jeanneau sailboats reviews

Yachting World

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Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 review: from the archive

• Matthew Sheahan
• May 26, 2021

Matthew Sheahan investigates a new mid-range cruiser, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37, to find out what you get for your mone

Easy to handle, practical - and pretty - the Jeanneau will fill the bill for most people's family cruising. Credit: Yachting World

Product Overview

Manufacturer:.

Jeanneau are on a roll at the moment. Over the past few years they’ve avoided the bright lights and excitement of fancy racing machines and radical cruising designs in favour of more modest, subtle cruisers and their latest, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 is once again in this mould.

The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40 is a good example of this concept too. This is a boat that not only sails well and is comfortable above and below decks but actually looks good, too.

It’s easy to dismiss this last point but as far as I’m concerned there are far too many ugly ducklings out there and the 40’s new sister is not one of them.

A cracker from the start, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 has inherited the same sleek lines in profile as her bigger sister and that puts her 15-love up immediately.

Looks count for lots in my book, especially when you’re spending as much money as you might on a house.

Of course safe practical boats are very important but the fact is that it is difficult to walk away from a family cruiser this attractive. Difficult but not impossible. She does have her weaknesses.

Designed by Jacques Faroux, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 has been created to cater for a wide range of uses, from short-handed family sailing to fully loaded charter work.

As a ‘one size fits all’ type of boat, her brief is bound to lead to corn promises. Take the cockpit, for instance. Open, spacious, comfortable and convivial to seat six for an alfresco lunch at anchor. But under sail those with legs any shorter than Naomi Campbell’s will be struggling to stop themselves from sliding to leeward as the scats are set too far apart, with only a small teak strip on the cockpit floor to act as a foot brace.

Then there’s the old chestnut of handling the mainsheet from behind the wheel, (or rather not being able to), as well as a mainsheet traveller so far forward and so short that you wonder why it’s there at all.

There are a few cheap-looking shackles and light-looking fittings, too, making you wish a few more Euros had been spent just to lift the final quality of the boat’s basic spec.

But at the end of the day criticisms like these are just niggles because the rest of the boat is well thought out. Simple, comfortable and, in the main, practical for the usage she’s likely to get.

Accommodation and construction

Below decks the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 once again apes the style or the 40, with a large galley to starboard and a small face-to-face type navigation table to port.

The layout as a whole is typical of Jeanneau ‘s current approach which is to put greater emphasis on space and comfort than on the practical aspects of long periods at sea.

The ample seating to starboard and large bench-type settee to port, with little in between to clutter the space, is just one example of the simplicity of a layout that allows her accommodation to breathe.

The spacious and simple double cabin forward and the layout of the head continued the trend and only the slightly cramped after cabin contradicts the impression of spacious living.

In the case of the head aboard the two-cabin layout, the arrangement benefits from having a single, larger than normal, combined head and shower arrangement where the shower area and wet hanging space is divided off from the head itself with a smart perspex tinted door.

The layout and proportions of the head reflect a style more commonly seen in a Holiday Inn than aboard a 30-something production cruiser, but the change is a welcome one.

Interestingly, the style throughout the rest of the interior is considerably less adventurous and rather reflects a careful balance between efficiency and cosiness.

Deep behind the Velcro-hung cushions and roughly varnished locker lids, the basic structure looks well put together and chunky, leaving little to worry about on the structural side.

The construction falls in line with Jeanneau’s normal build system with a solid laminate hull and conventionally laminated longitudinals and transverse members giving her both the appearance and credentials of a robust cruiser.

Closer to the surface, although still normally out of sight, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 was less well finished, with rough edges to some or the joinery and a varnish finish that felt a touch on the thin side.

Overall she’s still perfectly acceptable but will need to be looked after if she’s to maintain her looks for years to come.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 Under way

Slipping out of even the tightest of berths should present few problems aboard the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37.

Her 40hp saildrive engine (27hp is standard) may not provide the kind or propwalk that can be used to crank you out of a tight corner but she’s still easily manageable, especially with her fixed prop.

Once under way she turns tightly, stops quickly and goes astern as easily as she goes ahead.

Under sail she’s just as well behaved. albeit subject to my usual round of reservations about not being able to handle the mainsheet from behind the wheel.

The masthead rig means that there is a large overlapping headsail to handle, which also means that someone in the crew is bound to get some upper body exercise as soon as the boat goes up­wind.

Once wound up onto the breeze during our test, the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 bowled along at around 5.8 knots in 12-14 true and a flat sea.

She felt pleasantly slippery, accelerating to slight increases in breeze but without ever feeling like she was about to misbehave.

Her wheel was large enough to provide good visibility forward and her gear ratio felt spot on. giving good feel through the helm.

Where l believe she could be improved is in the ability to change gear as the breeze comes up.

An adjustable back stay tensioner and a set of genoa car pullers are just two extras l’d want fitted to give me a bit more flexibility as the breeze fluctuates. It may sound too racy for cruising, but who actually likes putting reefs in? Changing gear with just these two controls is often enough.

First published in the June 2000 issue of Yachting World.

