Review of Hirondelle Mk I

Basic specs.

The Hirondelle Mk I is a small catamaran designed by the maritime architect Chris Hammond in the late sixties. The Hirondelle Mk I is built by the British yard Brian Carvill & Assoc..

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. A hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Rig

The Hirondelle Mk I 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.

Keel

CentreBoard

The Hirondelle Mk I is built with a centreboard keel. A centreboard keel is a pivoting lifting keel, allowing to sail both coastal and inland waters.

The boat can sail close to the beach as the draft is just 0.38 - 0.48 meter (1.25 - 1.55 ft) dependent of the load.

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.

Sorry, we have no sailing characteristics available for this boat.

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 Hirondelle Mk I is 2.27.

Compared with other similar sail catamarans it is slimmer than 82% of all other designs.

D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Hirondelle Mk I is 128 which categorizes this boat among 'light racers'.

10% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. A heavy displacement combined with smaller water plane area has lower acceleration and is more comfortable.

Maintenance

Keel Inspection

Keels with moving parts need to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis according to advice given in owner's manual. Manufacturers usually advise which maintenance work can be done by the owner and which work should be carried out by a suitably experienced boatyard.

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.

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Finally

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References

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