Review of Puma 435

Basic specs.

The Puma 435 is a large sailboat designed by the maritime architect Xavier Solé in the early nineties. Only a few boats have been produced.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Rig

The Puma 435 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.

Keel

Fin keel

The Puma 435 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 boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.90 - 2.00 meter (6.23 - 6.53 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

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.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Puma 435 is 1.97, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Puma 435 is about 364 kg/cm, alternatively 2040 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 364 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2040 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.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Puma 435 is 3.40.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 50% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen an average hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Puma 435 is 40%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 66% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just above average.

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

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): 28.17

Maintenance

Rig

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.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Jib sheet	13.6 m	(44.6 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	13.6 m	(44.6 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet	34.0 m	(111.5 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	29.9 m	(98.2 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

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

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Finally

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

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.