Library › Boat design › Hull types ·

Displacement hull and hull speed

What is hull speed and why can't displacement boats go faster? · Standard part · basis: Design rules and figures from the cited sources; example geometry by Xem Studio

Also called: hull speed, displacement hull, hull speed formula, 1.34 sqrt lwl, speed length ratio, waterline length speed, displacement speed, rc sailboat hull speed, maximum hull speed

Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.

sizes
5 in table

Notes

  • A displacement hull is supported by buoyancy. Its bow wave lengthens with speed, and when the wave length equals the waterline length the boat is trapped climbing its own wave, so speed is limited by length (Good Old Boat).
  • Hull speed in knots is 1.34 x sqrt(waterline in feet); some designers use 1.4. Doubling length does not double speed.
  • Used on: Most large monohull sailboats (Good Old Boat).
  • The file is a reference example built by Xem Studio from the numbers above (Length = IOM hull length 1000 mm (onemetre.net); beam and deadrise illustrative.). Sizes the sources do not fix are illustrative; scale the example to your own vehicle.

Displacement hull and hull speed size chart

parametervalue or rangesource
Hull speedS (kn) = 1.34 x sqrt(LWL ft)Good Old Boat
Alternative constant1.4Good Old Boat
20 ft LWL~6.0 knGood Old Boat
40 ft LWL~8.5 knGood Old Boat
IOM RC yacht hull length1000 mmonemetre.net

Where the files are

Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.

Good Old BoatDisplacement hull speed 101webPublisher's page; dimensions are facts
onemetre.netThe IOM classwebPublisher's page; dimensions are facts

Free files

★ Free files 1 parts. Xem Studio design: free to use, print and sell things from; not to be republished as files. Xem Studio Design License. index.json

displacement-hull-hulldisplacement hull, 1000 × 181 mm, deadrise 0° (sections illustrative, scale to your boat)STEP · STL
Let your AI pull this. Add https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.
Set it up →

Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=displacement-hull

Displacement hull and hull speed, isometric render of a generated part
Render of displacement-hull-hull from the free STEP; not to scale.

Fits with

Questions

Hull speed of a 1 m RC yacht?

LWL ~3.28 ft gives 1.34 x 1.81 = ~2.4 kn (formula from Good Old Boat).