Review of Thompson 590

Basic specs.

The Thompson 590 is a small sailboat designed by the maritime architect Steve Thompson in the early 2000.

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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. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Keel

The keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.

The boat can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.60 - 1.70 meter (5.25 - 5.55 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

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 Thompson 590 is 3.94, 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 Thompson 590 is about 108 kg/cm, alternatively 610 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 108 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 610 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 Thompson 590 is 2.10.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 96% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Thompson 590 is 39%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 62% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just above 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): 50.95

Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

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
Mainsail halyard	21.6 m	(70.7 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	21.6 m	(70.7 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	21.6 m	(70.7 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 inch)
Jib sheet	5.8 m	(19.2 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Genoa sheet	5.8 m	(19.2 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Mainsheet	14.6 m	(48.0 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	12.9 m	(42.2 feet)	8 mm	(5/16 inch)
Cunningham	3.7 m	(12.1 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 inch)
Kickingstrap	7.4 m	(24.3 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 inch)
Clew-outhaul	7.4 m	(24.3 feet)	6 mm	(1/4 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 Thompson 590 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.