Hanse 311

[iangrant]

A couple of really good friends have decided to buy their own yacht. Both have sailed, the lady has crewed the Atlantic and done a fair bit of crewing South Coast/Solent bashing, the “gent” has done more than he realises (mainly picking up bad habits from me), but again not as skipper.
They are looking at boats about 30’ mainly for Solent sailing and they like the look of a Hanse 311. I know nought about these boats but pretty sure it may be a bit tender perhaps?
Opinions anyone?
Thanks

Ian

 

[bobgoode]

Perfectly sound vessel...could also consider the Jen/Bav/Ben alternatives.

 

[sailorman]

theres one 4 sale in the RNSYC Oostende
ring Robert (HM) 4 details 003259505912

 

[photodog]

Well no one else has said anything, so I will stick my neck out a bit,,,,

I havent actually sailed a 311, however when we were looking for our last boat she was right at the top of the list,
with a more traditional (Read Narrow) beam, she relies less on form stability, and in effect is more, as I suspect you are describing, tender. Ie she heels more easily.

This is not actually a bad thing. Boats which rely on form stablity often lack ultimate stability, or posses bad negative stability traits. (Ie they dont like to flip back over when inverted.)

The Contessa 32 has poor form stability, but is probably one of, if not the, safest 32 footers around.

The 311 is a CE cat A boat, and has a better AVS than most boats of her size, (In comparison with the more modern Bavs, Bene, Jene, etc)

I suspect that she would make a very nice sailing boat.

So while she may not be as Comfy tootling around the solent, I bet shes safer when the going gets tough, and probably sails better.

BTW we ended up with a Bavaria 31 (Circa 1999) which is VERY tender, but settles nicely and has a AVS of 137 degrees, and with her deep keel, and FB /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif main is great fun!

 

[jb2006]

Or the Elan 31 - we sailed one last weekend - probably no wheel option but a very nice boat.

 

[kingfisher]

I sailed an Elan31 last year in Croatia. She is much wider than my current boat, and maybe that's the reason, but I would never trust a boat that rounds up uncontrolable in gusts like that.

There's Hanse 311 for sale in Germany for 68.000€
http://www.botenbank.nl/detail.asp?id=110390&shipName=HANSE_311,DUITSLAND

And this one on the Hamble for 63.000€

 

[jb2006]

The Elan 31 has exactly the same beam as the Hanse, also similar draft and similar ballast. No serious rounding up problems that I can report - we had to reduce the jib a bit when the gusts got above 20 knots close hauled.

Back to the topic - I looked over the latest version of the Hanse 31 footer at SBS last year and was impressed enough to take SWMBO down another day for a look. We didnt buy one but unlike some the 311/2/5 series is equipped with a permanent chart table and settees that would double as sea berths. A proper boat ! Watch out for a lack of area in the cockpit which is safe from the traveller/mainsheet, which is in the proper place not on the coachroof.