Review of Belouga
Basic specs.
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CentreBoard
The Belouga is equipped with a centreboard keel. A centreboard keel is a pivoting lifting keel, allowing to sail both coastal and inland waters.
The keel is made of iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated.
The boat can sail close to the beach as the draft is just 0.28 - 0.38 meter (0.92 - 1.22 ft) dependent of the load. See immersion rate below.
Sailing characteristics
This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.
What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?
The capsize screening value for Belouga is 2.53, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.
What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?
The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 5.9 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Belouga is about 88 kg/cm, alternatively 493 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 88 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 493 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.
Sailing statistics
This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.
What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?
The Motion Comfort Ratio for Belouga is 8.4.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Belouga is 2.91.
The ballast ratio for Belouga is 15%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Belouga is 94 which categorizes this boat among 'ultra light racers'.
SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)
Indicates how fast the boat is in light wind:
- Cruising Boats have ratios 10-15
- Cruiser-Racers have ratios 16-20
- Racers have ratios above 20
- High-Performance Racers have ratios above 24
Sail-area/displacement ratio (SA/D ratio): 25.53
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 15m2 (161 ft2).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.
Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.
If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
| Jib sheet | 6.5 m | (21.3 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 6.5 m | (21.3 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 16.2 m | (53.3 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 14.3 m | (46.9 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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