Far East 26

Name: Far East 26
Brand: FAR EAST BOATS

Budget sailing for families and day racers makes the this China built and European designed boat ideal for the Australian market.

LIKES
-

European design and quality deck gear
- Spacious and functional below decks
- Budget price

DISLIKES
-

Lack of effective backstay control
- Unusually large rudder
- Electrics/navigation lights needed

OVERVIEW

- Good design for fleet racing or cruising

The Far East 26 is a Simonis Voogd design from China’s largest dinghy builder, Shanghai Far East Boats and the company is in the process of establishing a dealership here in Australia. Our test sail involved skippering one of the 10-boat Far East 26 fleet during this year’s China Cup, and I’d have to say the boat has great potential.

Founded in 2002, the company was licensed by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to build Optimists, and it is is capable of producing 2000 Optimist hulls annually as well as the 420s and also is the Laser distributor for the region.

The Far East 26 is a budget cruiser-racer and it comes with a simple sail plan that makes the boat ideal for sail training as well as weekend cruising.

HULL, RIG AND DECK

- Set up for racers, families or beginners

The 26 footer is fitted with North Sails, Harken deck gear and Selden spars. The hull is GRP and the fixed keel has a lead bulb. A lifting keel version is also planned, which could make them ideal for transporting around the Australian circuit if a one-design fleet was formed, as has just been done in Asia.

The sailplan uses a symmetrical masthead spinnaker, furling genoa and has an adjustable backstay. Outboard shrouds fix into large stainless chainplates and deck fittings included blocks for running the spinnaker sheet and brace. All halyards run aft to the cabin top and two small self-tailing Harken winches control the running rigging. The only thing really lacking is a turn button for halyard tensioning via the primary winches. Deck storage includes an anchor locker and three deep lockers in the cockpit.

The deep and long self-draining cockpit makes a safe haven for beginner sailors and families while also having smooth sloping coamings for when in race mode. A large carbon tiller attaches to a very deep rudder shaft, fixed by standard pintails. Nearby, sits the transom-mounted 10hp Yamaha four-stroke outboard that lifts up on a sturdy stainless bracket.

DOWN BELOW

- Plenty of room but no electrics

The saloon has four bunks and also has quarter berths. Headroom is about six feet and storage is found under all bunks, with hatches nicely finished in carbon. On the review boat there wasn’t a dedicated galley area but one is in the pipeline, company representative Ellen Jiao told us. The starboard-side quarter houses the bathroom, where a small sink and removable chemical toilet takes care of ablutions, behind a folding wooden door.

Bulkheads are smoothly finished throughout the open-plan layout and despite the rather Spartan look, the inside is functional with wooden foldout table adjoining the mast compression post. For ventilation four hatches are used.

The original design included an inboard sail-drive engine to be fitted but Far East chose to simplify things by fitting a transom bracket for an outboard. However an engine box remains there and since this is a non-electric boat, in cruise mode you’d want to fit an alternator to the outboard and run power to a battery for navigation lights and perhaps a small plotter. Another necessity would be fitting a bulkhead compass.

ON THE WATER

- Simple rig with a few niggles

Hoisting the North Sails mainsail was straight forward as was rolling out the non-overlapping jib. The only niggle was having sufficient backstay tension as the triangular rope setup doesn’t really do enough. The China Cup start line proved an interesting place with 87 other boats in the vicinity and our division also included the J80 fleet.

Tensioning the mainsheet is easily done by the steerer or by a dedicated trimmer, while the huge rudder gave us lots of leverage to duck and wave among the fleet. Acceleration looked nearly as good as the J80s, which was something of a surprise to me and the other Far East skippers. On the wind, the Far East felt comfortable, pointing at 45 degrees but lifted nicely when my Chinese crew hiked hard. Anjother slight problem was tacking, when the large roach of the mainsail often got trapped on the backstay, causing me to ease the tensioning on every tack.

Hoisting the symmetrical spinnaker also gave no dramas, with the Selden pole hooking onto its fixed position on the mast and the lazy sheet acting as a brace. Trimming was done either via clutch blocks or simply running a turn around the winch while the trimmer leaned on the shrouds. Off the wind, on a reach, the Far East excelled with the big rudder generating enough lift to help the hull plane.

Overall the Far East 26 is an exciting cruiser-racer and with the Australian dollar so strong is fantastic value.

Specifications:

Price: $39,671 approx. (plus shipping costs estimated at $2500)
Design: Simonis Voogd (Netherlands)
LOA: 8.38m
Length hull: 7.92m
Length waterline: 7.17m
Beam overall: 2.56m
Draught: max. 1.70 m
Displacement: 1625kg
Mainsail : 23.2 sqm
Furling Jib Area: 14 sqm
Spinnaker Area: 57.4 sqm
Power: optional outboard motor

Far East website: www.fareastboats.com

Far East 26

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