varne 27 sailboatdata

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• Yachting Monthly's Scuttlebutt
• Thread starter Sandgrounder
• Start date 25 Aug 2013
• 25 Aug 2013

Sandgrounder

Active member.

Anyone have any views about these boats? I'm not a fan of the transverse dinette - a bit caravanny and not good for loungeing but are they any good as sailing boats? 41-ish% ballast ratio seems quite low for a the rest of the design?  

• 26 Aug 2013

http://www.varne.co.uk/ Latest Varne 27 Review: Sailing Today May 2008 "Duncan Kent ... sails a curvaceous classic, the Varne 27 which ... handles like a dream" "The Varne 27 is an old school classic in the mould of the Nicholsons, Contessas and Rustlers of her day. She is fast and formidable in a good blow while remaining impeccably mannered. Her motion at sea is supremely smooth, as you'd expect from a deep-veed hull with long overhangs, and she is built to withstand a storm at sea with little consequence" "A Perfect Sense of Proportion", "The little known Varne 27 is a treat for those who want a compact, well behaved and seakindly offshore cruiser", "Downright Gorgeous" "steady as a rock off the wind"  

Bajansailor

Well-known member.

Twister_Ken

Sometimes described as the "best kept secret" among smaller offshore cruisers. Or was that the Verl?  

Had one for 5 years, first boat, liked it. It was strong and secure, good in a blow. The flare under the gunwale at the bows keeps a lot of spray off the deck so she is dry to sail into the wind. It struggled to get to windward in open sea in F6, because the waves stopped it, but would head into F7-8 in flat water. That's possibly true of many boats that size. Ours had a yanmar 1GM which was plenty of power. Inside it slept four adults and two kids on one holiday! Limited water tank size and the dining table doubled as the chart table, but again, it is only 27 foot. So overall I would strongly recommend it, but perhaps you should temper that with the the knowledge that I would tend to think nostalgically of our first boat.  

cindersailor

I thought that in the photos she was heeling at a steep angle for the conditions (judging by the sea state).  

I think the comment in the article about the knackered sails explains the unusual heel angle. Varnes don't suffer excessive heel, although they don't have the form stability that most modern designs use to support the ludicrous indoor tennis court under the cockpit! The dinette layout is very useful at sea, when in port I admit I do most of my lounging in the pub. Another admission is that my bias comes from owning a Weston 8500 - the last variant of the Varne 27! Rob.  

• 27 Aug 2013

Looking at the plan, this boat looks very similar to the Jaguar 27 I owned. That too was a fine sailing boat and the dinette arrangement worked well, both at sea and at rest. Wouldn't hesitate, if I were you.  

Would echo the best kept secret sentiment suggested here. Had a look into them a couple of years ago when I saw one for sail in Portland and was really impressed with everything I read. Really fell in love with it, it's a lovely looking boat. A big looking 27 footer too.  

Thought some might like to see this video of Jupiter beating in a good breeze... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4h7JHdVvGY Rob.  

Thanks everyone for the info. Guess I'll have to find one with the traditional layout. I've been offered one with the dinette arrangement and I have my doubts........could convert it?  

"Best kept secret" - said of the Varne by David Harding in a PBO review, IIRC.  

Have you seen this one? Been for sale for a while. http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1976/Varne-27-2477124/United-Kingdom  

Coo, the engine is worth 3 grand. I spotted a boat on our local moorings and could not identify it at first, blow me it is a Varne 27. It looks an absolute picture. Far better on the water than those marina shots allow.  

• 28 Jan 2014

brian.campbell

• 23 Jan 2015

Here's ours off the Tees entrance on our way up to Seaham. Breezy day, but the boat handled it very smoothly. Yes there's a line visible in the water about 01:24, but it only dangled a couple of ft, it still secured the pole very well and I wasn't about to go forward to sort it just then! We've since got new sails. The in-mast reefing is a compromise which we find works well, but more so now that the new main is less baggy. We've since altered the mainsheet clew attachment back to how it should be. We've also bought a 120% jib to replace the original 140%, and this is a great improvement all round. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-yB3OpHGE Overall, not masses of space, but enough for us, and a great boat to sail.  

brian.campbell said: Here's ours off the Tees entrance on our way up to Seaham. Click to expand...

