Why buy an Evolution 26 ?
Well, I can only speak for myself, but my experience may help others.
I live in Christchurch and I have a mooring in the harbour close to my house. My mooring dries out on a low spring tide, and there's not often much more than 1.5m of water at the top of the tide. I needed a boat that would take the ground, sit upright in the mud and have minimal draft so I could retain my cheap and convenient mooring. I wanted to be able to get off my mooring at the earliest opportunity which meant a boat with a very minimal draft. That meant I needed a lift-keel yacht with a flat profile bottom.
My previous boat was a Timpenny trailer sailer, which I also kept on the mooring. That boat was only 22ft long, and whilst it met the criteria of a shallow draft with the keel up, it wasn't big enough, fast enough or safe enough to venture far from home. It served the purpose of teaching me what I really wanted in my next boat.
I didn't want a bilge keeler due to draft. I also wanted a fast light boat which I could race, and be big and safe enough to sail to France and along the South Coast .
Christchurch used to be the home of the Evolutions, and at one time there was quite a large racing fleet of them at Christchurch Sailing Club. There's only a few left now that race regularly. When I had my Timpenny and raced it for a couple of seasons, you soon get to spot the boats that leave everyone else standing on a regular basis. These were the Evolutions, which raced in a class of their own as nobody else could keep up with them. An Evolution was therefore at the top of my list.
The Tall Fractional 7/8 Rig
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Most of the Evolutions that race seriously have a tall bendy 7/8 fractional rig with running backstays. This is a very tuneable rig which presents a lot of sail area, and realistically you need at least 4 people to race it seriously in order to provide enough weight to hold it down in a blow. I was rather concerned about this arrangement, as I often sail single handed and this racing rig with runners would be a bit of a handful on my own - I'd probably be sailing it well reefed down most of the time when not racing. |
The Masthead Rig
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I thought about the cruising version which has the shorter masthead rig with the mast stepped further back above the bulkhead (where it should be!) and concluded that this would be a much better rig for me, even though the headsail would be much larger and may require a lot of winching when short tacking. I decided I'd look out for one of these. |
The Fractional 3/4 Rig with Swept Back Spreaders
I saw my boat advertised in North Wales, and thought I'd go and see it even though it was long way away and it had a fractional rig. When I saw it I realised it was a different configuration again and ideally suited to my type of sailing. The boat did indeed have a fractional rig, but instead of the very tall 7/8 rig with runners, this rig was slightly shorter 3/4 configuration with swept back spreaders. That meant that I still had a fairly tuneable rig without the need for running backstays which are hopeless if you are singlehanded. It also already had roller reefing which was another of my requirements. The fact that it was a fractional rig with the mast further forward than the masthead rig version, the result is a smaller headsail and a larger mainsail which is easier to handle singlehanded.
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To cut a long story short - I bought the boat and shipped it back home
to Christchurch from whence it came. When I mentioned to my son that I'd bought a new boat, he said "Wicked!" , so that's where it got it's name. |
The boat has worked out well for me. I race it regularly, but I can't compete for speed with the Evolutions with the tall rig, running backstays and folding props. Don't let that put you off - even with the smaller versions of the rig these are still fast boats, however If you want a serious out and out racer you should probably buy one in the tall configuration if you can find one.
For single handed sailing the boat has also worked out well. I have roller reefing on a tri-radial genoa which is good but certainly isn't as efficient as a deck sweeping hanked on racing sail, but is much more convenient. I also have single line reefing on my fully battened tri-radial mainsail, which means I can easily reef down from the cockpit. This arrangement works well, as you need to reef early on an Evolution if you want to maintain speed without heeling over too much.
I'll talk about engine variations in another section, but this is an important area you should consider.
In summary, I would say that the Evolution has quite a lot going for it, and I certainly have no regrets about buying it. I would say that the only other boat to match it for performance and price is the Baker built Super Seal 26, which is also worthy of consideration. The later versions of the Seals/Parkers just don't have the performance in my opinion - they are much more cruiser orientated (and expensive).
If you are thinking of buying one then I hope the info on this site will be of use to you. Please feel free to contact me if you need any more info - I may not know the answer of course. I would also like to receive any pictures or old brochures etc. that you may have.
Happy Sailing! David Lincoln david.lincoln@bigfoot.com
