Design and Construction
The Sailmaster 26 has a solid fiberglass hull, a lead stub keel, and a retractable centerboard. This arrangement 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 lowered.
She measures 26 feet overall but has a 19-foot waterline. Her 7.75-foot beam produces a length-to-beam ratio of 3.36, making her relatively narrow compared with later, beamier designs. A displacement of 4,000 pounds and solid-fiberglass construction give her the character of a traditional hull rather than a lightweight, foam-cored racer.
Lead ballast in the stub keel and a capsize screening value of 1.95 suggest a boat designed for upright behavior in normal coastal conditions. A Motion Comfort Ratio of 19.0 and a displacement-length ratio of 260 place her in the moderate-racer category: lively enough to sail well, but with enough mass to settle her motion.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
The Sailmaster 26 carries a masthead sloop rig. Her reference sail-area-to-displacement ratio is 17.5, rising to 20.4 with a 135% genoa, which helps explain her classification as a moderate racer.
Wetted surface is about 193 square feet. The theoretical hull speed for a displacement boat of this waterline length is 5.8 knots, and the displacement-length ratio of 260 supports that figure without suggesting she’ll be pushed past it easily. An immersion rate of 512 pounds per inch indicates how heavily the boat settles as crew and gear come aboard.
Standing and running rigging dimensions are fully documented. All halyards are about 64 feet long and 5/16-inch in diameter. The jib and genoa sheets, along with the mainsheet, range from 26 to 65 feet at 3/8-inch. Control lines—including the cunningham, kicking strap, and clew outhaul—range from 12 to 24 feet at 5/16-inch.
Known Issues
As on any stub-keel-centerboard boat of this era, the centerboard trunk and pivot are conventional points of attention. A buyer should expect to evaluate the board’s operation and the trunk’s sealing as features of the design.
The solid fiberglass hull avoids the cored-deck saturation issues found on later boats.
Refits and Ownership
With fewer than 200 boats built, aftermarket support is sparse, and refits may depend on generic hardware intended for 26-foot sloops. However, the complete rigging table allows an owner to order halyards and sheets in the original dimensions without guesswork.
The simple, solid-glass hull keeps structural refit limited to cosmetic and mechanical work. Because the boats date from the early 1960s, many survivors have passed through several generations of equipment.
The Verdict
The Sailmaster 26 is a thoughtfully proportioned small Tripp sloop. She trades cabin volume for shallow-draft access and the balanced sailing feel of a moderate racer. She isn’t a volume cruiser, but her numbers describe a coherent design for daysailing and modest coastal passages.
Pros
- Roughly 2.2-foot board-up draft for shallow-marina access, with keel stability when the board is lowered
- Solid fiberglass hull and lead ballast in a production run of fewer than 200 boats
- 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 date means aged systems on most surviving boats
