frances 26 sailboat for sale

26’ FRANCES. A small double-ended cruiser.

HULL NUMBER 1 of the Frances design, built by Tom Morris in 1975. It had a custom tall, double spreader sailplan, no pulpits, and beautiful sails, for racing.

LALUZ. A flush decked Frances that has sailed more than halfway around the world.

ONE OF THE British cutters, She has the more conservative, shorter mast and two jibs of short hoist. Her tidy rig would be the better choice for longer, further offshore voyaging.

The second FRANCES was fractional sloop rigged with a self-tending jib. The first few FRANCESes were flush decked like this. When a short house was added with full headroom (if one was less than six feet tall), and more efficient sailplans were designed, interest in the boat blossomed. Before all was said and done, more than 200 yachts were built to this design.

ORIGINAL FRANCES DIMENSIONS

LOA: 25′  10″

LWL: 21′  3″

BEAM: 8′  4″

DRAFT: 3’  10″ (NOW 4′-1″)

DISPLACEMENT, as built: 6,800 lbs Full load 7300 lbs (approx)

BALLAST (lead):  3,500  lbs

SAIL AREA (100% foretriangle): 317 to 340  sq ft (varies)

DISPL/L RATIO: 316 – 330 (varies)

SAIL AREA/DISP RATIO: 14.5 to 15.6 (varies)

LA LUZ cruising in the tropics. She sailed from Maine to New Zealand.

The FRANCES is one of recent history’s most admired small cruising designs. Well over 200 of the small yachts are now sailing, and they are well loved wherever they voyage. I decided to design this small but capable cruising boat in 1974. My own boat was flush-decked, and I cruised it from Maine to Rhode Island. Another (LA LUZ) is halfway through a circumnavigation. A third (YANLI) has sailed from England to Australia and then to Hawaii and back to Australia.  Many of the sisterships added a small house for full headroom, and a variety of sailplans have been fitted.

FRANCES es were built in fiberglass by Morris Yachts in America and Victoria Marine in the U.K. Quite a few fine examples were custom built from our plans of cold-moulded wood using the WEST system.

And now, in her dotage, new aspirants are restoring these fine old boats for their own adventures. Sailing the open ocean in such a small boat is borderline foolhardy- though many have successfully crossed oceans. But if you are aware of the discomforts of facing a storm at sea in something of this size, and are aware of the many advantages of a small, manually handleable yacht, the Frances is one of the better alternatives.

The lines of the original FRANCES.

A preliminary sketch for the first FRANCES .

I often ponder what it might be about the FRANCES design that makes it so popular. I think it must be the aesthetics first and foremost.  But the real surprise is how well it sails. Nearly half of her weight is ballast, and it is made of lead. So despite her shallow draft she is reasonably stable and surprisingly fast. Of the various rigs the ones with larger headsails and smaller mainsails proved to be the faster and more weatherly, at the expense of more work trimming, of course. Some of the earlier sailplans were frankly overcanvassed, and a new sailplan, designed in 2020, offers more drive with less heeling,

YOU COULD add a spinnaker, and then you could race her. With a shallow keel and a lot of wetted surface, racing the short-rigged Frances is an exercise in futility. But it’s colorful and if there’s not a lot of windward work, you might just possibly collect silverware.

In the last year I have been contacted by three Frances owners who want to improve their 45-year-old boats, and one who intends to build a new one. The biggest improvement among many small ones is to fit a carbon fiber mast and a new sailplan. This new rig falls about halfway between the old short and tall rigs. It specifies a roller-furler for the jib and a genoa, and a solid vang for the boom, plus a deployable Spectra inner forestay and Solent jib for windier conditions. If you own an old Frances and want to improve it, or can buy one for a reasonable price but are realistic about the significant cost to bring it up to date, contact the designer and invest in a new rig and sails that will significantly improve your boat’s performance, and leave the political craziness and economic uncertainty of life ashore behind.

The original FRANCES hull is pared away in width below the points where the cabin sole needs width and the fairing radius between keel and hull is tight. This is a shape without a lot of form stability, so the FRANCES compensated with an unusually low center of gravity thanks to 3500 pounds of lead ballast.

THE NEWEST SAILPLAN. It uses a carbon fiber mast and simplified rigging with sweptback spreaders, a single aft lower shroud, and larger diameter stainless steel rigging. The offshore or inshore mission of each boat can be addressed by the amount of overlap of the genoa. This particular boat’s owner anticipates heading off on an immediate ocean crossing, so the genoa is of modest overlap and a deployable Spectra stay and Solent jib are available for heavy weather.

I adored my little FRANCES . She was beautiful, well mannered, stable enough, and just plain fun. Her sleek lines cut through resistance like a dreadnaught. Point FRANCES toward a destination and she was unstoppable. Her timeless virtues seem to have disappeared from the modern world. They just don’t build ’em like FRANCES anymore.

LA LUZ had a big genoa so she goes very well in light airs. She spent five years sailing in the South Pacific and ended up in New Zealand.

THE NEW VERSIONS will have a short cabin very similar to this, perched atop the midship raised deck. The perception of space this lends to the interior is quite amazing.

WITH THE SHORT, almost 6-foot headroom house, the interior of a Frances could feel much larger than you’d expect on a 26-foot boat. This is a custom WEST-system boat built in New Zealand.

The Aft Head arrangement for the Frances with one seaberth and a permanent double. (Note: The companionway steps may have to be slid forward depending upon your choice of propulsion).

The Aft Head arrangement for the Frances with two settees, and a large double berth forward. (Note: The companionway steps may have to be slid forward depending upon your choice of propulsion).

The original FRANCES is a highly respected, classic design. She’s comparable in many ways to an MGTD or a J3 Cub. They spewed oil and weren’t very fast by today’s standards, but they were so cute and stylish and safe that owners have enjoyed every minute of their use for decades. The hullform is conventional, heavily ballasted , with no concessions made for speed. It has a CSV (capsize screen value) of 1.70. Anything less than 2.00 is considered a good choice for offshore voyaging.

