Review of CT 54

Basic specs.

The CT 54 is a large sailboat designed by the American maritime architect Robert H. Perry.

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Hull

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

Interior

The boat is equipped with 8-14 berths.

Keel

The CT 54 is equipped with a long keel. A long keel provide a better directional stability than a similar boat with a fin keel; on the other hand, better directional stability means also that the boat is more difficult to handle in a harbour with less space.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.98 - 2.08 meter (6.50 - 6.80 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

CT 54 is typically equipped with an inboard Ford Lehman diesel engine at 120.0 hp (89 kW).

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 CT 54 is 1.60, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for CT 54 is about 500 kg/cm, alternatively 2802 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 500 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2802 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.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for CT 54 is 3.53.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 58% 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 CT 54 is 29%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 15% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly below average.

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

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): 16.27

Maintenance

Rig

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
Jib sheet	16.2 m	(53.3 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	16.2 m	(53.3 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet	40.6 m	(133.2 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	35.7 m	(117.2 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for CT 54 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.