Review of Gib'Sea 414

Basic specs.

The Gib'Sea 414 is a sailboat designed by the British maritime architect Robert Humphreys in the mid nineties. Less than 100 boats have been built. The Gib'Sea 414 is built by the French yard Gibert Marine.

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Hull

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.

Interior

The boat is equipped with 348 liters (91 US gallons, 76 imperial gallons) fresh water capacity.

Rig

The Gib'Sea 414 is built with a fractional rig. The sail area for the mailsail + jib is 71.9 m² (773.7 ft²). 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.

Keel

The Gib'Sea 414 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 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 1.85 - 1.95 meter (6.07 - 6.37 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Fin keel with bulb

Another option is 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 advantage of the bulb is that it lowers the center of gravity which resists heeling and reduces the draft.

Gib'Sea 414 can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.25 - 2.35 meter (7.38 - 7.68 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

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.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Gib'Sea 414 is 1.94, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 7.8 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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Gib'Sea 414 is about 269 kg/cm, alternatively 1507 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 269 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1507 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.

Motion Comfort Ratio

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Gib'Sea 414 is 23.7 - 27.3.

Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 38% of all similar sailboat designs. This comfort value is just below average.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Gib'Sea 414 is 3.09.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 73% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Gib'Sea 414 is 40%.

This ballast ratio is higher than 54% of all similar sailboat designs. Since the ballast ratio and the righting moment (i.e. better ability to resist heeling) is strongly correlated, a ballast ratio just above average indicates an ability to resist heeling above average.

D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Gib'Sea 414 is 212 which categorizes this boat among 'moderate racers'.

69% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. A light displacement requires less sailarea and has higher accellerations.

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

The SA/D for Gib'Sea 414 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 17.4, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 20.5.

The SA/D ratio indicates that it is faster than 50% of all similar sailboat designs in light wind.

Over- / underrigged

The Gib'Sea 414 has more rig than 86% of all similar sailboats, which indicates that the boat is significantly overrigged.

Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 44m² (473 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.

Rig

Dimensions of sail for fractional rig.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

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
Mainsail halyard	36.0 m	(118.1 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	36.0 m	(118.1 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	36.0 m	(118.1 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Jib sheet	12.2 m	(39.9 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Genoa sheet	12.2 m	(39.9 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Mainsheet	30.4 m	(99.7 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	26.8 m	(87.8 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Cunningham	5.1 m	(16.7 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Kickingstrap	10.2 m	(33.5 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Clew-outhaul	10.2 m	(33.5 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

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.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Gib'Sea 414 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.