Composite Yacht Current News
April 2009—PropTalk reviews the Composite 26
March 2009—Chesapeake Bay Magazine reviews Composite 26
June 2008—Chesapeake Bay Magazine reviews the new Composite 26
Click here to read the article online
June 2008— Northest Boating Magazine reviews CY's Composite 26
Click here to read more...
December 2007—PropTalk reviews the Composite 26
December 18, 2007—Boating Blog Floatline runs reviews on the 26. Click here to read more...
Dream Boat: Composite 26
PropTalk April 2009 by Joe Evans
www.proptalk.com
Early in 2005, Martin Hardy and his sons at Composite Yacht near Cambridge, MD began the discussion based on what they have seen over the years and how they could do things better. This grew into a formal collaboration with designer Mick Price, and soon the lines for a 26.5-foot fishing boat were on the drawing board to distract the Composite team from their daily chores. As usual, the shop had a robust backlog of boats to build and other repair and refit work to do. The idea of starting a new design was not particularly reasonable. Still, the creative ember smoldered and grew into a flame that could only be controlled one way. Lewis Hardy and his crew committed their weekends, evenings, and holidays to building the test boat. Martin, with hisdesign and production management skills, agreed to engineer the project and reserve the shop space. Rob Hardy felt certain that he would sell some if the prototype turned out and ran like they thought it would. The first consideration was that she would be fuel efficient without compromising performance. To that end, they put resources and time into a high-tech hull built of CoreCell structural foam between vacuum-bagged fiberglass skins. Meanwhile, they searched deeply for the right engine, balancing weight against power and size, to ensure a sharp ride with ample guts to chase big fish in any water. The essential profile and running surfaces of the boat, developed by Martin Hardy and Price, evolved as a blend of time-tested Carolina, Florida, and Chesapeake concepts. The result is a boat with a sporty Palm Beach sheer, Carolina-style hull flair, and the sharp entry and chopfriendly bottom so functional and necessary on the Bay. Yanmar’s 944-pound turbo-charged 315-hp engine from their LPA series won the weight to power contest. Plus the engine meets the EPA’s tier-three emissions guidelines while still being mechanically injected versus electronic, common-rail injected, which saves money and complication. The transom deadrise angle worked out to about 22 degrees increasing to a high and sharp clipper bow. Her designed draft is a mere 24 inches. Bit by bit, the boat took shape over the span of eight months in between custom refits, paint jobs, and new boat construction in the unique climate-controlled shop. My occasional visits to the place made the waiting all the more difficult as we wondered when we might finally get to go for a ride. It was one of those, “She’ll be done when she’s done” concepts, kind of like waiting for your lovely wife to get ready for a fancy dinner party. The day for a boat ride finally came on a clear and brisk morning in February on the Choptank River.
I arrived at the shop to find that seemingly out of the ether, hull two had been completed and was waiting for delivery to a fishing fanatic in Florida. Hull one was purring at the dock and tugging at her lines in anticipation of her break-in regimen and a chance to go for a spin. Our first jaunt put us into a cold Choptank breeze at about 25 knots on the GPS. Our first hard spin into a U-turn had the boat banking nicely with neither a hard bounce nor the opposite spooky slide. She held the corner like a fine touring automobile. The boat achieves her shallow draft by a discreet prop tunnel, which allows the engine to sit level and the prop-shaft to exit at a better propulsion angle directing the drive more toward the wake than the water. The potential trouble with a tunnel is that it may allow ventilation around the prop in rough conditions and in hard turns. None of that happened with the Composite 26. The return down the river at wide-openthrottle raised the boat comfortably to a 34 knot top speed at 4000 rpm. It seemed that the boat liked to settle in to cruise at about 2600 rpm delivering 20 knots with full tanks and a crowd onboard. All of the wood, metal, mechanical, and paint work is performed to yacht standards at Composite, and the result is truly breathtaking right down to the luscious layers of varnish and the paint details, including the Composite logo in the non-skid. Our test boat included rocket launchers, bait wells, rod holders, a custom t-top, a cuddy cabin, and a portable head. We even had some first-rate tackle onboard, just in case there was a fishing emergency of some kind. Composite is prepared to build the boats in any configuration, including twin outboards, diesel, and gasoline inboards. Since my ride, a boat equipped like the test boat sold to a customer in South Carolina for about $100K. The base boat in an open centerconsole configuration with gasoline-fueled in or outboard power and without a cabin or t-top is about $78K. The turbo diesel upgrade brings the base price up into the $88K range, a pure bargain for an excellent performer built by passionate artisans right in our neighborhood—compositeyacht.biz, (410) 476-4414.
