Maxi 77 Sailboat

Maxi 77 was the first Maxin made, the boat was designed in 1971. The next year the first copy of the 77 was sold. Production continued for a full 11 years and ended in 1983 when the last boat was manufactured. More than 3900 Maxi 77s were produced in total, of which 1500 copies were sold in Sweden. The boat was sold as the figures show in large numbers abroad, in total the boat was exported to over 14 countries. The large number of manufactured and sold boats make it one of the world’s best-selling sailing boats.

Production

The boat was initially manufactured by Erje Products AB in Mariestad and launched -71 / -72. Already after two years production was moved to Mölnlycke AB in Gothenburg. The Maxi 77 was then manufactured throughout the 70’s and a few years into the 80’s until production was discontinued in 1983.

Maxi 77’s hulls and tires are made of fiberglass reinforced plastic. 4 layers of rowing fabric and plastic tie hulls and tires together. The tire is in sandwich construction. The keel is completely iron and weighs 800 kg. Normally, the Maxi 77’s depth is 1.45 m. For sailing on shallow water there is a variant with shallower keel, that variant only sticks 1.15 meters.

In terms of engine, the Maxi 77 is equipped with an outboard or a Volvo Penta MB 10 / 100s, which is a two-cylinder petrol-powered engine with an output of 11kW.

The seating well measures 2.30 x 2 meters. The boat is equipped with 5 berths.

The boat’s sailing properties do really well in harsh winds, however, it stomps somewhat more in really hard sea than the little sister Maxi 68.

In 1977 the boat was type approved by the Maritime Administration (from boat no. 2122).

Racing

The Maxi 77 has sailed in its own class since 1972. The maxi boats sail very well for their size, which an SRS figure of 1.05 gossip about. This can be compared to the 1.02 of the IF boat.

Specifications

Engine

Inboard alt 1	VP MD 5A / 110S	Inboard everything. 2	VP MB 10 / 100S
Engine power total 1	5.6 kW	Engine power total 2	11.1 kW
Top speed (engine)	7.5 kn

Rig (excl. Sail)

Mast Height

9 m

Rig

Masthead

Sail

The length of the boom	2500 mm	Jib	7.5 m²
Genoa I	24 m²	Genoa II	15 m²
Length of mast body	7500 mm	Spinnaker	50 m²
Mainsail	10 m²	Stretch tires to the mast top	9050 mm

Hull

Number manufactured	3900	Width	2.50 m
Displacement	2000/2100 kg	Profound	1.45 / 1.15 m
berths	5	Kontruktör	Pelle Petterson
Length in water line (Lvl)	6.75 m	Length over all (L.ö.a.)	7.70 m
Stretch firsts in tires to front edge mast	3335 mm	Year	1972-1983

Standard Equipment

Fuel tank

20-25 l

fresh water

25-40 l

Brochure (Swedish)

Maritime Guide

What a 70’s boat! When Maxi 77 came with spaces and low cost there were rushes and huge series. The success was explosive. That the look did not match the tradition didn’t worry a whole new generation of sailors. Full-bodied, practical Maxi 77 would be Sweden’s most popular sailboat through the ages.

Few boats have revolutionized boating in Sweden as much as Maxi 77. She came at a time when boating began to spread to a wider public, and she had a price that got other boat manufacturers scared hiccups. A blessing family boat with five berths and a spacious cockpit for SEK 28,850, sail ready and including VAT!

Not only was the price sensational. The whole creation was a result of courage innovative, with the angular shape with sharp strokes just below the waterline, no cantilever deck and a bulb keel. The interior spaces were huge, and the boat became extremely rigid under sail.

But equally important was that the hull shape made it easy to manufacture. The hull was made in one piece, and the vertical freeboards with the stroke below the water line facilitated the fitting of the interior, which was made spartan but functional. The inclined ruff shot made a sliding door with a hatch garage superfluous, and on that money was saved (but a sprayhood is required to keep the rain out if the fall shutters are not in place).

All this was no accident. Maxi 77’s creator, Pelle Petterson, was around this time industrial designer. That he was also about to become one Sweden’s most well-regarded sailors of all time, with both the World Cup and Olympic medals, were also noticed in the design of the 77th. She got many trimming options as standard, the cases were pulled down to a winch on the ridge roof where they could be reached from the cockpit.

Because the Maxi 77 was made to be manufactured in large series at high speed could the price is kept down. And because it was still like this in the early 70s it was advantageous to borrow money – with inflation and deductibles – so needed hardly any marketing to get the sales figures up quickly in height.

