|
I just bought a 26' 1977 C&C this year and am very happy with it
so far. I agree with Alan about your description of the engine
- it sounds WAY too big. My 1-lung Yanmar is rated at 8 HP and
drives the boat nicely.
The issue of a place to keep the boat and extra costs is very real
but is not central to your choice of boat. The C&C seemed good
for me for some basic reasons:
Reasonably fast (BTW - is this a fin or shoal keel?)
Standing (5'11" - 6'0") headroom
Inboard diesel
Well constructed, good materials
VERY spacious for a 26' boat (has a 10.5' beam). Note that
the beam may cause you a problem if you put it in a slip,
Coggeshall Marina claimed it was too beamy for a 25' slip so
I am paying for a 30' slip!
Sleeps five
Comfortable cockpit and coamings
I have tiller steering and am getting beaten up by my family to
have a wheel installed (the tiller is long and tends to crush feet
belonging to unaware crew) - but I like the responsiveness of the
tiller, especially down-wind.
The boat is very well balanced, showing little weather helm even
under main-alone in a good breeze (22-25 kts).
So, if your piggy-bank can stand the many calls upon its contents,
and you find the same features important to you, GET a SURVEY and
go for it!
Carl
|
| I concur with Alan's analysis of the C&C 26 and would extend his
comments to all of the late 70's early 80's C&C's with the exception
of the deep keel version of the C&C 40. A friend had a C&C 26 which
I sailed on frequently. Initially we both thought of it as a stiff
boat. But this was illusory. It was just that the boat only had
a working jib and we never sailed close hauled. My friend always
motored if we had to go directly upwind. Made sense since he intended
to upgrade at the end of the season and didn't want to strain the
boat.
Returning from a long weekend's cruise on the Southern NE coast
we encountered the usual wind tunnel in Buzzard's Bay as we headed
North towards the Cape Cod Canal. On went the motor as the sails
got furled. The one lunger yanmar made satifactory but very noisy
progress against the 20 knot headwind and short chop. Just as the
motor coughed to a stop we remembered that we hadn't gased up since
we left Bristol several days before. And we'd used the motor
extensively maneuvering in harbors and battery charging. As soon
as the sails went up the rail went down. The helm was manageable
with the 36' steering wheel but progress to weather was pathetic.
Everything was under control but even small daysailors were going
by us. We eventually got impatient and headed back downwind to
level out the boat so we could add gas from a gerry can. Of course
diesels can't restart after being run dry. Enough was enough.
We sailed out of the channel into a cove where we anchored to get
our act back together.
On subsequent sails we learned that when the whitecaps started to
fly, it was time to turn on the motor. I attributed the tenderness
to large interior volume of the boat and the resulting high freeboard.
The C&C 26 has a large and well appointed interior for a 26 footer.
But there is a price to pay in performance. When I bought a C&C
34 with some racing friends I didn't think the handling problems
would recur. After all, the 34 has a much longer profile with respect
to its height, not like the squat little 26. HA!
We learned a lot in the first race, a 20 knot day. How to reef,
how to change headsails, and what brouches were. The 34 needed
to have the #1 down by 12 knots. And then you went right to the
# 3. Skip the #2 entirely. Couldn't carry it. First reef at 17,
second at 20. And Tartan 30's and Pearson 30's would steamroller
us going by with full sail up.
The second season saw the addition of a 700 lb "boot" to the keel.
It was a bit stiffer after that but still slow to weather. The
roundness of the hull has something to do with it but it's not that
much rounder than others. The deep keel 40 usually sailed to its
rating. But its keel is dramatically deeper than the 34's and its
freeboard the same but spread out over a much longer hull. Definitly
not squat. The newer C&C's are reputed to stiffer and faster than
older counterparts. Maybe some familiar with them can tell us how
they do it.
- gene
|
| I have owned (and still do) a C&C 26 for three seasons. In fact, I talked to
Alan Berens about his experiences with the model before I bought mine. As I
experiment more with the boat and go out in stronger winds, the conclusions
that I arrive at are not too surprising.
The boat (a mast-head rig) _loves_ its headsail. I would guess that half its
driving power in winds below 15 knots comes from the head sail, and a fair bit
more as the wind comes up. Going to Block Island this year in 25 - 30 knots, I
found that the 100% working jib and double-reefed main moved the boat well.
Until such time as the hard dinghy filled with water through the dagger-board
trunk (which the manufacturer PROMISED would not happen!) we were able to make
5 to 6 knots close-hauled punching into 4 - 5 foot seas. The filled dinghy
took about .6 knots off our speed. Strapping the dagger board in for the return
trip to Narragansett Bay kept the boat quite dry and more stable too!
Without a doubt, the boat is tender. It is possible to bury the lee rail in
12-14 knots with the 150 up and a crew of five on the weather rail. The trick
I have found (and continue to find) is that the boat should be reefed early.
Nothing macho about it - just reef, get the boat on its feet, and make the
reefable jib the very last sail to come down in a real blow.
I don't think I would attempt an off-shore passage, though I know of people who
have sailed their C&C 26's to Bermuda. Come to think of it, I know of one
person who single-handed a J-24 to Bermuda and back too! There are many notes
in SAILING that discuss the relative wisdom of taking on a passage in a boat
which might not survive in the conditions which _could_ be found on such a
passage. For sailing in and around Narragansett Bay and the surrounding
islands, I truly like my C&C 26. The boat is strong, the interior large, the
one-lung 8 HP Yanmar sufficient. If and when I move up - it will be for more
space, longer water-line and more accouterments found on larger boats (like hot
pressure water) instead of finding dissatisfaction with this boat.
Carl
|