Jeanneau 49DS

stiknstring

stiknstring

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Grateful for your collected wisdom on a potential boat purchase:

Anyone know anything about the new Jeanneau 49DS as to performance, durability etc? Serious thinking going on about buying this one for cruising from our Dartmouth base to CI, France and then farther afield to N Spain and eventually in Round the World rally. No experience of jeanneaus or beneteau's. Dealer tells me jeanneaus are the high end quality part of the Ben/jen company. Would this be a boat one could keep for ten years and do some family pottering as well as serious offshore stuff?

Things I like are the large amount of stowage space, comfortable cockpit, easily handled sailplan (will probably go for the furling main as alternative is a big ask for SWMBO and self and this sailplan only reduces sail area by 10% and has a battened main) and slippery hull - well it looks it to me.

Things I worry about are longetivity (current 40' boat in which I did the ARC 2004 looks her age after 15,000 miles total and only 5 years), structural integrity, quality of build, maintenance burden, quirky tear drop design to portholes in deck saloon. Not too may worries really.

Any good/ bad experiences of the Jen range? Dealer will be Westways in Plymouth - seem very pleasant and keen on after sales - am I right to be confident in them?

Any thoughts, tips, warnings and sheer downright slanderous comments welcome!

many thanks,

Stiknstring
 
We have a Sun Oddesy 47. She is now 14 years old asd going strong. We have lived on board for several years (although currently in a house due to familly issues). We have crusied over 60,000 miles in her and more recently raced offshore. She looks good I expect to get many years out of her still.

we looked at the new 49 lasdt year and were suprised to find how similar she was to our own boat, Not suprising since Jen. have gone back to the same designer and upped the specificastion compaired to more recent models.


However yuou will get views here that you shouold only have a LONG KEEL heavy tub that won't sail in less than a force 9 so it a decision you need to make by yourself.
 
I think Jeanneau like all AWB's are getting lighter for any length. Its my personal belief after asking around the charter market that they are more robustly built than most modern production boats.

I was dissapointed when I knew the 43DS production was coming to an end and bought one of the last ones for the charter market. I have not compared statitics but I would expect ours to be slightly heavier built than their more recent designed boats but lighter than say a 15 yr old one..

The solidness of construction makes the older ones good buys both for sailing capabilities and solidness (ask Robin - I think his is a 16yr old Sun Legend and its a fast passage maker)

I visited the factory and saw our boat being built. I did the complete factory tour and was pleased with their quality control. Recommend a visit before you decide!

Beware of pricing. The UK distributors run an cartel, I started talking to westways at the boat show but they were not allowed to sell me one as I live outside their area! I think it is illegal under EU law but they get round it I think as they are agents/distributors.

Price competition is therefore difficult. I was offered a derisary discount by local agent so I priced the boat up in France. French dealers are competitive and no cartel. A number of South coast sailors have bought boats in Cherbourg. Nice dealer very helpful. I gave the UK a last chance by phoning a Irish dealer and stating that I was about to order my boat from France in Euros but asked would they sell me a boat as while it still would be in Euros they speak the same language or were they part of the cartel. They did not phone back but I then received a phone call the next day from my local dealer with a sensible discount. Surprise surprise!

With all new boats there will be teething problems and this was the deciding factor in buying in the UK. A UK dealer is unlikely to fix a french sold boat. Beware of the specification as while I ordered against the Uk price list the UK dealer decided not to order all the extras from the factory insisting that they could fit them to a good quality. I then refused to pay the Factory list price for these options (Knowing the UK retro fit price from reputable agents) and another round of negotiations ensued. It goes without saying that all items fitted in England have proved troublesome.

The UK dealer has addressed these problems and all OK now. It cost them 2 lift outs though and me some lost charters. My experience buying a 2 Dufours was no different in that there were teething problems but the dealer slowly addressed them all.

Would I buy the same boat again - yes but I would investigate buying a basic boat in France and costing Radar, Heating, Bowthruster etc in UK and arranging my own retro fitted after purchase. If I could get say a £25k or more saving over a fully speced out UK supplied boat that way I would go for it but for £5-10k I would value the UK consumer law protection as more valuable.