This design is featured in both of my recent books; MY YACHT DESIGNS and the Lessons they taught me, and THE BOATS I’VE LOVED— 20 Classic Sailboat Designs by Chuck Paine. Both are beautiful, full colored, first class books which give you lots more information on this design, and can be purchased on this website.

QUITE A FEW sailplans have been fitted to a FRANCES. This is one of the “tall rigs”, which could even be raced, and really got the boat going in light to moderate airs, but are too overcanvassed for offshore voyaging.  If your idea is to sail around the world, the more conservative rigs, with a three-foot shorter mast, would require reefing less often.

A British built cutter rigged FRANCES.                                                photo credit Charlie Whiteman

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF LA LUZ , A FLUSH-DECKED FRANCES THAT HAS BEEN SAILED HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD, CLICK HERE:

http://frances26.org/laluz.php

Further information may be obtained from:

CHUCKPAINE.COM LLC Tenants Harbor, Maine 04860-0114

To email Chuck:

[email protected]

A LONG, FUN HISTORY OF THE FRANCES 26 DESIGN

You’ll find great histories of the FRANCES design in both of my books, available as digital downloads from this website. But a recently formed Facebook Group called The Chuck Paine Yacht Designs Fan Club has produced all sorts of photos from owners all over the world, and a few interesting anecdotes. With the benefit of these gifts from the 48-year history of the Frances design, here is a much longer story, told mostly in pictures..

The first of many eventual sailplans had a tall fractional sloop rig with a self-tending jib set on a jibboom. This worked okay before  jib roller-furling became popular, but the boomed jib gave up some potential sail area and the tall mast was heavy and required a lot of rigging with its weight and windage.

THERE I WAS at age 30. Young and ambitious, I’d come up with an idea of what life was about for me. Design a new yacht, build a prototype in my beautiful rented shop, sell it to one of the many emerging fiberglass boatbuilders and do it all over again. With my superb shop full of the finest tools someone else’s money could buy, a pretty girlfriend who looked like she might stick around, and my loyal dog Shep at my feet, what could possibly go wrong?

IN 1973 I had recently quit my job working for Dick Carter as a draftsman. I’d met this girl (now my wife) and decided to take her on a backpacking trip from Scotland to India. I had this idea that when we returned I would take my life savings and design and build a boat. The Westsail 32 had become a life-changing phenomenon for sea-seeking vagabonds, and I figured what the world needed was a smaller, more affordable double-ender.  26 feet was all I could afford so that determined her size. I lucked out and was able to rent this beautiful, heated and insulated shop full of the best woodworking tools for next to nothing. This shows the nearly finished hull upside down in midsummer of 1974, when I met this guy named Tom Morris who was getting started as a boatbuilder and fell in love with the design. We made a handshake deal that he would take a fiberglass mold off my hull, invest in a lot more tooling and a ballast mold, and I would press on and finish my boat in time for me to take it to the Newport Boat Show in September, and we would both become rich and famous. In the end, luck intervened.

AFTER TOM MORRIS had taken his mold off my hull the day came to turn her over.

AS THE SUMMER wore on my boat was nearing completion. Her hull was built using the then popular foam core over stringers method, with a conventional glass covered plywood deck over frames.

WITH MY BOAT NEARLY FINISHED, the shop burned to the ground. Gone were my new boat, my life savings, all my tools, my landlord’s beautiful shop that I had planned to live out my life in, and my newfound livelihood. But I dusted myself off and determined to take the insurance settlement and build another Frances in the Spring.

IN A STROKE OF GOOD FORTUNE I had met Tom Morris and he had committed to building new Franceses. When he heard about the loss of my boat he offered to sell me a hull from his new mold at cost, and space in his shop in Southwest Harbor in which to complete it. I hired my twin and he moved to Maine to help me get it built. We worked together for six months of intense work and got her finished in time to show her at the 1975 Newport Boat Show. Tom and I sat together on the side deck for four days and sold boats… it was that easy back in the halcyon days of fiberglass boatbuilding.

WHEN CUSTOMERS CAME ALONG who wanted to build a FRANCES of some other material than fiberglass, I would sell them the appropriate plans. Most of these customers hailed from other parts of the world. This one is Tom Thumb , built in Australia.

NUTCRACKER was built in the WEST System by a lady sailmaker from Toronto.

HERE’s NUTCRACKER 46 years after first launched, restored to like-new condition. WEST System cold molded yachts last virtually forever., given a facelift every 50 years or so.

TOM THUMB coming at you. A lot of boat, a lot of ballast, and a lot of wind.

A GUY NAMED DICK CROSS BOUGHT A KITBOAT FROM Tom and hired my brother Art to help him finish it. Art drew a rig with a huge 150% overlap genoa, and in less than ten knots of wind the boat really flew. Like many well-drawn double-enders his boat KARMA could be easily steered by a wind-vane self steerer. Here Dick is having a kip while the boat steers itself happily to windward. Dick was a man’s man. No roller furling on that genoa, and if the breeze got above 10 knots he’d have to wrestle it into submission and hoist a smaller jib. And don’t forget his version had a bowsprit.

IN 2022 I caught up with hull number one of the FRANCES, built by Tom Morris alongside the hull that I was completing in his shop. She’s still going strong. I still remember that her original owner asked me to design a tall double-spreader rig for her so that she could be raced.

