"Erbas" is a Mk.II Sabre 27 moulded in 1974 by Marine Construction (UK) Ltd. of Southampton, a.k.a. MarCon to a design by Alan F. Hill of Burnham-on-Crouch.
She was privately fitted out and commissioned in Southampton in 1976. She was originally registered on Part I of the Register of British Shipping and is now registered on Part III, the Small Ships Register
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| Sabre 27 - Layout and Sail Plan from the original brochure |
Her length overall is 27'0½" with a beam of 9'0" and a waterline length of 22'1¾". She is the twin keel version with a draught of 3'0" and a displacement of about 7,200lbs (3.6 tons)
For the metricated amongst you, thats:
L.O.A. 8.24m, beam 2.8m, L.W.L. 6.75m, draught 0.91m, Displacement 3260kg
She carries approximately 3,100lbs of ballast encapsulated in her keels giving her a respectable ballast ratio of 43% and her form suggests a comfortable boat with good seakeeping abilities.
Her sail area per the original specification is given as 419sq.ft. although this depends greatly on subsequent choice of genoa overlap, the cut of the sails etc. To the original sail plan, her Sail Area to Displacement ratio would be 18 which is on the cusp of the generally accepted border between out and out cruisers and cruiser/racers. In other words, she's neither over nor under canvassed!
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| "Erbas" in Gravelines, France with her previous owners |
There is nothing particularly remarkable about the external design. She's a pretty little boat with a very obvious 1960's pedigree (the prototype was launched in 1969 and she effectively replaced the Trident 24, another Alan Hill design, in Marcons line up). There is a pleasing curve to the sheer strake which is perhaps not made the most of with the current colour scheme - a white coachline similar to Brigantia could work.
It's very obvious from the photographs just how shoal draught she is. Realistically, we are not expecting her to be a notable performer to windward, even by twin keeler standards.However, that shoal draught and the fully encapsulated moulded keels (as opposed to bolt on plates) make her ideal for the East Coast and suitable for mooring on a mud berth - as indeed she has been in recent years.
On deck she is very well equipped indeed. Starting at the bows, we have replaced the 7.5kg Bruce anchor with a 15kg Delta pattern, retiring the Bruce to the stern locker as a kedge, for which it is more suitable, in place of the grapnel anchor which is now in the cockpit bilge locker in case we ever need to grapple for a fouled anchor!
The Lofrans Airon electric windlass should easily cope with the 15kg anchor!
Her 135% genoa has been cut high in the foot for better visibility forward. This is exactly the specification I decided upon for the new genoa for Brigantia at the beginning of the 2013 sailing season. The sails on "Erbas" are now, as I write, 6 years old so they'll have lost their ultimate new sail edge but the genoa has had a new UV strip this year and the mainsail cover, sprayhood and tiller sleeve are all recent too.
Aft of the roller reefing for the genoa, she has a removable inner forestay on a Highfield lever onto which we can hank the No.2 working jib and the storm jib. Whilst we have absolutely no intention of being out in conditions that warrant a storm jib (she also has a storm trysail which hoists in place of the mainsail), the working jib is definitely something I intend to experiment with - a well reefed genoa, even with a foam luff, is a horribly inefficient sail and the ability to change down to a smaller working sail without having to remove the genoa from the furler is a definite bonus.
The inner forestay also offers up some further intriguing possibilities in due course along the lines of being able to hoist a large lightweight "drifter" to get her going in light airs. Of course, we haven't got one so that's a thought for the future!
What we do have is a spinnaker complete with spinnaker pole and a brand new snuffer. Fun!
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| Reefed down and sailing well! |
If single line reefing is unsuccessful then some re-arrangement of the control lines (moving the genoa furling line back to the side deck primarily) will free up space on the clutches for two line reefing for two reefs. The debate then will be which two - the bottom two most used reefs or one of those and the third deep reef which, if you ever need it, is the reef you'd least want to have to go on deck to put in!
As already mentioned, the mainsail can be dropped and stowed completely and replaced with a storm trysail hoisted in its own dedicated track on the mast. We'll try that out and then put it away hoping never, ever, to need it in anger!
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| Sprayhood and cockpit |
I've already mentioned the reefing lines, alongside them on the port side of the hatch is the genoa furling line which is brought over the deck at the bow. On the starboard side, we have the main halyard, topping lift and kicking strap.
There's a bank of clutches on the cabin top leading to a single speed halyard winch each side of the hatch. Pretty conventional arrangement in fact.
