Review of Nordship 808

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.

Both the hull and the deck is a sandwich construction which improves the indoor climate. Especially when the water is colder than the air in the cabin, then the double hull insulates against cold water and reduce the condense water in the cabin. The core material in the sandwich construction is balsa.

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 6 berths, a galley, 70.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.

The Nordship 808 is equipped with a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a gennaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

Fin keel

The Nordship 808 is equipped with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a full keel.

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. As the surface of a fin type keel is just a fraction of the total wet surface, the difference between an iron keel and a lead keel can in reality be ignored for cruising yachts.

The boat 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.

Nordship 808 may be equipped with an inboard Yanmar diesel engine at 8 hp (5 kW). Calculated max speed is about 4.1 knots

The transmission is a saildrive.

The fuel tank, which is made of stainless steel, has a capacity of 25.0 liters (6 US gallons, 5 imperial gallons).

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Nordship 808 is 2.05, 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 6.2 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 Nordship 808 is about 122 kg/cm, alternatively 688 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 122 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 688 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Nordship 808 is 19.9.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Nordship 808 is 2.89.

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Nordship 808 is 46%.

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Nordship 808 is 257 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

The SA/D for Nordship 808 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 18.9, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 21.6.

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for Nordship 808 is 58

As balsa wood is used as sandwich core material special care must be taken in relation to work that require penetration of the sandwich construction in order to to prevent water to get in contact with the balsa wood. Otherwise the balsa wood will eventually rotten and be expensive/impossible to repair.

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 21m² (226 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.

Dimensions of sail for fractional rig.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

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.

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Nordship 808 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.