Design and Construction
Roberts conceived the RC-27 as a modern, lightweight cruiser-racer. Her bare hull and structure weigh only 750 pounds, excluding sails and spinnaker rigging. That low weight helps explain both the boat’s responsiveness and her classification as an ultra-light design: her displacement-length ratio is just 17, and 93 percent of similar sailboat designs weigh more.
Aquarius Sail Inc. built the fiberglass hull in the United States. Rather than fixed appendages, the RC-27 uses a daggerboard and rudders. Draft is 3 feet on the rudders alone and 4 feet 6 inches with the board lowered. Reviewers also reported draft of roughly 0.91 to 1.01 meters, depending on load, allowing the boat to tuck into shallow marinas.
Rig and Handling
The RC-27 carries a fractional sloop rig with a 44-foot spar. This tall, fractionally stayed rig drives a very light hull, placing the boat firmly in the ultra-light racer category rather than the cruising mainstream.
The daggerboard gives sailors a useful choice: raise it for gunkholing or lower it for better grip to windward. The 16-foot beam creates a broad, stable platform.
Accommodations
Beam defines the RC-27’s interior character. At 16 feet across on a 27-foot 6-inch hull, her length-to-beam ratio is 1.72. That makes the boat roomier than 99 percent of similar sail catamarans, with unusually generous space below and on the bridgedeck for a vessel of this length.
Lightweight construction keeps the structure minimal, but the wide footprint sets the design apart from narrower monohulls and catamarans of similar overall length.
The Verdict
The Aquarius RC-27 is a specialized lightweight catamaran that trades ballast and mass for space and speed potential. Roberts’ mid-1980s design combines a 16-foot beam with a 27-foot 6-inch hull, providing interior volume that almost no comparable catamaran matches. At the same time, the 750-pound bare weight and daggerboard make her a shallow-draft racer-cruiser.
She isn’t a heavy-weather voyager by constitution. As an ultra-light daysailer and coastal catamaran, however, she occupies a distinctive niche.
Pros
- The 16-foot beam provides more space than 99 percent of similar sailing catamarans.
- A bare weight of 750 pounds and a daggerboard create a shallow-draft platform.
- The fractional sloop rig, with a 44-foot spar on a 27-foot waterline, suits light-air performance.
Cons
- The ultra-light displacement, with a displacement-length ratio of 17, places her at the racing end of the spectrum rather than in the loaded-cruising category.
- No ballast or tankage figures are published for the design.
