I am considering buying a Bavaria 34 which is 35.5 feet long. It's was built in Germany in the year 2000. I would like to talk with others who have any information about Bavaria boats. Most of them are sold in Europe and only a handful are here in the US. Would this be a good boat for me and my wife and perhaps a small family to cruise around Mexico? Value? Any information would be helpful.
Bavaria Sailboat Questions
- Thread starter Darryl19205
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W
Waffle
R
Rick I
Google it and learn the truth
Waffle seems to have more than a passing interest in Bavarias. They have had problems in the past. Check the link.
Waffle seems to have more than a passing interest in Bavarias. They have had problems in the past. Check the link.
C
Claude Labrecque
Bavaria Sailboat
Hello Darryl, Bavaria sailboats are well built. However I would not say that they are better built than Beneteau, Hunter, Catalina or Jeanneau. I have a friend that has a Bavaria 40 and I spent a lot of time inspecting it and found some flaws like I would probably find on any boats. This past summer I cruised for several weeks with 3 Beneteau 41. None of these are the best-built boats but they all are good boats for a family. Bavaria recently had problems with the keel of their Match Series of racer/cruiser but reacted quickly and took care of the pproblem. As each companies do have some problematic areas on certain series or models. One good thing going for the Bavaria is that it is a faster boat than the Beneteau with furling Main! I am a subscriber to several French sailing magazine and It is interesting to know that in North America the Bavaria product line is sold on a price somewhat comparable with the other 4 large sailboat suppliers. However in Europe, Bavaria are sold anywhere between 20 to 30% less that comparably equipped Beneteau and Jeanneau. In Europe Bavaria is by far the least expensive brand of sailboat. In France you can now buy a brand new well equipped Bavaria 37 for 115 000 $ US. So much so that Beneteau had to react and launch a new line of sailboat aside from the Oceanis and the First in order to be able to compete and stop loosing sales. Beneteau Cyclade were born specifically to compete with Bavaria and to offer a competitive product to the SunSail and Moorings of the world. Bavaria is able to be so inexpensive in Europe because they apply better manufacturing techniques in their boat building manufacturing plant. They standardize a lot of components between all their sizes and certainly, with the growth of the company over the last 5 years, they are able to get the best prices from their suppliers. We are lucky they are passing some of these savings to their customers. In North America, freight and dealer Markup are making their products much more expensive. I personally like hunters for several reasons but would certainly look at a used Bavaria if I was looking to upgrade from our 35.5. It all come to details: do you like the layout, color of the wood (usually darker in Bavaria), the equipment, sails, electronic, have you fallen in love (you’re wife too?)with the boat? If the answers are Yes…use a good surveyor spend your money and have some fun sailing with your family. I am sure this Bavaria would be a good boat for your project. Good luck PS check the factory tour on their website, clean and impressive.
Hello Darryl, Bavaria sailboats are well built. However I would not say that they are better built than Beneteau, Hunter, Catalina or Jeanneau. I have a friend that has a Bavaria 40 and I spent a lot of time inspecting it and found some flaws like I would probably find on any boats. This past summer I cruised for several weeks with 3 Beneteau 41. None of these are the best-built boats but they all are good boats for a family. Bavaria recently had problems with the keel of their Match Series of racer/cruiser but reacted quickly and took care of the pproblem. As each companies do have some problematic areas on certain series or models. One good thing going for the Bavaria is that it is a faster boat than the Beneteau with furling Main! I am a subscriber to several French sailing magazine and It is interesting to know that in North America the Bavaria product line is sold on a price somewhat comparable with the other 4 large sailboat suppliers. However in Europe, Bavaria are sold anywhere between 20 to 30% less that comparably equipped Beneteau and Jeanneau. In Europe Bavaria is by far the least expensive brand of sailboat. In France you can now buy a brand new well equipped Bavaria 37 for 115 000 $ US. So much so that Beneteau had to react and launch a new line of sailboat aside from the Oceanis and the First in order to be able to compete and stop loosing sales. Beneteau Cyclade were born specifically to compete with Bavaria and to offer a competitive product to the SunSail and Moorings of the world. Bavaria is able to be so inexpensive in Europe because they apply better manufacturing techniques in their boat building manufacturing plant. They standardize a lot of components between all their sizes and certainly, with the growth of the company over the last 5 years, they are able to get the best prices from their suppliers. We are lucky they are passing some of these savings to their customers. In North America, freight and dealer Markup are making their products much more expensive. I personally like hunters for several reasons but would certainly look at a used Bavaria if I was looking to upgrade from our 35.5. It all come to details: do you like the layout, color of the wood (usually darker in Bavaria), the equipment, sails, electronic, have you fallen in love (you’re wife too?)with the boat? If the answers are Yes…use a good surveyor spend your money and have some fun sailing with your family. I am sure this Bavaria would be a good boat for your project. Good luck PS check the factory tour on their website, clean and impressive.
W
Waffle
W
Waffle
Here is one important thing to consider
Bavaria uses a foam core instead of wood. Water leaks into all cores and rots them. Even end sealing can not complete prevent water from getting into the core. Foam cores do not rot as fast as wood cores. This is a sign of a better built boat. Dufur is another above the base line boat builder!
Bavaria uses a foam core instead of wood. Water leaks into all cores and rots them. Even end sealing can not complete prevent water from getting into the core. Foam cores do not rot as fast as wood cores. This is a sign of a better built boat. Dufur is another above the base line boat builder!
