FRANCES 26'
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The following are texts I have taken from various sources. If you don't approve of me infringing on your copyright, read this.

Morris Frances Brochure

Let us introduce you to FRANCES, a classic cruiser of traditional profile built in hand layed-up fiberglass using the finest materials and craftsmanship. She represents the ultimate combination of comfort and sailing ability in a compact cruiser for coastal or offshore sailing.

The original FRANCES was designed and built by Naval Architect Chuck (C. W.) Paine for his own use. His idea was to reduce the size of the more well known Colin Archer double enders, in order to reduce the problems (crew requirements, upkeep cost, original cost, restrictions to cruising grounds due to deep draft) inherent in the larger ocean cruisers. At the same time, those attributes which have gained acceptance, as necessary for safety and comfort at sea, namely; heavy displacement, the double ended stern, and sufficient ballast, were retained. FRANCES presents an alternative for those seeking quality and economy in a modern yacht.

Our FRANCES 26 is a sistership to the original FRANCES. Hulls are solid, hand laid fiberglass out of a female mold, laminated to suit the requirements of a displacement cruising sloop.

You may select the gelcoat color according to your personal preference. While the standard interior shown in the drawings is highly recommended, we are happy to consider alterations to fulfill an individual owner's requirements. If you choose to fit an engine, we can install one of various small diesels. Sails, perhaps a self-steerer, and a few minor items are the only options. In every case, your FRANCES will be built to your individual requirements.

The construction of our FRANCES 26 is given careful consideration. Ballast is a solid lead casting through-bolted using 3/4 inch bronze bolts. Decks are laminated plywood over oak deck beams, covered with fiberglass. They are bolted and epoxy glued to heavy fiberglass flanges at the hull-deck joint, and this joint is completely glassed over to eliminate any possibility of leaks. Plywood for the bulkheads is Duraply marine grade . . . the best available. All major interior bulkheads and joinerwork are ½ inch thick, individually glassed to the hull and underside of the deck. Deck fittings are of marine alloy welded series 300 stainless steel, or bronze, and are oversize in all cases. Rigging is of the highest standard, with standing rigging of 3/16 inch 1 x 19 stainless steel wire, and running rigging of laid Dacron line. Hatch joinerwork, toe rails and exterior trim are of varnished mahogany or oiled teak. Spars are of varnished sitka spruce or aluminum with stainless steel tangs. While we respect the owner's choice for sailmaker, we are able to supply sails for your FRANCES 26, which we have found to be of excellent cut and workmanship.

The all wood interior is painted white with varnished mahogany or teak trim. What seems to please our customers most is that the entire hull is lined, where visible, with a lovely blond ceiling of varnished white pine, making one unaware that the exterior is fiberglass. The cabin sole is of oiled teak. The galley area is surfaced with white Formica, and three inch, Naugahyde covered foam cushions are supplied for all berths. As is only proper, in our opinion, all necessary interior appointments are standard; including a marine toilet, stainless steel sink with outboard drain, fresh water pump and tank of 15 gallon capacity, two burner kerosene or alcohol cook stove, bilge pump, compass (boats with engines) electrical cabin lights, and well planned stowage areas.

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Frances from 'The Best Boats to Build or Buy' by Ferenc Mate

The 26 foot Frances is a completely irresistible little boat and your first reaction reaction after looking around belowdecks, is, "What more do I really need?" Chuck Paine designed and built the original Frances for himself. He likes the seakeeping abilities of traditional double-enders, but he drastically fined down the ends for Frances, making her a very weatherly boat. With 3,500 pounds of ballast on a 6,800 pound displacement (51% ballast-to-displacement ratio, which is very high indeed) Chuck was able to keep the draft down to 3 feet 10 inches, which opens up some magical places inaccessible to the usual 5 foot draft cruisers. He designed Frances during the winter of 1975 and said about her: "She was to embody everything I knew about the design of efficient cruising-vessels of fiberglass construction, to be capable of yearly cruises to and among the Caribbean Islands, to be small enough to fit my limited budget, but large enough to safely survive a gale at sea. She had to be as beautiful as her namesake, for some day I would part with her and I know well that beautiful yachts reward their owners' good taste with profit upon resale. Yet she is small enough for me to handle the little maintenance required, capable of being laid-up alongside a local lobsterman's wharf on an outgoing tide for periodic attention to the bottom, or even towed behind a good Maine Peapod if the engine and wind should choose to crap out simultaneously. Then there is always the dream of circumnavigation, and well, some year I might just find the time and have saved up the Panama Canal fee and a few cans of ravioli."

