My photo
My photo
Clarke and Carter photo
Internet archive photo
Internet archive GIF
This sort of yacht is way-out of my league, and as such she is a bit jaw-dropping. In May when I took photos of her, she was on the market for £139,950.* It’s possible to buy a small terraced house for that amount. The sort of person who would be interested in owning her, most likely would not be in the least interested in a terraced house, unless he was into buying it to rent or to renovate for selling at a profit.
Anyway, I digress - back to the yacht. She was designed by Umberto Felci and Patrick Roséo, and she was manufactured in France by Dufour Yachts. 44s were built between 2003 and 2008, but I don’t know the date when this particular boat was built. She looks as though she is a shallow draught version at 1.76 metres. Deep draught 44s draw 2.31 metres. They are described as ‘performance cruisers’, which indicates they have a good turn of speed on all points of sail. Having a fractional sloop rig with an in-mast furling mainsail and a furling Genoa, she can easily be reefed, while remaining well-balanced.
Her interior borders on the luxurious with twin aft cabins and an owner’s cabin up forward. She has an ‘L’ shaped galley, a navigation station, a spacious saloon with ‘U’-shaped seating around a central table, twin heads, loads of locker space and a powerful diesel engine, all of which comprise a package that would make many an owner satisfied with his lot.
*The Dufour 44 Performance advertised below** has an asking price of £124,950* Therefore I don’t think she can be the same boat as the one I photographed, because the cheaper boat has bow thrusters.
Links
**Dufour 44 Performance for Sale at Clarke and Carter
Dufour 44 Performance Statistics
Yacht World Brokerage - Several Dufour 44s for sale between £110,327 and £57,320
Dufour 44 Performance for Charter (Nice photos)
Dufour Yachts
http://www.dufour-yachts.com/en/
1 comment:
My attitude has always been that whatever floats safely is wonderful because it gets people out on the water and enjoying the natural environment, but my philosophy is that the simpler the better and small is good. This Dufour 44 represents I think a modern kind of market where yachts have become akin to caravans - not my cup of tea really - and not always particularly good looking caravans at that. Must be showing my age, I love that golden era of Laurent Giles, Olin Stevens, Alan Buchanan, William Garden et al.
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