Design and Construction
Scott drew the Express 26 around a solid fiberglass hull with a stub/centreboard keel, giving her a load-dependent draft of roughly 2.33 to 2.63 feet stub/centreboard keel arrangement that lets the boat tuck into shallow marinas. The beam is a generous 10.5 feet against a 26-foot length, a length-to-beam ratio of 2.47 that makes her noticeably broad for her size. With 2,500 pounds of lead ballast in a 7,500-pound displacement, the ballast ratio comes to 33 percent. The wetted surface is about 290 square feet, and the immersion rate of 881 pounds per inch speaks to a hull that resists squatting under load. No production end year is stated in the sources.
Rig and Performance
The fractional rig carries an ISO 8666 reference sail area that yields a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 17.1, rising to 19.1 with a 135 percent genoa — enough to label her a moderate racer by displacement-length classification, with a DL-ratio of 240. The theoretical hull speed is 6.6 knots. Her capsize screening value of 2.15 and motion comfort ratio of 20.4 place her firmly in the small-family-cruiser band rather than the offshore-racer extreme. Halyard and sheet geometry is well documented: mainsail, jib/genoa, and spinnaker halyards all run about 84 feet at 5/16 inch, while the 65-foot mainsheet and 26-foot genoa sheets are 3/8 inch. Those lengths tell a buyer the rig is straightforward to re-line.
Accommodations
The specification background lists 15 gallons of diesel and 40 gallons of water as fixed tankage. No interior arrangement detail is provided by the sources.
Refits and Ownership
Owners may specify an inboard Yanmar diesel, and the rig's consumable lengths are fully tabulated, which makes a re-rig or halyard replacement a measured, unmysterious job.
The Verdict
The Express 26 is a pragmatically drawn small cruiser-racer: shoal draft with a centerboard, a beamy stable platform, and moderate sail power that the numbers place squarely among cruisable performance designs rather than out-and-out racers.
Pros
- Shoal load-dependent draft from the stub/centreboard keel eases marina access
- Broad 10.5-foot beam and 33 percent ballast ratio aid form stability
- Fully documented rigging lengths simplify halyard and sheet replacement
Cons
- No stated production end year limits historical precision for late-build boats
- Interior layout and accommodation detail are not described by available sources