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The Varne 27 Sailboat

The Varne 27, designed by Duncan Stewart and built in the UK by Varne Marine Ltd is a good performer under sail.

Published Specification for the Varne 27

Hull Type:  Fin keel & skeg-hung rudder

Hull Material:   GRP (fibreglass)

Length Overall:  27' 9" / 8.5m

Waterline Length:  21' 0" / 6.4m

Beam:  9' 0" / 2.74m

Draft:  4' 3" / 1.3m

Rig Type:  Masthead Sloop

Displacement:  6,200lb / 2,812kg

Designer:  Duncan Stuart

Builder:  Varne Marine Ltd (UK)

Year First Built:  1974

Year Last Built:  ?

Number Built:  70

Many thanks to Phil Eccleston for submitting this photograph of his yacht.

Published Design Ratios for the Varne 27

Sail Area/Displacement Ratio: 16.4

• Less than 16 would be considered under-powered;
• 16 to 20 would indicate reasonably good performance;
• Over 20 suggests relatively high performance.

Ballast/Displacement Ratio: 41.9

• Under 40: less stiff, less powerful
• Over 40: stiffer, more powerful

Displacement/Length Ratio: 299

• Under 100: Ultralight
• 100 to 200: Light
• 200 to 275: Moderate
• 275 to 350: Heavy
• Over 350: Ultraheavy

Comfort Ratio: 22.3

• Under 20 indicates a lightweight racing boat
• 20 to 30 indicates a coastal cruiser
• 30 to 40 indicates a moderate offshore cruising boat
• 40 to 50 indicates a heavy offshore boat
• Over 50 indicates an extremely heavy offshore boat

Capsize Screening Formula:   2.0

• Under 2.0 (the lower the better): Better suited for ocean passages
• Over 2.0: Less suited for ocean passages

read more about these all-revealing numbers...

The Varne 27: A Versatile and Comfortable Sailboat

The Varne 27, designed by Duncan Stuart and built by Varne Marine Ltd. (UK) since 1974, is a well-balanced and seaworthy vessel that can handle a variety of conditions.

The Varne 27 has many positive attributes that make it a desirable sailboat for recreational sailors and yachting enthusiasts. Here are some of them:

• It has a masthead sloop rig, which is easy to handle and offers good performance in most wind conditions. The reported sail area is 344ft² (31.96m²), which gives it a sail area/displacement ratio of 16.36, indicating that it is moderately powered and can sail well in light winds.
• It has a fin keel and a rudder on skeg, which provide good stability and maneuverability. The ballast/displacement ratio is 41.85, which means that it is stiff and has a good righting moment if heeled or capsized. The displacement/length ratio is 298.87, which means that it is moderately heavy and has a comfortable motion at sea.
• It has a spacious cockpit that can accommodate several crew members and has good visibility and protection from the elements. It also has a tiller steering system, which gives more feedback and control than a wheel steering system.
• It has a roomy interior that can sleep up to six people in two cabins and two single berths in the saloon. It has a galley with a stove, sink, and icebox, a marine head with a holding tank, and a chart table with instruments and storage space. The headroom is about 6ft (1.83m), which is adequate for most people.

The Againsts:

The Varne 27 is not without its drawbacks, however. Here are some of them:

• It has a relatively shallow draft of 4.25ft (1.30m), which may affect its upwind performance and pointing ability, especially in stronger winds.
• It has a small engine of 12 HP, which may not be sufficient to power the boat in adverse conditions or against currents or tides. It may also have a limited range and fuel capacity, depending on the tank size.
• It has a dated design that may not appeal to some sailors who prefer more modern or sleeker sailboats. It may also lack some of the features or amenities that newer sailboats offer, such as more storage space, better ventilation, or more advanced electronics.

