The Kelt 850 yacht, with fin or lifting keel, combines a spacious and well-designed interior with a stable yet speedy hull and fractional rig, giving excellent, all-weather, go-anywhere sailing performance. DOUBLE CLICK PICTURE ABOVE TO SEE MORE + INVENTORY.
A great cruiser-racer
The Kelt 850 won “Boat of the Year” at the 1984 Paris Boat Show, and still presents a modern image. The accommodation is exceptional for this size of boat: a comfortable U-shape saloon with full length sofa-berths; a double cabin aft; two Breton Berths in the forepeak; a proper galley area; a decent heads compartment; a full size chart-table/nav-station; plenty of interior storage; and a cavernous cockpit locker. The full bow and wide stern preserve waterline length, giving impressive upwind and downwind speed, with good stability in rough conditions - holding her canvas well without early reefing. The “sugar scoop” stern gives easy boarding from a dinghy, a useful swimming platform, and would help recover a man overboard. The clear foredeck gives safer conditions for crew work - and allows sun-bathing when at anchor!
And what's special about Lazy Days?
Lazy Days is the more popular lifting-keel version, with variable draft of 0.68 - 1.73m. The cast iron keel can be progressively winched up, allowing access to shallower water. She can anchor in close, and will “dry out” upright on her cast-iron ballast/grounding plate & mini-bilge-keels: she can use cheaper drying moorings (if available}. She is fun to sail, but if the wind dies her dependable Yanmar 2GM engine will keep her going at 5-6 knots.
Under her first owner (1984-2012), Lazy Days was well looked after, and was used for family cruising in the Solent and along both sides of the English Channel; she was never raced. Now berthed in Gosport, she has been refurbished and updated to enhance cruising within much the same range, but she has also proved her racing credentials - in just six ISC “Round-the-Island-Races”. Our two best results were coming 2nd and 4th out of the 50-60 yachts in her ISC handicap division. She is great fun to sail, and goes well with a good wind in her sails!
Throughout, Lazy Days has been properly maintained, and the various improvements made include: a lifting/folding rudder; a Harken jib furler (2012); new Kemp sails - main, genoa, and spinnaker (2013); new cabin linings; new navigation instruments & VHF/AIS radio (2014); new standing rigging (2016); fridge conversion for the cool-box; demountable cockpit table; Habitent cockpit cover; and new saloon windows (2023).
Reports from the latest pre-purchase survey (2012) and insurance survey (2022) can be viewed.
Kelt yachts become Feelings!
Kelt yachts are relatively rare in Britain, but from 1973 to 1985 large numbers of their various, innovative, cruiser/ racers were built at the Kelt Marine yard in Vannes, France. However, relying on innovation in a fickle market made Kelt vulnerable, and in 1986 they negotiated selling their yacht business to the Kirie yard in nearby Les Sables d’Olonne, Kirie would continue building the Kelt yachts for a year, then bring certain of them (including the 8.50) into their existing “Feeling” range of yachts. But a Feeling 850 already existed, so the Kelt 850 was first renamed the Kelt 29 before becoming the Feeling 29 – which caried on in production until 1998, bringing the total number of 8.50/29’s built to about 1200. Moreover, with changes to the bow section and certain other details, the Feeling 29 morphed into the Feelings 306 and 30 that were produced into the early 2000s. The Kelt 850’s history is legendary, and it is still today a great yacht. It was even included in the 2022 Summer edition of Practical Boat Owner as one of the 15 “Best 30ft French Boats” for cruising. - not bad for a 28ft boat!