Anyone sailed a Gibsea 33?

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simonlagoe

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Has anyone sailed a Gibsea 33 - 2001/2002 vintage. I know that Sunsail and others have/had them as charter boats. Just looking for some information on how well they sail, especially to windward, after having had some poor experiences on one of the other Dufour/Gibsea cruising oriented boats.

Thanks
 
I had one for a weekend a while ago & really liked it, sailed well & I thought it a good all round boat,ideal for family sailing.
Did look for a nice one to buy earlier this year but couldn't find one so went for a 323 clipper instead.
 
Is that the one with the helmsman's seat on the pushpit? Not the place I would wish to be in the middle of the North Sea.
 
Yes ... A Sunsail Gibsea in Turkey. It was a while back now (2002) We had a week of mixed weather, from fog to sun and F1 to F6. We thought it sailed really well, although it was quick to round up in a gust..... Infact, we won the Sunsail flotilla Regatta by following a Oceanis 411 across the line. They had a very serious crew on board (and we had a lot of beer on board)

However, there were a load of detail design things that annoyed us. The sort of things you wouldn't spot until you get out on the water and live with one for a week .... the relationship between the helmsmans seat and wheel .... inability to drain the shower tray without somone hanging off the gunnel .... I lost the skin off my knuckles on something too /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Welcome to the forum.... I gather from your moniker that your in Plumtree... So not far from us. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I have sailed two different 33's of that age, one in the the Southwest and one in Scotland.....

I found the interior to be relatively robust, with plenty of open space, which is nice in harbour, but a bit dangerous when it gets bouncy... the chart table is difficult to work when it cuts up a bit, as previously pointed out the heads are pretty poorly designed and built with the shower not being easy to drain.... It was a problem on the two boats we had...

The biggest concern that I had was that the boat is very tender.. she is not bloaty enough to have good form stability, nor enough ballast either to stiffen things up... the consequence of this is that she rounds up spectacularly and suddenly, weight distribution is crucial, if a crewman moves to the lee rail to get ready to release the foresail... it materially effects the heel angle, and can cause a problem if hardish pressed...

She slams in a moderate chop, and is a handfull when it gets rough... Roling around quite a bit, and under power you had to be very carefull not to have the rudder go hard over if you were not paying attention.....

She is underpowered in light airs, and is difficult to tune.

Plus side is that she is quite comfy and will accomodate 4 or 5 easily.

We had one of these on our list, until we sailed her.... I think it would make good value for a small family, being quite roomy, but she does not sail well.

I think that a Dufour 32 of simular age would be a better choice, or a Bavaria 32 as well... both of which sail better and are probably better screwed together, dont forget the Gibsea was primarily built for the charter market as a budget Dufour....
 
Well I have one (2001) and it is in Turkey.
I quite like the helm position, matter of taste. But not sure if I would like it so much in the North Sea, but saying that did not buy it to sail in North Sea.

It matches our need perfectly for Med sailing (which is what I think that it was realy designed for)

With a fully battened main and small genny/jib she does round up in a gust, so best to remember to reef in early.

Good size heads, always a favourite with the women folk. (should I rephrase that statement)

Fastjedi just reminded me about the shower drain point, ours drains pretty well OK apart from the last little bit, cleaning the drain helps.

Notskinned my nuckles on anything yet,, maybe fastjedi already smoothed the edges off before me, thanks mate.

A colleague at work chartered one a few months ago in Turkey with Sunsail, he had a good week with family of four on board. Although he was in the smallest boat in the flotilla generally the rest did not get too far ahead, he managed to keep up with them, albeit being the last one in every night.
But that was up against 37ft to 43 fters. That would be true of any AWB33 against the larger boats.

All in all it does just what you expect it to do for a 33 ft AWB.
 
My family - Me Mrs and 2 early teenage girls, did a week Sunsail flotilla in the Ionian. It motored fine, was a good swimming platform and had good accomodation for 33 ft but I didn't find it an appealing boat.

And when it blew quite strongly one day it was a bugger - others have mentioned rounding up and it did even with a few rolls in the jib and the main flattened as much as we could.

Guess it depends what you want from a boat but the sailing ability would put me off.

Just noticed I have used 'it' - instinctively I use 'she' for boats I like!
 
As a new user I really appreciate the replies from all who contibuted - invaluable when we're looking at a range of boats and I really can't imagine where else (in the world) you could get such good feedback so quickly. As we are talking North Sea rather than Med (unfortunately) I think we'll be following PhotoDog's lead and crossing it off our list.

The "SimoninPlumtree" name is not because we live there but for subtler reasons - however quite by coincidence we do live quite close to Plumtree!

Thanks all
 
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