Review of Great Dane 37
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.
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, 6-7 berths, a galley, 400.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.
Note: the boat has also been sold to be self-made/-interiored, which means that the quality of each boat may vary.
The Great Dane 37 is equipped with a ketch rig. A ketch rig is generally considered easier to handle, because the sails are smaller, and because it can sail on most points to the wind with one sail completely taken down for repair or while reefing. The sail configuration of a ketch allows for better comfort and stability when sailing downwind or on a broad reach.
Full keel
The Great Dane 37 is equipped with a long keel. A full keel provide a better directional stability than a similar boat with a fin keel; on the other hand, better directional stability means also that the boat is more difficult to handle in a harbour with less space.
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.
Great Dane 37 can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.67 - 1.77 meter (5.48 - 5.78 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Perkins diesel engine at 72 hp (53 kW). The speed is 8.0 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 steel, has a capacity of 800.0 liters (211 US gallons, 175 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 Great Dane 37 is 1.61, 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 7.0 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 Great Dane 37 is about 184 kg/cm, alternatively 1033 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 184 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 1033 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 Great Dane 37 is 42.0.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Great Dane 37 is 3.38.
The ballast ratio for Great Dane 37 is 44%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Great Dane 37 is 438 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.
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): 13.16
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 31m2 (333 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 | 11.2 m | (36.8 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 11.2 m | (36.8 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 28.0 m | (91.9 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 24.7 m | (80.9 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
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