Review of Oceanis 461

Basic specs.

The Oceanis 461 aka Beneteau Oceanis 461 is a large sailboat designed by the maritime architect Bruce Farr in the mid nineties. The Oceanis 461 is built by the French yard Bénéteau.

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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 8/10 berths.

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.

The boat can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.75 - 1.85 meter (5.74 - 6.04 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

Oceanis 461 is typically equipped with an inboard Yanmar 4JH2-E diesel engine.

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 Oceanis 461 is 2.03, indicating that this boat would not 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 Oceanis 461 is about 399 kg/cm, alternatively 2237 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 399 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2237 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 Oceanis 461 is 3.29.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 66% 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 Oceanis 461 is 35%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 46% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just 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): 22.67

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	14.0 m	(45.9 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	14.0 m	(45.9 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet	35.0 m	(114.8 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	30.8 m	(101.0 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 Oceanis 461 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.