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2020 Jeanneau NC 895 Sport

• By Chris Caswell
• Updated: August 18, 2020

You don’t have to be a computer geek to know that abbreviations abound on everything from Twitter to emails (LOL), so I’m inventing one right now that will come up regularly in this test of the new Jeanneau NC 895 Sport: SFABTS. It stands for “Surprising for a Boat This Size,” and I’ll use it a lot.

The 895 translates from meters to just over 28 feet LOA. The NC stands for New Concept, which it certainly is for those of us on this side of the Pond. (It’s called the Merry Fisher in France, but I can see all kinds of issues with that translation.) This is the Sport version with twin outboards, and a boat that will find ready acceptance whether in colder northern waters or steamy tropics, or for fishing or family outings.

You might question the word “Sport,” since the styling is “commercial fishing boat vertical” with a square pilothouse and a windscreen that slants slightly forward rather than back, but it’s the first of our SFABTS moments. It doesn’t waste dashboard, it minimizes reflections, and it keeps rain off the windshield and sun off the helm.

Yet the NC 895 Sport is one of the brightest and lightest boats I’ve been aboard recently. Start with the windshield—one piece, two wipers, big. Then there’s side windows that start low (below dinette level) and go to the overhead, and an oversize slider aft (note the single level from transom step to helm).

But there’s more. Not only is there an opening window to port, but the skipper has a big walk-through sliding door next to the helm seat, which is perfect for short-handing, or just yelling at the gas dock attendant. I loved that the door can lock partially ajar, to give the skipper a taste of breeze on hot days. And then there are two large (33-inch) sunroofs that slide independently, so you can open the 895 to feel a breeze on four sides. Should this not be enough, opt for the Westerbeke 3.5 kW generator to power enough air conditioning to get you through the steamiest summer (or stretch your winter season by months with heat). There’s a dedicated cockpit compartment to make access easy.

A word about power: Jeanneau decrees you can have only twin 200 hp or 250 hp Yamahas, which the builder has chosen for the balance of power versus speed versus economy. The choice is easy: Go for the 250s. Yamaha engineering boffins were tinkering with props during our test, but we nailed a solid 47 mph while they fooled around. SFABTS. The engines are too close together for Yamaha Helm Master joystick steering, but our test boat had the optional Quick electric bow thruster for maneuvering.

Interior and Accessories

The cockpit is nothing but cool, with an aft seat that slides forward so you can tilt the outboards above water. Imagine, replacing less zincs (or even lower units). Optional folding cockpit seats around the available 2-by-4-foot table (the French love alfresco dining) don’t hinder access to the starboard swim platform with folding ladder or the 16-inch-wide side deck to the bow wraparound seating.

Like all of us, the French fret about kids around water, so the cockpit coamings are a full 36 inches high, with gates protecting the two swim platforms. A starboard side-deck door through the coaming makes boarding from the dock easy, as well as jumping ashore from the helm.

Inside is SFABTS. Les Francais have, in a 28-footer, achieved two private staterooms, each with a closing door and nearly 6 feet of headroom to pull on les pantolons in the morning. There is an enclosed head (same headroom) complete with shower and a folding seat over the loo.

Up in the salon, the dinette easily seats four, and a backrest flips to become a forward-facing companion seat. The galley is elegantly simple, with a single gas burner and a pressure sink on the dash in front of the companion. A 68-quart fridge is tucked under the helm seat for, at a guess, 25 Champagne bottles to toast your smarts in acquiring the 895 Sport.

When it comes to sleeping off the Champagne, the forward stateroom has the expected V-berth, and it’s 7 feet long to minimize tangled toes.

The second stateroom is tucked under the salon, and I’d be tempted to claim this as the owner’s cabin because it has a 55-by-78-inch rectangular berth, just a few inches shy of a queen (60-by-80). Both cabins get great light through hullside windows, and the fore cabin has a large opening port as well as a hatch.

Shopping around? Check out the 9-inch-longer Cutwater C-302 Sport Coupe with twin Yamaha 300s and more standard equipment: genset, thrusters, etc. ($304,937).

Underway, the NC 895 Sport is a SFABTS hoot, with the power of 500 snorting horses to give skiers or wakeboarders a serious ride, and enough punch so the skipper should warn, “OK, hang on everyone,” when he nails the throttles. The 895 goads you into carving some doughnuts just for the heck of it, and we sliced through fat wakes with aplomb. The skipper has, by the way, a compact but thoughtful dash, with room for twin monitors, a tidy row of illuminated rockers, and optional ZipWake trim tabs, which did an admirable job of keeping us running fast and efficiently.

Solidly built by Jeanneau and with more than 1,500 already launched in Europe, the NC 895 is truly SFABTS: Surprising for a Boat This Size.

I loved her. Je l’aime !

How We Tested

• Engines: Twin 250 hp Yamaha V-6 4.2-liter
• Drive/Props: Outboard/Yamaha 15 3/4″ x 15″ Saltwater Series II stainless-steel 3-blade
• Gear Ratio: 1.75:1 Fuel Load: 100 gal. Water on Board: 10 gal. Crew Weight: 1,300 lb.

High Points

• Side-door access from the helm makes short-handing a cinch; kick out the fenders, grab dock lines, and be close to the helm.
• Outboards that tilt completely out of the water eliminate many maintenance issues, especially in salt water.
• Great access to service points, shut-off valves and battery switches.
• Every ounce of possible space is used for stowage lockers or hatches.
• One-burner stove says “let’s eat ashore,” unless you’re jonesing for soup. The builder should at least add a microwave.
• Hanging locker should include either a bar or shelves.
• Electronics rack atop the cabin roof for radar, antennas, spotlight, etc. is clunky.

