Bavaria 38

[Guest]

Looking seriously at buying one of these but seems a lot of boat for the money. Views and opinions welcomed especially from anyone with real experience of the boat. Owners comments particularly welcomed if unbiased!! Are they strong enough? heavy enough? Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[Guest]

Whatdoyouwannado ?

I own a Bavaria 35. Its a great boat for my purpose, i.e. south coast cruising and trips to France. Its also quite fast (a Bav 38 races in the RSYC series and always does very well).

The quality inside is excellent versus the French mass production boats. Little things like catches are well made, good deck gear (Selden, etc) etc.

However, on the negative side, they are light-medium displacement so in heavy seas they are hard work and dont cut through the sea, they go over it. This is common with many modern boats.

The benefit of this light displacement and fin keel is that they sail in light airs and a very very easy to handle in marinas under power.

To summarise, if I want something big, spacious, well appointed to cruise but not be out in F8 then the Bavarias are great. Especiailly for the money which means you can buy new.

However, if I plan to do long passages for more than 12-24 hours or go on long ocean cruises to the med, USA, etc then I'd buy a 10 year old Hallberg Rassy, Najad,et al for the money.

 

[Guest]

We have a B38 and really love her. She is fast and has a comfortable motion. We do plan to sail her to the med next year. If you'd like more details, or have any questions, feel free to email me.

 

[Guest]

Re: Whatdoyouwannado ?

Why is it that people think modern boats can't do long trips. I've done many 36/48 hour cruises in modern designs with no problems. Went out last week in a F7 in my First 40.7 and had great fun - thing goe's like a train upwind in a blow.No I wouldn't cross the ocean in one (although some have) but trips of up to 1000 miles would be easy (and quick).

 

[Guest]

We have always found with boats......don't spend much money don't expect much of a boat. Marginally better than Froggie lot but not a serious sailors boat. Looks well tied up in a marina amongst the caravans.

 

[Guest]

Richard,

If you want to talk this in detail, send me an email. We could talk on the phone. I have a Bav 38 CC.

Peter Gibbs

 

[Guest]

The crew

I agree, you can go anwhere in just about anything (bath tubs even!). However, Im not one for much hard work and neither are my crew and I find modern boats need too much helming on long trips.

Have you been on 1000 mile trips in a heavy swell with just 2 of you on board ? Wind behind as well as in front ? Waves coming from behind to knock the steering and waves coming in front to slam the boat ?

I wasnt suggesting they are unsafe, just harder work which can be a drain on a weaker crew.

 

[Guest]

Charter?

Why don't you charter one for a couple of days to see what you think?

Eric

 

[Guest]

Dave,

Are your comments as a result of first hand knowledge? Have you been at sea on a B38? Yours seems to be the only really derogatory comment - so interested as to what you base this on.

There are alot of detractors for this boat, but few have anything substantive to say - leads me to believe that Bavaria have caused a real storm selling big boats so much cheaper than Westerly/Moody etc. They are cheap, so there must be something wrong seems to be the mentality.

 

[Guest]

A freind of mine bought a new 38 last year. Nice looking boat, but the strenght and weight of build in his view was seriously lighter than his previous smaller one (8 years ago?). This seems to be a trend amongst the mass production boats in order to keep a competitive price. One problem he did have was the overhead hand hold/rails in the cabin came off when he was holding onto it in harbour!

My own choice of ownership is for the older heavyweight design, - great when the wind is blowing, but I do get frustrated in force 3 and under! But then the boat will still be arond when I am long gone!

 

[Guest]

Richard I know you were interested to get views from owners and I'm not one. I do however own one of the "froggy" ones. Most know that heavy displacement yachts with longish keels and real bilges are more sea kindly. (And safer in weather). However what are the biggest amount of boats today sold for? Channel crossings? Like Andrew said, what do you want it for? It's easy to say "I like solid boats". It gets more cred too. However sometimes family don't want to sail in "solid old boats" because they are not so comfortable. So if you don't have (or want to spend) the extra 50K on a Moody, HR-36 or Najad, modern boat, these mass produced boats get you going. The French did this with cars too. What I do know, is that whilst the Brits are insisting that we know better but not necessarily doing it better, both the French and Germans still have Auto industries as well as volume boat builders..

One important consideration is; what will you sell it for? You'll need to keep it for four or five years not to lose too much (capital) anyway.

What is the displacement of a B38 against say a Moody anyway?

 

[Guest]

In answer to your last question - actually very similar! The B40 (only slightly larger/heavier than the B38) displaces 18262 lbs against 18266 for the new Moody 38!

 

[Guest]

Thank you. I don't think there's anyone on this BB that would say "don't get a Moody, they're not seaworthy". Westerly's are heavier but where are they?

 

[Guest]

ballast v displacement

Its not just displacement, its also the ballast in the keel, the hull shape, and a hundred other things.

Modern boats are not only lighter but their shape makes for faster sailing. The downside is that the shape is less "seakindly"

I'm a Bavaria owner, but I know I'd prefer to be in a Rustler 36 in a F8 in the channel.

 

[Guest]

Re: ballast v displacement

Yes you're right. I know it's not purely weight. My point though is that, given today's hull shapes are shared by some British yachts, the "value for money" imports get a bashing almost just for being that. I still draw the car analogy. Whilst we are great at producing the likes of Morgan and TVR, we now import the great majority of popular cars. Either that or ours are owned by overseas corporations. Look at what we had until the seventies and draw your own conclusions.

 

[Guest]

do yourself a favour. think "outside the box". buy a catamaran - you wont regret it.

 

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False argument!

The Moody's are not exactly heavy-weight boats, what with round bottoms, shallow bilges and radical fin keels - not that that means there's anything wrong with them.

 

[Guest]

The Bav. stability curves are good. Check them out for yourself!

Slightly prejudiced, but happy, Bav. owner.

 

[Guest]

Re: False argument!

Quite agree, but if the underlying argument is that Bavarias and French boats are inferior because they skimp on the build quality (ie weight), then this is not a safe position to take if arguing that the Moodys and Westerly's are therefore intrinsically "better" by virtue of larger displacement per meter of length. I agree with you that the hull form, balance etc are an important indication of seaworthiness - as is quality of construction, integrity of the structure etc.

There are alot of lightweight crusiers out there - I was put off the Bavaria 37 for that reason, but the B38 is a step apart from the lightweights.

 

[Guest]

Re: False argument!

Weight doesn't necessarily equate to strength. A heavy boat with insufficient hull support in terms of stringers etc isn't a "strong" boat but better designed lighter displacement boat can be "stronger". I always thought I'd like a heavier displacement boat but after sailing a couple , HR36, Malo etc., I find them a bit boring for the sort of sailing I want to do, Channel crossing , coast hopping round Europe etc. Likewise a lighter displacement boat should not have any problems with fittings etc if they have been correctly engineered. Too often on some of these threads, people have I think mistakenly, derided a boat as being too light when what they meant was that it was badly built.