TOM MORRIS sent this photo of one of his first builds, BLENKEZOUKER, to most of the European yachting magazines. As a result Bernard Hayman, the then editor of Yachting World in Britain, wrote an embarrassingly favourable editorial, decrying the fact that it took a bloody Yank to design something so beautiful. Four British boatbuilders saw the editorial and heard that it had in the words of Hayman elicited more inquiries to Yachting World than any article in its history, and asked to build it under license. Tom Morris and I chose a young and ambitious entrepreneur, Peter Gregory, and his new company Victoria Marine, to build the Frances in the UK. In a few years he had built more than 150 Franceses is various versions, and commissioned three more Chuck Paine designs to be built at his shop in Warsash at the mouth of the Hamble river. The success of the Frances and my next design for Peter, the Victoria 30 , caught the eye of Charles Maunder at Bowman Yachts in Woolston (Southampton, UK), and in the next few years he built hundreds of yachts to four of my designs.

CHUCK AND DEBBY at their first London Boat Show, 1977.

HERE’S ONE OF the many Franceses at her birthplace Stone Pier Yard in Warsash, UK. Not your typical English weather, but when the sun shines in southern England, it’s glorious.

A CUTTER RIGGED Frances somewhere along the coast of England.  The wobbly perimeter of the sunshade makes me crazy.

THUS BEGAN MANY YEARS of commuting to England to sell boats, and to convince either Peter or Charles Maunder of Bowman Yachts that he needed a new design. I would attend the London Boat Show at Earls Court Exhibition Centre every January, and the Southampton Boat Show every September. In all those years I can’t recall  a Southampton show when the relentless rain that typifies an English summer didn’t cease for the week in September that I had to be at the show

A TYPICAL Southampton Boat Show scene.

DITTO. Was it my sunny disposition that brought the fine weather?

GALAVANT WAS built in New Zealand in wood/epoxy. If you ever get to Christchurch, drive to its seaport Lyttleton and maybe you will find her there.

SOME OF THESE home-built boats were really nicely done. GALAVANT ‘s owner decided to open up the interior by eliminating the usual “main bulkhead”, using a series of hanging knees to provide adequate strength. I like it.

SAME BOAT looking aft

I PARTICULARLY LIKE the cabin sole- nice, light color.

ANOTHER PHOTO OF HER SHAPE.

FELICITY . A British Frances that sailed to Maine.

SOLEIL . Tom Morris owned this one himself for awhile.

A VICTORIA FRANCES. Location unknown. This is the tidy original “British Cutter” rig. Not fast, but it could stand up to much more wind than the tall, racy rigs.

I FOUND YANLI in Bateman’s Bay, Australia. When I encountered her I didn’t know her story. She must have been shipped there on the deck of a freighter, I thought. Nobody would be crazy enough to sail a Frances that distance. Then through the Chuck Paine Yacht Designs Fan Club on Facebook I learned her actual story. A fellow bought her new in Warsash, UK. He financed her. Put down his down payment, hoisted the sails, and that was the last the bank heard from her owner for years. He sailed her south to the Canary Islands, then across to the Caribbean. Then through the Panama Canal. Howcum the bank didn’t have an arrest warrant waiting for her at this obvious choke point I can’t fathom. Then on he sailed to New Zealand. As if that weren’t enough adventure sailing too small a boat on too large an ocean, he then sailed across the Pacific again to the North, to Hawaii. And that is where the bank finally caught up with him. The bank arrested the boat and sold it to an Aussie. Who then sailed it BACK across the Pacific to Australia. Which is how I got to take this photo in Bateman’s Bay Australia three years ago- not looking too bad after the equivalent of sailing around the world!

THE JOYS OF downwind sailing.

INYONI . Needs some bottom paint.

TOM THUMB in Sydney, Australia.

TULA . Someplace in Florida, I think.

FREJA . Location unknown.

A BRITISH BUILT FRANCES, someplace in England..

THE CUSTOM VARNISHED companionway and forward hatch are nice touches.

FELICITY SAILED transatlantic from the UK to Maine. She lives in Rockland, Maine now, a few miles from my home.

WILDWOOD is one of the Tom Morris built beauties.

THIS BRITISH BUILT Frances is trying out her new mainsail.

A HOME-BUILT Frances on turnover day. Location and details unknown.

ANOTHER PHOTO OF David White’s British-built FELICITY outside of Rockland, Maine harbor.

TOLERANCE . In my dotage I’ve come to find varnished teak railcaps intolerable. I really like the ones that are simply painted white. They’re so much easier to take care of. And if the shape of the design is inherently beautiful, varnished teak is just gilding the lily.

A CLOSEUP OF GALAVANT sailing in Lyttlton Harbour, NZ.

ERICA . I think she’s at Universal Marina on the Hamble river.

GALAVANT Galavanting nicely to windward.

GALAVANT’s colorful reacher.

ONE YEAR PETER GREGORY showed one of his creations in the water at the Southampton Boat Show.

WHIM. Tollesbury, Essex, UK.

WHIM ‘s nice, wide open interior.

SOLEIL’ s Interior

SOLEIL – Morris built Frances

SOLEIL ‘s Galley.

A CUTTER RIGGED FRANCES. Location unknown.

AN ENGLISH FRANCES somewhere in the UK. One reason the Frances sails reasonably well despite the shoal draft is the absence of a garboard radius. The entire keel does its work of preventing leeway- all the way up to where it meets the hull.

A cutter rigged Frances somewhere in the UK.

ELLA is one of the two FRANCESes I am aware of that fitted a gaff rig.

STORMY is one of the newly restored Morris Franceses. She is once again in like-new condition, and comparable with a brand-new custom Frances that would cost well over half a million dollars to build today.

NEW LISTING – Frances 26 ‘BLUE ILEX’

Monday 28th June 2021

Mark Cameron Yachts are delighted to have been appointed to act in the sale of the Frances 26 ‘BLUE ILEX’.

