Review of Blue Dane 32

The hull is made of hand laid 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 hull 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.

Interior of Blue Dane 32 anno 1979.

The interior is like many other boats made of mahogany. Mahogany belongs to the hardwood species, known for being water-repellent and resistant to decay. It has an attractive wood grain and holds wood polish and varnish well.
The boat is equipped with 2 cabins, 6 berths, a galley, 80.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.

Chart table of Blue Dane 32 anno 1979.

Galley of Blue Dane 32 anno 1979.

Fin keel

The Blue Dane 32 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 most marinas as the draft is just about 1.70 - 1.80 meter (5.58 - 5.88 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Blue Dane 32 may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD2030 diesel engine

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 has a capacity of 50.0 liters (13 US gallons, 10 imperial gallons).

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Blue Dane 32 is 2.03, indicating that this boat would not 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 Blue Dane 32 is about 193 kg/cm, alternatively 1082 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 193 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1082 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Blue Dane 32 is 3.19.

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Blue Dane 32 is 42%.

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for Blue Dane 32 is 46

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.

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.

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