Review of Formosa 56
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.
The boat is equipped with 0 cabins, 8- berths, a galley and toilet facility.
The Formosa 56 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.
Fin keel
The Formosa 56 is equipped with a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.
The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.20 - 2.30 meter (7.22 - 7.52 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Formosa 56 may be equipped with an inboard diesel engine
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.
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 Formosa 56 is 1.67, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - 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 Formosa 56 is about 512 kg/cm, alternatively 2870 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 512 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 2870 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 Formosa 56 is 3.78.
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): 22.77
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 | 17.0 m | (55.8 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 17.0 m | (55.8 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 42.5 m | (139.4 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 37.4 m | (122.7 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
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