zefender
Active member
In May 2001 I bought a new Bavaria 40, my first boat - I previously chartered. About the same time, I joined this forum and started reading lots of negative comments about Ben/Jen/Bavs and starting worrying a bit! The first year was spent pottering about the Solent, a couple of wine runs and pretty local stuff.
This year I took two months off work and sailed to the Algarve and back – a trip of about 2,700 miles - back on Sunday. The route was Solent to Falmouth, Falmouth to Camarinas, hopping down the Atlantic coast, turn left, then back again via Gijon to La Rochelle and along the Brittany coast and then Solent.
The trip to Falmouth (under motor) was a real shake down. We bashed our way through F6/7 headwinds/sea all the way in 'orrible rain. One of the main hatches lost a catch in the sea/vibration so water started pouring in, soaking pretty much everything. One of the glands at the foot of the mast must have been faulty since we had water coming in there too. - though this was more to do with subsequent fittings than the boat itself. A fatal cocktail of Fanta and Sour Cream and Onion Pringles caused us to take refuge in Dartmouth for a couple of hours. We had to tighten dozens of bolts (eg stanchions) which had worked their way loose in the bashing and make a temporary fix to the main foredeck hatch. The inside of the boat was also covered in fibreglass dust from the manufacturing process - it would have been nice if Bavaria had spent a valuable man hour with a Dyson before releasing it! The slamming motion was not pleasant and at times I felt like the whole thing would crack open like an egg. It’s obviously a lot stronger than it sounds.
The Biscay trip was great fun – whales, dolphins, shooting stars etc, even though we had SW all the way and one stormy night with big seas for a F7 – but then, as it was my first time, how would I know!
We discovered that the hull windows were leaking a bit so on arrival, we removed them and added more sealant. This cured it. Opal marine sent out replacement hatch catches ‘gratis’, despite the boat being out of warranty – which was decent of them
Around the corner from Lisbon on the way back, we ran into a surprise F8, gusting F9 and seas as big as houses. We sought refuge after a few hours, not because of damage to the boat but possible damage to precious family cargo – and the inevitable fatigue that would result from 7 hours on the helm as the autopilot obviously couldn’t cope! The boat seemed remarkably unstressed by it all. My confidence in her was starting to grow!
Apart from the small leaky bits, other problems encountered were pretty minor – the shower filter is poorly positioned making it difficult to unscrew. The hinges of a few lockers worked loose and needed filling before accepting the screws again. We lost a few sail slides. The cockpit locker catches jammed sometimes. Oh and the mirrors in both heads came unstuck from the wall. The crash bar on the binnacle worked loose.
Overall, the boat sailed really well throughout and I learned that she kept speed with early reefing and provided an easier living environment when not on her ears. The 50hp engine did about 300 hours work but most of this was light motor sailing or charging. It does need more soundproofing but was very reliable and drank less than two litres of oil over the entire period.
My summary would be that the Bavaria is a fast sea-worthy yacht with a few minor wrinkles caused by value based volume manufacture. Sure she’s not as comfortable as longer keeled heavies but that’s a chalk and cheese comparison. She’s very comfortable to live on with a decent working fridge and plenty of space below.
Quick technology bit….
Radar – fabulous. We had fog on over six days – sometimes with visibility of less than 20metres. I would have felt very nervous without it and indeed I think it would be foolhardy to go without it.
Chart plotter. Tsunamis Navigator. Took all the slog out of passage planning, navigation and harbour pilotage. Utterly superb. Yes, I had had the paper charts too but this was more to show the family our progress than anything else.
Notebook – Toshiba (had Compaq backup). Amazingly reliable even after a soaking in sea water after someone didn’t close a hatch properly. The screen died, came to half life a day after and in full service the day after that. Two months later it is still working perfectly.
Mobile phone – emails. Great disappointment. Found lines ‘dropped’ very frequently, in particular higher bandwidth ones. Pop server made the problem worse since the whole batch of emails have to be downloaded again as you can’t select which messages you want to download. I ended up calling UK/French servers – at great cost from Spain and Portugal.
Iridium satellite phone. Used it to keep in contact (voice only) when out of mobile range. Great reassurance to home contacts (and some to self!) even if the delay and voice quality takes a bit of getting used to!
