Design and Construction
Everitt’s cruising version carries a higher coachroof than the racing 26, and that extra volume is put to use below rather than wasted as visual bulk. The hull itself is a solid fiberglass monohull with an iron ballast of 1,700 pounds set inside a hydraulically operated lifting keel that alone weighs 800 pounds anchor. The keel’s travel gives a draught band from 1 foot up to 5 feet, letting the boat skim over shoals with the plate raised and then stand up to a breeze when lowered. Because many were home completed, the structural shell is the constant while the details around it were left to amateur hands.
Rig and Handling
The 25 wears a powerful fractional rig and with 272 square feet of sail she is light on her feet. Yachting Monthly found her handling akin to a big dinghy, responsive and unweighted by cruising inertia, yet she retains plenty of performance when the wind fills anchor. That combination makes her a flexible coastal and estuary cruiser, equally at home threading a shallow channel or reaching across a breezy bay, and the lifting keel is the mechanism that unlocks both behaviors without a second boat.
Accommodations
Below, the cruising brief is clear: the accommodation is more spacious and better fitted out than the 26’s racing interior, with a separate heads compartment and a practical galley area that acknowledges real cooking rather than camp-stove tokenism. She can sleep five, a generous count for 25 feet 9 inches overall, and the 9 foot 4 inch beam gives the saloon shoulder room that smaller quarter-ton derivatives lack. Because many boats were finished by their owners, the arrangements below decks and the quality of fit-out will vary from one hull to the next anchor, so the same model can present as a tidy factory cabin or a bespoke amateur refit.
Known Issues
The central caveat is that build quality was not brilliant, a flat assessment rather than a rumor, and the home-completion pattern amplifies the inconsistency. A buyer or reviewer cannot assume uniform structural care, and the variable fit-out means cosmetic and functional condition must be judged hull by hull rather than by class reputation.
The Verdict
The Evolution 25 is a small, scarce cruiser that converts a quarter-ton racer’s agility into a usable coastal home. Her lifting keel and fractional rig give genuine dual-mode behavior, and her cabin is roomier than her racing sister’s by design. The trade is uneven execution across a tiny production run.
Pros
- Lifting keel spans 1 to 5 feet draught for shoal and open-water use
- Fractional rig and dinghy-like handling with real performance
- More spacious, better-fitted cabin than the Evolution 26 racer
- Sleeps five with separate heads and practical galley
Cons
- Build quality was not brilliant
- Many home-completed boats mean variable fit-out and condition