One owner tells us: 

"The Varne 27 is an old school classic in the mould of the Nicholsons, Contessas and Rustlers of her day. She is fast and formidable in a good blow while remaining impeccably mannered. Her motion at sea is supremely smooth, as you'd expect from a deep-veed hull with long overhangs, and she is built to withstand a storm at sea with little consequence"

Duncan Stewart, Yacht Designer

Duncan Stuart is a British yacht designer who is best known for designing the Varne 27, a fast and seaworthy sailing yacht that was built in Essex by Varne Marine in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the web search results, some of the sailboats designed by Duncan Stuart are:

• Varne 27: A 27-foot cruiser-racer with a deep-veed hull and long overhangs. It was available in fin, lifting centreboard or bilge keel configurations. It was described as "the best secondhand boat you've never heard of" by Practical Boat Owner Magazine.
• Varne 850: A metricised rebranding of the Varne 27 with minor modifications.
• Weston 8500 : A successor of the Varne 850 produced by Weston Yachts after they purchased the moulds from Varne Marine. It had a slightly different deck layout and interior.
• Stuart 37: A 37-foot offshore cruiser with a flush deck and a spacious interior. It was built by Stuart Yachtbuilding Ltd. in the UK starting in 1978.

Varne Marine Ltd, Boat Builders

Varne Marine Ltd was a British company that built sailing yachts in Essex in the 1970s and 1980s. It was named after the Varne Bank in the Straits of Dover. The company was formed by Walter Standing in 1973 and liquidated in 1986.

The most notable sailboat model produced by Varne Marine was the Varne 27, designed by Duncan Stuart. It was a fast and formidable yacht with a deep-veed hull and long overhangs. It was available in fin, lifting centreboard or bilge keel configurations. It was later rebranded as the Varne 850, a metricised version of the same design.

In around 1980, Weston Yachts purchased the moulds from Varne Marine and produced the Weston 8500, which was essentially the same as the Varne 850. The Weston 8500 had a slightly different deck layout and interior fittings.

Another sailboat model produced by Varne Marine was the Varne Folkboat, which was based on the classic Scandinavian design of the same name. The Varne Folkboat had a long keel, a low freeboard and a fractional rig.

The company also built the MK4 Hurley Silhouette, which was a small trailer-sailer with a lifting keel and a transom-hung rudder.

The above text was drafted by sailboat-cruising.com using GPT-4 (OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model) as a research assistant to develop source material, and believes it to be accurate to the best of their knowledge.

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Review of Varne 27

Basic specs..

The boat is typically equipped with a Farymann A30M diesel engine at 12.0 hp (8 kW), which gives a max speed about 4.7 knots.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Varne 27 is 1.96, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 6.1 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Varne 27 is about 117 kg/cm, alternatively 657 lbs/inch. Meaning: if you load 117 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 657 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

Maintenance

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what to look for.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Varne 27 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us . Criticism helps us to improve.

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• Yachting Monthly
• Digital edition

• June 18, 2013

Yachting Monthly tests the Sabre 27

Product Overview

Manufacturer:, price as reviewed:.

What’s she like to sail? She’s not as close-winded as a modern fin-keeler but can muster respectable boatspeed on passage – quicker than her twin-keeled sisters – and handles easily. We had her gybing and tacking with alacrity and both foresail and mainsail sheets can be trimmed from the helm, which boosts her appeal for solo sailors. Her deck- stepped mast is slotted into a tabernacle and can therefore be easily lowered to get her under low bridges – ideal for canal use. She sports a single-spreader rig with fore-and-aft lowers and a split backstay, setting a small genoa relative to her mainsail, which makes for easy short-tacking but means the mainsail needs reefing early to maintain the balance of sails and helm. For both comfort and performance she needs to be sailed as upright as possible, hence Ian’s rule of thumb for a maximum of 15° heel. Her mainsheet traveller runs across the bridgedeck, which is great for sail trimming but some would consider it a hazard for unwary crew in the event of an accidental gybe. It can also impede access to the cabin, but Ian has rigged snap shackles on either end of his mainsheet tackle, so he simply unclips it when moored up. This innovation can also be used for a man overboard retrieval by simply inverting the mainsheet and then using the jammer cleat at the top of the haul. What’s she like, in port and at anchor? When Alan F Hill drew the boat, way back in 1969, his brief was to create a yacht that the ‘average wage earner’ could afford, suitable for ‘a week’s cruise with the whole family’. She clearly wouldn’t cope with one of those 13-strong families we read about in the national press, but for a family of four she ticks all the boxes (although I know some families for whom murder might be on the agenda by the end of a week in such confined quarters). There’s plenty of room on the foredeck for anchor handling and the chain doesn’t impinge on the forecabin – it goes down through a hawse pipe into a forward chain locker. The sidedecks, too, are spacious enough for a crewman to get forward safely and there’s enough elbow room in the cockpit for a crew of four to relax. Better form stability than most yachts of her era means less rolling at anchor. Would she suit you and your crew? The Sabre 27 would certainly suit – as was intended 44 years ago – a small family with a modest budget. She’d make a good starter boat, a capable coast-hopper for a cruising couple, or an easily manageable singlehander. She’s got generous accommodation for her size, is easy to handle under sail or power and her thick hull lay-up will take a few hard knocks when you’re coming alongside. In short, the Sabre is a viable alternative to the benchmark Westerly Centaur and her fin-keeled variant, the Pembroke. She’d be OK if caught out in a blow, but I would hesitate to recommend her for deep-ocean or high-latitude work. For that, you’d be better off with a heavier, slimmer, deeper-bodied boat such as a Contessa 26 or Albin Vega. It’s swings and roundabouts, though, because neither can match her for living space. Having settled on a Sabre 27, how do you choose between the fin and twin-keeled versions? The former is undoubtedly faster but, surprisingly, she doesn’t seem to point much higher despite her relatively deep draught. The latter can dry out upright on a cheap half-tide mooring and is far more versatile up rivers, on canals and in shoal waters.

