Comparisons of Cruising Boats

If you don't see your boat, send me your boat data or look it up online.
You can also see this data as an Excel spreadsheet (right click and save).

Boat Draft L LWL Bm Disp SA Ballast B/Disp Disp/LWL SA/D Cap R Comfort Hull Spd
                stiffness weight class power s.b. < 2 high = more comfort in knots
Phoenix: Ohlson 41 6.5 40.9 29.8 11 26000 763 8000 31 439 13.7 1.49 49.8 7.3
Whitby 42  5 42 32.7 13 23500 702 8400 36 301.1 13.5 1.82 33.6 7.7
Rhodes Reliant 5.7 41.3 28 10.8 22205 710 8000 36 451.6 14.1 1.53 45.4 7.1
Pacific Seacraft 40 6.1 40.3 31.3 12.4 24000 846 8600 36 351.1 16 1.72 38.1 7.5
Ingrid 38 Cutter 5.5 38 34 11.3 26000 833 8000 31 295.3 14.9 1.52 45.4 7.8
Ohlson 38 5.6 37.5 26.3 10.3 14540 569 6160 42 358.9 15 1.68 34.2 6.9
Buchan 37 6.5 37.3 27.2 9.7 12800 627 5500 43 284 18.1 1.66 31.7 7
Tartan 3700 7.3 37 32.5 12.5 15950 727 6000 38 207.4 18.1 1.99 25.2 7.6
Tayana 37 5.7 37 31 11.7 23000 861 7340 32 344.7 16.7 1.65 40.9 7.5
Endeavor 37 4.5 37 30 11.6 21000 575 7500 36 347.2 11.9 1.68 38.6 7.3
Pacific Seacraft 37 5.5 37 27.8 10.8 16000 620 6200 39 334.3 15.4 1.71 34 7.1
Crealock 37 5.5 37 27.8 10.8 16000 619 6200 39 334.3 15.3 1.71 34 7.1
Rafiki 37 6 36.8 32 11.7 26500 729 11500 43 361 12.9 1.57 46.3 7.6
Union 36 5.7 36 32 11.3 22000 786 7800 35 299.7 15.7 1.61 40.5 7.6
Cascade 36 5.5 36 29 10 13500 590 4455 33 247.1 16.4 1.68 31.2 7.2
Cal 36 5.7 36 27 10.3 11200 600 4500 40 254 18.9 1.84 26.1 7
Walquiez Pretorien 35 6 35 30.3 11.6 13000 538 6000 46 208 15.3 1.97 24.2 7.4
Cal 35 (Cruising) 4.7 35 28.8 11 15000 546 5000 33 281.8 14.1 1.78 31 7.2
Cheoy Lee Lion 35 5.7 35 28 8.7 16000 600 4500 28 325.4 14.9 1.38 46 7.1
Niagara 35 5.1 35 26.7 11.5 15000 598 5500 37 351.8 15.5 1.87 30.7 6.9
Alberg 35 5.2 34.8 24 9.7 12600 522 5300 42 406.9 15.2 1.66 34.8 6.6
Jason 35 5.8 34.5 27.3 11.2 16800 634 6200 37 370.6 15.2 1.75 35.3 7
Chinook 34 3.5 34 22 9 12500 562 3500 28 524.1 16.4 1.55 40.4 6.3
Westsail 32 5 31.2 27.3 10.9 19528 652 7000 36 428.5 14.1 1.62 44 7
Pacific Seacraft Flicka 3.3 23.6 18.2 8 5500 380 1750 32 407.3 19.3 1.81 26.9 5.7
Dufour 34 5.8 34 26 10.8 10000 503 4000 40 254 17.1 2 23 6.8

note: the last boat, the Dufour, is not generally considered a cruising boat but rather a racing boat. It is included for contrast

Please credit Ted Brewer for these numbers and algorithms and much of the verbage below. His book Ted Brewer Explains Sailboat Design is well worth study.

B/Disp
Ballast / Displacement is an indication of stiffness and expressed as a percentage. Stiffness has to do with how much sail the boat can carry before heeling and so has a relationship to achievable speed. In other words, people cruising are likely to reduce sail if the boat is heeling dramatically and making the voyage less comfortable. A boat that can carry more sail before heeling can be sailed faster more comfortably.
Disp/LWL
Displacement / Length ratio allows us to compare the displacement of different sized boats as being in a "weight class". Originally cruising hulls were expected to be 300-400 or higher, but modern design is driving these numbers lower. You still want to see over 200-250 for an offshore cruiser and some of the most respected cruisers are much higher.
SA/D
Sail Area / Displacement area in a nondimensional number that gives an indication of light air performance. It is calculated as Sail Area divided by Displacement in cubic feet to the 2/3 power or in spreadsheet language: SA / ((Displacement /64)^.67)
Note that displacement is divided by 64 to convert pounds of displacement to cubic feet of sea water displacement - sea water weighs 64 pounds per cubic foot.

Also note that sail area is taken as the area of the main and the 100% jib. Obviously using the genoa or drifters in light air will give better performance, but this gives a way to compare boats. If you end up with a boat that is a little high or low, you will probably have to use less or more sail to get equivalent results. For example, Tolo, above has a very high SA/D meaning that she could really move in light air, but she was also easily overpowered and would have to be reefed down. Likewise our current boat Phoenix is a bit low, so we might have her next genoa cut larger than normal to compensate. On an off shore cruising boat there's an argument that lower is better than being overpowered. For coastal cruising in the San Juans, however, it would be very nice to have a boat with a high SA/D since there is a lot of light air in the summer.
Comfort
Comfort or sea-kindliness is a Brewer-invented term to account for motion comfort. I think this is one of the most important numbers for cruising so I have sorted the table using this number - the more seakindly boats being listed first. A motion comfort number of 40 or more is quite acceptable. Note that smaller boats, having a higher beam/length ratio, have lower comfort numbers.
Displacement in pounds/(0.65*(0.7*LWL + 0.3*Length)*(Ballast^(1.33)))
Capsize Ratio (Cap R)
Capsize Ratio should be under 2.0 for cruising boats. Lower is better for offshore use.
Beam /((Displacement/64)^(1/3))
Hull Speed
Hull speed is calculated from water line length: (1.34*(LWL^(0.5)))

Links to more performance data

  1. Sail Area look-up. This site has sail measurements for thousands of boats.
  2. Sail Area calculator. Once you get the measurements from the charts in Link 1, use this site to calculate the area. (.5*I *J) + (.5*P*E)
  3. Sail boat performance parameters. This site allows you to look up the specs for many boats or to use your boat's specs to calculate its performance. If the boat you're interested in is not in this list, go to yachtworld.com/freestateyachts/ or other brokerage sites. Most of these sites provide full specs for the boats they're selling. Just do a search on the boat you want data for.