Review of Espace 990

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 is equipped with 4-6 berths.

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 Espace 990 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 boat can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.55 - 1.65 meter (5.09 - 5.39 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Espace 990 is typically equipped with an inboard diesel engine at 27.0 hp (20 kW).

The transmission is a shaft drive. A shaft drive will in the long run require less maintenence than other types of drive e.g. a sail drive.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Espace 990 is 2.03, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Espace 990 is about 225 kg/cm, alternatively 1262 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 225 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1262 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Espace 990 is 2.91.

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 a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Espace 990 is 44%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 66% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) just above average.

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

The SA/D for Espace 990 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 14.6, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 17.5.

The SA/D ratio indicates that it is faster than 21% of all similar sailboat designs in light wind.

The Espace 990 has more rig than 42% of all similar sailboats, which indicates that the boat is slightly underrigged.

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

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.

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 Espace 990 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.