Sail area / displacement
How much sail the boat carries for its weight — its power in light air.
- 24.6· Racing
How it is worked out
sail area (ft²) ÷ (displacement as ft³ of seawater)^⅔
published upwind sail area

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EXPLOCAT_52-GARCIA-Yachts-EXPAND-3240 — Garcia Yachts
* A standard reference image, not the actual boat — shown to help visualise this model's published dimensions.
From the published figures: LOA 16.95 m · 4 cabins · fresh water 660 L
Tags are derived from certified class, length, sail area, accommodation and tankage using the criteria described on the Sources page; an editor may add or remove one.
Classic yacht-design ratios worked out from the builder's published figures, each shown against the bands designers read it by.
How much sail the boat carries for its weight — its power in light air.
sail area (ft²) ÷ (displacement as ft³ of seawater)^⅔
published upwind sail area
How heavy the boat is for its waterline length. Lower is lighter and quicker; higher is steadier and roomier.
displacement (long tons) ÷ (0.01 × waterline length in ft)³
Most builders publish a light displacement. The ratios were defined on a loaded boat, so every boat here reads a little lighter than a surveyor's figure would — all alike, which keeps them comparable.
What the builder publishes about how fast, how strong and how much the boat carries.
Fuel and water on one scale: a tank twice the height holds twice as much.
17 gal of water per berth
Figures read fromBROCHURE_GARCIA-EXPLOCAT-EN-d_ppp.pdf(PDF linked from the builder's page)read 9/13/2026from the brochure PDF and the site's comparison table
2 drawings from the builder's page: general arrangement, sail plan, profile.

garcia-yachts-explocat-52-owner-invites-version — Garcia Yachts

garcia-yachts-explocat-52-family-version — Garcia Yachts
Semi-custom
French builder of aluminium blue-water cruising and exploration sailing yachts, founded in Normandy in 1974 and now part of the Grand Large Yachting group.
In 1974 two metalworker brothers, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Louis Garcia, founded a shipyard in Normandy and, inspired by Moitessier and Slocum, built some sixty steel boats that made the yard's name on ocean-cruising routes. Aluminium arrived in 1984 with the 36.15 MET, a minimalist 60-footer built with Jean-Luc Van den Heede that took third place in the first Vendée Globe, followed by the Passoa range of 43 to 55 feet and the Nouanni. The 2000s were the one-off years -- Zurbagan, a 90-footer by Vaton and Couedel, won the Super Yacht Design Award in 2006 -- and in 2010 Garcia joined the Grand Large Yachting group. In 2013 the Exploration range was launched with the navigator Jimmy Cornell, whose Exploration 45 made the Northwest Passage in 2015; the concept grew to a catamaran in 2020 and to 60-footers in 2021, and three more Exploration 45s made the Passage in 2024. More than four hundred bluewater cruisers have left the workshops in fifty years.
Visit brand pageEvery model Garcia Yachts publishes, by length — where this one sits in the range.
Boats this boat's designers also drew, for other builders too. Credits are grouped only where the names clearly agree, however each builder spelled them; an unclear one is left out.
Seawind Catamarans
LOA: 16.1 m
Balance Catamarans
LOA: 14.71 m