Review of Polar 820 Express

Polar 820 Express anno 1989.

Basic specs.

The Polar 820 Express is a motorboat designed by the maritime architect Jan Bjerke in the late eighties. The Polar 820 Express is built by the Norwegian yard Polar Plast AB.

Looking for a new boat? Find a Polar 820 Express or similar boat for sale

Hull

The hull is made of hand laid fibreglass while the deck is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of hand laid 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.

Interior

The interior is like most other boats made of teak.
The boat is equipped with 2 cabins, 6 berths, a galley and toilet facility.

Keel

The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.70 - 0.80 meter (2.30 - 2.60 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

Polar 820 Express is typically equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta engine at 230.0 hp (171 kW).

The transmission is a Z-drive.

The fuel tank which is made of stainless steel has a capacity of 360.0 liters (95 US gallons, 79 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.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Polar 820 Express is about 173 kg/cm, alternatively 969 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 173 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 969 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 Polar 820 Express is 2.60.

Compared with other similar motor boats it is more spacy than 95% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Curiosities

Powerboat?

In Denmark, you are required to have achieved a 'powerboat driving license' in order to sail a powerboat.
In this context a boat is considered a powerboat if:

Danish definition of a powerboat

According to this definition this boat is categorized as a Powerboat.

Maintenance

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 Polar 820 Express 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.