Pricing and Specs

Speed, efficiency, operation.

Jeanneau – Annapolis, Maryland; 410-280-9400; jeanneauamerica.com

• More: 20-30ft , boat tests , Boats , jeanneau , outboards , Runabouts , September 2020

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• Sailboat Reviews

Jeanneau Arcadia

A sleek, modern european-style cruiser from one of the world's largest boat builders..

A mixture of old and new, of reality and hype, seems to characterize the Jeanneau company and its boats. A bit of old-fashioned attention to detail; a bit of high-tech stamp-em-out production. A bit of old-fashioned engineering; a bit of “to hell with tradition, let’s make this boat different.”

To most Americans, the Jeanneau boats seem to have appeared suddenly, but the company has been around since l956. Aggressive entry into the American market resulted when Lear Siegler bought Jeanneau and the other Bangor Punta boat companies (Cal, O’Day, Ranger) in 1983.

Like most of the Jeanneaus, the Arcadia (pronounced “Are-caw-dee-yah”) is rare in America—only a few were imported—but, also like most of the Jeanneaus, the total production run is incredible—the factory popped out 600 completed boats in the Arcadia’s first two years. The only American company that could even aspire to such numbers in a 30-footer is Catalina, and they produce a miniscule number of models compared to Jeanneau.

A notable thing about Jeanneau is the diversity of designers—almost all “big names,” at least in Europe, and almost all with grand-prix racing credentials: Guy Dumas, Doug Peterson, Philippe Briand, Jacques Fauroux, the Joubert/Nivelt team.

The designer of the Arcadia is Tony Castro, new to Americans but an established designer in Europe. Of Portuguese descent, Castro began his work with Ron Holland in Ireland, then set up his own shop in 1981 and achieved success designing successful IOR racing machines. Now a British citizen, he has two other designs in production at Jeanneau, and a third—an IOR half-tonner—scheduled for production soon.

The design of the Arcadia is not IOR. We would call it “moderate modern,” of relatively light displacement and shallow hull, with a high aspect ratio keel, separated spade rudder, and beamy hull.

Her appearance is, well, “European.” The flat sheer, a doghouse that slopes forward into the foredeck, long black windows (you can’t call them “ports”), and blunt ends make up that “European” look which is decidedly—almost blatantly—nontraditional.

“Thoroughly modern” is a term that appears several times in Jeanneau’s advertising blurbs.

Construction

In contrast to the boat’s image, the construction of the Arcadia is anything but high-tech.

The hull is standard hand laid fiberglass mat and roving; the deck is standard hand laid fiberglass with balsa core in spots. The balsa-core “spots” seemed to be less extensive than normal (we couldn’t examine much of the deck molding because of the interior ceiling liner), but the deck was stiff enough underfoot. The deck hardware we could examine was through-bolted with big washers, but there were no backing plates on anything.

The hull-to-deck joint typifies the construction of the boat. The joint appears to be a standard inward-turning flange on the hull, on which the deck molding rests. Then 1/4″ stainless bolts are set through an aluminum toerail as well as the deck and the hull flange.

Pretty normal so far, but Jeanneau finishes off the joint on the inside by laying a thick layer of fiberglass over everything—from the hull, over the seam, covering the bolts, onto the deck. It looks strong—a good way to build a decent hull-to-deck joint on a fast moving production line. The reservation we have about it is in repairs—if the joint is damaged, it will be tough to examine thoroughly and tough to fix. Similarly, the joint should never leak, but if it does, tracking down the source will be nearly impossible.

Generally, the glasswork and gelcoat look good; the two hulls we examined were smooth and fair.

The boat’s strength and stiffness probably come from Jeanneau’s practice of bonding everything to everything else. Not only are the athwartship bulkheads bonded to the hull and deck with fiberglass tape, but cabinet fronts are bonded to hull and bulkheads, cabinet sides are bonded to fronts and bulkheads, the head door frame is bonded to the engine box frame which is bonded to the hull and to the cockpit, and so on. The whole interior is obviously prefabricated in typical production line fashion, but we’ve never seen another production boat in which the interior parts were so much fiberglassed to each other and to the hull. It seems like a good lowtech method of acquiring stiffness without skeleton framing or coring the hull.

Like many of the Jeanneaus, the Arcadia comes with either a centerboard or an external keel—about 70% having been keel models. The keel is unusual in two respects. First, rather than lead, it’s iron, coated with fiberglass to prevent corrosion. Second, the keelbolts are not vertical and on centerline in the normal fashion. Instead, they are set in pairs, angled from the sides of the keel inward so that, inside the hull, the bolts, were they long enough, would converge and touch. Further, once the keel is bolted on, a heavy layer of fiberglass is laid in the bilge to fully cover the bolts. As with the hull-to-deck joint, this looks strong and leak proof, but again we would be concerned about the difficulty of repairs and finding leaks following a hard grounding. The keel that we examined was fair and well finished. We did not inspect a centerboard model.

