PEARSON 26'

Pearson 26 is a Bill Shaw design, it was first available in 1970 and quickly became another best seller. When the Pearson 26 was unveiled at the 1970 New York Boat Show, its designer, Bill Shaw, said, "Providing ample headroom without making a 26–footer look like a layer cake is one of the challenging design aspects of a boat this size. It looks like we’ve solved the problem, and proven that speed, ability, and accommodations, can in fact, go hand in hand". By the time Pearson took the boat off line in 1983 more than 1700 had been launched. Another 400 or so were built to a slightly modified deck design known first as the Pearson 26 Weekender and later as the Pearson 26 One-Design, which was 200 pounds lighter but provided only five feet of headroom in the cabin.
This modest coastal cruiser is a masthead sloop with a swept back cast iron fin keel and four feet of draft that provides for stiffness in a breeze. The spade hung rudder is also swept back and runs through the cockpit with tiller steering (check rudder bearings on used boats). The hull is solid fiberglass with a balsa cored deck. The boat has a motor well on the stern and is easily run with a 10hp long shaft auxillary outboard. She’s got a bright, airy cabin with four fixed ports, and room for "the whole gang". The Person 26 looks like a yacht on the outside and feels like a yacht on the inside.