If anyone would like details of stopovers, preparations etc – please pm me – I’d be happy to help.
This year I took two months off work and sailed to the Algarve and back – a trip of about 2,700 miles - back on Sunday. The route was Solent to Falmouth, Falmouth to Camarinas, hopping down the Atlantic coast, turn left, then back again via Gijon to La Rochelle and along the Brittany coast and then Solent.
The trip to Falmouth (under motor) was a real shake down. We bashed our way through F6/7 headwinds/sea all the way in 'orrible rain. One of the main hatches lost a catch in the sea/vibration so water started pouring in, soaking pretty much everything. One of the glands at the foot of the mast must have been faulty since we had water coming in there too. - though this was more to do with subsequent fittings than the boat itself. A fatal cocktail of Fanta and Sour Cream and Onion Pringles caused us to take refuge in Dartmouth for a couple of hours. We had to tighten dozens of bolts (eg stanchions) which had worked their way loose in the bashing and make a temporary fix to the main foredeck hatch. The inside of the boat was also covered in fibreglass dust from the manufacturing process - it would have been nice if Bavaria had spent a valuable man hour with a Dyson before releasing it! The slamming motion was not pleasant and at times I felt like the whole thing would crack open like an egg. It’s obviously a lot stronger than it sounds.
The Biscay trip was great fun – whales, dolphins, shooting stars etc, even though we had SW all the way and one stormy night with big seas for a F7 – but then, as it was my first time, how would I know!
We discovered that the hull windows were leaking a bit so on arrival, we removed them and added more sealant. This cured it. Opal marine sent out replacement hatch catches ‘gratis’, despite the boat being out of warranty – which was decent of them
Around the corner from Lisbon on the way back, we ran into a surprise F8, gusting F9 and seas as big as houses. We sought refuge after a few hours, not because of damage to the boat but possible damage to precious family cargo – and the inevitable fatigue that would result from 7 hours on the helm as the autopilot obviously couldn’t cope! The boat seemed remarkably unstressed by it all. My confidence in her was starting to grow!
Apart from the small leaky bits, other problems encountered were pretty minor – the shower filter is poorly positioned making it difficult to unscrew. The hinges of a few lockers worked loose and needed filling before accepting the screws again. We lost a few sail slides. The cockpit locker catches jammed sometimes. Oh and the mirrors in both heads came unstuck from the wall. The crash bar on the binnacle worked loose.
Overall, the boat sailed really well throughout and I learned that she kept speed with early reefing and provided an easier living environment when not on her ears. The 50hp engine did about 300 hours work but most of this was light motor sailing or charging. It does need more soundproofing but was very reliable and drank less than two litres of oil over the entire period.
My summary would be that the Bavaria is a fast sea-worthy yacht with a few minor wrinkles caused by value based volume manufacture. Sure she’s not as comfortable as longer keeled heavies but that’s a chalk and cheese comparison. She’s very comfortable to live on with a decent working fridge and plenty of space below.
Quick technology bit….
Radar – fabulous. We had fog on over six days – sometimes with visibility of less than 20metres. I would have felt very nervous without it and indeed I think it would be foolhardy to go without it.
Chart plotter. Tsunamis Navigator. Took all the slog out of passage planning, navigation and harbour pilotage. Utterly superb. Yes, I had had the paper charts too but this was more to show the family our progress than anything else.
Notebook – Toshiba (had Compaq backup). Amazingly reliable even after a soaking in sea water after someone didn’t close a hatch properly. The screen died, came to half life a day after and in full service the day after that. Two months later it is still working perfectly.
Mobile phone – emails. Great disappointment. Found lines ‘dropped’ very frequently, in particular higher bandwidth ones. Pop server made the problem worse since the whole batch of emails have to be downloaded again as you can’t select which messages you want to download. I ended up calling UK/French servers – at great cost from Spain and Portugal.
Iridium satellite phone. Used it to keep in contact (voice only) when out of mobile range. Great reassurance to home contacts (and some to self!) even if the delay and voice quality takes a bit of getting used to!
If anyone would like details of stopovers, preparations etc – please pm me – I’d be happy to help.
