Design and Construction
Tripp's 26-footer is built around a solid fiberglass hull with a lead stub keel and a retractable centerboard, a combination that lets her skim into shallow marinas at a board-up draft of roughly 2.2 feet while carrying the stability of a 6-foot keel when the board is dropped the stub/centreboard keel. At 26 feet overall on a 19-foot waterline, a 7.75-foot beam gives her a length-to-beam ratio of 3.36, a relatively narrow section compared with later beamy designs, and the 4,000-pound displacement with solid-glass construction reads as a traditionalist's hull rather than a lightweight foam-cored racer. The lead ballast in the stub keel and a capsize screening value of 1.95 suggest a boat engineered for upright behavior in normal coastal conditions, while a Motion Comfort Ratio of 19.0 and a displacement-length ratio of 260 frame her as a moderate-racer: lively enough to sail well, but with enough mass to settle the motion.
Rig and Handling
The Sailmaster 26 carries a masthead sloop rig with a reference sail area giving a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 17.5, rising to 20.4 with a 135% genoa, which explains her placement in the moderate-racer category SA/D is 17.5. Her wetted surface runs about 193 square feet, and the theoretical hull speed for a displacement boat of this length is 5.8 knots, a figure the 260 displacement-length ratio supports without suggesting she will easily be pushed past it. The standing and running rigging dimensions are fully documented: all halyards run about 64 feet at 5/16-inch diameter, sheets for jib, genoa, and mainsheet run 26 to 65 feet at 3/8-inch, and control lines such as the cunningham, kicking strap, and clew outhaul are 12 to 24 feet at 5/16-inch. An immersion rate of 512 pounds per inch tells the owner how heavily she loads with crew and gear.
Known Issues
The centerboard trunk and its pivot are the conventional points of attention on any stub-keel-centerboard boat of this era, and a buyer should expect to evaluate board operation and trunk sealing as a matter of design. The solid fiberglass hull avoids the cored-deck saturation issues seen on later boats.
Refits and Ownership
Ownership of a sub-200-production boat means sparse aftermarket support and a reliance on generic 26-foot sloop hardware when refitting. The fully specified rigging table lets an owner reorder halyards and sheets to original dimensions without guesswork, and the simple solid-glass hull keeps structural refit limited to cosmetic and mechanical work. The early-sixties launch window means many survivors have seen several equipment generations pass through them.
The Verdict
The Sailmaster 26 is a thoughtfully proportioned small Tripp sloop that trades cabin volume for shallow-draft access and a moderate-racer's balanced feel under sail. She is not a volume cruiser, but her numbers show a coherent design for day sailing and modest coastal passages.
Pros
- Shallow board-up draft for marina access with keel stability when deployed
- Solid fiberglass hull and lead ballast in a sub-200-build run
- Fully documented rigging dimensions simplify replacement
Cons
- Narrow beam and centerboard trunk limit interior space
- No interior layout or tankage data published for the design
- Early production means aged systems on most survivors
