Quote:
Originally Posted by K0185
What is the comparison on this 3 33+ footer boats:
1. Bavaria cruiser 33
2. Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 33i
3. Beneteau Oceanis 34
I am so confuse on this now. Coz people keep telling me different story. So told me the reputation on SunOdyssey 33i is better than Bavaria Cruiser (in terms of quality, performance and stuff) but some told me they are pretty much the same quality. and there is not much performance difference, it depend on the sailor skill set and nth should blame on the quality. As those 2 boats are pretty muh the same. Hoever, some told me Somehow. Sun Odyssey is like a Mercedes Benz and Bavaria cruiser is like BMW, the class is different.
I also heard some people said they would rather to take a 2nd handed Beneteau Oceanis 34 than Bavaria/Jeanneau....
Super confusing, anyone help???
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Several years ago Sun Odyssey's were surely better built boats than Bavarias of the time. Now it is not so simple answer.
Bavaria went too far with its cost cutting policy, and their boats got some well deserved bad reputation. They kept prices too low in the attempt to take a place of Beneteau Group, and they went effectively bankrupt.
After reconstruction and under new management they went to Farr for new designs, improved engineering and so on...
In effect they contemporary boats are much more robust and there is not so much of cost cutting on construction and engineering. Enough to say that present Bavarias are 20 - 30 % heavier than ones of previous generation, and it is not the weight of the furniture involved (at least not only). Of course it does not mean that "cost effectiveness factor" was excluded from their builts, but it is not so overwhelming as some time ago.
On the other hand Beneteau Group was slower in cost cutting (may be except discontinued
Cyclades line), but never turned back and it is a possibility they are the cost cutting leader now
One thing I'm not sure about - I do not know (it was of no interest to me personally) if Bavaria use the structural, carrying main loads, internal liners now.
My feeling is this method of construction is inherently risky. Of course the issues are statistically rare, but still it is a unpleasant possibility of being in a wrong part of statistics
I think it is quite possible that partial liners on Bavarias are still not carrying main loads from
rigging and
keel attachements, as such a change in technology would be too costly for them in a moment, even taking into account possible future savings. The built technology matter is well worth to investigate. On the other hand Jeanneau adopted this technology, however later than Beneteau.
Let's put it this way - seven years ago, given the choice between similar models built by Jeanneau and Bavaria, without the possibility of thorough investigation, I would go for Jeanneau in a blink.
Today, given the same choice, I would go for Bavaria, but with much more doubts.
The
price war between builders is not to benefit of cruisers, I dare say - at least to some extent. Both Beneteau Group and Bavaria are still not earning
money on boatbuilding business, fighting for a market share and hoping for general improvement of the market. It is still crisis situation in the
boat mass building industry and builders are still forced to cut the costs every possible way. So - if You want to make comparisons to the car industry it is FIAT against Renault rather, than BMW versus Mercedes. For the latter You should compare Oysters against Contests probably
Cheers
Tomasz