The Frances 26 BLUE ILEX is one of the last boats to be built by Victoria Yachts in Warsash; the 1994 London Earls Court Boat show exhibition boat for the company, she also featured in the PBO review of that same year. A cutter rigger version of the Frances 26 design she is set up for comfortable cruising with all  lines lead aft to the cockpit with the exception of the foresail halyards. Below decks she features the later layout with four adult-sized berths, childs berth, linear galley and heads compartment aft.

A much loved example of the Frances 26 her inventory includes highlights such as:

• Hull polished and antifouled ready for launching 2021
• Yanmar 2YM15 marine diesel engine, installed new 2013, less than 500 hours run
• Sterngeard overhaul in 2013
• Simrad autopilot
• Tack Tick wind instrument (2011)
• Autohelm ST50 Depth and Log instruments
• Icom IC-M411 DSC VHF (2008)
• Lowrance HDS M5 plotter
• Saturn Sails Mainsail, fitted new in 2018
• Saturn Sails Yankee, new in 2020, not used to date
• Seago inflatable dinghy

We have a large number of additional photos available upon request. BLUE ILEX is offered for sale lying ashore and ready for her new owners to commission and launch for the summer afloat.

Find Full Details of BLUE ILEX here

Frances 26 ‘BLUE ILEX’

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• Sailboat Guide

Frances 26 is a 25 ′ 11 ″ / 7.9 m monohull sailboat designed by C. W. (Chuck) Paine and built by Northshore Yachts, Morris Yachts, Victoria Marine (UK), and Custom Build starting in 1975.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

From BlueWaterBoats.org :

Inspired by the sweet curving lines from the east coast fishing boats of Scotland, the Frances 26 is an early Chuck Paine design for his own use. Optimised for fast and simple sailing, the resulting boat is a peculiar mix of daysailer and offshore cruiser. Since her introduction in 1974, over 200 have been built on both sides of the Atlantic and at least one has circumnavigated.

Paine started by scaling down the size of a traditional double-ender, and then applied lessons from modern design thinking to produce a minimalist sailboat that would be affordable for him to sail. Her design draws heavily from her Scottish heritage with a hint of Norwegian double-ender thrown in for good measure. Most striking are her elegant lines – there’s a fine entry, a lively sheer, full bilges and a long keel.

She’s proven to be a great cruiser which can accommodate up to four in a relatively open-plan layout. Belowdecks the interior is all wood but her flush deck means she is missing full standing headroom at only five feet of clearance. A version was built in the UK by Victoria Marine which offered six feet of standing headroom by trading the flush deck for a coachroof. The production hulls were solidly built from fiberglass with 9 1/2 oz cloth, additionally a number have been custom-built using cold-moulded wood and many of these have also added a coachroof. Both cutter and sloop rigs were offered and some have been converted to gaff.

With a high ballast to displacement ratio, in excess of 50%, owners comment she can hold onto her full sail area well after many others have reefed. You’ll find this boat easily driven with excellent directional stability and surprisingly fast. Of the various rigs the ones with larger headsails and smaller mainsails tend to be faster and more weatherly (at the expense of more trimming work).

Plans for the Frances 26 are still available from Chuck Paine. More recently in 2011, as a “what if” exercise, Paine updated the design to be inline with more current design thinking.

“If I had it to do over again I’d change a few things, hence FRANCES II (Frances the second). The most significant improvement would be to replace the undulating profile shoal draft keel with a much more modern and effective one. With a slightly deeper keel and the “full flow aperture” I developed on the later of my offshore oriented custom designs, FRANCES II will stand up to a whole lot more sail and point much closer to the wind.”

Besides being slightly larger in all dimensions, the biggest change is a deeper, shorter and more effective keel. The rig has been updated to be taller with a masthead genoa. Additionally, the rudder has been fully balanced to reduce helm forces and a small cabin house added to give full standing headroom. With the new keel and rig the new Frances II promises to be a much better performer, being stiffer and more weatherly.

The design influence of the Frances 26 design came from a backpacking trip in the early 1970s when Chuck Paine, 30 years old at the time, was inspired by the sweet curves of the double-ended fishing boats on the east coast of Scotland.

Paine commented, “I wanted a boat that embodied everything I knew about the design of efficient cruising vessels of GRP construction. She had to be capable of yearly cruises to and among the Caribbean islands, small enough to fit my limited budget, but large enough to survive a gale at sea.”

Upon his return to the US, he laid up the first hull in 1974 out of fiberglass at his workshop in Maine. This first hull was destroyed by fire prior to completion, but fortunately Tom Morris from Morris Yachts had taken a mold and it was from this his yard built the subsequent hulls. Paine fitted out the fourth Morris-built hull for himself, which he took cruising down the East Coast of America.

By the late 1970s, the boat had also emerged in the UK. After first appearing in a review in Yachting World Magazine, Bernard Hayman, editor at the time, loved the design enough to encourage Victoria Marine (now Victoria Yachts) based in Southampton to win the rights for UK construction. In later years Victoria Marine made a few changes to the boat including a shallow well forward of the mast, a coachroof to enable full standing headroom and more accommodation. This version was initially called the Victoria 26, and as it evolved, later became the Victoria 800.

The UK boats were just as successful as the their US counterparts. Production continued through until the late 1990s until sadly, with a strange repeat of history, the moulds for both designs were destroyed by fire.

Paine also designed a couple of siblings based on the Frances 26 – a 24-footer called Carol and a 30-footer called Leigh. Leigh was later built by Victoria Yachts.

Links, References and Further Reading

» Frances26.org , owners forum, information and reviews » The official Morris Yachts website . » Chuck Paine’s official website including the Frances 26 plans. » The Best Boats to Build or Buy by Ferenc Mate » Small Boat Journal #40, Frances 26 – Sophisticated Tradition in a Proper Yacht by Steve Callahan, January 1985

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The Frances 26 Sailboat

The Frances 26, a long-keeled, canoe-sterned sloop was designed by Chuck Paine and built in the USA by Morris Yachts.  

