Review of DeFever 52

Basic specs.

The DeFever 52 is a large motorboat designed by the American maritime architect Arthur DeFever in the early eighties. The DeFever 52 is built by the Taiwanese yard C. T. F. Marine.

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Hull

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

Interior

The interior is like most other boats made of teak. Teak has the advantage of being naturally very oily and therefore water-repellent, which is suitable on boats.
The boat is equipped with 4 cabins, 10 berths, a galley, 3000.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.

Keel

Unknown keel type

The boat can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.50 - 1.60 meter (4.92 - 5.22 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

DeFever 52 may be equipped with dual inboard Caterpillar 3208 NA diesel engines at 420 hp (312 kW). The speed is 12.0 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, which is made of steel, has a capacity of 6000.0 liters (1585 US gallons, 1319 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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for DeFever 52 is about 556 kg/cm, alternatively 3117 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 556 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 3117 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 DeFever 52 is 3.06.

Compared with other similar motor boats it is more spacy than 86% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Curiosities

Powerboat?

In Denmark, you are required to have achieved a 'powerboat driving license' in order to sail a powerboat.
In this context a boat is considered a powerboat if:

Danish definition of a powerboat

According to this definition this boat is categorized as a Powerboat.

Maintenance

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 DeFever 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

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