Review of Sagitta 20
Basic specs.
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Both the hull and the deck is made of hand laid fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of hand laid 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 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.
The boat is equipped with 4 berths, a galley and toilet facility.
The Sagitta 20 is built with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.
The Sagitta 20 has been built with different keel alternatives.
Fin keel
One option is 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 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 difference between an iron keel and a lead keel can in reality be ignored for cruising yachts.
The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.17 - 1.27 meter (3.84 - 4.14 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Fin keel
Another option is 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.
This keel is also made of iron.
Sagitta 20 can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.87 - 0.97 meter (2.85 - 3.15 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
An outboard motor is often used on this boat. In that case the boat will typically require a power of 3 - 4 hp, alternatively 76 - 92 lbs thrust if you prefer an electrical motor. Electric outboards are becoming popular for sailboat owners who want clean instant power with less noise and no exhaust fumes.
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 Sagitta 20 is 1.99, 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 5.6 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 Sagitta 20 is about 84 kg/cm, alternatively 473 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 84 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 473 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 Sagitta 20 is 19.9 - 20.8.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Sagitta 20 is 2.60.
The ballast ratio for Sagitta 20 is 48%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Sagitta 20 is 311 which categorizes this boat among 'medium weight cruisers'.
What is Relative Speed Performance?
The Relative Speed Performance for Sagitta 20 is 34
Maintenance
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 14m2 (150 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 | 6.2 m | (20.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 6.2 m | (20.2 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 15.4 m | (50.6 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 13.6 m | (44.5 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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