Clarification
I didn't quite understand your answer. You state that several brands are the cheapest and ask why. Does this mean that Bavaria is cheap like the others or is the Bavaria better than the brands you mention? Any more details? Thanks!
I didn't quite understand your answer. You state that several brands are the cheapest and ask why. Does this mean that Bavaria is cheap like the others or is the Bavaria better than the brands you mention? Any more details? Thanks!
E
Erik
Deja vu
This thread reminds me of the one about the single hunter that had a chain plate seperation. It was posted all over the place that all of the Hunters had this problem (not). All of these companies have occasional mfg defects. While they are not usually life threatening, they can be. The reason boats cost as much as they do, is because they are primarily hand crafted. While the engineering has a lot to do with the end product, they still rely on the craftsmen to build it according to specs. Bavaria is a very large builder. We have friends with one in our harbor and they have sailed it up and down the coast from Washington to California. We have not heard of them complaining about any real problems. The boat sail fast and well. If there is one thing that I don't like about some of the foreign made boats is the fact that they do not use common hardware like the US build vessels. It just makes replacing some of their parts a little more difficult. I would put the Bavaria well up on the list for a "production" boat.
This thread reminds me of the one about the single hunter that had a chain plate seperation. It was posted all over the place that all of the Hunters had this problem (not). All of these companies have occasional mfg defects. While they are not usually life threatening, they can be. The reason boats cost as much as they do, is because they are primarily hand crafted. While the engineering has a lot to do with the end product, they still rely on the craftsmen to build it according to specs. Bavaria is a very large builder. We have friends with one in our harbor and they have sailed it up and down the coast from Washington to California. We have not heard of them complaining about any real problems. The boat sail fast and well. If there is one thing that I don't like about some of the foreign made boats is the fact that they do not use common hardware like the US build vessels. It just makes replacing some of their parts a little more difficult. I would put the Bavaria well up on the list for a "production" boat.
Hey phil!...
Let's put a sort in that allows a listing of posts by a username so we can build a psyche profile of our friends! (ex: post #1... "no names please", post #2 "Beneteau, Hunter, Catalina or Jeanneau are the cheapest boats! Why?" Oh crap, there I go again! *666
Let's put a sort in that allows a listing of posts by a username so we can build a psyche profile of our friends! (ex: post #1... "no names please", post #2 "Beneteau, Hunter, Catalina or Jeanneau are the cheapest boats! Why?" Oh crap, there I go again! *666
Steve -- Bavaria was not lone manufacturing error
Don't down play it. It was a "design" error. An It was dangerous -- Keels fell off and people got hurt and more than one of those "match race" series boats had the problem and hulls were cracking where the keel met. Did you ever see the pictures? When a keel just rips off the bottom of a boat leaving a huge whole in the bottom its not just a little manufacturing problem *yks Plus if the design of a boat can lend itself to rip a whole freakin deck up because someone at the factory forgot to do something, then I propose to you that its a poor design. Didn't Hunter totally change the design after that? (yes) So don't tell me its lone production problem. Its a bad desgn plain and simple I don't want to be spending my money on a cruising boat from a sailboat manufacturers that design their boats "loosy goosy" and experiment with cost cutting techniques that seem "exotic and cool" But in reality are poorly designed and not tried and true and tested. Now if I was buying a boat purely for racing and willing to live with things breaking then thats one thing - Even Americas cup challengers break in half and sink - But we are talking about boats with people families on board. Huge difference and I don't want some bored boat designer trying to get fancy on me just to save a few bucks are just for the sake of doing something different.
Don't down play it. It was a "design" error. An It was dangerous -- Keels fell off and people got hurt and more than one of those "match race" series boats had the problem and hulls were cracking where the keel met. Did you ever see the pictures? When a keel just rips off the bottom of a boat leaving a huge whole in the bottom its not just a little manufacturing problem *yks Plus if the design of a boat can lend itself to rip a whole freakin deck up because someone at the factory forgot to do something, then I propose to you that its a poor design. Didn't Hunter totally change the design after that? (yes) So don't tell me its lone production problem. Its a bad desgn plain and simple I don't want to be spending my money on a cruising boat from a sailboat manufacturers that design their boats "loosy goosy" and experiment with cost cutting techniques that seem "exotic and cool" But in reality are poorly designed and not tried and true and tested. Now if I was buying a boat purely for racing and willing to live with things breaking then thats one thing - Even Americas cup challengers break in half and sink - But we are talking about boats with people families on board. Huge difference and I don't want some bored boat designer trying to get fancy on me just to save a few bucks are just for the sake of doing something different.
If you look at the bottom left
If you look at the bottom left of the series of pictures in the link of the Bavaria that sank, you'll see what I think has to be a mistake. To me it looks like one bolt held on the keel, is this true; or, is the photo deceiving.
If you look at the bottom left of the series of pictures in the link of the Bavaria that sank, you'll see what I think has to be a mistake. To me it looks like one bolt held on the keel, is this true; or, is the photo deceiving.
M
Mick
Bavaria, Where are the winches?
I like the interior designs of the Bavaria yachts, but I am a traditionalist, and I prefer sheet winches, and halyard winches.
I like the interior designs of the Bavaria yachts, but I am a traditionalist, and I prefer sheet winches, and halyard winches.
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