Beneteau Monte Carlo 42

mcanderson

mcanderson

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My wife and I were very impressed by the Beneteau Gran Turismo 44 at the Cannes Boat Show. The dealer who showed us around has been in touch with a recently traded Beneteau Monte Carlo 42 and can take our Beneteau yacht as a trade etc etc.

Does anyone have any experience with the 42? I am aware it won a MBY award a couple of years ago and there are a few about on the south coast of France were we keep out boat.

I guess my biggest concern is the IPS drive as with the joy stick control I can see big bills should this have a malfunction.
 
been looking at this boat myself and it is a really nice boat the aft cabin is amazing and it just ticks lots of boxes for me and has a good report from mby but I have the same worries as you and also worry about resale and build quality compared to fairline princess etc etc
 
We recently purchased a 44gt. I have been on the MC 40 but never driven it. I can't speak to the 42. I previously had a Sea Ray 39 with V drives. I can tell you I really like this 44. I don't need the joystick (stern drives with Volvo duo props) but there are nice have. The fuel burn is amazing. Very happy so far.
 
I know of two of these boats & both have had a lot of problems ! Both mechanical & build quality wise.
I would contact as many owners of said vessel as you can.
Regards MM1.
 
Gel coat fades v quick in the med sun on these from what I have seen .
Wood I call it wood ( not sure exactly what it is ? ) on the bathing platform turns black soon as well -again from what I have seen .
Do you really want a D6 DPH combo? -in terms of downtime during warranty + more down time + €€€ after warranty .
French are very loyal customers ,they also prefer Renaults, Citreon,s etc over Audi,BMW, Merc etc
 
I think the upper deck spaces and layout on this boat are very good for the Med, but I'd suggest you get a surveyor to confirm very specifically that there is no failure of cored hull bonding before you buy
 
Portofino said:
Do you really want a D6 DPH combo? -in terms of downtime during warranty + more down time + €€€ after warranty .
French are very loyal customers ,they also prefer Renaults, Citreon,s etc over Audi,BMW, Merc etc
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I previously had bullet prof v drives on a 39 ft sea ray so I was reluctant to buy stern drives at first. I have D6 with DPH combo. I can tell you after extensive research I found these Volvo drives to very reliable. A lot of fisherman in the Pacific NW bang these in and out of gear, hard, all day long for thousands of hours with good reliability. I also read some bad press, but found the good outweighed the negative.
 
As an MC42 owner since 2011 I can offer a lot of help here but have to declare an interest as my boat is currently on sale. That's because we are looking to trade up to buy a new GT44.

The layout works very well and she is easy to spend time on, we've just spent three weeks on board touring Mallorca.

I am told that French boats were often leased in a way that legally avoided VAT so be certain that the legal situation is clear.

Regarding the hull it has a 5 year warranty which Beneteau do support so t should be ok. The engines are D6 370 with DPH sterndrives (she was designed for IPS but they have not been fitted to my knowledge). After a fight this year with Volvo the sterndrives have been sorted with new cylinders, actuator cables and actuators - all under warranty. I would not touch a boat without a bow thruster as the joystick will not turn her through a strong wind. I now moor wherever possible on throttles and bow thruster to keep the joystick from stressing the drives (Volvopaul advice). Fuel consumption has averaged around 2+ nmpg with a mix of 18kts cruising and 8 knot pleasant doodling. Of course virtually any other similar sized sportscruiser will have similar engines.

Storage is great, I keep a 3.1m rib in the tender garage. Best features are domestic size fridge, big comfortable cabins and heads.

Check deck window skylights for condensation which indicates seals have gone. My teak has been fine with normal care and oiling, check hull gel coat for cracking. Hull colour (dark grey) is fine after 2 years in UK and 1.5 in Spain just been cut and polished each year and many people say she looks like new.

Check that original Wema fuel senders have been changed to Volvo as they don't talk reliably to each other.

Feel free to pm me if I can help further.
 
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