The Aloha 27 is a series of

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminolo ...

s, that were designed by American yacht designer Robert Perry and first built in 1979 under the designation Aloha 26. The Aloha 26, 27, 8.2, 271 are all closely related designs. Although the hulls are identical and were produced in the same mould, the builders used several different sail and mast suppliers during the production run of the designs and specifications for the boats produced varied accordingly. Many of the boats produced have interchangeable sails and other parts. Despite having so many designations for the vessel, Aloha 27 is colloquially used as the model designation. The Aloha 27 should not be confused with the slightly larger Aloa 27 which was designed by Frans Maas and built in France by Aloa Marine, starting in 1976.

Production

The design was built between 1979 and 1987 by Ouyang Boat Works in

Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region. It had a population of 138,501 at the 2021 census. It ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, under the Aloha Yachts brand. During that period the company built 188 of the Aloha 27 design.

Design

The Aloha 27 series are all small recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

s, built predominantly of

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

, with wood trim. They all have fractional sloop rigs, internally-mounted spade-type

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

s and fixed fin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

s. They are fitted with a tiller, although a wheel was a factory option. They all displace and carry of ballast encapsulated inside a fibreglass keel. The series all have a draft of with the standard keel fitted. The boat came with an

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

provision as standard with the option of an

inboard An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside the hull of the craft, an ''inboard motor'' is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a pr ...

BMW,

Volvo Penta Volvo Penta was founded as Penta in 1907 with the production of its first marine engine, the B1. The Penta company soon became an established internal combustion engine manufacturer, which in 1927 delivered the engine for Volvo's first passenge ...

or Westerbeke

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

powering a

saildrive A saildrive is a transmission system for a boat whose inboard engine has a horizontal output shaft. The saildrive's input shaft is therefore also horizontal. That input shaft is geared so as to drive a vertical intermediate shaft extending dow ...

unit. The early versions had the BMW powerplant of , which some owners found underpowered and that led to the Westerbeke engine of being substituted. The fuel tank holds and the fresh water tank has a capacity of . The original production run boats featured such amenities as Barient winches, tufted crushed

velour Velour, occasionally velours, is a plush, knitted fabric or textile similar to velvet or velveteen. It is usually made from cotton, but can also be made from synthetic materials such as polyester. Often, it contains a percentage of elastane, ...

cushions, oversized spars, pulpit and lifelines, as well as internal

halyard In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line (rope) that is used to hoist a ladder, sail, flag or yard. The term ''halyard'' comes from the phrase "to haul yards". Halyards, like most other parts of the running rigging, were classically made of ...

s. Of the interior accommodations, reviewer Michael McGoldrick noted: The Aloha 27 has a

PHRF Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...

racing average handicap of 207 and a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of .

Operational history

In an interview in Sail Universe, two Aloha 8.2 owners described the design:

Variants

;Aloha 26 :This model was introduced in 1979, has a length overall of and a waterline length of and was soon renamed the Aloha 27. ;Aloha 27 :This model was the 26 renamed and was built in the same mould, with a length overall of and a waterline length of . ;Aloha 8.2 :This model was renamed in 1980 when Canada adopted the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Interna ...

, has a length overall of and a waterline length of . ;Aloha 271 :This model was introduced in 1987, has a length overall of and a waterline length of .

References

External links