Length 7.98 m, Breadth 2.75 m, Draught 1.25 m, Displac. 3 t
Koalen is the name I have given to a range of boat designs inspired from traditional fishing boats of Britany. After Koalen 22 and Koalen 25, this new design was asked by a home builder of a beautiful Beg-Meil. As per hull shape, I am keeping an intermediate line between pure tradition, with the raked keel of Breton crabbers, and the approach of some yacht designers fitting high tech and deep appendices on a traditional looking boat. A boat must be a consistent whole. A gaff rig is powerful and needs an appropriate hull. A light hull with a deep bulb keel suits a high aspect ratio bermudian rig, not a gaff rig which does not allow the same heading to windward. The keel of Koalen 26 is based on the same principles that the one fitted on my Pen-Hir, which gave astonishing high performances. It is simple to build, being made of a plywood wing, 40 to 50 mm thick, with two half lead torpeedos transversally bolted. With such a keel, the boat keeps most of the behaviour of a traditional gaff cutter: excellent course keeping, easy manoeuvring under sail. In addition, drying out with legs is very safe.
Koalen accommodation are very similar to those of Pen-Hir, with more space and in particular standing headroom and a diesel engine. But above all, Koalen 26 carries an awesome gaff rig with a topsail. The topsail yard takes place into the accommodations.