Essentially the same sailboat as the Victoria 26, but built in the USA by Morris Yachts and renamed the Frances 26.

Published Specification for the Frances 26

Underwater Configuration:   Long keel, canoe stern

Hull Material:   GRP (fibreglass)

Length Overall:  26' 0" / 7.92m

Waterline Length:  21' 3" / 6.48m

Beam:  8' 0" / 2.44m

Draft:  3' 10" / 1.17m

Rig Type:  Fractionally rigged sloop

Displacement:  6,800lb / 3,084kg

Designer:  Chuck Paine

Builder:  Morris Yachts (US)

Year First Built:  1975

Number Built:  200+

Owners Association:   Frances 26 Owners

Published Design Ratios for the Frances 26

1. Sail Area/Displacement Ratio: 15.1

2. Ballast/Displacement Ratio: 51.5

3. Displacement/Length Ratio: 316

4. Comfort Ratio: 29.0

5. Capsize Screening Formula:   1.7

read more about these all-revealing numbers...

Summary Analysis of Published Design Ratios for the  Frances 26

1. A Sail Area/Displacement Ratio of just 15.1 suggests that she'll need a stiff breeze to get her going. In any other conditions, unless you've got plenty of time on your hands, motor-sailing will be the way to go.

2. A Ballast/Displacement Ratio of 51.5 means that she'll stand up well to her canvas in a blow, enabling her to power through the waves.

3. A Displacement/Length Ratio of 316, tells us she's clearly a heavy displacement cruising boat. You can load her down with all your cruising gear and equipment and it will hardly affect her waterline. Not an ideal choice for coastal sailing, but will come into her own on an offshore passage in testing conditions.

4. Ted Brewer's Comfort Ratio of 29.0 suggests that crew comfort in a seaway is similar to what you would associate with the motion of a coastal cruiser, which is not encouraging news for anyone prone to seasickness. 

5. Her Capsize Screening Formula of 1.7 tells us that she would be a better choice of sailboat for ocean passage-making than one with a CS rating of more than 2.0. 

Any Questions?

What other versions of the Frances 26 were built?

There were two main versions of the Frances 26: the original flush-decked version built by Morris Yachts in the USA, and the coachroof version built by Victoria Marine in the UK. The latter offered more headroom and a slightly different interior layout. Some Frances 26s were also custom-built using cold-moulded wood or fiberglass, and some had different rigs, such as gaff or sloop.

What is the accommodation like in the Frances 26?

The Frances 26 can accommodate up to four adults and one child in a relatively open-plan layout. Belowdecks, the interior is all wood, with a V-berth forward, a linear galley to port, a quarter berth to starboard, and a heads compartment aft. The saloon has two settees that can convert to berths, and a folding table. There is also ample storage space throughout the boat.

What, if any, alternative accommodation layout versions are available for the Frances 26?

The coachroof version of the Frances 26, built by Victoria Marine, had a slightly different interior layout than the flush-decked version. The main difference was that the head compartment was moved forward, next to the V-berth, and the galley was moved aft, next to the companionway. This created more headroom and a more spacious saloon.

What sail plan and rigging options are available for the Frances 26?

The Frances 26 was originally designed as a cutter, with a mainsail, a staysail, and a yankee. However, some owners have converted their boats to sloops, with a single headsail, or gaffs, with a gaff-rigged mainsail. The sail area is about 31.3m², and the mast height is about 10.7m.

What is the Frances 26 like to sail?

The Frances 26 is a fast and simple sailboat that can handle a wide range of conditions. She is easily driven, has excellent directional stability, and is surprisingly weatherly. She can hold onto her full sail area well after many others have reefed, and she can tack through less than 90 degrees. She is also comfortable and seaworthy, with good motion and balance. Owners comment that she is fun to sail and easy to single-hand.

What is the average cost of a secondhand Frances 26?

The price of a secondhand Frances 26 depends on the condition, age, equipment, and location of the boat. However, based on some recent listings, the average cost of a secondhand Frances 26 ranges from £15,000 to £25,000 in the UK.

Are the boatbuilders Morris Yachts and Victoria Marine  still in business?

Morris Yachts, the original builder of the Frances 26 in the USA, is still in business as of 2021. However, they no longer produce the Frances 26 model. Victoria Marine, the builder of the coachroof version of the Frances 26 in the UK, ceased trading in 1998.

What other sailboats have been by this designer?

Chuck Paine, the designer of the Frances 26, has created many other sailboats over his career. Some of his most notable designs include:

• The Annie 29, a larger version of the Frances 26 with more headroom and amenities;
• The Bermuda 40, a classic cruising yacht with graceful lines and performance;
• The Apogee 50/51/58 series, offshore bluewater cruisers with modern features and comfort;
• The Able Apogee series (34/36/42/44), smaller versions of the Apogee series with similar qualities;
• The Morris series (28/36/40/42/45/46/48), high-quality custom yachts built by Morris Yachts.

The above answers were drafted by sailboat-cruising.com using GPT-4 (OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model) as a research assistant to develop source material; to the best of our knowledge,  we believe them to be accurate.

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Boats for Sale & Yachts

Victoria marine frances 26 1985 boats for sale & yachts.

1985 Victoria Marine Frances 26 (US$30,962) will be delivered as a set complete with its engine and trailer. The price of a boat is determined by how it is equipped. It is a very convenient and easy-to-use boat compared to the boats in its class. There is no component that does not work. The engine, gearbox, etc. do not need any maintenance. If you want to buy a used boat , certainly you must search it. You can view photos from below of this sea vehicle.

Victoria Marine Frances Boats Review and Specs

Table of Contents

Well kept and tidy Chuck Paine designed Frances 26 only in second ownership, The Frances 26 has a reputation as a well built and very stable boat with the long keel giving excellent directional stability. This boat can be sailed short handed or with a small crew. Early viewing is recommended ashore Bangor on its own cradle.

