Bali 4.0 Owners

[ShellBack89]

My wife and I just toured a new Bali 4.0. We were very impressed with the whole boat. This was the first boat that left us both with that wow feeling.



I've read the reviews from the sailing magazines and a few video bloggers but am curious what owners of the 4.0 or Bali brand think. I'm hoping that there are some owners that can give me their opinion, either public or private on their Bali vessel. Would like to know how well they sail, is the space and storage adequate or anything else they'd like to share. I looked for a Bali Owner FB page but didn't find anything like Leopard or Lagoon has. Any information would be great!

[NPCampbell]

I don't own one but I saw the Bali 4.1 at Annapolis this year. I thought it was laid out better than the other big 3's 40-44 cats. I liked the fridge, sliding windows, font fore deck, especially on the 4.3 and the monster water tanks.

I think the two common criticisms are the lack of a tramp up front and the full size fridge power consumption.

I haven't verified the fridge's power consumption. The two criticisms on the tramp are that the extra weight from a solid foredeck may cause the boat to hobbyhorse and it can't shed water if it buries the bows. With regards to the hobby horsing, I haven't read any first hand accounts. Just eyeballing the design vs the other big 3 designs it's hard to say if it has more weight up front. The Bali has a plumb bow vs overhanging bows, the anchor doesn't hang off the front of the foredeck, it's several feet back (which may cause other issues) and the entire boat is made of lighter PVC foam core vs heavier balsa core that the big 3 use. On what would happen if it buries the bows I just don't know. All of the condo-cats except Lagoon have abbreviated tramps. The Leopard and the Bali 40's have recessed areas on the fore decks as well. The Bali has a giant wedge underneath the fore deck and a very high bridge deck clearance to accommodate it.

[ShellBack89]

Appreciate your comments. When I spoke to the delivery captain about the foredeck not having a tramp, he said the large scullpers can drain the whole seating area in less than 1 minute and that the foam core makes the wt difference. The delivery captain ran into some bad weather coming from FL and he said it handled nicely and didn't have any bridge deck slap near the front. It was interesting to see they still make them with the escape hatches since I believe the other big 3 have stopped all saying their cats won't flip.



We're already planning on attending the Annapolis show in October so that will give us more time to talk to the Bali reps and really get into the boat.


We'll also need to charter one but dang we really like the garage door, large rear windows, the front opening window, dinghy davit, large fridge, front seating area, semi fly bridge and the amount of space in the engine compartment. The single head on the guest side even works for us since we won't have too many guest. We like the saying of 6 for cocktails, 4 for dinner and 2 to sleep!


Merry Christmas!