Jaguar 265 Summary by L.Milton

The Jaguar 265 was the last production yacht from CYB, the builders of Jaguar yachts until the 1990s. Thereafter, it was built, or advertised at least, by Colvic Craft as the Sunset 270. It is doubtful if any were built at all by Colvic. At the time of writing, however, Jaguar Yachts, a new company, are producing Jaguars again, & the plan is to include a modified 265 in the line up. Further information on Jaguar Yachts Ltd can be found on the website.

The 265 was the second of two Tony Castro designs & thought of as a bigger, more powerful Spring 25 in a similar vein to the Hunter Horizon 27s (also a Castro design and also built by Jaguar/CYB, initially). However, there were significant differences, most notably underwater. The 265 was offered as a fin or twin keel boat, never a wing keel, as with the Spring. Also the Spring had twin rudders, the 265 a single blade. The 265 is a fractionally rigged yacht, with a double spreader mast, & a substantial sugar scoop stern. Another distinguishing point was that the boarding ladder hinged up to form a transom gate. It was a neat & effective piece of design.

(I think) 2 were built as Jaguars, until CYB stopped building and the moulds passed to Colvic Yachts at Earls Colne in Essex. There, at least one was built as a Sunset 270, I think. I have seen one afloat & under sail on the east coast on the way to Woodbridge on the Deben, & it is fast to windward.

When Colvic went belly upwards (not to be confused with the Colvics of the late 60s, but more the BT yachts, etc) the moulds were acquired by Paul Randall, who owns the name of Jaguar Yachts & developed the 215.

Down below, she followed the trend set by Jeanneau with the Fantasia, & Hunter with the Horizon 26, that is open plan; aft double berth, peninsula galley opposite the heads by the companion way, semi circular seating around a central table (2 berths in the saloon), and an extendable double sleeping platform, for’ard. There was also a fixed (albeit small) outboard facing chart table, with a swing stool.

The engine was a 9.9hp Yanmar 1GM, attached to a saildrive.

Construction: Although she would be considered quite rightly, a lightweight performance cruiser, her lay-up was quite substantial. The following is a précis from PBO, May ’93: -

…….orthophthalic resin for main layers, isophthalic resin for boundary layers & gelcoat…3 layers of 300g/m2 chop strand mat, 2 layers of 450g/m2 biaxial combo mat & a further 2 layers of 900gm/2 same. A further 2 layers of this 900g/m2 mat goes from 6" above the waterline, down. Along the keel areas this builds to 10,800g/m2. Transom & deck are balsa cored.

Hull to deck joint is a bonded flange, but not bolted.

Although the hull is strong enough to stand alone, the interior mouldings add huge stiffness, & a GRP/hardwood ringbeam takes compression loads from the mast. This is also backed up by a kingpost.

Twinkeels are cast iron, the fin is of lead cast around a matrix of stainless steel.