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Review of Wolverine 28


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The Wolverine 28 is a sailboat designed by the American maritime architect Alan P. Gurney in the early sixties.

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Hull

The hull is made of aluminium. Aluminum is strong and forgiving. Where an impact on a fiberglass hull will result in major gelcoat damage and possible cracking, an aluminum hull will probably only have a scratch or a small bend. The only concern is electrolysis. Ensure that you have proper sacrificial anodes installed.


Rig

The Wolverine 28 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 Wolverine 28 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 enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.37 - 1.47 meter (4.49 - 4.79 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 Wolverine 28 is 1.59, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.


Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 6.5 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.


Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Wolverine 28 is about 109 kg/cm, alternatively 610 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 109 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 610 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.

Motion Comfort Ratio

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Wolverine 28 is 28.7.

Low High 86% 0 50 100
Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 86% of all similar sailboat designs. This is a comfort value significantly above average.


L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Wolverine 28 is 3.75.

Wide Slim 98% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is slimmer than 98% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more speedy hull design. This type of design is also referred to as 'needle'.


D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Wolverine 28 is 238 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.

Heavy Light 54% 0 50 100
54% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. A light displacement requires less sailarea and has higher accellerations.


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): 13.30


Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 20m2 (215 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.


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
UsageLengthDiameter
Jib sheet 8.6 m(28.1 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Genoa sheet8.6 m(28.1 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Mainsheet 21.4 m(70.4 feet)10 mm(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet18.9 m(61.9 feet)10 mm(3/8 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.

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



Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Wolverine 28 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