Harbor 25

Photos

Sailing

The deck of the new Harbor 25 has been carefully designed to make sailing easy. The deck is 100% hand laid up fiberglass, and the core is end grain balsa.

Every piece of hardware has been strategically placed for efficient sail handling, docking, and anchoring. With the exception of the spinnaker gear, all of the hardware shown in these photos is included as standard equipment.

Launching

HARBOR 25 INTERIOR

The interior of the new Harbor 25 is elegantly finished and beautifully detailed. A v-berth forward and two quarter berths aft provide sleeping accommodations for four. The main cabin features comfortable seating with padded backrests.

A galley cabinet with a sink is located on the port side aft of the main bulkhead, and a cabinet and a built-in ice chest are located to starboard. Both countertops have a beautiful “granite” finish.

The head compartment is located forward of the bulkhead. A sliding door provides privacy.

Elegant finishes include Sunbrella fabric, varnished mahogany trim, and countertops that look like granite. Interior liners ensure a completely “finished” look; and a beaded board finish on the cabin sides and overhead add a traditional elegance seldom found in a boat this size. A beautiful teak and holly sole and other wood details add warmth and sophistication.

Storage is provided under the forward berth and under and behind each of the main cabin seats. The engine and fuel tank are located just aft of the companionway ladder. And a large lazarette provides storage for mooring lines, fenders, a boarding ladder, an awning, a dinghy, etc.

The cabinet on the port side has a galley sink with a faucet. The countertop itself is made of a polyester casting resin that looks just like granite. There is storage both above and below the counter.

Note the beaded board detail in the cabinet doors and in the overhead liner. The open port above the galley is one of four tinted oval-shaped windows that provide both light and good ventilation.

The head, which is located forward of the main bulkhead, has a sliding door to provide privacy, and a large opening hatch provides plenty of light and ventilation for the head compartment and the forward v-berth.

The control panel for the electrical system is placed above the starboard side galley counter.

A large insulated ice box is located under the starboard seat for quick and easy access. The seat back cushions also conceal additional storage cubbies, and there is a small locker with a shelf on the starboard side in the head compartment.

Note the beautiful varnished mahogany trim throughout.

The v-berth is 6’ on centerline, the hull ceilings have beaded board finish, and 3” cushions make a cozy stateroom for two.

An anchor rode locker with an opening door is located at the forward end of the berth.

The pole to starboard is the retractable bow spinnaker pole that comes with the optional asymmetrical spinnaker equipment.

Note the teak and holly sole in the head compartment.

The quarter berths are a full 6’ 4” in length and run aft under the bench seats of the cockpit. In this photo, you can see the fiberglass binboard in the main companionway, the fiberglass steps that provide easy access to the interior, and the teak and holly sole in the main cabin.

The companionway ladder can be easily removed to provide excellent access to the motor. You just release two latches and lift the ladder out of the way.

When going below in the Harbor 25, you feel as though you are in a much larger boat. The headroom in the main cabin is 4’ 9”, and the design of the main cabin makes optimum use of the boat’s 8’ beam. The “granite” countertops are available in two colors – the beige shown in the photo, and a dark charcoal gray. The fabric for the interior cushions is Sunbrella – a wide range of colors is available.

Harbor 25 Deck Hardware

The custom stem fitting has a roller for the anchor line and is the attachment point for the Schaefer 700 jib roller furler. The jib boom bearing plate is mounted onto a raised and angled platform designed into the deck. Two bow chocks and two mooring cleats are provided, and a standpipe for the anchor rode is located just forward and slightly to starboard of the jib boom.

A large Lewmar offshore hatch provides plenty of ventilation for the forward v-berth area. And all of the sail control lines are lead through turning blocks at the base of the mast, through a deck organizer, and then aft to the cockpit.

The lines lead aft on the port side include -

- The port jib sheet , which is lead through the stainless steel handrail.
- The jib halyard, which is lead through a halyard stopper.
- The lazy jack tail.
- The mainsail cunningham.

The Lewmar #14 self-tailing winch is used for the jib halyard, jib sheet, and the spinnaker sheet. The Harken cam cleat located forward of the winch can be used to cleat the jib sheet when the winch is being used for the spinnaker sheet.

Note that all of the control line tails can be slipped into a slot in the bulkhead. The red line tied off at the amidships mooring cleat is the port spinnaker sheet.

The stainless steel mast hinge is designed to accommodate the blocks for the halyards and other sail control lines. This minimizes the number of holes in the deck.

All of the deck hardware is tapped into G10 material, which eliminates the need for nuts and washers on the underside of the deck; and there is no way for the bolts to leak. G10 is an epoxy material which does not corrode.

The lines lead aft on the starboard side include -

- The starboard jib sheet, which is lead through the handrail.
- The main halyard, which is lead through the sheet stopper.
- The red line is the spinnaker halyard.
- The white line at the inboard cleat is the mainsail reef line.

The Lewmar #14 self-tailing winch is used for the main halyard, the jib sheet, and the spinnaker sheet. The Harken cam cleat located forward of the winch can be used to cleat the jib sheet when the winch is being used for the spinnaker sheet. The cleat on the side of the cabin is for the spinnaker tack line. The tails for the starboard control lines can also be stored in a slot in the bulkhead.

In this photo taken looking aft, you can see the water fill and optional holding tank pump-out deck fittings which are located on the port weather deck. This photo also shows the port running light and the two opening ports. The windows are framed with stainless steel to blend beautifully with the other deck hardware.

