Dufour
Classic 30
A personal review
Before
launching into a review of the Classic 30, it’s worth saying a bit about why we
came to choose one, which has as much to do with my subjective relationship
with boats and sailing generally as the objective qualities of the class. I think that any boat is only ‘right’ for the
particular needs of an owner. Barring a
few minor complaints I’m very satisfied with the 30, but others may have a
different opinion!
At
the age of 10 my introduction to sailing came, Swallows and Amazons fashion, on
the banks of Windermere in a Mirror dinghy.
That maiden voyage went little further than the end of Waterhead pier
with the jib sheets, as I remember, threaded through the shroud plates. What held the mast up I don’t recall, but the
experience started something.
After
racing Mirrors and OKs competitively as a teenager and antique Fireflies as a
student I got the taste for cruising on a series of charter trips around the
My
first ‘cruiser’ came in 1981; 18 feet of engine-less wooden sloop with no
electrics berthed in the Maldon mud.
Nevertheless a good deal of the
Wind
the clock forwards to 2001 and a young family of 2 boys, then 4 and 8, have
splashed about with a Topper for a couple of years and are clearly getting the
‘bug’. In order to get all the family
afloat together at low cost and see how they took to it, we picked up a 26’
trailer-sailer. Without going into
details it had its merits (floating on a damp lawn) and drawbacks (skittish as
a kitten and leeway like a hovercraft), but the boys took to the sea with
enthusiasm, my wanderlust was rekindled and we determined to find something
more suitable.
This
potted sailing autobiography frames our requirements in a family yacht. It had to be responsive with good handling
and a reasonable turn of speed to satisfy an ex-dinghy racer without being
unforgiving to its young crew. It needed
to be capable not just of single handed sailing, but as any parent of a young
family will know, single handing whilst trying to intervene in sibling rivalries,
which is an even greater challenge!
Having
returned to a mooring on the Deben again, another important factor was
draft. The shoals at the river entrance
are no longer quite as tricky as they were a couple of years ago, but shallow
draft is still an advantage in slipping over the unforgiving and shifting
shingle bar amongst the surf.
A
degree of comfort was also important in accommodating the four of us and
occasional friends for more than day sails, tempered by sufficient sea keeping
qualities to make some longer passages a safe proposition and an underwater
shape that would not constantly slam in the short steep waves of the
The
final factors were cost and time; not only the purchase price but also the
likely lifetime ownership and running costs and the maintenance overhead. We live in an ancient timber framed house and
couldn’t afford to maintain an ancient timber boat as well. What free time I have I want to spend sailing
and not scraping, patching and mending.
I have enough of that already at home!
Having
looked at a variety of decade or more old GRP yachts around the yards during
late Summer 2002, none of which were entirely suitable, we were offered an ‘as
new’ 2001 Dufour Classic 30 by Westwater Yachts in Essex at a price lower than
many of the older boats we’d seen.
Before the 30 arrived we took a look over a Classic 36 in the yard, were
impressed with the layout and finish quality compared with similarly priced
‘BenJenBavs’ and provisionally agreed a deal on the 30. A month or so later the Dufour was ours.
The
boat had, I think, been ordered from the distributor and delivered to
Windermere in 2001 only to have the order cancelled and the boat returned
unused. She had then languished for a
while before being re-offered for sale at a secondhand price but without the
sails ever having left their bags and with minimal engine hours. Whatever the cause we gained a comfortable
and pristine yacht within our used boat budget.
We launched in September 2002 and named her Morzen.
Would
we have chosen her had it not been for the advantageous deal? With only a few reservations the answer
remains yes. Having put a couple of
season’s sailing astern of us, including a two summer cruises down the northern
French coast, I think we’ve discovered most of the pros and cons of the design.
In
her favour, the Classic 30 is an attractive and modest looking yacht by modern
standards without extremes of hull form or styling. This both satisfies the ‘row away’ test as
you look back happily from the departing tender and also means that handling
hasn’t been overly sacrificed to create cavernous hull volume below. In this context the lack of full standing
headroom (I’m just over 6’ tall) in the saloon is something of a virtue as
freeboard is not excessive and the coachroof low with wide, uncluttered side
decks.
