What Kind of Boat?

The boat that we bought is a Beneteau 411 monohull sloop with two cabins, made in 1998. The line drawing at top represents our boat, down to the shoal draft keel. We struggled for a long time with this decision, with us thinking that certain things might be appealing, but ultimately rejecting most of them. I even took a boat buying class with John Kretschmer, who gave a pretty evenhanded review of the kind of boats available, but as a professional had needs that differed from those of a newly retired couple that didn’t have enough years left to ever become that kind of blue water sailor.

While most sailors might view the following statement as an insult, I mean it as a compliment. The Beneteau 411 is the Toyota Camry of 40 foot sailboats. More than a thousand were made, which makes it one of the highest production sailboats of this size ever, believe it or not. It's comfortable and functional, not luxurious or showy. It benefits from more recent design changes, but is the victim of others, such as hull shape, which is a little flatter than we would like.

It has an aft cockpit with a sugar scoop stern, which make getting on and off the boat easier. It has an aft cabin for guests  to port under the cockpit which is nice, then immediately forward of that is a small day head (bathroom), then the nav station, then a settee which is opposite the dining area. Aft of the dining area is the galley (or kitchen). Moving forward is our cabin, which has a pullman bunk to starboard. Forward of the cabin isthe second head, which uses the triangular space well, but won't be usable when underway in any kind of seas. This will be our (very) tiny home, for as long as it’s fun.