TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Moorings 44.3 versus Mooring 46.3

Hi All,

I am trying to choose between the Moorings 44.3 (Dufour 44) and the Moorings 46.3 (Beneteau Oceanis 46.1) for a charter. Anyone have any experience with either or both of these? Mostly interested in getting the best speed and performance generally, both under sail and under power. I know I should have fairly low expectations for sailing performance on a charter boat (and I do), so maybe it's a question of "least bad". Thanks very much for your thoughts.

Matt

I appreciate speed and performance, but while in the BVI, my crew puts more weight on space and comfort.
Pretty sure 46.3 wins out in all 4 categories. You will especially appreciate the 140 vs 66 gal water capacity.

I have to wonder why you are concerned about speed. Just how far do you intend to be sailing? The longest run we did on our BVI trip was less than 25 miles....

In part I suppose because I just enjoy going fast in a sailboat. But mostly because I will be chartering out of St. Martin, not the BVIs, so there will be some longer passages involved. Thanks.

Never met a true sailor who didnt want a boat that sailed well and fast for its size. I am sure the huge growth of power cats is because some just dont want to sail and that's fine.But IMHO if the things got a pointy up stick it should be trimmed and sailed as often as possible..

We chartered the 46.3 twice, most recently last July and love the boat. I'm not at all interested in speed aspects but one time we came out of the wind shadow of an island with way too much sail up and were hitting 9 knots. With the twin rudder configuration we were never out of control. The self-tacking jib does trade convenience for perhaps some speed. But the boat was great.

I've chartered both. The Dufour and the 46 in the BVI both had self-tacking jibs and they did not perform all that great - but, obviously, much easier to tack and less work demanded of the crew.

All the boats I've gotten in St. Martin have had full Genny's and they were much more fun to sail - but gave my wife and I a workout when tacking in a stiff breeze.

It's close but I'm leaning towards the convenience of self-tacking and just sucking up the hit to performance (but I'm getting older and "easier" is winning out in other things as well).

I don't know if this applies to St. Martin boats but the water maker on the Dufour is a nice extra - especially in St. Martin where water sources are much tougher to come by.

We had quite a few other problems with the Dufour but it was brand new and a lot of kinks were getting worked out. Most were minor and either didn't really matter or quickly fixed. The only real big thing was that there was no bow thrusters. It didn't matter at all to us because I have a crack foredeck crew but if you depend on them, you might want to check whether they are working - it was a design flaw (air con blowing wet air on the circuit boards of the thrusters).

I have a write up in the forum if you want a more in-depth review.