All new Dufou 41

[Tranona]

Pretty common arrangement now because the rig is main orientated so no (or little) overlap on the jib so no need to bring the shrouds inboard to get close sheeting angles. Also much easier to take the loads to the hull rather than to internal bulkheads or tiebars to internal frames. You soon get used to finding your way past the lower on the rare occasions you need to go forward. Equally the mainsheet bridle is an efficient way with the "German" mainsheet of getting good control over the boom from the twin wheels. If the main is slab reefed then no need to go to the mast as reefs are handled from the cockpit and lazyjacks, fully battened sails and good batten cars ensures the main drops neatly under control. Even easier if, as in many of these boats there is in mast furling.

A lot of thought has gone into making boats like this easy to handle, but like much of the design concept rather different from older designs so unfamiliar until you actually try it!

 

[Martin_J]

I see that boats like the Jeanneau 36i uses the German mainsheet system. Sorry, but it's still going to take a bit of persuading me that this isn't a trip hazard..

 

[Martin_J]

Also, how normal is it for the aft end of the system, to have the sheeting system floating right to the hand rails (on the very edge of the coachroof) as the Dufour does?



Is this really an advantage compared to having a traveller installed at the same area on the deck?

 

[LittleSister]

Yuck. How stark, clinical, cold, cheap and nasty that plastic interior looks. Give me a homely, warm, comfortable interior you can entertain friends in or read a book in rather than being on tender hooks waiting for your name to be called for the next appointment.

Where is the grace, form and passion in a white block on the water. . . We seem to have lost gorgeous design altogether for consumer led plastic floating apartments.

I have some sympathy for that view, but I had a friend who a was mad for varnish, teak, maritime heritage, gaff rigs, olde worlde brass nick-nacks and the works, and who's boats reflected that. Until, that is, he suddenly went and bought a charter/marina-life oriented big plastic catamaran that pleased the wife much better.

He called it his 'wash and go' boat!

 

[Martin_J]

Maybe I'm being too picky... but looking at ergonomics, was it good idea to go from the old style genoa sheeting as on the Dufour 410... [image from the internet]



To one on the new 41 where the sheet doesn't follow the line of the deck..



And seems to go just where crew all tend to sit when you're sailing..



I'll not mention tripping but it wouldn't have taken much to lead that sheet outboard a few inches and down a little more out of the way.

 

[Wansworth]

Times are changing the future is being planned in mega factories were the likes of our hero’s are but a footnote in history?

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Maybe I'm being too picky... but looking at ergonomics, was it good idea to go from the old style genoa sheeting as on the Dufour 410... [image from the internet]

View attachment 150338

To one on the new 41 where the sheet doesn't follow the line of the deck..

View attachment 150339

And seems to go just where crew all tend to sit when you're sailing..

View attachment 150340

I'll not mention tripping but it wouldn't have taken much to lead that sheet outboard a few inches and down a little more out of the way.

You are looking at the main sheet. The Jib is self tacking.

 

[Frogmogman]

Whether ocean crossing, cruising locally or racing ... Am I missing something but that mainsheet arrangement on the Dufour looks like a trip hazard both at the forward end and at the aft end of the coachroof...

View attachment 150304

Strangely it looks the same on that Jeanneau that was mentioned...

View attachment 150305

Do they really insist on tripping you up an the way to flake the main then again when you head from there to the foredeck?

It would be a nightmare on a sunny day, let alone on a dark, wet, windy night.

My sun odyssey 349 has a similar arrangement. In reality, the mainsheet bridle is just forrad of the spray hood, as it would be on either of these boats.

There's a diagonal lower stay that you have to duck under (whilst heeled) and if you step onto the coachroof to move forward there's that line from the gooseneck to the side of the coachroof...

View attachment 150319

Maybe I'm alone in preferring a walk to the foredeck without catching my head on a lower shrouds. Our chain plates allow a walk forward outside the shrouds.

Also similar on my boat. When negotiating the shrouds, I just step up onto the coach roof. It really isn’t an issue.

 

[Martin_J]

You are looking at the main sheet. The Jib is self tacking.

So it is... although could have been taken to the same winches without making a mid air bridge...

