Whats the Benneteau 34.7 like as a cruiser / racer

[ifoxwell]

Following my thread on 32ft cruiser racers I've now come across the 34.7

What are they like as cruiser racers, how well do they rate, how comfortable are they to live with and how easy are they to sail single handed?

Thanks

Ian

 

[flaming]

Following my thread on 32ft cruiser racers I've now come across the 34.7

What are they like as cruiser racers, how well do they rate, how comfortable are they to live with and how easy are they to sail single handed?

Thanks

Ian

Not sailed one, but raced against them a lot. They are absolute weapons in the light, but have a well deserved reputation for being a bit of a handful in a breeze. A few years back there were about 3 that we raced regularly against, and I am well versed in what the keel looks like... I believe that there was an updated rudder that went a long way to fixing the issue, so find out if the one you're looking at has had that.
They were available with both conventional pole and sprit configuration. Certainly round the cans the conventional pole seemed to be the more effective. It is a personal bugbear that designers keep fitting Asymmetric kites to designs that can't plane, either due to marketing or fashion, when a conventional setup would be much faster on a ww/lw track, and that certainly applies here. If you're mainly looking at shorthanded offshore racing then maybe a sprit could work ok for most of the time.

The layout of the 34.7 was a little odd, with a large head in the forepeak and twin aft cabins. Guess it's a personal choice thing, the only comment that springs to mind from a 34.7 crew was that you had to make sure you taped up the bog handles if you were running the kite out of the forehatch, as otherwise there was a very good chance of ripping the kite.

Can't really comment re singlehanding, remember a few doing some doublehanded stuff, and I expect they did well in the light, but I don't specifically recall.

 

[olly_love]

Following my thread on 32ft cruiser racers I've now come across the 34.7

What are they like as cruiser racers, how well do they rate, how comfortable are they to live with and how easy are they to sail single handed?

Thanks

Ian

We were looking at buying on about a year ago.
loved the deck layout and performance however the interior put us off.

it can only sleep 5-6 at a push so with a crew of 8 it would be an issue,
the chainplate webs stop you putting in a pipecot.

still high on our list but as flaming said would be symetric and non overlappers

 

[flaming]

it can only sleep 5-6 at a push so with a crew of 8 it would be an issue,
the chainplate webs stop you putting in a pipecot.

If sleeping its full race crew is a requirement, I'm not sure I can think of any recent cruiser racer that would satisfy that.

 

[olly_love]

most do with large twin doubles and forepeak double, plus some cots,
the problem with the 34.7 is you loose the forepeak and the ability to have cots

 

[ifoxwell]

Thanks guys, very interesting

How do you define 'light stuff' and then at what point does it start getting to be a handful?

 

[flaming]

Thanks guys, very interesting

How do you define 'light stuff' and then at what point does it start getting to be a handful?

I'd call light stuff under 10. Seemed a handful above 15. Based on racing against them, not sailing them, but the guys who had them were very good sailors.