Soverel 26 Hull #23
Ricochet Rabbit

I bought a Soverel 26 [ Hull # 23] in October of 2002. I bought this boat knowing very little about the boat and design, but I was familliar with other designs by Mark Soverel. In particular the Soverel 33 and Soverel 27. The 26 has been reported to be a design of his father Bill Soverel, as well as, a design by Mark Soverel. I am not sure who designed the boat.

All I could find out about the boats were that they were designed as MORC racers. The following is an exert from the MORC web site. "1975 The third MORC International Regatta was held in Stonington, CT. 40 contestants from 16 Stations participated. "Stewball", a Soverel 26 Owned and Sailed by Mark Soverel was the overall winner."

Let me start with why I bought my boat and what I want to do with it. I had been crewing on a Lindenberg 26 out of the West River, on the Chesapeake Bay south of Annapolis Md. doing Wednesday night racing for the last couple years. The Pirates Cove Racing Club is a very fun and competitive group to sail with and I really wanted to get a boat of my own to race. I had been racing PHRF C and that was a good fleet and the boats seemed to be about the right size. I wanted a boat in the 24 to 28 range that was primarily a racing boat, but had enought comfort to do some of the longer overnight bay races, and my family could camp on.

When I bought the boat I had it surveyed and there was cracking at the front of the keel where the hull and keel stub meet. The surveyor said that could be either fairing compoud or something more serious, but there was realy no way to tell. In my case it turned out to be something more serious. The hull/keel stub was cracked the entire length of the keel. This was a serious structural crack that leaked water through the hull into the bilge. In addition to the keel leaking the deck leaks every where. So much that even after a winter of the boat on the ground that it would still fill up with water.

Things that have been done to the boat.


• all Stays replaced
• New Tuff Luff system
• anchor lite/steaming light/foredeck light all replacied and new wiring.
• new VHF antena wire run through the mast
• Bow pulpit replaced
• Bow lights replaced and moved on to the bow pulpit
• New Push pulpits added
• All old wiring removed
• New marine grade wiring put in to the boat.
• wiring chafe channels add into the boat
• All electric panels replaced
• New automatic Rule bilge pump

A little history I received a great Email about my boat and I have included it here.

Bob:  
 
I just came across your web site for the Soverel 26.
 
I am the original owner; I bought the boat in the fall of 1978 and then sold it around 1986.
I repurchased it perhaps eight years later and then sold the boat to Steve Grimm (sp?)
several years ago.  I actually traded the boat to Steve for his J24.  Despite having sold 
the boat twice, I really enjoyed sailing it.
 
It is a great boat for sailing in all air, light and heavy.  The wide deck gives the boat 
a lot of stability.  It really points very high.  When racing be sure to remove the 
outboard motor and keep the stern out of the water.
 
I have an original sales brochure that I can copy and send to you.
 
The Soverel 26 was designed by Mark Soverel although his father did design another 26' 
earlier.
 
I was not aware of the damage to the keel hull joint that you mentioned in your web site.  
My recollection was that water did come in through the hatch covers for the main cockpit.  
I am not sure whether the problem may have come from improper blocking in a yard.  Although 
you don't mention it, it appears that you were able to make the necessary repairs.
 
Good luck with the boat. I really enjoyed it.  Also congratulations on starting a Soverel 26 
class web site.
 
Benet McMillan

My boat was badly neglected and damaged when I bought it. My boat has been out of the water since Nov, 2002 and I am hoping to get her back in the water by the end of this summer. The major efforts have been to strip the bottom of layers and layers of bottom paint and to re-seal the hull with Interlux epoxy 505 paint then we will add a baltiplate bottom.

I do not know if it is on the web site but the hull and keel joint leaked and it appears that the boat was damaged at some point in the past either running hard a-ground or perhaps dropped. When we went to repair her we discover the extent to which the hull and floor liner were holding moisture. Basically most of the floor liner's balsa core is saturated with water. We have basically removed all of the floor liner behind the mast stem and some of it in front of the mast. I should probably remove more of the liner floor forward as well. To repair the keel joint we re-enforced the keel stub and the hull around and aft of the keel stub. We doubled the hull thickness near the keel and tripled the keel stub thickness.

I have rewired and upgraded the electrical system of the entire boat (required by my insurance company). I replace the aft two bulkheads upsizing them to 12mm Oakum, from the 9mm they were. They were rotten at the bottom where they meet the aft bunks. I had to replace the bow pulpit, it had been damaged from before I bought the boat. I moved the running lights up on to the bow pulpit at that time, I had push pulpits build for the back of the boat, and I am replacing all the life lines with spectra line instead of the 1x7 wire.

My rudder had sounded like there was some delamination (this was according to my surveyor) on the starboard side and so I drilled several holes in the rudder to try and fill it with epoxy. When we did this gallons of water came out of my rudder It has now been draining for about 10 months. I am going to try and remove the rudder and rebuild it in my basement at some point in the near future.

Also during my survey it was pointed out that my transom had had the out board motor mount moved several times and that it had not been properly repaired. My insurance company required that this be repaired. What we did was to drill out all of the mis-repaired holes first. Then on the inside we re-enforce the transom by epoxying a piece of 3/4" marine plywood which had been saturated first in epoxy to the area where the motor mount would go. We then repaired the holes on the outside of the transom with glass and vinyl ester resin and will paint the outside with interlux top coat.

There are several areas in the deck that are soft from water damage to the balsa core. I need to figure out ways to fix these, the worst spot is right behind the mast where several turning blocks had been mounted to the deck. I am planning to route that space out from the inside and replace the balsa core with 9mm oakum saturated with epoxy and then repair the liner.

I have yet to remove all of the hardware and reseat the hardware. I will probably replace my toe rail this year too. I am going back and forth between buying an aluminum toe rail and building a new teak one.

There is also a very poorly repaired port stanchion that should be removed and properly repaired

Web site maintained by Robert Sessions.
Last Modified: Dec 31, 1969 06:00 PM