The spade rudder is supported by a small skeg; the one we saw was well finished except for a rough trailing edge. Tiller steering is standard on the Arcadia, but both boats we examined had the optional Plastimo wheel steering, with a “European size” wheel, about 24″ diameter. Most Americans like a much bigger wheel; unfortunately a larger one could not be fitted without major modifications to the cockpit seats.

The rig generally looks to be pretty standard issue—masthead rigged sloop, with upper and aftlower shrouds and a “baby stay” forward. The boat we examined had double spreaders, whereas the company literature and photos show a single-spreader mast. The company does advertise an optional tall “lake” rig, but this is designed only for European inland lakes and would be unsuitable for coastal, Great Lakes, or offshore sailing. None were imported into the U.S.

The upper shroud chainplates are anchored on a transverse overhead frame which begins at a settee bulkhead on the hull and then extends up over the cabin and down to the hull on the opposite side, with a compression post in the middle of the cabin under the mast. The frame is bonded to the hull and deck and should provide adequate strength and mast support. The lower shroud chainplates are anchored to a similar frame, bonded only to the hull and side decks.

A final note on the Jeanneau’s construction. We asked the dealer who was showing us one of the Arcadias to pick out one thing that made the Jeanneau different from the three American brands he also handles. “They are dry,” he said. “I don’t know how they do it, but they just don’t leak, either from the top of the deck downward or from the bottom of the hull upward.” From a dealer who has sponged out a lot of bilges before bringing customers on board, those are words of praise.

Handling Under Power

The two Arcadias that we looked at had two-banger diesels—one a Yanmar, the other a Volvo (production line changes, again). Sales literature lists an outboard version—thankfully no such monster is likely to be imported—and a version with either a one or a two cylinder Yanmar. For a 6000+ pound boat, we would consider the one cylinder very marginal and recommend the two cylinder, along with the optional folding prop.

The engine installation is well done (stringers and beds bonded to everything in sight) with soundproofing on the compartment walls, a waterlift muffler, and a seven gallon fuel tank. There is good accessibility to the engine through the aft cabin and through the removable companionway, except that the dipstick on the Yanmar is hard to get at.

Two details impressed us. The engine compartment has a small electric bilge pump as standard equipment in the sump below the prop shaft’s packing gland—one place that is likely to have water. And, in the front of the companionway steps that open onto the engine, there’s a 2″ hole with a plastic cover, the function of which baffled not only us but also the first person who showed us the boat. Finally, the dealer explained its purpose: in the event of an engine room fire, pull the plastic cover, insert the working end of a fire extinguisher, and discharge it. Eminently more practical than pulling off the companionway steps and feeding more oxygen to the flames.

Under power with the folding prop, the boat handled satisfactorily, backing where we wanted to back it, with adequate power in forward and reverse. Visibility from behind the wheel is decent, but there is no comfortable place to sit aft and the wheel is too small to reach from the sidedeck. The engine had no more vibration than you’d expect from a two-cylinder diesel and was a bit quieter than other boats, probably because of the insulation in the engine compartment.

Handling Under Sail

We were able to sail the Arcadia for only about an hour; unfortunately, we have too few reader responses to make many valid judgements about the Arcadia’s performance under a variety of conditions (most of our owner’s responses are based on a single season’s sailing, or less).

In our limited experience, we found that she went to weather, reached, and ran very much like other contemporary racer-cruisers. She pounded a bit in a short chop, as you might expect from her shallow hull design, but we saw no other bad habits. (Her sails are from a small French loft, “Ton,” and are adequate. Racers will want to get better.)

Her PHRF rating of 150 suggests that overall performance under sail is about midway between older racer-cruisers like the Pearson 30 or Tartan 30 and the newer racer-cruisers like the Santana 30/30 or the S2 9.1. We were hoping that—as a Tony Castro design—she might be a rocketship, but she’s not. She will be a fast cruiser, and an owner will be able to race her under PHRF.

Deck Layout

With inboard shrouds, wide sidedecks, and the sloping cabin top, the Arcadia is easy to move around on and to work under sail. We only noted two problems: first, the foredeck becomes very narrow—an impediment to easy foresail and anchor handling that is all too common in modern designs. Second, the cockpit was uncomfortable—the seats a little too narrow, the backs too vertical, and the footwell maybe a little too deep. We also had trouble reaching the small wheel from either the windward or leeward sidedecks where you would normally sit while racing.

Deck fittings are generally good quality and adequately sized, with everything necessary to race the boat except spinnaker gear coming as standard equipment. We did feel that the designer had not quite thought through crew positions for working the boat—what should be done at the mast, what from the cockpit—surprising for a contemporary IOR designer who must attend to those details. Most owners will probably rearrange things after a season’s experience.

The non-skid is average, but there are some nice details on deck such as the twin bow rollers for anchor handling, the sturdy latch on the anchor locker, and the large mooring cleats. There’s a space at the back of the cockpit for life raft stowage and for propane bottles, and a stowage bracket for a horseshoe buoy built into the stern pulpit. The stern pulpit opens up to a folding stainless ladder.

It is “downstairs” that Jeanneau really spits in the eye of tradition—not just in the Arcadia but in most of their models. Most obvious is the layout, with the Arcadia’s head and the owner’s double-berth cabin packed into the rear third of the boat, partly under the cockpit. Both head and owner’s cabin are a little cramped, but for a smallish 30-footer, it’s surprising they are possible at all.

