Review of Merlin 28
Basic specs.
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The hull 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 7 berths.
The Merlin 28 is equipped with a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a gennaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.
Unknown keel type
The boat can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.53 - 1.63 meter (5.02 - 5.32 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.
What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?
The capsize screening value for Merlin 28 is 2.01, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Merlin 28 is about 177 kg/cm, alternatively 994 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 177 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 994 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 L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Merlin 28 is 2.89.
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): 13.67
Maintenance
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 | ||
| Jib sheet | 8.8 m | (28.7 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 8.8 m | (28.7 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 21.9 m | (71.8 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 19.2 m | (63.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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