 

[Frogmogman]

Also, how normal is it for the aft end of the system, to have the sheeting system floating right to the hand rails (on the very edge of the coachroof) as the Dufour does?

View attachment 150337

Is this really an advantage compared to having a traveller installed at the same area on the deck?

Sheeting system ? It’s just a dyneema bridle. It’s a simple, cheap and effective system.

 

[Frogmogman]

There you go. Look at it in relation to the spray hood. You’re really not going to be tripping over that bridle.

 

[lustyd]

Sorry, but it's still going to take a bit of persuading me that this isn't a trip hazard..

Most people buying these don’t tend to shuffle along in their slippers. Yachts have ropes, just be aware of them.

And seems to go just where crew all tend to sit when you're sailing.

Crew sit on the lovely seats on modern boats usually. If the boat is leaning that far you need to reef as there isn’t a speed advantage on a modern yacht to heeling hard over.

 

[flaming]

Maybe I'm being too picky... but looking at ergonomics, was it good idea to go from the old style genoa sheeting as on the Dufour 410... [image from the internet]

View attachment 150338

To one on the new 41 where the sheet doesn't follow the line of the deck..

View attachment 150339

And seems to go just where crew all tend to sit when you're sailing..

View attachment 150340

I'll not mention tripping but it wouldn't have taken much to lead that sheet outboard a few inches and down a little more out of the way.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the details of sheet leads yet, this is just a render. That sort of thing is normally worked out in detail when they build a mockup of the cockpit, and then tweaked after the first hull.

 

[Zagato]

A very social boat. Certainly beats the squashed cockpit room for five (three in wood boats!) on some older style 30 plus footers, whilst having to sit uncomfortably on 5" coamings due to heeling or simply to be able to see over the cabin. A main sheet traveller that you have to continually step over in the cockpit is just such madness to me in my ignorance of boat design.

 

[lustyd]

A main sheet traveller that you have to continually step over in the cockpit is just such madness to me in my ignorance of boat design.

I'd actually forgotten all about those, lethal things that shoot across the cockpit at high speed and catch any fingers stupid enough to use the obvious hand hold in the heeling cockpit, often right outside the hatch too. I'll take stepping over a rope on a side deck over that any day!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I'd actually forgotten all about those, lethal things that shoot across the cockpit at high speed and catch any fingers stupid enough to use the obvious hand hold in the heeling cockpit, often right outside the hatch too. I'll take stepping over a rope on a side deck over that any day!

We have one. They do indeed shoot across the track when you gybe, unless you control it. We would always do that, in 10kn or over. With the darkness comes light though. If you want real control over your main on a multi, or really wide transom mono, the traveller enables micro control of twist. We have no kicker. Just a 32:1 mainsheet and 4:1 traveller.

 

[lustyd]

I don't think most cruisers care about twist. I'm not doing micro-adjustments on a 24 hour sail, I'm reading a book!

 

[Zagato]

Worse for me is banging your knee on the thing. It's not as good for sail trim but a post in the middle is preferable or maybe the way some of the GGR boats have their double mainsheets attached to the sides as I mostly sail single handed. When I say sail ☺?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I don't think most cruisers care about twist. I'm not doing micro-adjustments on a 24 hour sail, I'm reading a book!

It might add a knot if we trim the main correctly, so we’ll carry on doing it. We hardly ever sail for 24 hours anyway, we can often make 180 miles in 12-14 or so hours, then we can moor, and have a proper sleep. Rarely more than 2 on board, which makes longer passages quite trying.

 

[Praxinoscope]

I'd actually forgotten all about those, lethal things that shoot across the cockpit at high speed and catch any fingers stupid enough to use the obvious hand hold in the heeling cockpit, often right outside the hatch too. I'll take stepping over a rope on a side deck over that any day!

When I bought my present boat, I had the choice of two of the same model, one which was a bit more expensive had the main sheet attached as in the original design in the cockpit centre, the other has been modified with a main sheet traveller fitted at the hatch point, I chose the one with the cockpit mounted main sheet, I think I agree with Zagato #174 and Lustyd #175, about the main sheet travellers mounted immediately on the cabin step.