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Review of Santa Cruz 52


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The Santa Cruz 52 is a large sailboat designed by the maritime architect Bill Lee.

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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 Santa Cruz 52 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 Santa Cruz 52 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 only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.70 - 2.80 meter (8.86 - 9.16 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.


Engine

The boat may be equipped with an inboard Yanmar diesel engine at 75 hp (55 kW).


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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Santa Cruz 52 is about 465 kg/cm, alternatively 2607 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 465 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2607 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 Santa Cruz 52 is 3.76.

Wide Slim 69% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is slimmer than 69% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more speedy hull design.


Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Santa Cruz 52 is 43%.

Low High 85% 0 50 100
This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 85% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly above average.


Over- / underrigged


Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

mainsail specifications headsail specifications

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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
UsageLengthDiameter
Mainsail halyard 47.4 m(155.5 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard47.4 m(155.5 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker halyard47.4 m(155.5 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib sheet 16.2 m(53.0 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet16.2 m(53.0 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet 40.4 m(132.5 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet35.6 m(116.6 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Cunningham6.4 m(21.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Kickingstrap12.8 m(42.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Clew-outhaul12.8 m(42.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 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

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Santa Cruz 52 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.



References