The visitors to the fair literally stood in line to place their orders and the waiting time for delivery was for a period of a couple of years. After the premiere In 1971, the first year, 1972, of seventy boats was sold. Between 1975 and 1977 was delivered over six hundred boats a year with a peak of 785! Total built upwards of 4,000 Maxi 77s between the years 1972 and 1983. Staggering figures like today’s boat manufacturers can only dream.

In the beginning

The story of the Maxi boats actually started in the mid-60s when Stellan Westerdahl, race sailor and entrepreneur from Gothenburg, returned to Sweden from a US stay. With him he had an idea for a rig terminal that was not fully developed. He contacted some Swedish product developers to do the working, industrial designer and sailor Pelle Petterson was one of the them. Stellan tells:

When I asked Pelle what I was guilty of, he just shook his head. When I was standing, he billed me for the copying cost of the sketches, 170 kr. I knew that Pelle was sailing Starboat, so I ended the conversation with that ask why such a good sailor like Pelle did not sail a real boat and invited him to sail the SM in Flying Dutchman for the following weekend. He accepted, and as we sailed outside the harbor entrance, he scooted home whereby the boat overturned. The here is no keel boat, I explained, and then we won the SM sailing. As he made me guest on his Stare.

The rest is history. Personal chemistry and racing sailing interest tied the duo together Petterson & Westerdahl, who would be at the top of it international racing sailing arena for many years. And it was during this one the time they also created a company together – Pelle Petterson AB. The company manufactured boat accessories (including rig terminals) and masts developed by especially Pelle P himself.

The company grew and in 1971 it was time to throw it into it growing boat market. A crux was that Pelle Petterson was already contracted as a boat designer for Monark, where he drew some smaller boats. Now he had however, an idea for a new larger family boat that was radically different amount. When Monark’s CEO Berndt Salén saw the sketches, this was not a boat which the Monark Group believed in, which is why Pelle Petterson got the go-ahead develop and sell that boat on your own … An almost as big mistake as when a famous record company rejected an unknown pop group called the Beatles on 60-the number.

When Pelle and Stellan then sat and sketched out the marketing for the new one the boat was used at that time for something good, ‘max’; max i comfort, max in space, max in sailing properties, etc.

So the boat got its name Maxi. The size rating 77, from the length 7.7 meters, came only later when success was a fact and you realized it needed to build boats of more sizes.

A wooden plug was built deep inside Finland’s deep forests – cheap and secret and the first boats started to be produced near Mariestad by Rune Johansson at ERJE Products, a company that actually made fiberglass pools.

Boat with maximum strength

Hull number two became a little special … Plastic material for two boats was delivered to factory. When Stellan came to visit to see how things were going, there was only one the boats finished. He asked how the other was doing.

Which other? was the answer.

By a misunderstanding, the ‘shipyard’ had built a boat with material for two! The the craft came to be called the ‘armored cruiser Potemkin’ and is by far the class strongest Maxi boat ever built. As Stellan said:

It sat in the water like a hippo, very low in the waterline. But rumor spread itself and soon we had a buyer who chased this particular model to get one safe boat.

When the Maxi 77 was presented, the criticism in the boat press was mixed. From a distance it was said that the boat was deadly, it would sink about a breakwater from behind filled the large cockpit. In response, the gang of Maxi filled the cockpit the board with water, and the boat sank just a few inches in the waterline. The were answers to numbers.

At this stage Lars Wiklund was also linked to the company and became one of them foreground figures. It was the trio Petterson, Westerdahl & Wiklund for a few years would later be responsible for the Swedish challenge for the America’s Cup. (Lars Wiklund later developed the motorboat manufacturer Nimbus into one, still, successful business. For a couple of years he has been chairman of the Royal Gothenburg Sail Company.)

As the orders pile up, Rune Johansson realized that he did not had the capacity to keep up the production rate. The Mölnlycke Group was wide this time involved in boat production plastic parts for Albin Marin, which was then Sweden’s largest boat manufacturer. 1973 Mölnlycke bought Rune Johansson’s company ERJE Products. The year after acquired one also Pelle Petterson AB. The nuclear group was expanded with Calle Sahlkvist, who previously sold Olsson 22, Karlskrona-Viggen and Folkparkan.

Thus, there was a Maxi gang, each of which became a legend in the Swedish nautical sector.

