I love sincere , honest sailboats; I don’t believe that a sailboat can perform well in family cruising, buoy racing, offshore racing. This was my leading concept when I choose to design Petrel 28 plans: a sturdy, reliable, safe, honest, roomy, mediterranean cruising sailboat suited for homebuilders.
| TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS | DOWNLOADS | |
| LOA: 8,84 m | Max displ: 2700 kg | |
| L hull: 8,23 m | Sail area: 38,6 m² | |
| Maximum Beam: 2,64 m | Main sail: 20,6 m² | |
| Draft: 1,59 m | Olimpic jib: 18 m² | |
| Keel ballast: 900 kg | Fractional gennaker: 36 m² | |
| Air draft: 12,00 m | Plan price: 850 € | |
| Light displ: 2090 kg | Plans can be purchased here: Nautikit order page | |
This means that for this project I started to develop coherently a totally new hull, with quite symmetric lines, a decent but not excessive maximum beam, more than an eye to the seakeeping performances, and just a glance at speed performances, somehow a “classical modern hull”, developing hull lines that can be built from plywood panels with “radius chine” system .
The three sailboats launched (two by homebuilders), and the thousands miles sailed, confirmed that my goals have been reached: the Petrel 28 performs beautifully in every conditions, from light air to rough seas, has a great amount of stability when heeled, keep a straight line without viciously pointing the bow on the wind under gusts, it’s a very enjoyable sailboat to helm with a fingertip even on strong winds, somehow more similar to classic sailboats than to modern ones.
Thanks to a good sized sailplan (mainsail + jib+ small gennaker), the pace is quite good in every condition, the sailboat reaches his hull speed, around 6.5 knots, very easily, accelerating steadily after the tacks even in light winds, although the sailboat is not a featherweight one.
Interiors are simply huge for a 8.5 meters sailboat, height is more than 1.75 meters in the whole cabin; a family of four people have a more than a decent accommodations for a medium range cruise. Hatches makes all the cabin very bright.
The hull is built in plywood and epoxy, with radius chine solution, which is probably the smartest way to make a round hull without getting in too much troubles for a homebuilder; bulkheads, hull planking, deck and cockpit surfaces are all in marine grade okume or mahogany plywood, while keel , stem, longitudinal stringers and deck and cockpit battens are in solid mahogany wood. All is glued together by epoxy resin and glass tapes reinforcements, to form a very sturdy hull quite fast to build for a homebuilder.
In the rendered images on the gallery below you can see the 2026 version of plans with a more modern line for the plywood cabin, giving more pleasing lateral line to the sailboat with a minimal loss of internal volume; plans are available both in english and in italian and in imperial units upon request.