There are also two halyard winches on the mast
On the coamings either side of the cockpit we have a pair of modern Harken two speed self tailing sheet winches! Very nice indeed! Very expensive too, I'd have settled for single speed manual tailing winches had I fitted them but I'm not complaining. Aft of the primarys, there is a pair of smaller single speed secondary sheet winches for spinnaker sheets etc. In all, there are no less than 8 winches!
The cockpit is a generous size, indeed some owners find it a little too large at sea and install a foot brace (we'll see how we go on that). Under the floor, there is a large void which opens through to the engine bay at the forward end and nothing much aft. It's routinely accessed by a waterproof hatch but a larger section of the floor can be removed if necessary for engineering "works". It's earmarked as a store for stuff we won't need very often which isn't particularly vulnerable to damage i.e. spare fenders, the anchor of last resort, stuff of that kidney.
There are two large lockers under the seats, the Port locker being particularly cavernous (the starboard one less so due to the intrusion of the quarter berth under the seat). The smaller starboard locker we've set up as the ready use locker with fenders, kedge anchor etc. although moving the stowage for the mooring lines from the Port side is a job on the "to do" list. Once we've got the contents sorted, we need to improve the "how" of the stowage as everything is just sort of piled in there at the moment!
The Port locker is a massive thing. It's even got fitted shelving in it for heavens sake! It's the home of the engineering stores, paint store, the cockpit tent, the 4 man liferaft and anything else we can't find a better place for! I think, with some re-arrangement and stowage improvements, there should also be room in this locker for an inflatable tender - something we don't have and could really do with.
The liferaft, like the spinnaker, was an "optional extra" which we negotiated to include with the sale. It's out of date and needs a service but that's a modest expense compared to buying a new one. Carrying a liferaft on Brigantia was simply not an option (nowhere to stow it) and it's necessity is debatable on Erbas at least for our current coastal sailing. However, if we venture further afield, as we might in due course ....
Under the transom seat is a very large bore cockpit drain and the space under the seat is an ideal place to store flammable liquids. Quite how we are going to store enough petrol for the tender outboard (when we acquire one), paraffin for the lamps and heater and meths for the cooker in the space available I have yet to figure out! We'll work something out.
I mentioned en passant the cockpit tent. As I write, we have yet to actually put it up! But it's there, it looks to be in excellent condition and coupled with the cockpit cushions stowed on the quarter berth and the cockpit table stowed in a cockpit locker promises to give us a whole additional "room" on board. It might even stay up all winter keeping the cockpit clean and dry - albeit at the expense of getting the cockpit tent wet and dirty. Swings and roundabouts!
The Engineering Department ...
This is the third engine to grace the engine bay on Erbas. I use the word "grace" advisedly! The first engine, according to the paperwork, was a Ford Watermota petrol engine. Am I glad that is long gone! It was replaced with a Perkins diesel.The last owner condemned the Perkins as being costly to maintain and unreliable and in 2009 fitted a brand new Beta 20-HE which now has about 400 hours on the clock so it's just about run in.
The engine swings a new for 2013 13x10 prop via a 2:1 TM gearbox. Cooling is raw water via a heat exchanger and calorifer giving hot and cold running water to the sinks! The calorifier also has a 240v heating coil so hot water is available when on shore power as well as when the engine has been run.
Erbas is not short on instrumentation either!
She has a comprehensive set of elderly but perfectly serviceable Raymarine Autohelm ST50 instruments, From left to right, Steering Compass, Wind, Depth and Speed with the controls for the engine on the panel below.
The analogue dials look rather good and match the age and style of the boat quite well. The downside is that the gauges are surprisingly noisy.
Just poking it's top edge into view is the Sterling Power Monitor which gives volts, amps and (for the service batteries only) amp/hours used readings. Talking of batteries, there's a dinky little 35a/h job nestling in the engine bay and two fairly large 105a/.h Trojans lurking under the Port settee.
There's a stonking great 30A Sterling charger although I'm not wild about it and the 240v shore power consumer unit being in full view behind the open backed companionway steps.They're slated to either be moved or hidden away out of sight!
Let's head properly below decks now ...
As we step into the cabin, we land firstly on the engine box. To starboard is the nav area ...
A good sized removable chart table lurks over the quarter berth with plenty of stowage for pencils, instruments and other knick knacks. It is lacking, however, in stowage for books and charts but that's a minor problem!
Above the table and accessible from both the cabin and the cockpit is the marine VHF which is a fairly new but fairly basic Icom DSC unit.