Frances is a small boat, the flush deck version does not have full headroom (the trunk cabin does) but she does have yards of sitting room. A great deal of attention has been paid to stowage space and of course any experienced seaman knows that space is no damned good if the displacement and freeboard of the yacht are so small that, should that space be occupied by usable supplies, she would float halfway up her sides. Load Frances with your cruising gear and she won't show it in appearance or performance.

And he goes on to talk about the hull: "The entry is quite sharp (25% half angle forward, which is sharp indeed for most racers have around 20 to 23). The keel extension is carried right up to the canoe body of the hull with a very tight fairing radius."

In other words, the hull is very modern with the keel figuratively added onto the body and not faired in, in that traditional flowing wineglass shape. This is hard to explain, but once you look at an old hull and a new hull side. by side, you will know what I mean. As I write this I am looking at an old racer in the boatyard next door, built in 1940, and her keel does not become vertical until well below half way down her underbody. In contrast, if you look at the lines of Chuck's Leigh, you will see that right at the one-third mark (three out of nine lines down) the keel becomes a full wing causing lift and preventing leeway, thereby achieving a much more efficient hull than those of old.

The sharp entry, tall keel and tall rig, make her a weatherly boat and a stiff one, for as one owner, Jake Van Veedom explained, "The boat is so stiff I just haven't been able to bury the rail," and judging by a photo, Jake Van Veedom is no wilting pansy.

For those interested in what designers consider when drawing the lines of a boat, a few more comments from Chuck should clarify it: "I wanted to end up with a boat that could carry her sail well (an essential conflict between cruising and racing yachts, the stability being penalized in the latter for rating purposes). On the other hand I wanted the desirable wave performance of a tender boat. That is, one which is. an easy roller. There is only one solution to this seeming conflict. I get the sail carrying ability from the moderately heavy displacement (directly proportional to the riding moment). I achieve the easy motion by shaping the hull sections with a high angle of deadrise and very easy bilges, or more technically, designing the shape with a low meta-centre. The result is a hull which is driven easily and has relatively less wetted surface for her length than many yachts of her size range." There you go.

The fractional rig Chuck drew for Frances is rather tall, but Chuck drew the smaller headsail area with a proportionally larger main because he feels that "it's a damned sight easier to reef a main on a blustery night than go forward and change down to smaller jib." Almost as easy of course, is a split headstay rig which is also available, where half the headsails can be dropped and bagged and onward she would sail.

Below, the trunk cabin version is spacious and airy with much perfectly painted white plywood and varnished teak trim, and a layout so simple that any explanation or clarification by me would only confound it. Look at the drawings.

The rig that Tom Morris has devised has some noteworthy ideas, and you will have to look at the photo inset of the sail plan to see them. The need for a boomkin or even a split backstay, which is common with aft hung rudders to give the tiller free movement, has been nicely eliminated by offsetting the backstay to starboard. My first impression was that this would put an undue twist into the fitting at the masthead, but I was assured by a designer friend that as long as a toggle is used allowing the wire end to swivel off centre; the couple of degrees of offset will not really affect anything.

The shrouds too have been doubled up to cut down the number of penetrations through the deck from three to two. As you can see on the sail plan, the intermediate shares a chainplate with one lower shroud, while the upper shares the other chainplate with the other lower shroud. Of course the load bearing capacity of the plates had to be slightly increased, but whatever had to be done was worth it, to eliminate a major potential deck leak.

I have only one criticism of the boat, which is a general criticism. Tom and I went for a turn in Southwest Harbour, and the racket and vibration of the beastly little single cylinder diesel was just damned unearthly. If you have to have a motor on such a small, well sailing boat, then perhaps it should be a gas - wash my mouth with soap - outboard, namely a Seagull with an extended shaft. Fabrication of a bracket would not be the easiest thing on such a pointed double-ender, but whatever it would take, the price difference between a diesel and a Seagull would pay for it ten times over, not to mention the money you would save on dentist bills for replacing the fillings shaken from your teeth. The whole problem of gas storage could be solved with a tank isolated in the lazarette compartment, and by isolated I mean baffled and sealed off like one would a propane tank with an overboard drain for spillage in case of ruptured tank or fuel line. It is true that a gas outboard could be a bloody nuisance most of the time, but then that's the whole idea, you see, because you will hate it so much that you will become totally reliant on your skill with the sails and to hell with the engine except in case of absolute need. Amen.

