Review of Formosa 43
Basic specs.
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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 3 cabins, a galley and toilet facility.
The Formosa 43 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.
Fin keel
The Formosa 43 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 boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.01 - 2.11 meter (6.59 - 6.89 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Formosa 43 may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta diesel engine at 60 hp (44 kW).
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 Formosa 43 is 1.73, 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 Formosa 43 is about 328 kg/cm, alternatively 1836 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 328 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 1836 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 Formosa 43 is 3.32.
The ballast ratio for Formosa 43 is 37%.
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): 15.43
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 | 12.8 m | (41.8 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 12.8 m | (41.8 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 31.9 m | (104.6 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 28.1 m | (92.0 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
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