The rest of the cabin is wide open, with a small galley and navigation table opposite each other, then settee berths on either side of a fold-up centerline table, then a crawl-in forward berth.

We noted three drawbacks. First, the forward Vberth is too short for adults. Second, anyone over 5′ 8″ or so cannot sit upright on the settee berths without banging the overhead. Third, the standing headroom at the aft end of the cabin disappears as you walk forward under the sloping deckhouse.

This last item we really find hard to understand, since headroom is something most people are looking for, and the only apparent reason not to have it in a 30-footer is to satisfy the “style” of the sloping deck house. (There is a bit of a weight saving that might be important in a racer but hardly valuable in the Arcadia.) Oddly, the same headroom problem exists even in the 34′ Jeanneau Sunrise that we looked at.

The interior of the Arcadia is all woody and undoubtedly one of the strong selling points at boat shows. Teak-faced plywood is all over the place. We thought the veneer work was good for production line work, especially where the veneer covered the plywood edges—for example in the window cutouts. The wood has a light coating of varnish, even inside lockers and drawers. The overhead has a soft vinyl covering that looks a little better than bare fiberglass. Inside hardware—like hinges and latches—is noticeably better than on the usual American production boat.

A strange detail is the manual bilge pump whose handle sticks out of the side of the chart table into the middle of the cabin.

Oddly, the boats we inspected were not “Americanized.” Most owners would likely want shore power, but this is not a company option—it will have to be installed by the owner or dealer. The galley stove comes with hook-ups for butane which will have to be converted to propane. And many Americans looking at a 30-footer might expect a shower, which will be difficult to install on this boat.

Conclusions

Overall the Jeanneau Arcadia surprised us. We were expecting a boat comparable in quality to mid-line American production boats; we found the Jeanneau to be somewhat better in construction and in many details. Being fond of tradition, we have a problem with the style of most of the Jeanneaus, including the Arcadia, but ultimately style is a tenuous criticism of a boat, unless it is truly ugly.

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Jeanneau 795 Review

In Europe this boat is called the Merry Fisher 795 and in the New World, the NC 795 . I’ve owned it for a few months and improved it a bit and taken it a few places and feel like sharing.

Why review? · At this point, regular readers are thinking WTF, boat review?!? I’ve only been on a handful, I’ve only owned one since 2012, I’m still occasionally baffled by nautical jargon, and my command of knots remains imperfect.

Here’s why. When you go shopping for a refrigerator or car or coffee-maker or TV or (especially) camera, there are loads of excellent detailed skeptical-voiced reviews you can read before you cough up the money. Boats (which cost more money than most of those things) are different. All the online reviews seem to be from dealers or magazine-writers on the comp, and are by and large paeans of praise.

There are owners’ forums out there, but they tend to focus on specific problems and solutions. What’s especially missing is “I have one of these, here are the good parts and bad parts.”

I’m not completely unqualified. It’s been at my dock for a few months, I’ve installed improvements, I’ve piloted twenty-plus hours on it, motored through extreme beauty and nasty scary rough water, taken guests on pleasure cruises and a grouchy family on a tired commute, and used it as an office for a few afternoons.

So I’ll see if I can beg a few links from other 795 owners on the forums and get this a bit of GoogleJuice with the aim of better equipping other boat shoppers like me.

Facts · Jeanneau has been making boats since 1957 . That link is to French Wikipedia; the English version is mostly empty and I should fix it up. The interesting, complicated story is nicely told in English by Malcolm Perrins on a Jeanneau-owners community site. The company, since its founding by Henry Jeanneau, has been sold multiple times to US and French companies and is now owned by Beneteau .

The dealer told me that the Jeanneau powerboats are built in Poland  —  this made him happy because for some obscure reason it leads to favorable import-tax treatment. The Jeanneau America site says “Built in America” and the first version of this piece doubted that, but a reader from Michigan wrote “We have the NC 895. It is built in Cadillac Michigan. They took the old Fourwinns plant.”

Our boat’s curtains are labeled “Made in France” and the appliances such as chargers and thrusters and fridges are Eurobuilt and their manuals have Italian or French as the first language, with English further back in the book. So I’m inclined to believe the France/Poland story in this case.

People who are buying a boat care a lot about dimensions because one of the hardest parts is finding a place that’s big enough and deep enough to park it. The 795 is 7.34m or or 24’4" long, and 2.99m or 9’9" wide, with a hull depth of a mere 0.56m or 1’10"  —  that’s with the outboard hoisted, which is how you normally park it.

The 795 comes with a Yamaha outboard, either 150 or 200hp, and lots of options . It’s got a modest-sized berth in the bow, a tiny but functional head (as in bathroom), and similarly tiny stove and fridge. What electronics you get apparently depends on the dealer.

Good: Engine · We have the Yamaha F200 and since it’s an out board, there’s more room in side the boat. I’d never really been aware of this line of motors but now when I walk around any marina I see that somewhere between a third and a half of the powerboats are wearing them. So, right in the middle of the mainstream.

It’s got a very decent little electronic control screen on the dashboard and the docs are clear and comprehensive.

