Malcolm Tennant Coaster 26

Does anyone have any information on a Malcolm Tennant Coaster 26, I am planning on moving one on a trailer. I would like to know the gross weight, suggested mast length and any drawings that can be shared?
Thank you.

 

Dave574. Limited information from original broacher. Claimed build weight 1,100 lbs maximum sailing displacement is 2,200 lbs. Tennant boats if built to plan got near the claimed build weight but some where over. Suggest try to weigh it. The limited drawings I have don't show the mast height. Correction just found another broacher page which shows the Coaster mast was 33 foot high. Hope this helps.

 

Thank you that was very helpful.

 

Hi Dave. I'm curious is this the one in Kenosha? If it is I can tell you a little history about the boat.

 

Yes it is. Having a little trouble breaking away from my woman to go pick it up. I also looked last weekend at a Crowther Kraken 33 in Schoolcraft, MI.

 

"I'm going to look at a yacht on the weekend, you can come or I'll see you in a couple of days"
See easy.

 

From what I've seen in the photos that Kraken 33 is in much better shape. The Coaster 26 was really rough even when the previous owner sold it around 2019.

The boat has had three owners as far as I know. It was originally built and sailed around Lake St Clair. Then it was sold sometime around the late 80's to a guy in Milwaukee, he sailed it hard for years with minimal maintenance to keep it going. It was really a fast boat, especially in light air. In 2017 it was hit on it's mooring, and the end of one of the amas was broken off. My father did the repair work. I know I have a couple of photos I can dig up. It was sold to the guy in Kenosha shortly after that work was completed.

Not sure about the main hull, but the amas were extremely light. Two people could easily lift them. Construction of the amas was 1/4" cedar strip plank with 4 oz glass inside and out. The guy says in his ad that it has a carbon mast, but that's not true. The wing mast was also strip planked wood. It's possible it has some carbon reinforcement, but it's definitely primarily wood.

 

Here's the ama with the broken section roughly reattached before the new planks were scarfed in.

And here's after the completed repair.

 

Thank you for the information. I can't get Tennant Designs co.nz to open on my browser, would you know how many people the Coaster 26 sleeps?

 

I believe 3? That website has been down for several years now. Most of it is on the internet archive though.
The description from the webpage says "Coastal cruising for two or three people in comfort and safety at a reasonable speed and at a reasonable cost..."

Here are some of the images from the website as well. These are of the boat when it was still with the original owner.

 

I spoke to Malcom about this design back in the early 2000s when there were far fewer cruisable small multi designs available. As part of my information gathering I corresponded briefly with the original builder of the example in the pics. I still have the study plans.

To answer your specific questions. The boat has a bunk in each cabin. The bunk platforms also are the tops of a bouyancy tank bow and stern. The 3rd bunk would be to sleep 1 or 2 people in the cockpit under a boom tent. Think Tremolino with a slightly more roomy hull.

After Malcolm passed the plans business was being run by Tony Stanton. I'm not sure whether there is any invovement from him now or whether the plans are still available. Lack of a website would seem to suggest not.

Some other info: The cabins have about 1.6 metres headroom at the entrances. it looks like there is sitting headroom at the end of each bunk. The forward cabin shows provision for a small galley on the the hull step, cooker on one side and maybe a sink on the other. There is probably room to put a portaloo under one of the bunk heads. Malcom designed wing masts that could be built from cedar strip or alloy box section with foam fairings. Or you could use a standard extrusion. Malcolm often had various options you could add to his designs like foils in the floats or a swing centreboard, variations in rigs etc.

I no longer have the correspondence from the original builder, but he said the boat was very fast and very wet. He said that the leeward beams had folded up one time while sailing after a sea stay or something broke. The most interesting comment he made was to my question about what he would change if he built it again. His answer was 'choose a different design'. He didn't elaborate any further. That and some of his other comments left me with the impression that the finished product, while it largely fulfilled its design brief, hadn't fulfilled his expectations of what he could do with it. In the end I decided I didn't like the center cockpit configuration so went no further with it. Malcom did design other tris that were more conventional like the Sylph 8.5 and Chrome 9.6 but I don't know whether any of these were built.

 

My dad who is more familiar with the boat than me said it had another quirk. Because the main hull was so narrow there was no way to fit a pass-through in the bulkhead beneath the mast. This meant that the forward cabin was only accessible via the hatch on deck, and not from the cockpit.

 

I can see how the design eared a reputation for being both fast and wet being a center cockpit and a short boat along with the floats being so high off the water allowing boat to heal and press with a bow down attitude as shown in the photo of above from behind, along with those open weave wingnets that probably did little to knock spray down.

Can also see how it folded as those tubes are pretty small diameter and it has a decent beam.

The floats do appear to have a good amount of volume though, and any demountable Trimaran that can be towed behind a Ford Aerostar is pretty cool in my book!

 

Yeah, the boat was definitely fast. My family had a MacGregor 36 catamaran at the same time in Milwaukee. The Coaster was faster in almost all conditions. We could only really beat it in heavy air.