Advice on Elan Impression 434 please

[Solwaycruiser]

Anyone with knowledge of one of these boats care to comment on them. Having done a quick comparison on asking prices they seem to be a bit more expensive than similar sized Benny's and the like so wondering how the quality compares with the others of similar size and age? Also what do they sail like? It will be for cruising only but would like reasonable performance as well as the autopilot being able to cope in varying conditions, within reason, if short handed! Any comments appreciated.

 

[rogerball0]

Hi Solway

Have some great memories chartering one in Croatia for a couple of weeks with my brother and a load of friends in 2006. I was very impressed with the space and pace, i think its a Rob Humphries design from memory. Couldn't believe it took all of us and our respective kit yet didn't feel crowded at all.

Ours sailed very well even with one of those in-mast reefing mainsail thingies, considering the amount of criticism these types of boats get here on the forum i could only praise the boat, the overall quality was very good, i liked the decent sized cockpit and its manners when manouvering in tight spaces. Considering our boat was a couple of years old down below was in A1 condition, no water marks in the wood, all very sound, the only criticism i had was you couldn't step from the side deck up on to the main cabin top as it was too high but simply walking from the lower front part upto the mast was fine.

 

[Sailfree]

Very beamy for a 43 boat. But same as our Jeanneau 43DS so not a fast sailing cruiser.

We seriously considered buying one in 2004 but finally decided on the jeanneau 43DS as it appeared more robust in build and has a yanmar engine/gearbox. 2 previous Dufours with Volvos had cost me lots of money in Engine/Clutch/grearbox/propeller probems.

Between both Dufours we ended up replacing each item (engine at 14months) attitude of Volvo was well you have used it. Hence only Yanmar now current engine has done 3185hrs in 10yrs and no probs.

 

[Solwaycruiser]

Thanks for the replies. Bit surprised about the above comment about not being a fast sailing cruiser as my understanding was that Rob Humphries was supposed to be good at producing fast cruisers. However that belief is based on reading on the net and not real experience. Still looking for more feedback. Thanks.

 

[flawed_logic]

How can it be fast? It's not keel stepped, the weight distribution is wrong, the main sheet travel is in the wrong place. The sails will be standard Dacron etc etc. it will be a nice sail / accommodation boat. If you want a fast boat you need to make sacrifices!

 

[Tranona]

The Impression range was described as the "cruisy" option, a bit like Oceanis vs First in the Benetau range.

 

[lpdsn]

Bit surprised about the above comment about not being a fast sailing cruiser as my understanding was that Rob Humphries was supposed to be good at producing fast cruisers.

He is. There are some pretty good Elan cruiser racers. Then there is the Impression range. He wouldn't be a good designer if he took the money to design a tubby high-volume cruiser aimed at the charter market then produced an IRC world-beater instead.

 

[Solwaycruiser]

How can it be fast? It's not keel stepped, the weight distribution is wrong, the main sheet travel is in the wrong place. The sails will be standard Dacron etc etc. it will be a nice sail / accommodation boat. If you want a fast boat you need to make sacrifices!

Sorry but did you read my post? Cruising only. Reasonable performance. Autopilot being able to cope within reason. Didn't mention fast, sails could be anything as I didn't mention original sails etc etc. Anyway thanks for a really useful and helpful post!

 

[Solwaycruiser]

The Impression range was described as the "cruisy" option, a bit like Oceanis vs First in the Benetau range.

thanks for that. As my most recent boat was an Oceanis that is what I was looking for. So probably similar to sail. Any comments re build quality comparison?

 

[Frederik]

Can the bed-frames be lifted out of the cabins in 434 and 384, so that one or more cabins may be rearranged into a small work-studio fitted with a chair and table?