We set it at 4500RPM and it pushes the boat along at a little over 40km/h, depending on wind and waves. If you open it wide up on smooth water you can get up well over fifty clicks but the experience is not relaxing, or cheap either.

Good: Comfort · Not just good, excellent. The pilothouse has room for a driver and two more people in comfort, four if they’re not chunky or need extra personal space. (Protip: The aft bench is way more comfy.) The cockpit out back has forward-facing seating for three with a cushion to lean back on, and then a couple more benches but they’re less comfy. We’ve been out for a slow cruise on a warm night to watch fireworks with seven aboard and it was just fine.

The pilothouse is really the best feature. It has a sliding “Alaska bulkhead” which means a glass door that closes, leaving the motor and its racket outside; inside, you can have a civilized conversation without shouting.

Good: Swimming platform · It’s just big enough and has a nice practical swimming ladder. We’ve used it every time we’ve been to the cabin. I shot that fireworks picture above sitting on the platform dangling my feet in the Pacific; very relaxing.

Bad: Living quarters · While they advertise two berths, realistically there’s just not enough space for more than one couple and they’d better be intimate. What with the tiny fridge and stove, I don’t think this is the boat for a lengthy family cruise up a wild coastline.

Good: Windshield · And I mean awesome. This puppy’s front glass is the size of a small European nation and when you’re sailing home with the sun behind you in a long Canadian sunset with the mountains filling the sky in front, well, there just aren’t words for that.

Coming into a Vancouver from a weekend at the cottage; about two thirds of the windshield are shown. That’s the West End at the left and the Burrard Street Bridge behind the wiper. The little grey screen on the left is the Yamaha engine readout; some timing thing prevents the Pixel 2 from photographing it properly.

The wipers’ coverage isn’t that great, leaving swathes of uncleaned glass in dirty weather, but you can see the important stuff. And it comes with a windshield-washing squirter system just like your car’s, which turns out to be brilliant when you hit big waves and they splash up and want to leave sticky salt crystals where you’re trying to look out. You load it with windshield fluid from the gas station.

It’s worth mentioning the side windows too, which open and close easily and let loads of fresh air in at cruising speed without blasting your head off, and seem completely rain-proof too.

Good: Bow thruster · This is magic. We have a nice easy tie-up along the side of a dock, not crammed into a little slip, but it’s on the left as you come in and the boat wants to be tied up with its right side to the dock, so a 180° turn in tight quarters is called for. With the thruster and a light touch, it’s reasonably straightforward. The thruster is also useful as compensation for any dumb piloting errors around the dock  —  of course, these never happen when I’m at the wheel.

Good: It’s hackable · In the Jeanneau owners’ community I found an active boat-improvement culture; they’re always adding something or replacing something else. By dint of extensive research from primary sources, by which I mean watching YouTube videos, I have learned how to attach things to fiberglass (Protip: Get a countersink bit for your drill) and have so far improved ours by fastening the fire extinguisher to a handy bulkhead, equipping the head with a toilet-paper rod, and installing a garbage-bag holder. Call me Ishmael.

There are a variety of surfaces suitable for equipping with electronic upgrades or just decorations. We’ve decorated a couple with family photos.

Bad: Documentation · Hailing from the technology space means that I should be restrained in criticizing other professions’ end-user documentation. The boat came with a nice Jeanneau-branded satchel full of dead trees; the quality of exposition and language is, well, mixed. Highlights are the books for the Yamaha engine and the boat itself. The low point is the Lowrance navigation electronics tome, obviously executed by manic pixies on acid. The information is more or less all there but requires deep digging and Zen calm to extract.

My favorite though is the anchor-winch system, which is written in impenetrably-nautical English. Fortunately it’s accompanied by a diagram with all the parts carefully named and numbered. Unfortunately, about half the nautical names studding the text do not appear in the picture.

To be fair, I managed to figure it out well enough to anchor us (in shallow water with nearly no wind) for firework-watching.

My niece Anne capturing a water-color impression of Indian Arm .

Good: Piloting · The driver’s seat is comfy, the steering and throttle are crisp and responsive, and the view forward and aft is excellent. Steering at speed is a little heavier and slower than our previous inboard-outboard, but it’s plenty good enough to dodge a floating log. I’d actually like a bigger steering wheel that’s closer to me, so there’s another boat-improvement project.

Good: Access · Getting from the cockpit around to the foredeck, and up and down the sides for washing and so on, is all dead easy. The cabin is a little off-center, leaving a walkway along one side; and both sides have intelligently-placed handholds to make things easy and safe.

Bad: Flat bottom · The draft is remarkably small and the bottom, compared to the last boat, is pretty flat. This means that when you hit big waves, for example a ferry wake that you stupidly failed to notice until you were right on top of it cruising at 40km/h, you tend to skip along from wave to wave, hitting each one with a jarring “slap” of the flat bottom. This can fling passengers about a bit in a seriously uncomfortable way. Protip: Be on the sharp lookout for incoming waves and slow the hell down.

I’m not a bossy skipper but we have imposed one rule: If you want to move around the cabin, say so and we’ll slow down while you do. This after I nearly put my niece in orbit when she was going to get her backpack and I slammed on the brakes because I thought I saw some peril out front.

