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Review of Grand Soleil 52


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The Grand Soleil 52 is a large sailboat designed by the Argentine maritime architect Germán Frers in the late eighties. The Grand Soleil 52 is built by the Italian yard Cantiere del Pardo S.p.A..

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Hull
The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Keel

The Grand Soleil 52 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 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.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 3.10 - 3.20 meter (10.17 - 10.47 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.


Engine

The boat is typically equipped with a Volvo Penta diesel engine.


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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Grand Soleil 52 is about 503 kg/cm, alternatively 2821 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 503 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2821 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.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Grand Soleil 52 is 3.33.

Slim Wide 76% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 76% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.


Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Grand Soleil 52 is 42%.

Low High 82% 0 50 100
This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 82% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly above average.


Maintenance

Rig

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.



Guiding dimensions of running rig
UsageLengthDiameter
Jib sheet 15.8 m(51.9 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet 15.8 m(51.9 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet 39.6 m(129.8 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet34.8 m(114.3 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section is reserved boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.



Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Grand Soleil 52 it would be a great help.

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References