Hey 706jim,

I really liked the 474. There was good view over the stern, and I had good visibility of the mooring balls on approach until they were just off the bow, after which I could rely on hand signals from the crew members picking up the ball. Similar on the 393. The other thing I liked about the 474 was the height of the helm and controls. (I am 6'2"). I like being able to be standing up and looking around while mooring. The helm seat is high also. It looks like some of those newer models are set up to be sitting down at a lower seat while steering. One thing I found on the 474 was that the port and starboard forward supports for the hard top and isinglass partially blocked my line of site ~2-3 points off the bow, so when cruising in open areas I just had to make sure I looked around them to see other vessels off in the distance.

On another item, the 393 has an electric winch on the dinghy davit which is nice, and the 474 has manual capstans which takes a little more effort, but did not bother us.