Review of Cape Dory 25D
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. 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 boat is equipped with one cabin, 4 berths, a galley and 76.0 liter fresh water capacity.
The Cape Dory 25D 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.
Full keel
The Cape Dory 25D 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 boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.07 - 1.17 meter (3.51 - 3.81 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Cape Dory 25D may be equipped with an inboard Yanmar 1GM diesel engine at 8 hp (5 kW). Calculated max speed is about 4.1 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 has a capacity of 49.0 liters (12 US gallons, 10 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 Cape Dory 25D is 1.86, 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 5.8 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 Cape Dory 25D is about 94 kg/cm, alternatively 530 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 94 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 530 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 Cape Dory 25D is 23.7.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Cape Dory 25D is 3.12.
The ballast ratio for Cape Dory 25D is 40%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Cape Dory 25D is 333 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.
What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?
The SA/D for Cape Dory 25D with ISO 8666 reference sail is 16.3, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 19.4.
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 15m2 (161 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 masthead 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.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
| Mainsail halyard | 22.1 m | (72.4 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Jib/genoa halyard | 22.1 m | (72.4 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Spinnaker halyard | 22.1 m | (72.4 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Jib sheet | 7.6 m | (25.0 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 7.6 m | (25.0 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 19.1 m | (62.5 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 16.8 m | (55.0 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Cunningham | 3.1 m | (10.2 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Kickingstrap | 6.2 m | (20.5 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Clew-outhaul | 6.2 m | (20.5 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
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