I took a look at a beneteau 31 and a hunter 33 over the weekend. We're looking for something late model for Dallas area lake use, thus the production boats. Due to some crazy wind (I imagine the same front that caught our friends on Matagorda Bay) there was no actual sailing involved.
I've found very little in the way of reviews on the Beneteau 31, other than the speak-no-evil big magazine reviews. Does anyone own or have experience with one?
I know I'm comparing a 31 to a 33, but from an asking price perspective, they aren't that far apart.
Fit and finish was just fair on both, but probably good enough for our purposes.
From what I could tell sitting still, the Hunter was more liveable below decks (of course it's a bit bigger but I think there's more to it than that.), but the Bene seemed more "sailable". The Hunter had lots more storage below. I'm not sure you could store a standard sized dinner plate on the Bene. I really liked how the Hunter has all the through-hulls under a single panel in the cabin sole. It also had little things like extra 12V outlets in the cabins. I was surprise to find this particular instance had a fixed cooktop, microwave, but no regular oven.
OTOH, the Bene had _lots_ of cockpit storage, and lots of clever features from the companion way on out. The hull shape and more conventional rig would probably make for better sailing--although the beneteau's spreaders sweep back more than I have seen on any non B&R rig.
I've found very little in the way of reviews on the Beneteau 31, other than the speak-no-evil big magazine reviews. Does anyone own or have experience with one?
I know I'm comparing a 31 to a 33, but from an asking price perspective, they aren't that far apart.
Fit and finish was just fair on both, but probably good enough for our purposes.
From what I could tell sitting still, the Hunter was more liveable below decks (of course it's a bit bigger but I think there's more to it than that.), but the Bene seemed more "sailable". The Hunter had lots more storage below. I'm not sure you could store a standard sized dinner plate on the Bene. I really liked how the Hunter has all the through-hulls under a single panel in the cabin sole. It also had little things like extra 12V outlets in the cabins. I was surprise to find this particular instance had a fixed cooktop, microwave, but no regular oven.
OTOH, the Bene had _lots_ of cockpit storage, and lots of clever features from the companion way on out. The hull shape and more conventional rig would probably make for better sailing--although the beneteau's spreaders sweep back more than I have seen on any non B&R rig.