Boat Reviews: Composite 26
by John Page Williams
Chesapeake Bay Magazine March 2009
www.chesapeakeboating.net · Link to article
The new Composite 26 is an elegant hull with a Palm Beach sheerline and a dramatic Carolina flare at the bow. Designed and built by Composite Yacht, an experienced custom shop near the Choptank River on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the 26 is available in three versions: a semi-custom open center-console, a center-console with bow cuddy and an express, each with an extensive option list for fishing or cruising. The hull is vacuum-bagged fiberglass around Core-Cell structural foam, with fiberglass stringers and a high-density foam-cored transom. Composite's ability to produce strong, sharp angles in the keel and chines is remarkable, as is its ability to de-core areas around fittings, including through-hulls. They can work wood trim into the boat if desired, but they are especially proud of the hull's combination of strength and light weight.
Our test boat (actually hull number one) was wide open, with a 315-hp Yanmar diesel inboard fitted under the console. Note the draft: 24 inches. The engine, mounted nearly level, drives the shaft and propeller through a tunnel that begins gradually “coaxing water into it,” as one of the crewmembers remarked. In the sea trial, the boat left a clean, low wake, with no hint of ventilation from the tunnel, even in sharp turns at high speed. A cupped, four-blade propeller helped, but most of the credit goes to the overall design of the tunnel. The effective transom deadrise is 22 degrees, tapering to a very sharp bow entry.
The Yanmar balanced the boat well and accelerated quickly. Top speed was 38 mph at 4000 rpm with six people aboard. Easy cruising speeds ranged from 24 mph at 2700 rpm to 27 mph at 3000. In any form, the 26 is a trailerable, efficient, sturdy pocket canyon runner that will turn heads in any marina. Composite Yacht, Trappe, Md.; 410-476-4414; www.compositeyacht.biz
Boat Reviews: Composite 26
by John Martino
Chesapeake Bay Magazine June 2008 www.chesapeakeboating.net · Link to article
Diesel-powered center-console boats less than 30 feet are a rare breed, so I was happy to find the Composite 26. Composite Yacht is a family business founded and run by Martin Hardy who has been building boats on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for more than twenty-five years. His son Lewis played a key role in the development of the 26. Composite Yacht offers this semi-custom boat in three configurations: as an express-style cruiser or a center-console with or without a cuddy cabin.
With fuel prices climbing, the Martins wanted to power their new boat with a fuel-efficient diesel without compromising the boat’s perform-
ance. They chose the Yanmar 6LPA-STP2, an in-line, turbo-charged and intercooled, direct-injection diesel rated at 315-hp at 3800 rpm. Weighing in at just under 900 pounds (without transmission) the engine's combination of high revving, light weight and excellent fuel efficiency hits the nail on the head for a single-screw center-console. After speaking with Bob Schroer, at Mack Boring, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions’ distributor for Yanmar engines, I learned that the 6LP has been a popular choice for repowering boats—especially ones fitted with 454 V-8s. Such a repower often significantly improves both performance and fuel economy.
The 6LP is also a time-tested engine, developed in the mid 1990s by Yanmar in cooperation with Toyota. In fact, the non-marine version of the engine was used in the Toyota Land Cruiser (popular overseas, but never exported to North America). Since the 6LP is equipped with mechanical fuel injection, it is still possible for skilled owners to service the high pressure fuel system or pull injectors without needing a technician.
The shaft and propeller are set in a tunnel to keep the draft to a minimum. The 19-inch four-bladed Acme prop is tuned with a deep cup. Our test boat was equipped with a ZF63A hydraulic transmission. Composite chose a 1.56:1 reduction for this hull, which keeps the prop turning faster than a 2:1 gear ratio. This was done with an eye toward maintaining her top end performance, and it seems to have paid off—at wide open throttle, the Composite 26 reached 32 knots with three people aboard. At a cruising rpm of 3000, she turned out 25 knots. According to Yanmar’s test figures, the 6LP burns just under 8 gallons per hour at this speed. Pretty sweet compared to outboards!
The 26 gave us a smooth ride. The combination of 24-degree deadrise aft and the dramatic Carolina-style bow flare means that this boat was built for big water. The center-console is offered with a variety of power options, from a single or twin outboard to single-screw inboard gas or diesel engines. Our test boat was Hull #0 (the original plug-boat from which a mold was taken to build future hulls) and is about 800 pounds heavier than Hull #1, which has already been delivered to its new owner in Florida.
