Perry Design Review: Octavia 25

I love small boats. My new boat is only 27 feet long. Almost everybody passes me under power. I can beat a few under sail, but my 9-horsepower diesel limits me to 5 knots when the wind dies. No worries. I just sit there with a contented look on my face and ponder the quarter gallon-an-hour I am burning.

I can hoist both sails in less than two minutes from the cockpit. When my dog jumped into the cockpit and kicked the single control lever into full throttle while I was untied at the dock, I was able to hold the boat until my wife got it back into neutral.

This Octavia 25, built by C.W. Hood Yachts in Marblehead, Massachusetts, looks like a prime candidate for someone wanting to experience the joys of small-boat cruising. It was designed by Carl Alberg.

There is nothing modern about the 25. It is heavy — a D/L ratio of 333 — and it has wine-glass sections and a full keel. This boat is like a mini-Alberg 35. The waterline is short, and it will always have a short sailing length even if it does manage to pick up some useful volume from the ends as it heels.

The rudder is tucked under the counter and is nicely faired into the keel. The 25 will perform in a dignified and predictable manner at a stately pace. You'll sit there in style in this yar little hooker.

The SA/D ratio is 16.37. That seems low by today's inflated standards, but it's just fine for this type of boat. The rig is a masthead sloop, conservatively stayed with forward and aft lowers. The boom is long enough to get the traveler aft of the cockpit and out of the way. The boom length also makes a simple boom tent very practical. You will want to carry a 145 percent genoa for light to medium wind and a good 95 percent, blade-style jib for true wind above 20 knots. If this boat is true to its heritage, it will balance impeccably and track as well as any 25-foot boat.

You will need a tiller-actuated autopilot, it's very important on a small boat. I used to laugh at these autopilots. I now own one, and it makes all the difference in the world when singlehanding. There's nothing like going below and fixing breakfast while motoring through a misty morning.

These boats can be semicustom-finished, which means you can lay out your own interior. The layout shown is okay, but it lacks a double berth. It does have a lavishly roomy forward head, but I think this is a lot of space to be devoted to an interior component that sees little use. If privacy is a necessity for you, I would suggest a bigger boat. You have to adopt a fairly cavalier attitude toward privacy when you cruise on a small one.

The interior of small boats must guarantee a reasonable galley, storage areas, comfortable settees with good sitting headroom and comfortable berths. I'd also like to see a nice dining table on this design.

At the recent Perry design rendezvous in Seattle, I had the smallest boat. It kind of gives you a snooty feeling to show you can do it with less. You glide into the marina, little one-cylinder diesel quietly ticking along, step onto the dock and gently bring the boat to a stop without using reverse. The joy of sailing and cruising under sail in small boats is distilled and even stronger as you peel away the peripheral elements that we drag along from life ashore.

Traditionally designed sloop for sailing with style.

Boat Specifications

This story originally appeared in Sailing Magazine, and is republished here by permission. Subscribe to Sailing.