The Varne 850 is a 27.75ft masthead sloop designed by Duncan Stuart and built in fiberglass since 1979.

The Varne 850 is a moderate weight sailboat which is slightly under powered. It is very stable / stiff and has a good righting capability if capsized. It is best suited as a coastal cruiser.

Varne 850 for sale elsewhere on the web:

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NEW LISTING – 1981 Varne 27 ‘SINGING BIRD’

Thursday 6th October 2022

Mark Cameron Yachts are delighted to have been appointed to act in the sale of the 1981 Varne 27 ‘SINGING BIRD’.

Described as “the best second hand boat you’ve never heard of” by Practical Boat Owner magazine the ver fuente se administreaza de obicei numai atunci cand este nevoie, cu 30 minute pana la 1 ora inainte de activitatea sexuala. Medicamentul poate fi administrat cu pana la 4 ore inainte de activitatea sexuala. Varne 27 is something of a cult classic. Designed in the mid 1970’s by Duncan Stuart the design was built in the UK by Varne Marine Ltd with approximately 100 hulls moulded, some being offered in kit form for home finishing. A classic style of design with a deep-V hull and long overhangs the Varne 27 is regarded as being a well mannered sea boat which is quiet at home beating to windward in heavy weather.

The Varne 27 SINGING BIRD is lying afloat and incommission her inventory including:

• Beta Marine B16 marine diesel engine
• Simrad tiller pilot
• Garmin GPS map 620 plotter
• Garmin GPS128
• Icom DSC VHF

Wintering afloat the Varne 27 SINGING BIRD is available for immediate viewing by prior appointment. The pontoon winter berth is paid for at Ardfern through until March 2023 and would transfer to the buyer if required.

FIND FULL DETAILS FOR THE 1981 VARNE 27 ‘SINGING BIRD’ HERE

1981 Varne 27 ‘SINGING BIRD’

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Moscow has been a powerful magnet for many Russian photographers of the 20th century. Moscow: City, Spectacle, Capital of Photography presents the work of 31 photographers, whose images have defined the visual experience of Moscow from the 1920s to the present. Diverse in form and strategy, the 90 photographs chosen for the exhibition trace the history of Russian documentary photography and offer insight into individual practices. From Aleksandr Rodchenko's constructivist visions and Evgenii Khaldei's humanist landscapes to Igor Moukhin's scenes of urban spectacle and alienation in the works of Russia's key 20th-century photographers, Moscow ventures beyond the expected image as a site of famous landmarks, architectural treasures and dramatic lifestyles.

Early 20th-century photographers Boris Ignatovich and Arkadii Shaikhet saw themselves in the vanguard of an emerging mass-media culture, defining with their cameras the visual experience of Soviet modernity. For nearly 70 years, Soviet photography was assigned the duty of maintaining the ideological rigidity of the Soviet State. Yet, as examples of the work of Iakov Khalip, Anatolii Egorov, Mikhail Savin, and Mark Markov-Grinberg show, Soviet photographic practices were much more complex than has been previously acknowledged. The works of these photographers remain intensely compelling to a modernist eye.

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