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• Topics Replies Views Last post
• Want to Buy Morris Frances 26 by bswayze » Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:23 am 1 Replies 7436 Views Last post by bswayze Wed May 24, 2023 8:42 pm
• 1982 Victoria Frances for sale by THMARGARET » Thu May 11, 2023 6:40 pm 0 Replies 12869 Views Last post by THMARGARET Thu May 11, 2023 6:40 pm
• Morris built Flush Deck Frances Hull in NJ - FREE - You Move by Dave » Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:15 pm 1 Replies 6926 Views Last post by Dave Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:12 pm
• Looking for Frances 26 in UK by radsailing » Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:05 pm 1 Replies 10579 Views Last post by JoeB Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:17 pm
• Osprey is for sale by JoeB » Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:15 pm 0 Replies 15883 Views Last post by JoeB Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:15 pm
• Victoria Frances for sale in Connecticut by dgibbons » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:26 pm 4 Replies 17792 Views Last post by dgibbons Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:29 pm
• Frances26 Defiant for sale in Germany by eatmydust » Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:04 pm 0 Replies 20250 Views Last post by eatmydust Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:04 pm
• Wanted: Morris Frances w/ cuddy by ebee4 » Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:02 pm 0 Replies 20099 Views Last post by ebee4 Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:02 pm
• Frances 26 Tupelo Honey for sale by vtupelohoney » Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:14 pm 1 Replies 11387 Views Last post by dgibbons Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:07 pm
• 26' Morris Frances "Rachael" $49,000 by admin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:37 pm 1 Replies 41301 Views Last post by dgibbons Tue Jun 25, 2019 12:57 pm
• Chuck Paine's original Frances for sale by admin » Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:16 am 0 Replies 22839 Views Last post by admin Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:16 am
• Frances 26 Petrel for sale by ksims » Thu May 11, 2017 6:46 pm 0 Replies 23963 Views Last post by ksims Thu May 11, 2017 6:46 pm
• Boat for sale by tomboy » Thu Feb 16, 2017 6:17 pm 3 Replies 17026 Views Last post by admin Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:20 pm
• Frances 26 Wanted by Pinch » Wed Mar 18, 2015 4:16 pm 7 Replies 35626 Views Last post by dgibbons Sun Jul 10, 2016 3:18 pm
• Sails availabe to a good hoome by truant » Tue Aug 18, 2015 10:20 am 3 Replies 20268 Views Last post by itchen Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:17 pm
• Satyam for sale by admin » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:05 pm 0 Replies 49417 Views Last post by admin Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:05 pm
• "Ospray" for sale in ebay by dkgibbons » Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:14 pm 0 Replies 51423 Views Last post by dkgibbons Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:14 pm
• ANIHOYA - FOR SALE? by Doug Wilson » Tue May 13, 2014 5:02 pm 0 Replies 51010 Views Last post by Doug Wilson Tue May 13, 2014 5:02 pm
• Tula for sale by dkgibbons » Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:20 pm 0 Replies 49981 Views Last post by dkgibbons Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:20 pm
• Wanted Frances Project boat by efkirton » Sun Mar 02, 2014 3:27 pm 11 Replies 39113 Views Last post by admin Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:22 pm
• Frances 26 wanted by itchen » Thu May 16, 2013 2:52 pm 2 Replies 18317 Views Last post by itchen Tue Nov 26, 2013 12:23 pm
• AURORA by admin » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:43 pm 2 Replies 19645 Views Last post by garyanddonna Fri Aug 24, 2012 2:01 am
• Stormy.. by admin » Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:57 am 0 Replies 49994 Views Last post by admin Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:57 am
• Skimmer by jaross » Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:26 am 0 Replies 51315 Views Last post by jaross Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:26 am
• Satyam by admin » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:41 pm 1 Replies 16419 Views Last post by dkgibbons Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:21 pm
• Frances 26 for sale by Larry » Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:23 pm 3 Replies 28708 Views Last post by D.B. Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:45 pm
• Frances 26 For Sale by Andamanman » Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:20 pm 1 Replies 16201 Views Last post by Frank Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:03 am
• LaLuz by guillou » Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:05 pm 2 Replies 16872 Views Last post by dkgibbons Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:54 pm
• Stanchion plate by brianspiers » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 am 3 Replies 19434 Views Last post by stevebncanoe Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:47 pm
• 26' 1992 Francis 26 - £25,000.00 by admin » Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:53 pm 0 Replies 51129 Views Last post by admin Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:53 pm
• Hull ports. by stevebncanoe » Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:11 pm 0 Replies 50681 Views Last post by stevebncanoe Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:11 pm
• BOAT FOR SALE by PeterA » Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:39 pm 2 Replies 18546 Views Last post by admin Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:06 pm
• 1983 Frances 26 US$33,912 by admin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:00 pm 0 Replies 50816 Views Last post by admin Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:00 pm
• 1994 Frances 26 - Long Keel US$39,941 by admin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:59 pm 0 Replies 53384 Views Last post by admin Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:59 pm
• 1989 Frances 26 US$28,637 by admin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:57 pm 0 Replies 51804 Views Last post by admin Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:57 pm
• 26' Morris Frances "Wildwood" $57,000 by admin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:39 pm 0 Replies 51653 Views Last post by admin Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:39 pm

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Victoria Frances 26 Boat for Sale

• accommodation
• mechanical and rigging
• Manufacturer: Victoria
• Location: Swale Marina, Kent
• LOA: 26'0" (7.92m)
• Beam: 8' 2'' (2.49m)
• Draft: 1.17
• Keel: Long keel
• ID no.: 38570
• Heating: Yes
• Watertank Size: 45 Litres
• Engine Make: Yanmar 1GM10
• Horsepower: 9 hp
• Drive Type:
• Fuel Type: Diesel
• Fuel Tank Size: 45 Litres
• Cruise Speed: 6 Knots
• Engine Hours Port: 1932

Broker Remarks

Frances 26 for sale in Kent The Frances 26 originally designed by Chuck Paine for his own use as the smallest sailing yacht that would be safe for offshore cruising has very pretty lines. We understand that this is one of the last Frances 26 built. She is well equipped and also had a new engine fitted in 2003. She has had a number of upgrades over the years. The Frances 26 makes a great alternative to the Contessa 26, Cornish Crabber or the Norfolk Gypsy. An early viewing is recommended.

