Review of RJ 91

RJ 91.

Basic specs.

The RJ 91 is a sailboat designed by the Swedish maritime architect Rolf Jacobssen in the mid seventies. Less than 100 boats have been produced. The RJ 91 is built by the Swedish yard Lars Marcus Båtbyggeri.

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Hull

Deck plan of RJ 91.

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Interior

Interior of RJ 91.

The boat is equipped with 5 berths, a galley and toilet facility.
Note: the boat has also been sold to be self-made/-interiored, which means that the quality of each boat may vary.

Aft cabin of RJ 91.

Galley of RJ 91.

Cockpit

Cockpit of RJ 91.

Keel

The RJ 91 is equipped with a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.

RJ 91 can sail close to the beach as the draft is just 0.35 - 0.45 meter (1.15 - 1.45 ft) dependent of the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

The boat is typically equipped with an inboard Yanmar diesel engine at 12.0 hp (8 kW).

The transmission is a saildrive.

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.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 6.7 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for RJ 91 is about 154 kg/cm, alternatively 866 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 154 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 866 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 RJ 91 is 2.99.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 62% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

RSP (Relative Speed Performance)

What is Relative Speed Performance?

The Relative Speed Performance for RJ 91 is 88

The relative speed performance is 88 which means that a it is faster than 88% of all similar sailboat designs.

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	9.1 m	(29.9 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Genoa sheet	9.1 m	(29.9 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Mainsheet	22.8 m	(74.6 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	20.0 m	(65.7 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)

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 RJ 91 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.