Review of Cobra 850
Basic specs.
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Both the hull and the deck is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.
The interior is like most other boats made of teak. Teak has the advantage of being naturally very oily and therefore water-repellent, which is suitable on boats.
The boat is equipped with 2 cabins, 5 berths and toilet facility.
The Cobra 850 is equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.
The Cobra 850 has been built with different keel alternatives.
Fin keel
One option is a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.
The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.45 - 1.55 meter (4.76 - 5.06 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Bilge keel
Another option is a bilge keel. A bilge keel is a double keel, which allows the boat to be beached. Bilge keels are the most popular keel for tidal waters.
Cobra 850 can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.07 - 1.17 meter (3.51 - 3.81 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The Cobra 850 has been equipped with different engine alternatives.
Alternative 1:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Bukh diesel engine
Alternative 2:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard engine
The transmission is a shaft drive. A shaft drive will in the long run require less maintenance than other types of drive e.g. a sail drive.
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 Cobra 850 is 1.92, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Cobra 850 is about 168 kg/cm, alternatively 943 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 168 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 943 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 L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Cobra 850 is 2.99.
The ballast ratio for Cobra 850 is 45%.
Maintenance
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 | 8.7 m | (28.4 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 8.7 m | (28.4 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 21.7 m | (71.1 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 19.1 m | (62.6 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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