Ocean Voyager 26 MK II

Posted By: Brooks Atherton
Date: 12/8/06 3:16p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

I was one of the owners of Ocean Voyager Corp. My partner and I bought the Voyager company after conferring with Charlie Morgan and Dan Avourees ( the designer). It was without doubt one of the sweetest sailing boate I've ever handled and I used to delight in showing it off to traditional sailors at shows from Boston to Houston. Famed circumnavigator Tristan Jones once praised it as he sat in it at the Houston boat show and other old salts cooed over it. One German sailor rented it annually from Ft Myers and spent six weeks at a time cruising the Keys and Florida Bay. Problem was not with the boat but with the market. There were not enough traditionalists to sustain a semi-custom built boat of this type. Each of them was tailored to the desires and tastes of the owner and we took great pride in our boats. The stock market crash of 1987 put many of us out of business. But we were in good company: Gulfstar, Irwin, Morgan as well as a host of us small builders slid beneath the surface when sales went to zero. Ocean Voyager mailed back deposits on eight boats within two weeks of the crash and I know many other builders faced the same problem. As for the original design, the Voyager 26, she was hand built and hand laid with a very heavy laminate schedule. Most of them were sold as kit boats so there is a great deal of variability in finish and accommodation. My partner, who helped get Gulfstar organized, and I insisted that our build would be of quality and that the only way to control that was to not sell kit boats - even to the end. We used a solid matte and roving layup on the hulls, lots of heavy, solid teak, fully glassed floors and bulkheads, solid cast lead internal ballast, and quality bronze and stainless fittings. Johnson Sails provided spars, rigging, sails, and upholstery to spec. Most people are not aware that we contracted with Island Packet to build hulls and decks for us but I don't recall which hull number was their first. At any rate IP built to our same layup spec and we were always very pleased with their work. I still have plans, construction photos and some marketing brochures. If you are interested. Perhaps there is a place on this site to post them?