Review of Great Dane 28
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 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 4-5 berths, a galley, 50.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.
Note: the boat has also been sold to be self-made/-interiored, which means that the quality of each boat may vary.
The Great Dane 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.
Full keel
The Great Dane 28 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 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.
Great Dane 28 can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.45 - 1.55 meter (4.76 - 5.06 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The Great Dane 28 has been equipped with different engine alternatives.
Alternative 1:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD2B diesel engine
Alternative 2:
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta engine at 16 hp (11 kW). The speed is 7.0 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.
Alternative 3:
Great Dane 28 may be equipped with an inboard Bukh diesel engine at 25 hp (18 kW). Calculated max speed is about 5.6 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 50.0 liters (13 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 Great Dane 28 is 1.57, 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 6.2 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 Great Dane 28 is about 109 kg/cm, alternatively 613 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 109 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 613 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 Great Dane 28 is 34.7 - 36.5.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Great Dane 28 is 3.42.
The ballast ratio for Great Dane 28 is 43%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Great Dane 28 is 418 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.
What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?
The SA/D for Great Dane 28 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 13.0, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 15.3.
What is Relative Speed Performance?
The Relative Speed Performance for Great Dane 28 is 5
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 19m2 (204 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 | 24.6 m | (80.5 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Jib/genoa halyard | 24.6 m | (80.5 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Spinnaker halyard | 24.6 m | (80.5 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Jib sheet | 8.6 m | (28.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 8.6 m | (28.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 21.5 m | (70.6 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 18.9 m | (62.1 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Cunningham | 3.6 m | (11.8 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Kickingstrap | 7.2 m | (23.6 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
| Clew-outhaul | 7.2 m | (23.6 feet) | 8 mm | (5/16 inch) |
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