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Yachting and Boating Magazine test sail a Frances

It was on a distinctly chilly clay that I met Peter Gregory of Victoria Marine at his Southampton office. Nevertheless, the sun was out and there was a good breeze, so clad in warm wear and windproofs we soon got underway in the Frances 26.

We motored downriver using the Volvo 7.5 hp diesel engine which, after pointing out that it was cold and therefore did not expect to be taken out and used, settled to a quiet well insulated rythym. There is plenty of power and the boat will turn in a close circle going astern. It is very well controlled because of the large area of the rudder, but for the same reason once the boat gathers sternway, only small movements at the tiller should be made, and then with a firm grip or you will find it quickly snatched and slammed over. The Frances is, of course, a double ender' so it gathers sternway much quicker than a 'transom' boat.

Once clear of the various shipyards and marinas we set sail: the rig has a high aspect mainsail and a 7/8 rig for the headsail which is also self tacking. Both the main and jib have slab reefing. The rig-is all very straight forward and simple to operate; tacking is achieved by simply pushing the tiller, the sails look after themselves. I have two criticisms of the rig, both of which start to make life more complicated. The first is easily dealt with: the self-tacking jib has a single lead aft and is cleated outside the starboard, cockpit coaming ~ no problem until you are hard on port tack and want to bear away and clear that cleat, you are leaning outboard and downhill. The solution is simple; make the sheet double ended so you can always clear to windward.

My second point is the fixed runners, necessary because of the fractional rig. They are fixed, I assume, to do away with levers or tackles or jobs to do when tacking, but they are at such an acute angle to the forestay they must create more compression downwards through the mast than tension on the forestay. Both of these criticisms, or rather their cures, create more string and complicated sailing which defeats the boat's objective. The headsail tuft was reasonable, it is of course, relatively small (basically a staysail) in order to be able to self-tack.

Once clear of the river and in Southampton Water I settled comfortably onto the stern locker seat and throughly enjoyed my sail, the boat is extremely light on the helm, in fact the boat will almost sail itself once the sails are trimmed. The underwater body has a long full keel shape fore and aft while the hull itself is round with the keel looking in profile almost like a dagger board. This seems to give the best of both fin and full keel worlds.

The keel is cut away at the fore foot which helps the tacking capabilities although it still pays to sail the boat round rather than spin it. Off the wind goose winging is easy, the headsail behaves itself and is quiet and efficient on its boom while the long keel and full rudder keep it steady on course.

Moving about on the deck is a dream, there are no ropes or blocks or tracks to trip or slip on and the high gunwales give an excellent feeling of security.

The original design of this boat (by American Chuck Paine) was for a flush deck (that option is still available) which must have made the boat a real beauty: modern-day sailers, however traditional they claim to be, have forced the builders to give more headroom by adding a cabin top. The boat is still pretty, particularly with a colored top strake which tends to hide the cabin.

Below decks there are two lay-outs available. The one I sailed has two quarter-berths and two berths forward in an open-plan arrangement with the galley to port opposite a sink and work top separating the bunks; the heads are between the forward bunks. There is plenty of stowage below and behind the bunks plus lockers above the work units; for once these lockers actually have doors, which ensures that the contents really do stay where they belong and hides from your visitors the fact that you have a fetish for crushed garlic or find it necessary to consume huge quantities of All-Bran!

The cabin top has no lining but is well coated with anticondensation paint, which obviously works. The cabin sides where they are visible are lined with a timber strip planking which is very pleasent and warm, an enterprising owner might well continue this round the cabin top. The alternative layout I have seen only briefly, but it basically provides a more secluded loo in its own compartment aft and is more split up than the open plan version, the choice is yours.

I believe the Frances 26 will appeal to the modern traditionalist and to anyone that does not want to be continuously tweaking his rig. During my test the looks on the crew of a nearby yacht were interesting, as we approached they were "that's a pretty little boat" gradually changing to quiet anguish as they realised we were passing them - it was a much larger boat and no amount of rope pulling stopped the gap opening. It is worth remembering that the Frances 26's performance is belied by the ease with which it is achieved.

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