Review of Albin Accent

Albin Accent anno 1979. SY Asgaard

Basic specs.

The Albin Accent aka Accent 26 is a sailboat designed by the Swedish maritime architect Peter Norlin in the mid seventies. Several hundred boats have been produced. The Albin Accent is built by the Danish yard Shipman Marine Service ApS.

Looking for a new boat? Find a Albin Accent or similar boat for sale

Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Interior

The boat is equipped with 5 berths, a galley and toilet facility.
The headroom is below average
Note: the boat has also been sold to be self-made/-interiored, which means that the quality of each boat may vary.

Rig

Albin Accent anno 1977 with spinnaker. Spileren sat!

The boat equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

Keel

The Albin Accent is equipped with a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.

The keel is made of iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated. As the surface of a fin type keel is just a fraction of the total wet surface, the difference between an iron keel and a lead keel can in reality be ignored for cruising yachts.

Albin Accent can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.54 - 1.64 meter (5.05 - 5.35 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

The boat is typically equipped with an inboard Yanmar diesel engine at 8.0 hp (5 kW).

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.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Albin Accent is about 113 kg/cm, alternatively 637 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 113 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 637 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.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Albin Accent is 2.96.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 58% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Albin Accent is 35%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 27% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just below average.

Over- / underrigged

The Albin Accent has more rig than 62% of all similar sailboats, which indicates that the boat is slightly overrigged.

RSP (Relative Speed Performance)

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for Albin Accent is 50

The relative speed performance is 50 which means that a it is faster than 50% of all similar sailboat designs.

Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 20m² (215 ft²).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.

Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.

Rig

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

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.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Mainsail halyard	23.3 m	(76.4 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	23.3 m	(76.4 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	23.3 m	(76.4 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Jib sheet	8.1 m	(26.4 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	8.1 m	(26.4 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Mainsheet	20.2 m	(66.1 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	17.7 m	(58.2 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Cunningham	2.5 m	(8.2 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Kickingstrap	5.0 m	(16.4 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Clew-outhaul	5.0 m	(16.4 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section is reserved boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

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

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Accent 26 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.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.