Accommodation

The  Frances 26  offers four berths in an open plan cabin. The open plan cabin consists of a large V-berth forward with an infill to make into a double. There is storage under the berth and an opening hatch to the foredeck. A 12v Waeco CF18 Fridge/freezer is secured under the berth.

Aft of the V-berth is a small settee to port with a fold-down chart table and display of navigation instruments. There is a full length settee berth to starboard. The yacht has burgundy velour upholstery with blue curtains.  There is a radio/CD Player. 

The linear galley to port is equipped with a Nelson stainless steel 2 -burner gas cooker with oven and grill, stainless steel sink with manually pumped cold water (the cold water tank was new in 2016), a cutting board sink cover and storage cupboards. Aft and to port is a quarter berth with a separate heads compartment to starboard fitted with a Par marine toilet. Eberspaecher Airtronic D2 diesel fired heating system new 2008. The yacht has teak cabinetry with teak and holly sole broads. 

Steps lead up to the large cockpit which has good locker space. 

Mechanical and Rigging

This Frances 26 is sloop rigged with an anodised aluminium mast and boom. It has a small Iroko bowsprit new 2015. The stainless steel standing rigging is original 1993. Terylene running rigging has been replaced as required. Slab reefing mainsail. Furlex headsail furling system. Boomed staysail.

• 2 x Lewmar 16 self-tailing sheet winches
• 2 x Lewmar 8 halyard winches
• 1 x Lewmar 8 control line winch
• Mainsail - Wilkinson Sails 2017, Excellent condition
• Furling Yankee - Wilkinson Sails 2016, Excellent condition
• Staysail, Diamond Sails 1993, Fair condition
• Anchor - 20LB with 9oft of chain new 2016
• Manual anchor windlass
• Stainless steel pulpit, pushpit, stanchions and guard wires
• Mainsail and staysail covers
• Boarding ladder
• 4 x Fenders
• Tiller cover
• All over winter cover
• Plastimo steering compass
• ICOM M505 DSC VHF radio (new 2007)
• Hand held VHF radio
• Autohelm ST50 echo sounder
• Autohelm ST50 speed/log
• Autohelm ST50 wind instrument
• Autohelm 4000 autopilot
• NASA AIS system (new 2004)
• Furuno NX300 Navtex (new 2007)
• Deck level and masthead navigation lights
• Clock and barometer
• Various paper charts
• Fire extinguisher
• Fire blanket
• Deck flood light
• Radar reflector, mast mounted
• Manual bilge pump
• Seago 4 man life raft, 2016, serviced 2020

History & Construction:

This Frances 26 was built by Victoria Marine in 1993 to a design by Chuck Paine and first launched in 1994. She has cream GRP hull with green style stripes, superstructure and decks with Treadmaster non-slip surfaces. Hull was epoxied in 2016. Long keel with lead ballast. Tiller steering to keel hung rudder. Aft self draining cockpit with teak grating. Teak capping and hand rails. New Lewmar forehatch in 2022.

Last surveyed in 2015 when vendor purchased. This is yacht has only had two owners from new. Her current owner is retiring from sailing.

Contact NYB Kent

• Address: Network Yacht Brokers Kent Chatham Maritime Marina Leviathan Way, Chatham, Kent ME4 4LP
• Telephone: [+44] [0] 1634 571605 --> [+44] [0] 1634 571605
• Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer : Network Yacht Brokers Kent offers the details of this vessel for sale but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of the information contained in the specification or warrant the condition of the vessel or equipment. A buyer should instruct his agents, or surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered for sale subject to no prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

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Interview: The Life and Work of Nikritin

The upcoming Russian Pictures sale in London on 6 June features five lots by the Ukrainian painter and avant-garde artist Solomon Borisovich Nikritin. Ahead of the auction, Sotheby’s senior international specialist Frances Asquith spoke to Tatiana Frenkel, the artist’s great-niece, to find out her memories of the artist and his work.

Lot 127, SELF-PORTRAIT , 1949, ESTIMATE £7,000–9,000.

Frances Asquith: We have seen two major retrospectives of your great-uncle’s work recently - in 2004 at the State Museum of Contemporary Art at Thessaloniki and in 2007 at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. How did your family feel at the opening of these exhibitions?

Before I saw any personal exhibitions of Nikritin’s outside of Russia, I saw his work Man and Cloud at the 1992 Great Utopia Guggenheim Museum exhibition. We had just come to America a couple years before. I was living in NYC at the time and had no idea that Solomon’s painting was hanging anywhere, let alone at the Guggenheim! I remember bursting out crying after suddenly seeing his painting one day while walking around the Guggenheim! Even now, 20 years later, I come close to tears when thinking about that moment.

The majority of Nikritin’s paintings were bought by George Costakis after the artist’s death. On the other hand, during his lifetime, Nikritin hardly earned any money and his wife had to support him. He and his wife lived in a 160-square-foot room, sharing a kitchen and a bathroom with three other families. Solomon did not have his own study, so while he painted in their room, his wife had to stay in the kitchen shared by them and the three other families. His fourth personal exhibition took place in 1956 (28 years after the third one) only after he wrote a letter to Khrushchev, then First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, about the difficulties which he had endured as an avant-garde painter during Stalinist times. After his death, his wife devoted the rest of her life to his legacy. She donated some of his paintings to the most prominent museums of Moscow and St Petersburg, hoping that one day there would be an exhibition dedicated to his work. The saddest part to me is that neither he nor his wife saw his painting at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, although I am so thankful I happened to see his painting that day 20 years ago.

