Najad 360 - Bluewater cruiser?

[Cloroxbottle]

Originally Posted by crankysailor

and the use of a saildrive

You have no idea how quickly you will take on water and sink if this gasket fails. I've seen it happen to a boat being launched in slings that they were fortunately able to pull back out immediately. Had such an event happened underway, you would have enough time to launch a liferaft, grab your ditch bag, and leave...and you would likely be stepping up into the liferaft by the time you did this. Stopping the ingress would have been impossible and pumps simply do not have the capacity to deal with that volume of water.

The replacement schedule for these is quite frequent.

The surgery required to do it is quite extensive as well.

Saildrives exist for the convenience of builders, not end users. I'd sooner buy something with an outboard.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Cloroxbottle

You have no idea how quickly you will take on water and sink if this gasket fails. I've seen it happen to a boat being launched in slings that they were fortunately able to pull back out immediately. Had such an event happened underway, you would have enough time to launch a liferaft, grab your ditch bag, and leave...and you would likely be stepping up into the liferaft by the time you did this. Stopping the ingress would have been impossible and pumps simply do not have the capacity to deal with that volume of water.

The replacement schedule for these is quite frequent.

The surgery required to do it is quite extensive as well.

Saildrives exist for the convenience of builders, not end users. I'd sooner buy something with an outboard.

[merrydolphin]

Originally Posted by psk125

It might be comfortable enough, but the SA/disp ratio explains why they carry so much fuel. It looks like they expect that the engine is going to be used a lot on this boat because it doesn't have big enough sails. Goboatingnow is right. Go out and try different boats to see what works for you and the kind of sailing you want to do. All the numbers may be "right" but the layout below might be "wrong". If you expect to make long passages you need sea berths, not centerline doubles. If you stay in a slip every night you may not want single sea berths. A U-shaped galley is best under way. A linear galley has proponents in marinas. People have different needs and so there are different boats. You have to go see for yourself.

My Cal ll-46 ketch has 270 gal of fuel. And I have made in excess of 200 mile days under sail towing a 26” 3 blade! And this is under fully loaded full time live aboard cruising configuration. So carrying a lot of fuel to me is a huge plus. Unless you are in a world trade wind route. Most cruisers will admit that the engine is used a good bit. My Cal could motor like a trawler with it’s 3: 1 reduction swinging a big prop. And if desired, a feathering prop would significantly reduce drag,( although I never found it that much of an issue). Most so called “blue water cruisers” what ever that is suppose to mean these days, are drastically short on real world tankage. You can easily tell by all the boats in cruising destinations through out the world with there decks lined with gerry jugs for diesel an water. Not good.
I wouldn’t hesitate a second to cross an ocean with a properly equipped and maintained Najad 360. And light air sailing can easily be addressed with proper sail inventory. Especially with some of the new light air sails available today.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by thursday

I'm poking around Najad's and trying to understand how to evaluate boats. My understanding is that Najad's are known for being very high quality boats, ocean worthy. Looking at the numbers for a Najad 360, it's Comfort Ratio is 29.94, and it's Displacement to Length ratio is 246, so in the "moderate" area according to sailboatdata.com. At the same time, it's sail area to displacement ratio puts it in "under powered" category, but just barely.

So my question is: how should one think about this? My interpretation is that it's a solid built boat that is capable but given its size and weight, it just might not be the most comfortable experience in the ocean.

In researching sailboats I prefer to compare two or more boats using sailboat ratios. The ratios can guide you to the boat grouping that you are after. When I did my boat search years ago I built a data base of over 3,000 sailboats in varying configurations they were offered and narrowed down my selection to a reasonable grouping to consider. Looking at the ratios for just one boat doesn't help much in the selection process.

If you are going to do this you must compare the proverbial "apples to apples" data. This can be difficult at times because many manufacturers and reviewers play loose with the numbers. For example, the much-touted Sail Area over Displacement (SA/D) ratio is based on the total area which comprises the 100% forward sail area I and J measurements. However, many manufacturers will publish "total sail area" included in their sales package with a genoa which is greater than the 100% area, inflating the SA/D ratio. I just did research trying to find the 100% sail area for the Najad 360 and couldn't, but it is probably out there somewhere.

In evaluating COMFORT and CAPSIZE ratios a lot has to do with what YOU are going to be happy with so some experience would be helpful for that comparison to start with. I wanted a comfortable and safer boat and chose one with better ratios.

Jeanne Socrates is now the oldest person to sail around the world nonstop, solo, without support in a Najad 361 but that is a different design.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, thursday,

We cruised for 28 yrs in a 36 ft. pinched ends retired because it was too heavy boat designed as a race boat. This was is tropical and subtropical latitudes, not the north sea. You'll note from our avatar that we now have a 46 foot boat, with a 44 ft. waterline. This boat displaces about what the 36 footer did, and yet, is way more comfortable in a seaway, due in part to her fine entry and carrying much of her beam aft.
Both boats have gone to weather well, but this boat is more comfortable doing it, because she doesn't hobbyhorse.

When you look at a boat for high latitude sailing, having a lower sail area to displacement ratio, is not nearly so important because as long as that's where you're sailing, you can count on having enough air. Since it is there that you live, it makes sense to me to take Boatman 61's approach, and if you should desire to take the boat to the tropical latitudes sometime, then outfit her with a main with some roach to it and some light air headsails, and add electric fans to move the air around for comfort in warmer climes.

Some friends of ours had a Najad 38 they wanted to cruise in, and he reported that it had been quite difficult to add battery capacity. In your shoes, perhaps that is the sort of thing you should be looking at, as well as the abovementioned places to hit your head.

If you went for a Django, it would be a more spritely performer, but very short waterline, of course, and would have heating issues in winter. All boats are tradeoffs, compromises between competing values.

Good luck with it.

Ann

[Sindbaad]

Originally Posted by thursday

I'm poking around Najad's and trying to understand how to evaluate boats. My understanding is that Najad's are known for being very high quality boats, ocean worthy. Looking at the numbers for a Najad 360, it's Comfort Ratio is 29.94, and it's Displacement to Length ratio is 246, so in the "moderate" area according to sailboatdata.com. At the same time, it's sail area to displacement ratio puts it in "under powered" category, but just barely.

So my question is: how should one think about this? My interpretation is that it's a solid built boat that is capable but given its size and weight, it just might not be the most comfortable experience in the ocean.

Jeanne Socrates, a septuagenarian, lady circumnavigated SINGLEHANDED twice on a Najad 38, practically a similar boat . She sailed, not motored. Like HR boats, Najads are heavy under-sailed boats made for cruising. Like HRs and Malos they are made in the same Island Off Gothenburg, Sweden. They are expensive but you always get what you pay for. .
Read Jeanne Socrates biography
https://www.svnereida.com/