Review of LM Mermaid 290
Basic specs.
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The hull is made of hand laid fibreglass while the deck is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of hand laid 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 deck is a double deck which improves the indoor climate.
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, 6 berths, a galley, 110.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.
The LM Mermaid 290 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 LM Mermaid 290 has been built with different keel alternatives.
Fin keel
The LM Mermaid 290 is equipped with 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 keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.
The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.35 - 1.45 meter (4.43 - 4.73 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Unknown keel type
LM Mermaid 290 can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.40 - 1.50 meter (4.59 - 4.89 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The LM Mermaid 290 has been equipped with different engine alternatives.
Alternative 1:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta engine at 18 hp (13 kW). The speed is 7.5 knots.
The transmission is a saildrive.
Alternative 2:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta engine at 18 hp (13 kW). Calculated max speed is about 5.3 knots
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.
The fuel tank, which is made of stainless steel, has a capacity of 70.0 liters (18 US gallons, 15 imperial gallons).
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 LM Mermaid 290 is 1.84, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - 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 6.6 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 LM Mermaid 290 is about 144 kg/cm, alternatively 807 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 144 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 807 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 LM Mermaid 290 is 25.8.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for LM Mermaid 290 is 3.05.
The ballast ratio for LM Mermaid 290 is 42%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for LM Mermaid 290 is 257 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.
What is Relative Speed Performance?
The Relative Speed Performance for LM Mermaid 290 is 31
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 24m2 (258 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 | 8.8 m | (28.7 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 8.8 m | (28.7 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 21.9 m | (71.9 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 19.3 m | (63.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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