The Perfect (upgraded ?) CO26

Some rambling on this Friday afternoon...

I've had 3-4 of these CO26's, 3 JJTs and 1 JR, and just my $.02 about how both could have been 'better'...some of this comes from my having owned a Westsail 32 I suppose...

All of this is IMHO...

The JR version has a better hull, interior is too complicated, as the interior is built into the hull itself. I never liked the rear storage area behind the tiller, but it did have a smaller cockpit, maybe even too big as it was, much bigger than a W32.

The JJT has a HUGE cockpit. I can see dolphins jumping in (and out) after the cockpit is full of water, getting filled by a wave.

The ideal C026 has a one piece hull, or at least a glassed seam like the JR version, but has the JJT style interior, where it is installed as a unit, all preformed outside separately.
The ideal CO26 has much larger/thicker supports inside (the bathroom walls) and I made mine (ANNA, somewhere on the Chesapeake I imagine still) out of 3/4" marine plywood. I also made 2x3 supports for the plywood too.
The ideal CO26 has a JJT style cockpit, but, it is 1/2 (at most) the size of the standard version. Now, instead of moving the rear of the cockpit FORWARD (as the JR version did) what we'd do is move the cabin hump-door BACK. This would give a lot more interior space, while making the cockpit smaller for very rough weather issues. Of course we'd lose the book reading area, but, one's feet can be put up on top too, which might be better.

I always wanted to move ANNAs cabin door back 2-3 feet, but never got the chance. Would have been a lot of work too.

The JR IIRC had the bilge thru hulls that were higher than the bilge, kind of weird.

A great boat none the less.