'84 Marieholm 26: Bluewater cruiser?

A friend owned one for a number of years. I've been aboard and we've sailed along side on many occasions. His was an earlier Maireholm, with a shorter coachroof and an outboard well. The outboard well was off center and problematic, so he gave up with it and went without an engine.

He had a nice set of sails, and that boat sailed VERY WELL, even in Chesapeake light air. It is a very slippery design and though only 26 feet yields a surprising turn of speed.

It was pretty tight and sparse belowdecks. Definitely more on the "minimalist" end of the spectrum. But it had a nice little galley, and a portapotti. Also, as you will see in the photos below, my friend had to add an extra tall dodger to address one of the boats vices -- it is wet wet wet.

The one you linked to at e-bay seems to have more cabin space (longer coachroof?) and an inboard diesel engine. That extra weight and dragging the prop around will probably slow it down some, but a diesel is generally nice to have.

JohnRPollard said:

The one you linked to at e-bay seems to have more cabin space (longer coachroof?) and an inboard diesel engine. That extra weight and dragging the prop around will probably slow it down some, but a diesel is generally nice to have.

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I believe this is the difference between a 'Marieholm 26' and the Marieholm 'IF Boat' or International Folkboat. The IF Boat has a large lazarette locker behind the cockpit where the outboard motor well is. I have never seen a M26, but from the eBay pictures it looks like they removed the locker, shifted the cockpit back and had more room for the cabin as compared to the IF Boat.

I have a 1976 IF Boat that I bought in VA. and sail out of Havre De Grace. I love the boat and sailed all winter long in it last year. I just finished my first solo trip from HDG to Baltimore two weeks ago. Many weekends I pack the tiny boat out with 3 or 4 friends for an overnight trip. True, its not the fastest boat, but the admiring looks for other sailors, and the "hey, what type of boat is that" questions make up for it. I have an ASym sail that works great in light winds (I think it might even be a used Lightning Spinnaker) I plan to take mine to the Caribbean in the next 3 years or so.

This one looks like its in really great shape.

That is an M26. I've owned one since the beginning of the year and am very happy with it.

The M26 has the cockpit set further after, almost right up against the transom and also a slightly higher cabin to give about 5' 8" headroom. Most of them are diesel powered although some have an outboard hung from a pad attached to the transom. My one has the engine offset so the prop is on the port side which can be really annoying when reversing.

Aside from those built by Marieholm, there was at one time a builder here in Australia who was building them under license and so we have quite a few here. The Nordic is the original design (still being built today to one-design rules) but the IF and the M26 are very close variants of it, as is also the Stella. They all share in common a full keel, high ballast ratio (I think around 52-54% usually carried as cast iron at the bottom of the keel) and a tall, narrow (high aspect ratio) rig that was designed to catch the breezes up high so the boats could sail down the nordic fjords. The are known for being stiff, sea kindly and being able to carry sail in even heavy weather.

Are they good blue water cruisers? I haven't done any yet so can't answer that question. I think they could be a bit cramped for long trips. BUT there are some well known stories of people who have successfully undertaken long passages in them including Anne Gash who sailed Australia to England and return in her Stella and Blondie Hasler who did four transatlantic crossings in his junk rigged Folkboat.

FWIW, you'll find that there's a fleet of Folkboats based in San Francisco where apparently they are ideal for the local conditions.

From the photos, the ebay one looks like a really nice boat!