable performance and a solid build. We have had several in our club over the years.

I have owned a Seawolf 26 for around 20 years which gives you some idea of what I think of his designs.
 
Thanks a lot for your answers everybody. Those are pretty much the infos I gathered about David Feltham designs. Solid, seaworthy boats, and reasonable performance at sail when it comes to the bilge keel.
I'm planning a visit soon. Do you happened to know about some details I should pay special attention to ?
If anybody has some articles from PBO mentionned earlier, that would be great !
 
We had a bilge keel Cobra 850 some years ago, we thought that it was a bit of a slug to sail. A lot of them were home fitted out with varying degrees of ability They are now 35 years or so old so will be very long in the tooth as maybe sails and engines. Ours was fitted with a yanmar YSE 12 which was pretty agricultural and unreliable. On the plus side it was very roomy for it's size and several years of cruising for our family of four and sometimes 5 taking us from our North Wales base to the Isle of Man and Ireland. The twin keels were great for drying out on a beach or mooring. The Yanmar got replaced after a couple of years with a volvo 2020 which whilst a bit overpowered gave us a lot more confidence for getting back in time to get over the marina sill. We did shell out for new sails as well in the hope of a better performance but they didn't make much difference.
 
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