A growing company

New molds were manufactured and production soon took place in several locations in Sweden, including Mariestad, Lysekil and Åmål. The Maxi boats were sold in sales premises around the country. Much of the equipment and accessories specially designed by Pelle Petterson and contracted for Pelle Petterson AB in different places in the country.

The mast, for example, had a special profile and was manufactured in black anodized aluminum. Likewise, Pelle Petterson designed Maxin’s triangular beam, special stainless steel crackers, winches, spinnaker booms and other ‘P’ products that soon became well known in boating Sweden.

Even the sails were their own make, contracted to Gotland by an AMS factory in Slite that had just closed the corsets. To get good quality The products were sent by Stefan Winberg and Arved ‘Greven’ von Grûnewald down to monitor production.

A small empire was created. New sizes of Maxi boats saw the light of day. During for a period, an incredible 1,800 Maxi boats of various sizes were manufactured each year, over ten a day could leave the manufacturing halls!

With demand greater than supply and businessman Stellan Westerdahl at the rudder of the company sometimes stretched the boundaries …:

You can reveal now that we were a bit full of hell. At a Monday meeting we could decide to make 20 light blue models of the Maxi 77 with two extra winches and call them the ‘export model’. If it came then someone who promptly wanted it fast delivery we could say that the only chance was to talk to the dealer in the US and have them refrain from any copy. Then you could get an ‘export model’, but it cost five thousand more. I am a little ashamed today when I see ads where ‘export models’ are for sale …

Fast type boat

That you created a spacious and easily produced hull you knew. They knew also that the boat was somewhat rigged with the typical RORC and IOR inspired rig that applied during this era, with a disappearing little mainsail and a large, wide seal. This along with the broad the hull shape and the bulb keel, with much weight far down, made the boat stiff. The could thus be sailed in a wide wind register without the need to tear or change the seal. Something that together with large spaces, both in the ruff and in cockpit, made the Maxi 77: a popular family sailor (no one questioned the hassle of handling the big seal). You add the low price and a good marketing, it is no wonder that the Maxi 77: for many became the first boat and the gateway to boating.

From the beginning you were a little unsure how fast the boat would be. Here too showed say the Maxi 77 is a successful design. With the right guys to helm presented as a furie on the race tracks. There were none at that time pure racing sailing monsters on the starting line, but you swept the course many of the 70’s standard boats. The class soon grew so large that one got have special Maxi 77 starts. At Tjörn Around 1976 a hundred Maxi 77 participated: or, with ‘company driver’ Calle Sahlkvist at the top of the podium. Colleague Lars Wiklund had won in 1972, -73 and -74. Maxi 77s were often in the top i the race sailing’s total result lists, which was good PR for the boat and did that the slightly mocking talk of ‘sailing shoe box’ came off.

A large number of Maxi 77s were also exported to large parts of Europe, including ours neighboring countries accounted for the most part. About twenty boats were licensed and for a short time in Singapore.

Many improvements

One explanation for Maxi 77’s popularity lasting so long was that the boat healed time improved. Her development history also gives a clue about them deficiencies that existed during the early years. It can provide buyers of used boats tips on what weak points to look for in the different year models.

No major changes. The biggest change was thus in 1975. The queue fortification improved. Before In 1974 the tire was also made in bales, which can rot if moisture penetrates (balsa, however, is a spacer material that is still used by many today
outstanding yards).

In 1976, routine fortification also improved. The maxi 77 is known for leaking side windows and most owners have at some time had to add new sealant underneath over the years. The problem was very much due to another weak point that improved in 1979, the vantages: By a vertical, wide band with directed rowing mats at the lamination of the hull they kept in themselves strength wise. However, excessive loading could lead to the boat’s hull was pressed inward – one of the reasons for the leaking panes.

Many owners with boats built before 1979 have fixed this themselves the problem, which is conveniently done by installing the so-called tie-rods (see interior photo) which became standard that year. It was simply a flat iron like that Attach the voice star to the underside deck with a point down the hull. Instructions on how to install such tie-rods can be found in the Maxi77 federation tipsbok. Here are also a number of other tips for anyone who is planning to buy one used Maxi 77 – contact the union, see below.

Since the number of Maxi 77s is so large, there are several companies selling spare parts and accessories for the boat. You can replace old fittings or buy a new one specially adapted bathing jetty for their boat. The Maxi 77 Association has all the information about these companies and their products.

Maxi 77 Photos

Interior

Toilet

Cockpit

Maxi 77 for sale

• Sweden
• Finland
• Norway
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Poland
• Germany
• UK
• France
• Netherlands
• Argentina
• USA