Review of Tylercraft 17

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.

The boat equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

The Tylercraft 17 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.

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. As the surface of a fin type keel is just a fraction of the total wet surface, the difference between an iron keel and a lead keel can in reality be ignored for cruising yachts.

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.64 - 0.74 meter (2.10 - 2.40 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Tylercraft 17 is 2.44, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 5.0 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.

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Tylercraft 17 is about 60 kg/cm, alternatively 341 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 60 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 341 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Tylercraft 17 is 11.6.

Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 76% of all similar sailboat designs. This is a comfort value significantly above average.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Tylercraft 17 is 2.43.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 76% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Tylercraft 17 is 243 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.

12% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. A heavy displacement combined with smaller water plane area has lower acceleration and is more comfortable.

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): 15.88

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 9m² (96 ft²).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.

Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.

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.

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.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Tylercraft 17 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.

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.