Dufour 380

[vseager]

I'm on the hunt for a new boat, a cruiser more than anything. I've been out hunting today and came across a Dufour 380. I'm not very knowledgeable about Dufour range. They are clearly in a different league from the Scandinavian options, so I'm not necessarily looking for direct comparisons to boats that are completely out of our budget, but from the limited information I have received about them, they sound like fairly decent boats but I'm interested in a few more opinions.

Can anyone offer any advice on...

- Build quality
- Performance
- Info about the company themselves... what are they like to deal with etc.
- Owner satisfaction
- Comparison to other boats of a similar type / cost

For reference, this is a link to what we are looking at...
http://www.dufour-yachts.com/sailing/yachts/grand-large/380

Thanks in advance for any advice that is offered!

 

[causeway]

I like the forward berth, but then its almost exactly the same layout as my d35 from 1978! Don't know much about the modern boats but they always had a few useful design quirks. I like mine, obviously

 

[Ric]

As causeway writes, the decent forward berth on most Dufour designs is attractive for when at anchor or port - completely useless on a passage though! But most of their designs do compensate for this with decent sea-berths midships. In general, I quite like the interior layout of most Dufour designs - makes a change from the "pack-em-in at all corners" philosophy of most boatyards whose primary market is the charter fleets. Their interior designs are slightly more oriented towards the owner-market than most.

However, I don't like the sail-plan on most of their designs - all large overlapping genoas and small mainsails. It is a cheap, inflexible sail-plan oriented more for the charter market - rather than the owner market.

 

[Tranona]

Dufour position themselves above the basic production boats and that is reflected in the price. Tend to be a bit more performance orientated than boats aimed at the charter market, but the 380 is part of the less racy range.

Make your own assessment about how they differ from others in the same size range.

 

[PeterR]

Try this owners forum for advice:

http://www.boefamily.dk/dufour/

Personal experience is:

Designed build quality - not bad - They try and pitch themselves above the other French manufacturers.

Quality control - poor (although probably no worse than other major manufacturers)

UK agents - pretty good

Dufour factory - OK but no one speaks English

Performance - for the performance range pretty good - no knowledge of the grand large range