Review of Aster 703

Aster 703 anno 1988.

Basic specs.

The Aster 703 is a small sailboat designed by the Polish maritime architect Andrzej Skrzat in the early eighties.

Looking for a new boat? Find a Aster 703 or similar boat for sale

Hull

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.

Interior

The boat is equipped with 4+1 berths.

Keel

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.50 - 0.60 meter (1.64 - 1.94 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

Aster 703 is typically equipped with an 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 Aster 703 is about 117 kg/cm, alternatively 659 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 117 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 659 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 Aster 703 is 2.81.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 62% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

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**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Jib sheet	7.0 m	(23.1 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	7.0 m	(23.1 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Mainsheet	17.6 m	(57.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	15.5 m	(50.7 feet)	10 mm	(3/8 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 Aster 703 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.