Wauquiez Centurion 38 / 42 - Opinions pls

[Tradewinds]

I have a friend who is seriously looking at these boats (especialy the 42). He is mid-sixties, his wife is 50. They will sail as a couple with no extra crew for 99% of the time. The yachts are late 80's design.

They currently have a 31ft MAB but would like a larger yacht for all the usual reasons (more room inside, faster passages etc etc). He quite likes to tweak the sails & get the most out of the boat, she is more laid back. Either way they are off for a few months next year exploring the coast of N. France & Brittany.

They have been sailing for about 4 years now are are perfectly competent, visiting Normandy from the East coast for the past 2 or 3 summers.

I've been asked my advice about these boats but I have nothing concrete to offer as I have never sailed one or a similar yacht to these - so my advice is limited to say the least.

My worry is that they could end up buying a yacht that is a handful for them to sail, a yacht that will be too demanding - there seems to be an awful lot of winches esp. on the 42, never mind anything else!

If anyone has experience of these Centurion yachts your opinions as to suitability for an older, shorthanded couple would be most welcome.

TIA

 

[jonic]

No direct experience, but have come across a few on my travels.

Srtong, well built and a good design but they certainly look like they need a bit of crewing.

 

[chrisedwards]

Interesting write up and pictures on Yachtsnet brokerage site. What particularly caught my attention was that it sold so quickly.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

I'm the same age as him and reasonably fit. I am beginning to find winching in on a masthead rig 36 footer is hard work. OK it depends on winch size and sail size and boat weight, but I would not now like to handle a non AWB 40 footer without either electric winches or a fractional sail plan.

No doubt this post will invite someone to claim " I sail a 50 footer single handed and I'm 84 - no problem " to which the answer is " I'm sure".

Suggest he has a trial sail and does a bit of short tacking. He will then know if its OK for him.

 

[Tradewinds]

Thanks for the replies so far which sort of mirrors my views.

I appreciate he should sea trial & try short-tacking the yacht but arranging to do that is quite difficult - I think just arranging the various viewings he had recently was a fairly major (& expensive) logistical exercise.

Anyone out there with actual experience of sailing these marques (or something extremely similar) who could offer a further opinion?

 

[lancerno1]

wauquiez boats

Hi
All the wauquiez yachts from this era are strong and good sea boats, a good site for some background info is www.amphs.org - a french site but has fairly good translation into english- this site is mainly for the wauquiez Amphitrite and Amphora ketches also try the yahoo group " wauquiez- boats".

 

[Resolution]

Tradewinds
Like many on the forum I am in my sixties, and I have a masthead rigged 42 footer. At this size, the really valuable extra is the electric halyard winch. We have a fully-battened main(on Harken cars) with lazyjacks. Hoisting is done by my wife on the selt-tailing electric winch, while I try to steer a straight course to get the batten ends up between the lazyjacks without snagging. No physical effort required really, and dropping is even easier and safer. Reefing is conventional slab stuff, and again the electric winch means that this requires no strength.
The genoa is on a furler and is pretty big. However we've found that in cruising work if the helm points up for a moment then the grinding in is not too much like hard work.
Berthing is more of a problem, partly due to the height from which one has to jump down onto the pontoon, partly due to the weight in the mooring lines.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

Tradewinds
Like many on the forum I am in my sixties, and I have a masthead rigged 42 footer. At this size, the really valuable extra is the electric halyard winch. We have a fully-battened main(on Harken cars) with lazyjacks. Hoisting is done by my wife on the selt-tailing electric winch, while I try to steer a straight course to get the batten ends up between the lazyjacks without snagging. No physical effort required really, and dropping is even easier and safer. Reefing is conventional slab stuff, and again the electric winch means that this requires no strength.
The genoa is on a furler and is pretty big. However we've found that in cruising work if the helm points up for a moment then the grinding in is not too much like hard work.
Berthing is more of a problem, partly due to the height from which one has to jump down onto the pontoon, partly due to the weight in the mooring lines.

We have an Oyster Heritage 37 and agree that mooring up is one of the greatest difficulties for more advanced age couples! The yacht is heavy and it's a fair hop down to a pontoon and if head or stern blow away, it needs both of us to pull her back. I'm researching bow thrusters at the Soton Show!!
Our yacht has inmast furling and that has not proved difficult for either of us to handle, but until we made our best purchase yet, a 110% blade jib/genoa, the headsail was a nightmare for just the 2 of us. The boat does have electric sheet winches but we very rarely use them.
Since we had a Centurion 32 for 16 years we looked closely for a Gladiateur or Praetorian but could not find one at the time. Wauquiez yachts are very well put together and worthy of serious consideration. Has your friend considered either of those?

 

[Fergus]

With a heavy duty millwaukee right angle drill hoisting the main is a doddle! Wouldn't go anywhere without mine!

 

[Tradewinds]

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies. They've been passed on.

Any other info welcome.

 

[Flapjack]

My daughters friend’s dad has taken 4 years out to sail a Wauquiez Centurion 36 around the world, have a read of his blog, he likes his a lot

http://thegoodshipmagnum.blogspot.com/