Calling all Beneteau Oceanis 350 Owners

[cookie7777]

I am currently looking at buying a project boat which is a Beneteau Oceanis 350. The boat I'm looking at is in a bit of a poor state, and it's going to be quite a big project, one which I am up for... However, I read this review ((review link below) the only one I could fine, probable as production finished around the mid 90's), the parts which concern me are his comments that the boat will be a poor performer in light winds, and the flip side of the coin that it will also be a poor performer in high winds and maybe have some handling issues. I intend to sail the boat in South East Asia notorious for light winds or strong winds, not much in-between .

Beneteau have a decent reputation on the whole, but we all have bad days and seeing as it was only produced for 6 years i thought maybe this was a clue, I might be looking for something which isn't there...

I don't really want to spend my time restoring a boat which may have got into the condition its in for a very good reason.

Does anyone have any first hand experience of this particular boat or could point me in the direction of more reviews? Ultimately I don't want to try and polish a turd, but it might be a genuine bargain.

Thanks for any help you can offer

Ian

Link to review

BoatUS.com: Boat Reviews by Jack Hornor, N.A. - Beneteau Oceanis 350

[MSN2Travelers]

I don't have this specific model (Oceanis 350) but do have the replacement (Oceanis 352) in the mid-30's range that Beneteau marketed. As a general rule, Beneteau treats the Oceanis line like it was a car. They constantly make changes to the model line and incorperate updates driven by customer comments. They rarely produce a "Oceanis" boat design for more than 5-7 years. A six year run for the 350 indicates nothing special.

The 350, at under 34' LOA, was replaced by the 351 (35') that evolved into the 352 which was replaced by the 361. The interior layout may be different, within a specific model, based on being built in Europe or the US.

You didn't indicate what the current sail inventory is or if you would have to buy all new. Performance can be driven by the hull design as well as the sail plan. Roller furling mains generally have a poorer performance than a traditional main. The addition of a gennaker can make a big difference on light air days. One thing you might do is a google search for "Beneteau 350 PHRF". This will give you a generic idea how O350 is rated vs. other boats when raced. PHRF ratings vary from venue to venue and should only be used to give you a very rough performance indicator.

As for the "review" ... it was obviously written by somebody that never set foot on the boat. All of his conclusions are based on math formulas.

Five of these are currently listed on yachtworld and they vary in price from $72K down to $30K. What makes one boat worth $42K more than the other is beyond me.

Good luck!

[cookie7777]

Dear MSN2Travelers,

Firstly thank you for taking the time and effort to assist/explain to me about beneteau.

The boat sail inventory is as follows (info just supplied by owner):
Mainsail: Rolly Tasker - Slab - 2005
Headsail: Furling - 2009
Others: Assymetric Spinnaker - 2005

I have done some more investigating into the boat and she has quite a past, after speaking in depth with the broker he told me that the boat had been grounded early in her life, and this lead to some damage to "the internal matrix", (gonna come clean here, I have no idea what that is but an educated guess tells me its the main structure), this was repaired, however the repair (which from what i gather was some kind of epoxy patch) is starting to come loose.

Then she was grounded again a few years ago where some cosmetic damage was sustained including a damaged rudder, which was replaced with a non Beneteau rudder, this in turn has lead to a loss in performance.

The long and the short of it is that I think it is a bit more of a project boat than I wanted, especially as the seller is holding his price. And like yourself I was confused as to why their was nearly a 100% price gap, which I am guessing has to be put down to condition and optimism.

I will be taking a pass on this project, thanks in part to your input, thank you.