The Sun Odyssey 349 is Jeanneau’s new entry-level cruiser. But she’s far from basic, as Sam Fortescue reports from his test in a sunny, but light-wind Cannes.
This is an excerpt from Sam Fortescue’s full review which can be found in Sailing Today 207, on sale Thursday 29th May
Since it was launched at the Paris Boat Show in December, Jeanneau has sold more than 70 examples of the new Sun Odyssey 349. For most boatbuilders, this would fill the order books for years and keep a smile on the face for even longer. But Jeanneau is one of the biggest production builders in the industry, and its business plan requires this sort of colossal output.
To justify the cost of tooling three new moulds, the yard aims to produce two boats per day. There’s no messing about with hand lay-up: lean manufacturing principles require vacuum infusion, precise computer-controlled cutting and a host of other efficient technologies. It’s all about volume. And this is not a bad thing, as my test sail of the new 349 in Cannes showed.
The boat is available with a variety of different keels, but ours (and she is something of a prototype) comes with a lifting keel. The keel weighs 1,500kg, so it takes a hydraulic ram to raise it. But the set-up is such that any collision with the seabed under way forces the keel to start swinging up – like a giant shock absorber. This option broadens the keel box under the saloon table (and costs about £7,200 extra), but there is also a shallow and deep keel option.
Despite a heavy swell and Force 5-6 in Cannes’ Napoule Gulf a day earlier, test day dawned still, flat and sunny. Once out of the Vieux Port, we registered 4 or 5 knots true wind from the southeast. Sometimes a yacht’s potential becomes clearer in extreme conditions – whether violent or mild. In this case, the low wind gave us a great opportunity to unfurl the Code Zero on a Harken furler on the boat’s stubby bowsprit. A tug on the sheet was all it took, to add an impressive knot to our boat speed.
With our test boat’s fat-head main in Mylar taffeta (a c£3,000 option), we caught the faint zephyr and tiptoed along at 3.2 knots, 60° off the true wind. On a broad reach, she picked up a bit of way – 4.2 knots in 5 knots of true wind – and as the sea breeze filled in a fraction, she made a very healthy 5 knots at 130° off a true wind of 6.5 knots.
Verdict:
As modern yachts go, this is a small boat, but she is a capable cruiser. I’d have no problem taking her offshore and with the new lifting-keel version, she’s great inshore as well, although you still need legs to beach her. A lot of thought has gone into a clever rig, and though her lack of travellers may have more traditional sailors shaking their heads, it is elegantly set up and looks almost racy.
As usual, you wouldn’t get far without taking a host of options, but this certainly gives flexibility.
You’d be unlikely to buy a boat this size for ocean passage-making, but there’s no reason you couldn’t take her further afield with some extras installed. She’s been designed with the Channel cruiser market in mind and her stiffest competition probably comes from secondhand boats.
Tech specs:
Price: From £63,174 (UK on the water)
LOA: 33ft 11in (10.3m)
LWL: 30ft 10in (9.40m)
Beam: 11ft 3in (3.4m)
Draught (fin/shoal): 6ft 6in/4ft 11in (2m/1.5m)
Displacement: 11,795lb (5,350kg)
Upwind sail area: 595sqft (55.3m2)
Fuel: 130lt (28 gallons)
Water: 206lt (45 gallons)
Berths: 6/8
Engine: Yanmar 3YM20, 16.2kW
Designer: Marc Lombard
Builder: Jeanneau
UK supplier: See distributors at www.jeanneau.com
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The post Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 349: Review and Test appeared first on Sailing Today.