Review of Contest 48 S
Basic specs.
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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.
The boat is equipped with 3 cabins, 6+2 berths, a galley, 800 liters (211 US gallons, 175 imperial gallons) fresh water capacity and toilet facility.
The interior is like most other boats made of teak. Teak has the advantage of being naturally very oily and therefore water-repellent, which is suitable on boats.
Fin keel
The Contest 48 S is built 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 iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated. As the surface of a fin type keel is just a fraction of the total wet surface, the additional surface area created by the cast iron keel in comparison to a lead keel of the same weight would be negligible for cruising yachts.
The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.95 - 2.05 meter (6.40 - 6.70 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The fuel tank has a capacity of 740 liters (195 US gallons, 162 imperial gallons).
Contest 48 S may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD40 diesel engine at 85 hp (63 kW). Calculated max speed is about 6.8 knots
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 Contest 48 S is 1.67, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.
What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?
The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 8.2 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Contest 48 S is about 329 kg/cm, alternatively 1847 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 329 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 1847 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 Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?
The Motion Comfort Ratio for Contest 48 S is 42.8.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Contest 48 S is 3.42.
The ballast ratio for Contest 48 S is 31%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Contest 48 S is 324 which categorizes this boat among 'medium weight cruisers'.
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): 15.39
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 54m2 (581 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.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
| Jib sheet | 14.7 m | (48.2 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 14.7 m | (48.2 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 36.8 m | (120.6 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 32.3 m | (106.1 feet) | 16 mm | (5/8 inch) |
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