Good: Home office · I’m doing WFB (work from boat) one afternoon most weeks now, and it’s just terrific. The aft passenger-side bench is reasonably ergonomic and the table’s at a sane height. I often make a cup of tea and stash a snack in the fridge. I have taken conference calls, drafted and reviewed documents, reviewed code, and once (cackling with glee) checked in code to the AWS production repository.

I haven’t convinced any colleagues to come down for an in-boat meeting yet; it’s just a matter of time. But I’m just not gonna install whiteboards.

Mixed: Online community · The biggest is the Owners’ Forum , which is OK but suffers from Jeanneau having so many products. There’s also a group on Facebook, obviously. I’ve picked up valuable tips in both places.

Bad: Missing pieces · There’s no automatic bilge pump, which I find shocking, but on the other hand I have to say it stays almost bone-dry down there, even with mixed hot & cold weather, bashing through pretty rough seas, several days of heavy rain, and regular thorough washing (the honeymoon is still on).

There’s no horn; our previous boat had one and while I only ever used it once or twice, I was glad of it.

There’s no built-in heater. Our journeys typically aren’t long enough to need one on the water, but this might be an issue in home-office mode. Multiple owners have installed diesel heaters, and I have a nice little AC space heater that I’ll try out when on shore power. Similarly, there’s no air conditioner, which is more of a problem than you might think up here at 49°30'N because the pilothouse has so much glass, it’s a greenhouse.

There are only two cleats, fore and aft. When you’re tying up to a floating dock for a weekend in Howe Sound (see above), which after all is part of the Pacific, you really want one and ideally two spring lines along with the basic fore and aft. Several owners have figured out how to install an extra central cleat, and I’ll look to do that.

And your conclusion is? · Count the “Good”, “Bad”, and “Mixed” headlines above. The good stuff wins, by a wide margin. I’ve got no standing to say whether or not this is a winner or loser against the competition because I haven’t owned the competition. What I can say, a few months in, is that it meets our needs very well.

Accessorizing · Here are the things I’ve purchased to improve the experience:

SeaTeak 62634 Insulated Four-Drink Binocular Rack  —  I have two of these things velcro’ed down behind the sink. The binoc-shaped spaces also work for big coffee mugs with handles.

Dell Ultra HD 4K 24-Inch Monitor P2415Q  —  just the right size for outboarding to my company MBPro, and comes with USB so I only need one plug to power everything. I need to install something to hang it up on the berth bulkhead when not in use, at the moment it’s lying face-down on the mattress, which is OK but takes space.

4.5" 12V Stepless Speed Car Fan  —  sold by different vendors in the US & Canada. Like I said, it can get toasty in the pilothouse but this guy takes care of it just by keeping the air moving.

Rod Holder Mount Boat Flagpole  —  the 795 has two fishing-rod holders but no flagpole. Hey-presto! The Canadian flag looks great out there but we haven’t figured out which minor ensign to fly beneath it. Patti Smith fan club? Antifa emblems? Not sure.

From Davis Instruments, Shockles LineSnubbers and LineGrabbers ; nothing specific to this boat, just a coincidence that I discovered them recently. If you tie up where it might get rough, you need these.

Summary · My relationship with the previous boat was pretty prosaic. It got us back and forth to the cabin and was kind of charming with its wood trim, but it always needed fixing and there were important subsystems I never learned to understand. This is a whole different kettle of fish. I’m starting to develop sympathy with the oft-repeated Kenneth Grahame quote from The Wind in the Willows :

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing  —  absolutely nothing  —  half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing… about in boats  —  or with boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.

Updated: 2019/08/06

Contributions

From: John Cowan (Aug 12 2019, at 09:38)

You're an audio guy: install a powerful directional speaker, preferably wireless, in a strategic place, and arrange to send a gah-OOO-ga sound clip to it when you touch a button.

From: Data (Aug 24 2019, at 18:58)

Have had my NC 795 for almost a year now and love it. The fit and finish is so much better than any other craft available today - I hope they keep the quality up when they move the manufacture to Cadillac from Poland; my dealer is skeptical. My only bitch is even in Minnesota, it is so hot all summer; it truly is a greenhouse. I know a friend of mine in FL turned the forward hatch around to act like a wind scoop and that helps while underway. I got zero relief from a little 12v fan and would up buying a converter good for 100watts and then buying a 40watt turbo fan from Honeywell. That has made all the difference in the world.

I took want to add a horn and searchlight. I see from your photo that there must be some wiring room in the ceiling because you have added a radar.

For your heating concerns, we have found that if we close everything up and light just two candles, within 20 minutes we are opening the windows, even in November and April! She is really tight.

Hoping to run her down the Mississippi to FL in the coming year. Enjoyed the review. Do you know if anyone at Jeanneau, especially someone in Michigan, is charged with after-purchase relations? Thanks.

From: Christian (Nov 11 2019, at 19:08)

I am ready to buy a Jeannine NC 795 2020.

Great review. Thank you.

Any advise will be welcome.

From: Barb and Don Huff (Dec 19 2019, at 10:43)

Actually looking for some help! Just got our new 795NC and need to move the bunks on our lift to accommodate our boat. Anybody know what distance we should set them?

By Tim Bray .

The opinions expressed here are my own, and no other party necessarily agrees with them.

A full disclosure of my professional interests is on the author page.

