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LAYLA
S2 8.0B/26’ cruiser

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Enclosed was what appeared to be a photocopy from an old Sail Magazine Boat Directory as well as details of the yacht's color scheme and the owner's name. It seemed that the boat’s owner was a very special friend and that this gentleman from Alabama wanted to give her something very special...

Sure, I could build it, but as I pointed out, it would be greatly improved if we had a couple of shots of the actual boat - since every boat has it’s own unique personality. Meantime, I laid the sea and sent a gift certificate down and in time the yacht’s captain managed to provide a wonderful series of shots and this is the result.      

Of course, I really should have known better...
It was the first time that I had used this bottle and to get the mast stepped inside proved practically impossible.

For, with the shape of the bottle, the hull was sitting right in the main channel and utterly in the way. I simply could not get my tools past it.

Despite, repeated attempts, each with left me drained and shaking, I just could not get that mast up and over the bow... All I could think was, Is this the one I crash and burn on?

Finally, I got this far - but I simply could not get that mast raised and stepped. In fact, it finally took three of these nerve wracking sessions over three days before I got it stepped - and that didn’t include rigging it! Which just goes to prove that nothing is simple when you start installing it in a bottle... Needless to say it was a relief to see the yacht finally slide down the ways. :) But when the yacht arrived in it's new home to the comment, "She's even tinier than I perceived her to be from the web site... I am astonished that human hands could build something that size with such precision and detail..." Well, then, it was worth it...

Designed by Arthur Edmonds and the S2 Design Group the first S2 8.0 slid down the ways at S2’s Holland Michigan facility in 1975. The first B version arrived in 1976 and over the next seven years 466 of the both versions of the 8.0 meter yacht were built. All featured a solid fiberglass hull, and a balsa cored deck. The last one sliding down the ways in 1983. By 1987 S2 had terminated production of sailing yachts and moved instead to concentrate on their popular lines of Tiera and Pursuit power boats.

Layla Posing - Photo Anne Nash

Displacement: 4600 lbs (2.2 tonnes) Length Overall : 26 - 0" (8.0 m) Beam: 8'0" (2.4 m) Sail Area: 282 sq. ft. (26M2)
Scale: 1 in 130 Length of model: 2 7/16 inches (62 mm) Bottle Size: 20 oz (750 ml)

Model ship photos & text © D.S. Smith 2003

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