Every effort has been made to keep the cockpit comfortable and clutter-free. Just as the slots in the bulkhead provide a hiding place for the halyard tails, these slots in the cockpit seat backs hide the optional spinnaker gear.

The forward slot is for the line that pulls the spinnaker bow pole out. There is a Harken cam cleat in the slot, and space to store the line. The aft slot houses a Harken ratchet block, a cam cleat, and space to store the spinnaker sheet. In heavier wind conditions, the spinnaker sheet can be lead to the cabintop winch on the weather side. The two small dots under each slot are drain holes for the compartments. The notch in the cockpit cushion is a cup holder!

The Harbor 25 is equipped with a beautiful oak and mahogany tiller with a custom ss tiller head. The backstay control cleat, and the engine panel are located just below the tiller head. The engine panel has a tachometer and the start/stop button. The gearshift is on the starboard panel. Note the cockpit drain holes in the aft corners.

The Harbor 25 has an amazingly large lazarette with a beautifully detailed hinged hatch. This is probably the perfect spot for the barbeque.

There are two low profile deck clamshells for the engine room blower, and the backstay line is lead under deck. The traveler runs the full width of the cockpit and is very easy to adjust. You can also see the starboard spinnaker sheet being lead under deck just forward of the traveler.

Sail Plan cropped

Invisible Quality

What you see on the outside is important, especially where esthetics are concerned, but it is what you don’t see that makes the difference where quality is concerned. The Harbor 25 is built using dozens of quality construction techniques that are invisible to the untrained eye and unique in today’s production sailboats.

We use the hand lay up method of fiberglass construction. Why? Because it is far superior to the fast & easy methods of construction..

Every fiberglass piece of the Harbor 25 (from the main sliding hatch to the bottom of the keel) is hand laid up. We do not use a wet out system, and we do not use a chopper gun.

Our hand lay up method provides a consistent, even thickness throughout; and it enables us to build the boat to its designed weight. Weight is absolutely critical to achieving the performance potential of any boat. If the weight is wrong, the whole dynamic of the design changes. The ratio of displacement to ballast changes, as does the ratio of sail area to displacement. If the boat sits too high or to deep in the water, the hydrodynamic shape of the boat changes, the integrity of the design is altered, and the boat won’t sail as the designer intended. That is why some boats hobbyhorse and others are difficult to steer.

Why don’t other builders use the hand lay up construction method? Because it is time consuming and expensive.

The deck is reinforced with end grain balsa wood.

This photo shows the balsa being installed under the cockpit seats, the cockpit sole, and the side decks. Balsa has already been installed under the foredeck.

There are no holes through the deck of the Harbor 25!

Wherever hardware is mounted over the interior living space, we install G-10 in place of the balsa core. The first photo to the left shows the G-10 on the cabin top under the winches, halyard clutch, and clam cleats for the halyards. The photo below shows these pieces of hardware mounted on the deck.

G-10 is a glass cloth laminate with an epoxy resin binder. It is an extremely strong, dense product that cannot be penetrated by water. We drill a hole, not clear through the deck, but into a piece of G-10. Then we tap the hole to receive the stainless steel machine screw that is used to mount the hardware.

The deck hardware on most boats is mounted by drilling a hole through the deck. The hole is filled with bedding compound, and a washer (or back up plate) and a nut is mounted on the underside of the deck. As the boat ages, the bedding compound breaks down, and the chance of a leak becomes very high. The water travels down the machine screw, and then the back up plate and nut rust. In some boats, the nuts are exposed, in other boats the nuts are hidden behind interior liners or headliner fabric. In this case, the damage goes unnoticed and can lead to big problems.

With G-10, the hole doesn’t go all the way through the deck, so there are no unsightly nuts or access panels in the overhead. More importantly, there are no holes to allow water to leak into the cabin. And the G-10 is epoxy, so it can’t rust. But if the deck fitting needs maintenance, it can be easily removed and then reinstalled.

Why don’t other builders use G-10? Because G-10 adds to the cost of materials, and the installation is time consuming. And whatever is time consuming is expensive.

There are no seams or joints in the Harbor 25’s interior.

If you look closely at the interior of the Harbor 25, you will notice that there are no seams or joints at the corners of the interior components.

The interior is actually made of three individual modules –
* The forepeak/ v-berth area.
* The head compartment.
* The main cabin.

These parts are molded by hand, and they incorporate every detail of that particular section of the boat.

Once all of the modules have been molded, they are fitted between the three bulkheads. And each module is bonded to the bulkheads. The forepeak goes in first, then the head compartment, and then the main saloon.

All three bulkheads are constructed of plywood, which is bonded to the hull. In this photo of the forward bulkhead, bonding matt is being applied to the plywood. The mat is wetted out with resin, and then the interior module is dropped into place.

As the interior module is dropped into place it is bonded to the hull.

The huge advantage to this construction technique is that there will be less movement of the interior when the boat is under high load, and there will be no water wicking up through the end grain of plywood. On the Harbor 25, water doesn’t migrating through wood to lead to ugly staining and troublesome dry rot.

Why don’t other builders do this? Because it requires a great deal of planning and engineering, and the tolerances are very close. In short, it is a much more difficult way to build a boat, so it is more expensive.

What does all of this mean to the buyer?

Because the Harbor 25 is built to such high standards of quality, it looks beautiful, it won’t show its age, it will last longer, and it will have a higher resale value.