I’m on Mastodon !

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Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44 DS

• By Alvah Simon
• Updated: July 27, 2012

The marine industry is increasingly moving toward the automotive business model. New boats are now introduced on an almost annual basis, and individual manufacturers are offering an expanding range of sizes, styles, rigs, and keel configurations to “customize your ride.”

Furthering that trend, Jeanneau now produces a line of boats ranging from 30 feet to the flagship 57 that cater to both the “performance” and “cruising” markets, and the company’s even subdividing the cruising market into two distinct concepts.

By utilizing identical hulls in the Sun Odyssey 439 and the Sun Odyssey 44 DS (for deck saloon), the company’s betting that once potential customers are comfortable with a certain size and price point, they’re more likely to refine their purchasing decision down to either the sportier 439 or the 44 DS and its more commodious interior than to stray toward the competition.

Because the interior is the conceptual core of the 44 DS, the traditional role of the designer has been divided into two camps. Philippe Briand has drawn a hull that retains Jeanneau’s signature look and features while incorporating an increasingly popular hard chine. And Franck Darnet has created an interior that’s visually spacious, very bright, and possesses a clean, modern appeal. Because a raised-deck saloon presents topside aesthetic challenges, he was also given charge of the deck design.

Briand is of the “wide is wonderful” school of thought. The 13-foot-11-inch beam is carried well aft in the typically French fashion. This creates enormous interior volume for aft cabins and offers several additional benefits.

First, the ample beam creates an initial form stability that translates into an upright, comfortable ride. Also, because of the large, flat sections aft, the hull is inclined to surf when approaching top speeds, noticeably enhancing downwind performance. The benefits are even more apparent above the waterline. Starting aft, the beamy transom presents a wide and functional boarding platform complete with stowage lockers, a pullout swim ladder, and washdown hoses. It also accommodates a wide aft-cockpit entry without minimizing the size of the wraparound twin helm seats or pushing the cockpit coaming too far outboard.

The generous area around the twin helm makes for easy movement between wheels and offers handy access to the coaming-mounted winches. Sheets and running rigging are led under sea hoods to minimize clutter. Darnet’s decorator’s touch is found in the taupe accents on the deck coamings.

The forward cockpit benches are long and wide enough for sleeping, and the slight slope of the trunk cabin makes a perfect backrest. A large drop-leaf wooden cockpit table houses a chart plotter that can be rotated for viewing from either helm and for easy input when you’re seated to either side of the table; extra cooler and stowage space; good handholds while under way; and plenty of entertaining space. In the companionway, a single Lexan board simply drops down into a drained well, eliminating the traditional washboards that must be removed and replaced in rough conditions. Dual access to the latches ensures that crew won’t be locked above or below, as they can be with many conventional hatch setups. At the base of the entrance lies a clever little bin to stow lines from the cabin-top winches.

The flow forward is unobstructed when the fairlead for the headsail furling line is adjusted downward to deck level. Because of the raised trunk cabin, good handholds abound. The windlass is recessed into a deck-accessed rode locker. The addition of a snubber-line cleat at the windlass would be useful, as neither roller has a fair lead to the forward deck cleats.

During sea trials on Chesapeake Bay in 10 to 12 knots of true wind over a light chop, we managed 7.2 knots on a close reach and 8.0 on a beam reach. The helm was responsive. We tacked with ease and maintained angles respectably close to the wind, given the high center of effort of the in-mast furling mainsail and freeboard inherent with a raised-deck saloon. We didn’t achieve sufficient heel to test the form stability theoretically added by the hard chine. As it’s placed rather high on the hull, I don’t believe we’d have wanted to. The vessel is well powered by a Yanmar 54-horsepower diesel and carries enough fuel, water, and propane to verify its passagemaking credentials.

Darnet’s design concepts, says the Jeanneau literature, have found expression in “yachts, fine residences, and other projects of note.” While Darnet states, “Interior volumes must be wide and open to maximize visual space,” this may not be the best idea for a boat being tossed about on a rough sea. However, once the 44 DS is anchored or dockside, the space and style are indeed reminiscent of and equal to the finest of shoreside abodes.

Due to the raised deadlights and multiple hatches, the walnut interior is bathed in natural light. The styling might be called Modern Scandinavian, with its long, flat panels of light wood veneers offset by stark white cushions and accented by futuristic fixtures and hardware. The aft owners cabin sports a king-size island berth, cavernous lockers, an en suite head/shower, dressing seats, side tables, and an aft opening port for extra ventilation. The forward cabin features a large V-berth, a private head/shower, and a thoughtful computer/vanity station.

The well-equipped galley sits to starboard of the companionway steps. The countertops and the twin sinks are molded from white Corian. Notable galley features include a large pullout garbage bin, a sliding spice rack, and a retractable spigot hose. The main saloon table cleverly folds into three configurations, with the option to control the height electronically.

In summary, the 44 DS won’t necessarily attract the performance-oriented sailor. Nor will it appeal to the aesthetic eye of the traditionalists. But for those looking for a large, cheerful, modern living space, with ample sailing and powering ability to carry them in comfort to far-flung destinations, the 44 DS deserves an inspection.

Author and voyager Alvah Simon served on the 2012 Boat of the Year panel.

See a photo gallery of the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44 DS here .

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