I buy a new boat every 3 years so PM me if you want to discuss further as I am always evaluating various makes for the next purchase. Currently having serious problem identifying a boat of equivalent quality, suitable for charter, that offers better value for money. Its the cost V quality though thats a subjective judgement!
 
We have had good reports of the Plymouth J dealership and the one in Wales. We bought our J via the agent in Lymington and have to say that their after sales management skills were sadly lacking and I wouldn't buy from them again.
 
In fairness to the dealer in Lymington they have had three commissioning managers in the last 12 months. Each have suffered from lack of resources and a tight purse (from the boss!) but I believe they have done their best and currently I think everything is now fixed on my boat.

My cousin found Opal just as bad and I have found Dufour comparable. They are all trying to screw the last £ from ever deal as we try to screw the lowest price!
 
[ QUOTE ]
In fairness to the dealer in Lymington they have had three commissioning managers in the last 12 months

[/ QUOTE ]
Bought our yacht 3.5 years ago. Speaks volumes over a period of time if problems still exist
 
How much are you going to spend? You might get a "better" boat by buying an older, but higher quality vessel.

e.g. I am sitting in a 12 year old Moody 44 which many of my friends think is almost new. I could have bought an AWB of the same size, for the same money, but only 4 or 5 years old, but chose not to.

probably ditto for Halbergs, Swedens, Nauticat........

you might also get lots of things included, which you will have to add to a new boat.

just my 2 pennorth.
 
Thanks your post. I have spent some time looking at this and you are right, quality built boats offer huge advantages. From my perspective though, I want a boat to keep for approx ten years to do the ARC again and then the RTW rally and when contemplating that sort of tenure I am mindful of the age and relevancy of the ancillary equipment fitted to boats. So buying a ten year old boat now, the eqiuipment would be 20 years old by the time we were on the big trip. I also need to trade my boat in, so a new boat looks like the best way forward.

That said, the pull of the boats you mention and the Moodys is big - they are true quality yachts indeed. The 44 especially has beautiful lines and in those days, Moodys were really built well.

Thanks for your comments, I appreciate it
 
I did get some feedback that there were a history of commissioning problems that went back some years and I suggest it shows a fundamental management fault that is preventing what I found to be competent enthusiastic staff doing a good job.

Westways do win the Jeanneau dealer of the year but if they are all in a cartel it may means there is not much competition!

I always try to speak to people with a more experience. Hamble Point Yacht Charters have a range of boats on their fleet and their MD told me that in his experience Jeanneau had the best aftersales service and response to warantee issues. God help us what the others must be like!!

Unfortunately the industry are selling dreams and few buyers purchase on aftersale service!
 
Hiya!

Might be cheaper to get a full valet on the old boat!

I chartered a 49DS in Greece a couple of years back. It was only two weeks old so very nice and shiny! There was a rather odd problem in that the bow thrusters were fitted about 1ft too high causing lots of frothing and not much action - but that was maybe a post delivery fit. Apart from that it was very smart with tons of room on deck and below. I'm not sure it was that close winded but was reasonably quick. Finish seemed good and some nice design features. Seemed very beamy but then it was the biggest boat I've sailed. Carried 7 of us around the Ionian in some comfort. Not detailed info for you I'm afraid. Wot about the Grand Soleil then?
 
Does it have to be the DS?

9 months or so ago Richard at Westways offered us the standard 49 that he was using. It was new & nicely spec'd. In the end we went for the Broadblue cat. Westways were disappointed to lose a sale, but very pleasant and just said 'enjoy' when we told them our decision. I noticed they listed what I took to be the same boat in last months mags.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I did get some feedback that there were a history of commissioning problems that went back some years and I suggest it shows a fundamental management fault that is preventing what I found to be competent enthusiastic staff doing a good job.

[/ QUOTE ]
If by "management fault" you mean that attention to customer care and quality were not part of their (and let's be clear I am talking about Sea Ventures) management agenda then I totally agree.

I also 110% agree that the staff at the sharp end did an excellent job in what must have been constrained circumstances set by the management agenda
 
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