When I heard about the 2004 Thessaloniki exhibition, I was very excited to attend. It was a combined exhibition, with works from both the State Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tretyakov Gallery. The opening night really exceeded my expectations. Firstly, I saw many impressive paintings and graphic works for the first time ( Farewell to the Dead, Man With High Crowned Hat, Screaming Woman, Drinking Woman, Man and Cloud and Triumph of the Citizens being some of them). Moreover, there was a touching, heart-wrenching performance by a Thessaloniki theatrical group in a projectionist-like style that made me see the respect the curators had towards Nikritin. After that performance and exhibition, I truly realised how magnificent an artist Nikritin is and was. His widow, Dora, told me that he once said to her, “Don’t worry, one day my paintings will be exhibited in all the best museums of the world.” I remembered that during the exhibition. On the other hand, we were not informed about his 2007 personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery. No catalogue was available either.

NIKRITIN WITH HIS WIFE, 1959-1961, GURZUF, CRIMEA

Frances Asquith: What are the main memories of Solomon Nikritin which have passed down through your family?

I was a little girl when Solomon passed away, so unfortunately I don’t remember much about him. But I do remember that whenever we visited him and his wife, he always sat in the corner drawing sketches of us or just listening to our conversation. My mom, who knew him much more than I, says that he was very quiet. He was not snobby; he was just the type that didn’t like talking for the sake of it. He could always add something useful or interesting to conversations, otherwise, he stayed out of them. Nevertheless, he was polite to everyone, even those he didn’t like. My mom remembers that he often used to take her to the movie theater to see movies. He had a very good sense of humour, and could make my mother laugh very easily, but rarely laughed himself. He was very modest, both in his family life and his artistic career and circle. Dora used to say that Solomon was never pushy about selling his paintings. But a stunning example of Nikritin’s selflessness is when his artist friend, Redko, died. Solomon tried his best to arrange an exhibition on Kliment Redko to be able to better sell some of Redko’s works to bring Redko’s widow some extra income.

In the early 1930s, Dora and Solomon lived in a 40-square-foot room, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with many other families. There was no space for him to work here, and as a result, he spent nearly all his days in his mother’s room. It was only after his mother’s death that he and Dora could exchange those two rooms for the 160-square-foot room, where they still shared a bathroom and kitchen with three other families. Actually, the living space of the room was even less than 160 square feet, because at least a third of it was occupied by the canvases, that were pressed to the wall by three or four cast-iron irons. All the furniture was shabby, they had only one couch, but I don’t know how they could sleep there, because its springs were out.

Lot 126, MOSCOW EMBANKMENT , ESTIMATE £18,000–25,000.

Frances Asquith: A number of the paintings we are offering in the Russian Pictures sale on 6 June date from the 1950s, a difficult period in the Soviet Union for many of its people, including artists. Did Nikritin record what it was like to be an artist at that time?  

At the beginning of the Communist Revolution, he was very devoted to its ideas. As time passed, and although he tried to paint everything in a positive light in his personal diaries, he created works such as People’s Court (1934) that elicits a feeling of horror on the part of the viewer about that time period. He had a great start when Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Minister of Culture, and Maxim Gorky, the writer, helped to get him on his feet. Eventually, though, he had to stop his avant-garde and experimental work because of the criticism that his peers and newspapers delivered after he unveiled The Old and the New in 1935. He realised that in order to survive, he had to adapt to the times, and he did just that. Still, the whole family was relieved that he was not imprisoned during Stalin’s time.

As mentioned before, Dora and Solomon survived only on her meagre income. As a result, some of his pieces were done on the reverse side of documents that Dora brought home from work for him to use. At the June 6 sale, there is a painting of a tree made on the reverse side of his own painting (Lot 124, A Lone Tree). Solomon and his wife could only afford inexpensive trips to the Crimea. Moreover, because Solomon was soft-spoken and never asked for attention, he didn’t reap the rewards he could have if he were more demanding. At the same time, he never doubted that his art would be known in the future.

AT THE FACTORY “ KRASNII PROLETARII” IN 1964 WHERE  A GROUP OF ARTISTS WAS ASKED TO PAINT THE FACTORY AND ITS WORKERS

Frances Asquith:  Our sale includes two views of Moscow. Nikritin was not born there but spent most of his life in the Russian capital. What do you think Moscow meant to him? Did he have a positive or negative relationship with the city and how did it influence his work in your view?

Solomon was born in Kiev, and in 1918 moved to Moscow, where he spent the rest of his life. He wanted to move to Leningrad, but was never given work there, and Soviet citizens were not allowed to move to different parts of Russia without proof of work there. I don’t know if he really liked Moscow or not, but he did spend most of his life there, and Moscow is in multiple of his paintings, graphic works and sketches. Moreover, he did have a Moscow accent.

Frances Asquith:  Your great-uncle was one of the favourite artists of the legendary collector, George Costakis, who was well-versed in the early Russian avant-garde. Nikritin of course studied under Alexandra Exter in Kiev and later under Wassily Kandinsky and David Sterenberg in VKhUTEMAS, and in 1922 he participated in the First Russian Art Exhibition in the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin alongside Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Archipenko, El Lissitzky, Nathan Altman and others. Which of these artistic influences are you most aware of in his work?

Costakis loved Nikritin’s work and took most of it with him when he left Moscow for Greece. As for influences, I agree with you about Shterenberg , but I am also thinking about Malevich (Black Quadrant and Black Quadrant with A White Object) and Chagall (Nikritin’s village sketches).

The Russian Pictures sale is in London on 6 June.

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