Peterson 26

Just bought a boat on a whim.

I own a sailing club and have the dock space, so don't fret.

The previous somewhat unknowledgable owner says it is a Peterson 26, 1985.

The vessel is very IORish, has an outboard on a pinched stern, has no bow pulpit, nor any indications of a previously installed bow pulpit, and is named after the indigenous Kiwi "winds of heaven" (as best as I can figure).

Well, all the kings horses and the internet and the BUC books, and boats of the world, and everyone I know says "what the heck is that", but it looks like it might sail pretty good. (I will move it next week).

Anyone know about a "1985 Peterson 26" mini IOR racer?

Is this a lost gem or just a loss? I can gets pics if necessary.

Capt DonB

 

I worked in the Peterson Design office around '85. There were no new designs in that size done at that time.

It may be an old Quarter Tonner out of a 1970s mold. There were a lot of molds around for those boats for a long time.

I live in Long Beach and have a custom Peterson 28 at ABYC. Post a photo of the boat and I may know what it is. Where is it now?

 

Boat location

Boat now in Dana Point, but I will move her Monday Oct 15th to Alamitos Bay, commercial berth 1 (main channel with the Schooner on the outside).

Since we are neighbors, I propose 2 free beers at McKennas should you choose to take a look in person. Or if you float on by in the next several days, take a look at the green hull sloop "Te Arangi", and drop an email.

I was pretty suspicious that this was an older racing design resurrected with a bit of an interior, and if she is a 1/4 ton racer hull, I will have a better story to tell the sailing students....

Thanks

Capt DonB

 

Not sunk

Boat now at Commercial berth 1 Alamitos Bay. She motored/sailed/motorsailed OK from Dana Point in 9 hours.

Ca Registration shows Peterson, 1986, length 25' 00" Hull ID PYI 6750010. Can I look this up somewhere?

I would like to obtain a copy of the line drawings, if any still exist.

 

I think this is a 1975 Hull (675 should be June 1975), Hull Number 10. I believe this would be from Peterson Design Number 14 (or a variation of it), Probably from Poseidon. PYI shows up as a company in North Carolina, but I don't think there were ever any Peterson 1/4 Tonner molds anywhere near there. PYI was probably the code for Poseidon back in the old days. I think those molds were used by two or three builders here in SoCal back in the '70s. Some of the boats were sold as kits I think, so maybe this one wasn't completed until the '80s.

I guessed 26 feet was an incorrect number for the LOA. At 25 feet it is certainly right for one of those old quarter pounders. If it is what I think it is then you have a production version of the design that won the 1/4 Ton North Americans ('74?).

Actually, in 1986 we did do prelim drawings for Ron Moore (Moore 24 fame) for a 26 foot ULDB (about 2500 pounds with a big rig). Basically it was a smaller version of the Adhara 30. Never did get built, too bad.


I am sure Peterson has the drawings for the boat. Trying to get hold of him and getting a copy out of him might be an interesting excercise.

 

Thanks

Thank you. That is all good information. It seems to match what little I know about when Rule design was prevalent, and when 1/4 tonners ruled the roost. (I had a Ranger 23 in the late 70's). Thanks again for your time.

I have been searching the Internet about 20 minutes a day on this (budgeted time), and have finally decided to try to contact the designer himself, as you have suggested.

Since I am chartering to the public, I will be adding the bow pilpit, redoing the safety lines, and a bit of painting, and you may see the boat around starting next season. Stop and introduce yourself anytime.

Well, for starters, there is no book entitled "Doug Peterson, a man and his yacht designs".... Although the guy in my mind certainly deserves such a biography.

I wonder if designers ever really know how many people stare at the line drawings seeing a work of art rather than an abstract boat drawing?

 

There were some very late '70s or early '80s Peterson quarts from Poland, weren't they?

For a stern pic of the best known, see

http://www.fionabrown.phanfare.com/album/306965/418352#imageID=18852304

Look through other bits of the Quarter Ton Cup gallery for "Tom Bombadil". She won the biggest British race (Round The Island) from about 1200 boats in the '80s.

A '78 Peterson Quarter was the Seaway 25 (pic) made in Australia. She's skinny, about 8ft 2in, so she can be used as a trailable yacht.

 

Yes. Doug did at least a couple of designs for Navimor in Poland, including a 44 for their Admirals Cup Team. The one that they built a slew of were the Quarter Tonners. I believe a lot of them were built for USSR training schools, so somewhere there are fleets of them under snow the better part of the year. This was the last QT design from the office (Design #73).

When the QT Cup was winding down in the mid 80s McWilliams in Ireland wanted to update one of these for the Worlds. I drew a new rig (extreme high aspect frac) and equally high aspect deep keel for them. Don't know if they ever did the mods. Either way they would still have been off the pace in most conditions against the newer boats, particularly the Briand 28 footer!

I never knew if Bombadil was one of those, or one of the Andy Green boats (Design #35).

I think those Seaways were built out of Tom Stephenson's mold (Design #56). I don't know how many Stephenson built before chucking it in. He also later built the Blazer 23s from a Peterson design (#84), which is the same linesplan my boat is built from (added 6" to the station spacing).

The really cool Peterson Quarters were the ones done for the '78 (?) Worlds in Japan. They were light (2600 lbs) daggerboarders, fractional, and very quick. The Worlds that year turned into a survival test, with one of the Peterson Daggerboarders having the board drop out in a broach, later sinking IIRC. I think there were quite a few sinkings and near sinkings, broken rigs, and DNFs. Our friends Roy Cundiff and Gary Weisman won that year in a highly modified Yamaha production hull (keelboat).

The other cool Peterson QT was from around '78. Dave Ullman had it built (Blitz) with daggerboard and frac rig. I think he came 3rd in the North Americans behind Fun and Bruce Nelson's Blivet?

 

Yep, the Seaways were from Stephenson's mold. There were dozens of them.

Tom Bombadil was once referred to as a "bankrupt stock boat from Poland" or words to that effect, so it can't have been the Green boat.

 

Too bad Stepenson didn't do a mold for the Pioneer Sound/B195 One Tonner. That was a good one.

I believe there was an early Peterson QT mold in the Kouyoumdjian yard in South America (Juan K's family). I'm pretty sure they had a half tonner mold similar to the Chaser mold ('76 World Champ helmed by Stephenson) as well.

For a few years there were Peterson QT and HT production molds going in Aus, NZ, USA, Canada, UK, Italy, Japan, Poland, Germany, and South America.

 

bottoms up

Well, from the number of offshoots of this Peterson design, I guess I will haul and paint the bottom and take a good picture from abeam, put the picture on the wall and call it a line drawing!

 

There were many Peterson QTs, not all offshoots of the design you have. Some were similar, some very different.

Depending on who finished off the hull you have there may be no drawings anywhere for the deck or sailplan. I'm sure Peterson has the linesplan and a sailplan for that design, it just might be different from how your boat was finally built.

 

Peterson 25.

Paul B, I now see why you were so knowledgeable about the Peterson stable of boats. you worked there !! Does this old war horse look like what you'll been tal ken about?

 

I would wager that is a Design 14 boat (the first of the production Peterson 1/4 tonners, 1973/4 vintage design). There were a lot of molds for those old Pintails. Who built that one?

 

Old Peterson 25

This Hull and deck was layed up in San Rafael, @ Poseidon Marian, Carl Petersen's shop. The plugs were said to have come from a San Diego, shop.