This article follows Transverse Stability, Part 3: Dynamic Stability Part 3 of this series dealt with changes in transverse stability taking place once a vessel starts travelling through the water. This article discusses the way the stability of sailing yachts can be challenged at sea as a result of wave action. Wave action doesn’t reduce […]

Yacht building costs break-down in material costs, labour and some ancillary costs that don’t contribute to the final product, but can’t be eliminated either, like leasing space or equipment. There are different ways of undertaking the construction of a yacht, but the basic cost components remain the same, the difference is the extent to which […]

Inverted stability applies when a yacht remains upside down. It is a rare, but not unknown event and one situation where some understanding of yacht design and stability can become of crucial importance at sea. Two main scenarios lead to capsize: Loss of the keel or ballast Yacht rolled by a breaking sea and remaining […]

This article follows Transverse Stability, Part 2: Stability Curve and Knock-Down Energy If you are looking for information regarding the stability of monohull yachts hit or capsized in beam seas, the subject is treated in the next part, Transverse Stability, Part 4: Sailing Yachts at Sea. In the case of monohulls, regardless of the type […]

The starting point is always the same: marine engines tend to be expensive, second-hand automotive or transportation-type diesels can be obtained for very little due to over-abundance of supply… Both are seemingly doing the same, converting diesel fuel into mechanical power – and noise – and look so similar in nature that the temptation is often […]

Sailing over 55,000NM in seven years on board the 9-metre sloop Yarra between the Arctic and the Antarctic resulted in a fair share of strong winds and rough seas at times. I managed to wear out a set of hanks on my storm jib and pull my new #2 jib out of shape. Even so, […]

This article follows Transverse Stability Part 1: Fundamentals The most relevant way of expressing the relation between heel and stability for a given vessel is plotting the GZ-curve or the righting moment curve. Ships and load-carrying vessels start from KN-curves, because they allow taking into account large variations in trim and loading, but at the […]

Transverse stability is the ability of a vessel to resist and recover from heeling over. It important in the sense that this is what prevents a vessel rolling over and capsizing. For sailing vessels, stability is also needed to develop power under sail other than downwind. Stability is a force moment, i.e. forces separated by […]

Nordkyn Design is presently the home of two featured marine design projects: the 13-metre (43′) alloy sloop Nordkyn and the 11.2-metre (37′) cruising launch Wild South. Both these projects embed the key guiding concepts on this site: Exceptional attention to hull design Seaworthiness Purpose Efficiency Simplicity The sloop Nordkyn was designed as a high-performance offshore […]