How to follow a folkboat?

[Tranona]

But that is twice the OP's budget! - and a very different kind of boat.

Your Cheverton would be a better match to his expectations if it were still for sale.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

At risk of committing blasphemy, the Contessa 26 next to me in the boatyard always looks a bit flimsy from the outside - all the fittings seem a size or two smaller than on my 26 footer - and from pictures I have seen of Contessa insides, sheets of varnished plywood don't last well. Very pretty, though.

They were solid enough to cope with rigours of squaddies and airmen using them almost continuously out of BKYC back in the 70's and 80's but the Victoria/Frances 26 is also a very solid boat and would stand up to the abuse equally well I suspect...

 

[armchairsailor]

I'm going to give a shout out for the Elizabethans - I know the op has looked at them, but I think they're worth a look from the point of view of being good sailing boats with character. The 29 is another Holman design and the 30 by David Thomas - another fine designer. In fact, he liked it so much he owned one before his death. The 29 is folkboaty in style and best sailed on her ear. The 30 is more of its time (1970s - 80s); IOR inspired but not too out there. Possibly beyond budget though.
Other designs that come to mind - Sadler 26/29 (good sailing boats), Crabbers (not cheap) or Golden Hind and Eventides in their various sizes and guises. Sadlers are by far the most vanillla of all of them and most modern. Westerleys??? (Heaven forfend) are considered plastic classics too...
Trouble is that folkboats are one of the prettiest designs out there, so it'll be difficult to get anything like a direct comparison.

 

[JumbleDuck]

They were solid enough to cope with rigours of squaddies and airmen using them almost continuously out of BKYC back in the 70's and 80's ...

Fair enough - I've done no more than have a look round the outside. Compared to my little Tonka Toy, everything looks a bit flimsy ...

 

[Pete7]

They were solid enough to cope with rigours of squaddies and airmen using them almost continuously out of BKYC back in the 70's and 80's but the Victoria/Frances 26 is also a very solid boat and would stand up to the abuse equally well I suspect...

I thought the fleet at the time was made up of Sigma 33s and Niclolson 26s rather than Contessas.

Pete

 

[grumpy_o_g]

I thought the fleet at the time was made up of Sigma 33s and Niclolson 26s rather than Contessas.

Pete

You've got me wondering now. I would have sworn they were Contessas 26's and 32's along with the windfall 100 sq mt boats but you could be right - embarrassing considering how often I sailed on them. These were the RAFSA boats rather than the Army ones.

 

[Motor_Sailor]

. . . and Niclolson 26s rather than Contessas. Pete

I thought the smaller boats were Cutlass 27s in the mid 70s.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Many thanks for all the input. I'm already aware of most of the individual yachts mentioned after spending hours studying the broker sites etc. Having had a bad experience in the past trying to arrange transportation of a boat from one end of the country to another we are concentrating on those for sale within easy travelling distance. Mind you that wooden Twister is a fine boat. The second one to be built I believe. There's a CO 26 moored next to us and we're not too impressed. Compared to our folkboat she does with all that freeboard, resemble a plastic bath tub sitting on the water. I suspect all the other GRP folkboat derivatives would be similar..
Of those we've looked at so far a Pioneer 9 is of interest. Good lines with a modern Beta engine and ticks a lot of boxes. Had the guy bothered to tidy her up before we viewed then I might have persuaded my partner to take the plunge. As it was she was just dismayed by the squalor. Curious how many people make no attempt to clean a boat up before offering it up for sale. That Twister is a damn good looking boat...... and we quite enjoy painting and varnishing.

I see there is a Pioneer 9 on ebay now,£7.5k and looks quite smart.Not as roomy as the 10 but still standing headroom and very rewarding to sail.The advantage of the Pioneers is that they were built very strongly with no balsa cored bits to get soft and everything accessable if needed.I used to sail on a 9 as a teenager so I am biased.

 

[Biggles Wader]

You've got me wondering now. I would have sworn they were Contessas 26's and 32's along with the windfall 100 sq mt boats but you could be right - embarrassing considering how often I sailed on them. These were the RAFSA boats rather than the Army ones.

Did you sail on the windfalls?Some of them are still about.

 

[PhillM]

But that is twice the OP's budget! - and a very different kind of boat.

Your Cheverton would be a better match to his expectations if it were still for sale.