I'll miss the rather better Standard Horizon we're leaving behind on Brigantia but the Icom is ATIS programmed (for European waterways) and that plus the hassle of swapping MMSI numbers over makes chaing them over an unattractive proposition. At some point in the future, when I've nothing better to spend the money on (!) I'd be tempted to replace the VHF and the NASA AIS receiver with a Standard Horizon GX2100E with integral AIS receiver. But that's a long way off.
Below the VHF, on a rather clunky bracket arrangement, is the Raymarine A50 chart plotter. Again, this probably wouldn't be my first choice of plotter (Standard Horizon again!) and, of course, despite being Raymarine it's not directly compatible with the ST50 instrumentation! It also uses Navionics charts, probably my least favoured option. Sigh! Never mind, it is what it is and it is what we've got. We'll grin and bear the three figure annual cost of updating the charts. Replacing the bracket is on the "to do" list too!
Three final pieces complete the navigational gear jigsaw (for now at least) :-
At the forward end of the saloon, under the bookcase, is a Raymarine fluxgate compass. This gives (theoretically) accurate heading information to the instrument cluster and autopilot. The autopilot is a Raymarine ST2000+, bigger brother to our trusty friend George on Brigantia. The last piece of the jigsaw lurks in the depths of the instrument bay - a Raymarine Seatalk - NMEA interface.
As briefly as possible, Seatalk is the original proprietary Raymarine communications bus that links the tiller pilot, the ST50 instruments and the sensors (wind, depth, speed and compass) to each other. However, the chart plotter, being later generation equipment, use the newer Seatalk NG (next generation) protocol.
However, it can also use the industry standard NMEA 0183 protocol. The interface links the Seatalk bus to the NMEA 0183 inputs and outputs on the chart plotter. In theory, the interface also has an RS232 serial output to a PC however there are no software drivers available for this (it works with Raymarines own expensive software).
To be added to the instrumentation mix shortly (the box is sitting on my desk as I type!) is an NMEA - USB multiplexer. This will take the NMEA outputs from the instruments, the chart plotter and the AIS engine and combine them onto a single USB connection to the laptop (and vice versa). I've purchased and installed PC Plotter (not cheap) on the laptop which uses the same Navionics charts as the A50 plotter and this will now be my primary passage planning tool - it offers many beneficial planning features over Multimap such as tide heights and vectors and it will even calculate the effects of tidal streams on your planned passage for you.
Of course, there is the good old fashioned paper chart, pencils, parallel rule, dividers and nautical almanac. Why not go the whole hog and add a sextant and sun tables? Actually, I just might - not because (frankly) I seriously expect to ever lose every GPS unit on the boat but because I'd like to try my hand at navigating the way my ancestors had to do it ... preferably, however, without the ever present likelihood of running aground on an uncharted sandbank or the desperation that must have gone hand in hand with trying and failing to claw your way off a lee shore in a square rigger!
That's quite enough of the technical stuff anyway, what about the more domestic arrangements?
Erbas is not lacking in this department either. Quite the opposite, she's rather well endowed for a twenty seven foot boat we think. Now something I haven't mentioned up until now is that Erbas internally is not a standard Mk.II fit out. The standard boat had two quarter berths, either a dinette or an L-shaped settee to starboard and a linear galley to port. The interior was based on a GRP moulding
Erbas, however, is fitted out throughout in teak and teak faced ply to a very professional standard and her layout is a one off design ...
We've already looked at the arrangements to Starboard as we enter the cabin, now let's look to Port ...Here we find the galley tucked neatly into the aft end of the main cabin. There's plenty of stowage, a useful sized fridge (a proper fridge too, not a mere cool box) under the counter top aft of the sink, hot and cold running water to the sink and a two burner spirit stove of the type we already know and love.
She lacks for an oven due to the removal of the gas installation (although the pipework remains in-situ) and we plan to remedy this lack with a Cobb charcoal BBQ/Oven which, due to its twin wall design, can be safely used in the cockpit
We have also acquired, for use when on shore power, a neat stainless steel low wattage 240v caravan kettle. Very handy!
The galley was a major attraction for the distaff side of the crew. Jane particularly likes the fact that the chef is out of the way of other crew members moving about the cabin and to and from the cockpit. We're both looking forward to further culinary adventures building on our recent efforts to cook more adventurously on board Brigantia - it's surprising what you can do with limited facilities if you're cunning and creative!
