Review of Nauticat 331

Basic specs.

The Nauticat 331 is a sailboat designed by the maritime architect Kaj Gustafsson in the late nineties. The Nauticat 331 is built by the Finnish yard Siltala Yachts Oy.

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Hull

The hull is made of hand laid fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of hand laid fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Interior

The interior is like most other boats made of teak.
The boat is equipped with 4 cabins, 6 berths, a galley, toilet facility and 100.0 liter waste water capacity.

Rig

The boat equipped with a ketch rig.

Keel

The Nauticat 331 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 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 even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.48 - 1.58 meter (4.86 - 5.16 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

Nauticat 331 is typically equipped with an inboard Yanmar 4JH-DTE diesel engine at 88.0 hp (65 kW), which gives a max speed about 8.7 knots.

The fuel tank has a capacity of 500.0 liters (132 US gallons, 109 imperial gallons).

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 Nauticat 331 is 1.69, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

EU classification

Nauticat 331 holds one CE certification:

The boat is by European Union certified as Class B. OFFSHORE:

Designed for offshore voyages where conditions up to, and including, wind force 8 (Beaufort scale) and significant wave heights up to, and including, 4 m may be experienced.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 7.1 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 Nauticat 331 is about 195 kg/cm, alternatively 1097 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 195 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1097 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.

Motion Comfort Ratio

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Nauticat 331 is 38.1.

Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 98% of all similar sailboat designs. This is a comfort value significantly above average.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Nauticat 331 is 2.97.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 73% 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 Nauticat 331 is 29%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 7% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly below average.

D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Nauticat 331 is 363 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.

8% 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.

Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 31m² (333 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.

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	10.1 m	(33.1 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Genoa sheet	10.1 m	(33.1 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Mainsheet	25.2 m	(82.8 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	22.2 m	(72.9 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 Nauticat 331 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.