Again,
unlike some of her peers, the cabin windows are relatively small which makes
her both less susceptible to breakage and flooding in big waves and less like a
caravan to look at.
Also
on the upside is her handling under sail which is very positive and responsive
from the tiller. She comes about quickly
(handy in our shallow estuaries) and can be played upwind on shifts or through
waves like a big dinghy. Performance is
good compared with similar modern yachts though we found a cruising chute
essential to good downwind progress in light airs. Traditionalists will be pleased to note that
despite all this she was no match for the assortment of barges, gaffers and
bawleys with which we tried to keep pace at one of the East Coast matches last
year!
Having
said this we discovered the reason for sluggish progress late last season had
more to do with the warm and nutrient rich water in the Deben than Morzen’s
design or my handling. The lawn at home
resembled the Kalahari but the underside of Morzen was starting to rival
I
haven’t seen a stability curve for the Classic 30 but suspect that her
stiffness relies more on hull form than ballast and keel (we have the 1.2M
shoal draft version) and hence whilst she holds up well initially in a strong
breeze I would not want to push her too hard or be caught beam on to large
breakers. Severe conditions are to be
avoided as the form would possibly be slow to right after inversion and too
many of the fittings below such as floorboards and locker lids are not fixed in
position, creating a potential danger.
Sea
keeping has been good for the type in our experience and although we’ve taken
green water along the decks and coachroof occasionally we have not had any
volume in the cockpit or below. I have
to say we don’t make a habit of going out in rough conditions but wind over
tide in the Deben entrance often sets up steep or breaking waves and leaving
the Somme on the ebb against an onshore wind was even more chastening!
Sail
handling is manageable with a furling jib and mainsail slab reefing from the
mast. The latter could be brought back
to the cockpit to improve things further and a third reef point in the main is
something I mean to add as she’s overpowered upwind in F7 or over, admittedly
conditions she’s not really designed for, but we have been caught out and
forced to motor very uncomfortably upwind as a result.
This
takes us neatly to her vices, which as ever mirror the virtues, but then
finding a workable compromise point is what makes a boat right for you. I wouldn’t recommend a long offshore passage
in the 30, but then again there are ocean crossers that would not take the
family comfortably for a summer holiday.
Morzen strikes the right balance for us.
The
most annoying shortcoming is a distinct lack of directional stability as the
flip side of responsiveness to the helm.
Leaving hold of the tiller even for seconds, particularly downwind, can
result in an impromptu 180 degree turn.
I have two very able sons fitted for the purpose of holding course whilst
I trim sails, navigate, brew tea, etc. but have had to fit a Raymarine ST1000
tiller pilot to augment them.
I
do need frequent reminding of the value of that low coachroof as the padding
with which my head was originally equipped has sadly depleted. This was exacerbated by two needlessly sharp
corners to the wooden trim just under the hatch. The cause of much swearing whilst swaying at
the galley and chart table last season, these have now been rounded off to a more
forgiving curve.
Despite
removing and attempting to seal all the screws in the stanchion bases and toe
rail last winter, the last heavy rainfall once more produced a trickle which
runs defiantly through the cavity hosting all the electrical connections. Again, a small point but careful attachment
of fittings at the factory and more substantial backing under the stanchions
with better maintenance access would have avoided the problems.
The
open-fronted storage bins around the cabin are a further minor niggle. We should bear in mind that the boat is
designed for coastal family cruising on a budget but I’ve installed netting in
several places to keep the contents in place when things get rough, having
dodged a few loose projectiles last season.
In
perspective, the downsides are minor and probably common to all modern volume
production yachts. Given the cost of the
boat and the purpose for which she was designed, the Classic 30 is attractive,
well designed and represents excellent value for any family or couple wanting
to cruise safely without sacrificing the fun and exhilaration of lively
performance on occasions.
Neil
Mellor, 2004