Review of DM Fisherman 27
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 deck is a sandwich construction which improves the indoor climate. Especially when the water is colder than the air in the cabin, then the double hull insulates against cold water and reduce the condense water in the cabin. The core material in the sandwich construction is balsa.
The interior is like many other boats made of mahogany. Mahogany belongs to the hardwood species, known for being water-repellent and resistant to decay. It has an attractive wood grain and holds wood polish and varnish well.
The boat is equipped with 5 berths, a galley, 200.0 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 DM Fisherman 27 is equipped with a ketch rig. A ketch rig is generally considered easier to handle, because the sails are smaller, and because it can sail on most points to the wind with one sail completely taken down for repair or while reefing. The sail configuration of a ketch allows for better comfort and stability when sailing downwind or on a broad reach.
Full keel
The DM Fisherman 27 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 iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated.
DM Fisherman 27 can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.20 - 1.30 meter (3.94 - 4.24 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The boat may be equipped with an inboard Perkins diesel engine at 49 hp (36 kW). The speed is 8.0 knots.
The fuel tank, which is made of fibreglass, has a capacity of 200.0 liters (52 US gallons, 43 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 DM Fisherman 27 is 1.61, 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 6.6 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 DM Fisherman 27 is about 145 kg/cm, alternatively 816 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 145 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 816 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 DM Fisherman 27 is 39.9.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for DM Fisherman 27 is 2.83.
The ballast ratio for DM Fisherman 27 is 33%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for DM Fisherman 27 is 396 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.
Maintenance
As balsa wood is used as sandwich core material special care must be taken in relation to work that require penetration of the sandwich construction in order to to prevent water to get in contact with the balsa wood. Otherwise the balsa wood will eventually rotten and be expensive/impossible to repair.
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 23m2 (247 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.
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 | 8.2 m | (26.9 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 8.2 m | (26.9 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 20.5 m | (67.3 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 18.0 m | (59.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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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