Review of Feeling 850 Racing

Both the hull and the deck is made of fibreglass. 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 boat is equipped with 3 cabins, 5-6 berths, a galley, 100 liters (26 US gallons, 21 imperial gallons) fresh water capacity, toilet facility and 40 liters (10 US gallons, 8 imperial gallons) waste water capacity.

The headroom is above average

The Feeling 850 Racing is built with a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a gennaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

Fin keel

The Feeling 850 Racing is built with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a full 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 enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.70 - 1.80 meter (5.58 - 5.88 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

The fuel tank has a capacity of 25 liters (6 US gallons, 5 imperial gallons).

Feeling 850 Racing may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta 2001 diesel engine at 9 hp (6 kW).

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.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Feeling 850 Racing is 2.42, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Feeling 850 Racing holds a CE certification:

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Feeling 850 Racing is about 208 kg/cm, alternatively 1170 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 208 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1170 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Feeling 850 Racing is 2.82.

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Feeling 850 Racing is 41%.

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for Feeling 850 Racing is 85

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 31m² (333 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.

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, 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.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Feeling 850 Racing 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.