Review of National Swordfish

National Swordfish anno 1960. Swordfish sailing at Carteret 2023

Basic specs.

The National Swordfish is a small dinghy designed by the British maritime architect Uffa Fox. A few hundred boats have been produced.

Looking for a new boat? Find a National Swordfish or similar boat for sale

Hull

The hull is made of wood.

Rig

Rig of National Swordfish anno 1960. Swordfish sailing Barneville-Carteret in France 2023

The boat equipped with a fractional rig. 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 genaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for National Swordfish is about 47 kg/cm, alternatively 264 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 47 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 264 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 National Swordfish is 2.97.

Compared with other similar dinghies it is slimmer than 85% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more speedy hull design.

Maintenance

Boat owner's ideas

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

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what to look for.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for National Swordfish 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.