Review of Piewiet 850

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 interior is like most other boats made of teak.
The boat is equipped with 7 berths.

The boat equipped with a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a genaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

The Piewiet 850 is equipped with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a long keel.

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 1.40 - 1.50 meter (4.59 - 4.89 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Piewiet 850 is typically equipped with a diesel engine at 9.0 hp (6 kW).

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Piewiet 850 is 1.93, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - 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 Piewiet 850 is about 159 kg/cm, alternatively 892 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 159 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 892 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Piewiet 850 is 2.83.

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 Piewiet 850 is 55%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 97% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly above average.

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): 13.32

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 Piewiet 850 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.