Oceanis 323 / First 31.7

[StugeronSteve]

Conscience giving you a bit of stick again is it?

 

[jhr]

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Twister_Ken]

I had a Sunsail 311 in Greece once. Not an inspiring sailer and a leeway champion, althought it was blessed with the usual shagged sails.

 

[cookjwm]

We looked hard at both and bought the 31.7. She is a great sailors boat with full sail controls all in the right places and an absolute joy to sail. Short/single handed she needs an early reef or perhaps better a smaller genoa than the 140% . Autohelm 2000 works very well indeed ,as long as she is set up properly - applies to all of course. Two of us cruised 1000 miles in ours last year. Great boat!
Oceanis just did not appeal , coachroof main can be a pain ,especially single handed and IMHO a bit under canvassed...
That said... she is for sale as we want to go longer/ live aboard and 31.7 does not have quite all the long range cruising toys
PM me if you have more questions! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Largslout]

Paul, I have a 323 and think it's a great boat. Just two of us or single handed it is a great! Remember all yachts of this type are a bit of a compromise. The 323 has no nasty handling vices and gives a good turn of speed. I am sure you will have seen the outstanding accommodation for a 32 footer.

 

[jb2006]

Know what you mean about the 6 ft keel - we're moving up from a 29 footer with a 4ft draft to a 34 footer with a 6 ft 10in draft this season - lots of new things to watch out for in home waters (the Solent) /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[Oen]

Don't worry about single-handing a 32 foot boat, I can manage my 42s7 by myself, except for getting in and out of marina berths!

 

[fastjedi]

We chartered a lifting keel 311 in the south west, sailed hard upwind in F4- 5 and found it to be great fun (and a good bit faster than many others on the water that weekend). It has a 31.7 hull?

In contrast, we had a Sunsail 361 for a week in the Ionion and found it to be thoroughly uninspiring with particularly poor performance to windward.

However, after the 321 we had back in 2000, even the 361 sailed O.K. Not only would it not go to windward, but it had such a fat ass that it refused to go backwards without pushing the contents of the Ionion with it!

 

[Chris_G]

Has anyone considered an Elan 31 ? IMHO a good layout with more useable berths in the saloon ?