And now we come to, arguably, Erbas's must stunning feature - the saloon ...
What a space! Especially on a relatively small boat. She reminds me very much of our narrowboat "Badger" which was also woody with blue upholstery and perhaps that accounts for Jane and I feeling instantly at home the moment we stepped on board.The lockers under the settees are generous with access both from the front and from the top. The port locker is interrupted by the service batteries and the starboard locker houses the primary water tank but there is still ample space left!
The lockers could all benefit from a bit of organisation with the addition of storage nets, dividers etc. but that's all easy and cheap to sort out as we develop our usage of the boat.
She's generously served by no less than three oil lamps in the main cabin! The hanging lamp stows on top of the bookcase when under way and the table lamp can be bolted down onto the side of the nav table. The bookcase is a bit of an intrusion into the cabin but it doesn't look too out of place and otherwise there'd be nowhere to keep the books!
The table is one of the few things on board we are not so keen on - it's both too big and not big enough. It's too big and gets in the way when you're moving around in the cabin, constantly having to be moved around to gain access to the starboard settee or light the heater or ... and so on. And then, perversely, it's too small to comfortably sit more than two people to eat either side by side or across the boat! We're cogitating on alternatives - one of which might be the drop leaf table out of our dining room at home which might suit
Another possible modification might be to mount the heater on a swing away panel and make up a frame and cushion to turn the L-shaped starboard settee into an occasional double berth.
Oh yes, those two slightly out of place looking grab handles are there for a reason - they transfer the load from the aft lower shrouds to below the window thus preventing the window aperture being distorted and causing the window to leak! Very important. Personally, I'd have just designed the boat with less window but that wasn't and isn't the way most people think!
Now I will freely admit to being a bit of a wimp. Especially when it comes to being cold. I don't like it! Jane likes it even less than I do.
So we're a bit unsure about the paraffin wick heater lurking inside a Victory Heater casing. The original Victory was a pressurised paraffin heater with a fairly high output but at some point it's been replaced with a much more simple, easier to use, safer and more reliable wick heater. It's a neat enough install and initial brief experience suggests it should be enough to keep of the chill during the season
However, we'll also be carrying a 500W 240v convection heater and a 2kw fan heater in case of need but obviously neither will be any use without shore power.
We may, at some point, look at diesel fired blown air heating.
Heading forwards we come to the compact but generally well appointed heads compartment.
To port, we have a couple of small cupboards, a hanging locker and a shelf and to starboard the Lavac sea toilet with cupboard and drop down sink behind.The plumbing arrangements are a bit, well, "out there" and I plan to look at moving the pipework to behind the bulkhead to clean up the look of the place.
Another potential modification might be the addition of a toilet holding tank. This is not, yet, an absolute necessity but in some European waters the lack of one can mean the on-board loo is out of bounds and the day is likely to come when this policy becomes more widespread.
Forward of the heads is quite a decent sized V-berth cabin. The berths are generous in both length and width, especially at the foot end, comparing favourably with the rather uncomfortable v-berth on the Moody 28 we chartered in Scotland some years ago.
The generous lockers under the aft end of each berth are (currently at least) given over to sail stowage. It's the logical place to stow the sails as they're readily to hand to be passed up out of the fore-hatch. Unfortunately, these lockers are also the most convenient place to stow our kit bags and bedding!
This is because what would otherwise be excellent locker space in the next compartment moving forwards is taken up with two large stainless steel water tanks. You may recall that there is a water tank under the starboard settee in the saloon, this was added to these two tanks for unknown reasons (although we are advised by the previous owners that the forward tanks need "a good clean" which might explain it!)
There's really a bit of an excess of water tankage, it's not as if we're planning to cross the Atlantic! One possibility is to use the Starboard tank as a black water holding tank (if we were starting from scratch a plastic tank would be preferable but I'm not going to rule out using an existing custom made stainless steel tank that is already in place!)
There is quite a lot of space under the forward end of the v-berth although it isn't the easiest locker space to get too. There are however generous cupboard above the berth albeit at the cost of spaciousness. Whether we'll use the v-berth as a double or as two singles remains to be seen, there are pros and cons both ways.
Right up forwards is the anchor chain locker behind a bulkhead and there ends our tour of Erbas
Please note: For the time being, as we have only just acquired "Erbas" all photos in this article have been, well to be honest, stolen from the previous owner, mutual friends and the yacht brokers who handled the transaction. My sincere apologies to all concerned, the beer is on me next time we meet!
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