At the time I put her up for sale, said I could cope with any two of the following: relationship, PhD study or Paean. At the time of writing I really was not expecting to lose the relationship through bereavement. Anyway, OP said he didn't want a wooden boat.

 

[DanTribe]

We were in your position a few years ago when we became too old for our Stella. We needed to be able to stand up without crouching and wanted a proper loo.
We tried several more modern designs but were always disapointed with their sailing abilities and lack of response.
Our standard phrase became " it's quite nice but doesn't sail like a Stella"
I think you need something with a bit of racing pedigree and 1970s style 1/2 tonners fitted the bill.
We eventually narrowed it down to a Ufo 31 & and GK 29, hard to choose but we went for the Ufo and never regretted it.
I would have liked to try an Albin Ballad but couldn't find one at the time.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Did you sail on the windfalls?Some of them are still about.

I had one week on one of the 100 sq mt boats but I can't remember which one. I do remember it was hard work to sail and I seemed to spend a fair bit of time cleaning and polishing. Beautiful boat though and it could shift on a reach too - the low freeboard and the water rushing past is an abiding memory. Surprisingly cramped inside and not the gleaming superyacht style interior I was expecting either - I suspect they were built as training vessels as much as officer's playthings.

 

[Malo37]

Don't exceed 4 knots ?

 

[Pete7]

You've got me wondering now. I would have sworn they were Contessas 26's and 32's along with the windfall 100 sq mt boats but you could be right - embarrassing considering how often I sailed on them. These were the RAFSA boats rather than the Army ones.

By chance I have my G15/83 in my desk at work. For civies that's the RYA log book number they pinched from the Army when they wanted a sail boat syllabus and borrowed the Armys syllabus and books.

Seems were were both wrong, one Pochard, which I sailed and logged was a Contessa 28.

Wasn't allowed near the windfall yachts plus there was a danger that if you were caught looking too closely you would end up polishing all that brass. Apparently the last was sold off recently. Asking price about £300k and sold in a couple of hours. Someone seriously underestimated the value perhaps?

Can't remember the Halcyons in BKYC, before my time, but did sail the ones out of Gosport. Bye heck they had done some mileage.

Pete

 

[horatio_nelson]

Bruce Roberts 275 maybe?

A friend bought one for £6.5k, really nice boat

 

[Biggles Wader]

By chance I have my G15/83 in my desk at work. For civies that's the RYA log book number they pinched from the Army when they wanted a sail boat syllabus and borrowed the Armys syllabus and books.

Seems were were both wrong, one Pochard, which I sailed and logged was a Contessa 28.

Wasn't allowed near the windfall yachts plus there was a danger that if you were caught looking too closely you would end up polishing all that brass. Apparently the last was sold off recently. Asking price about £300k and sold in a couple of hours. Someone seriously underestimated the value perhaps?

Can't remember the Halcyons in BKYC, before my time, but did sail the ones out of Gosport. Bye heck they had done some mileage.

Pete

"The windfall yachts" by Michael Cudmore is a book about the history of the boats,how many there were and what happened to them as far as is known.Most of them were 30,50 or 100 square metre racers built for the German navy in the 1930s so were built for racing and "character building" rather than comfort.There were some variations though with ketch and yawl rigs and other design changes.A quick google of the yacht "Overlord" gives an insight into what happened to one of them,still going strong as are others.Anyone on here got one?

 

[Daydream believer]

Invicta, or a bit bigger go for a cutlass

 

[Chuckle54]

Don't exceed 4 knots ?

We went out for a day sail on Monday. Forecast was "4 -5 gusting to 6 later" Several other much larger yachts making passage north, all heavily reefed down. We had full sail up and were running circles around them tacking back and forth. The folkboat heeled to 22 degrees and stayed there - rock solid. The gusts came much earlier than expected and at one point on a beam reach we clocked 8.2 knots but the average was just over 6 knots. The folkboat is a superb design which is why so many thousands have been built worlwide. Looks like we'll have to widen our search area to find anything that comes close. There are several yachts just about in our price range in the Aberdeen area - a 31 UFO and a Pioneer 10. The UFO was reengined within the past 12 months. Definitely a buyers market just now - at least in the north of the country.
P.S. we're so used to the cramped conditions and lack of headroom that we both crouch instinctively when we go aboard other yachts much to the amusement of the owners!