There are many questions to ask when assessing a boat, whether as a journalist or a potential purchaser, but perhaps the most important question is how well it does what it’s designed to do.

If you’re considering buying one, your focus will be on how well it does what you want it to do, which might well be the same thing. If what it was designed to do is not what you want it to do, there’s possibly an argument for looking at a different boat.

That might sound obvious, but all too often I have seen people who have bought boats without fully understanding where their emphasis lay.

The emphasis with today’s larger mainstream family cruisers from the big builders has been shifting in recent years, leading to greater polarisation between performance and offshore yachts on the one hand (I’m grouping them together as boats for the purist) and the high-volume coastal cruiser on the other.

I say ‘coastal cruiser’ advisedly, because although most new yachts over 33ft (10m) or so are rated to Category A under the RCD (recreational craft directive), they’re not always boats that offshore sailors would choose to take offshore.

Time was when a 40ft (12m) sailing yacht with accommodation and a keel would typically fall into one of three main categories: racer, offshore cruiser or motor-sailer. In recent years, however, a growing number of boats over 40ft have clearly been designed primarily for coastal cruising even if they do – on paper at least – have potential to venture further.

Horses for courses

This trend is not one that purists (or journalists) should necessarily be sniffy about. The simple truth is that more people are coming into sailing in later life without a sailing background. They want a big, roomy new boat for hopping from port to port, whether in the UK or the Med, for example, and perhaps living aboard for a few weeks or months at a time. It’s a lifestyle choice rather than boat-ownership as old-school sailors would recognise it.

This is a large and seemingly growing sector of the market, so it’s no surprise that an increasing number of boats over 40ft are now what some people might regard as coastal cruisers with a licence to roam.

They’re sometimes very impressive. They can be cavernous below decks and provide vast amounts of space above. They can also sail surprisingly well in the right conditions and be fitted with all the comforts of home. You can sit or lie comfortably in any of the cabins, looking out through large, eye-level windows in the topsides with the air-conditioning running, ample drinking water from the watermaker, loads of electricity from the solar panels, the remote control for the TV in your hand and the dinghy in davits ready to splash should you fancy visiting to a nearby cove. No wonder it’s catching on.

Some people have the time, the experience, the resources and the urge to cross oceans and visit far-flung places. But this is a much easier way to enjoy life afloat. And the sort of boat you will choose will quite possibly be something like the new Dufour 44.

A boat for all reasons

Dufour’s new models are impressive examples of their type. Having tested the 37 (YM Feb 24) and 41 (YM Summer 24) I have found them to be cleverly designed. The Dufour 44, first shown at Düsseldorf in January 2024, is the next model up, building on the experience gained by her designers and builders with her smaller siblings.

Like them, she has full bow sections to help balance the broad stern and provide a far larger forecabin than you would find on older boats of similar length. Multiple chines run the full length of the high-volume hull, for hydrodynamic reasons, to maximise space down below and to help disguise the height of the towering topsides, set into which are large windows.

Article continues below…

As you would expect, she’s very much in the same mould as the 37 and 41, with the extra length used for additional features as well as extra volume. For example, a hatch in the bow opens into a locker for storing warps, fenders and downwind sails.

Using the space

In the cockpit, a rope-tidy locker forward of the helm stations each side provides a step up to the side decks so you don’t have to climb over the cockpit seats. You get two pairs of winches on the cockpit coamings – one for the mainsheet and one for the headsail sheets – making sail-handling so much easier than with just one pair to handle both. And, right aft, is a set of steps each side of the barbecue under the central helm seat, leading from the bathing platform to the cockpit. Earlier models have a single set of steps. The extra space on the Dufour 44 has been well used.

Dufour trademarks on the new range include features like the low gooseneck. Whether or not you like the consequent jaunty angle of the boom, it does mean that you can reach the head of the mainsail without the need for mast steps. Stowing the main is much less effort than it is with a gooseneck of a conventional height, especially as you also have a sturdy table to stand on in the middle of the cockpit.

Another way in which Dufour and the designer, Umberto Felci, have tried to make life more comfortable is by designing the hull in such a way that it stiffens up at around 18° of heel, partly thanks to the strategically positioned lower chines that become immersed to give a good measure of form stability. They seemed to have an effect on the 37 and 41, though in the fresher winds we had when sailing the latter I found that she didn’t thank us if we pushed her too far beyond her favoured angle. Keeping the boat flat is what it’s all about.

I imagined it would be broadly the same with the Dufour 44. We picked a day when a brisk westerly was predicted, though the east-going tide meant the Solent stayed relatively flat. With 18-20 knots to start with, we set out with the full main and 108% headsail. The tracks for the overlapper, along with the German mainsheet system, come with the ‘Ocean’ version (like our test boat), whereas the ‘Easy’ version is slightly de-tuned and the ‘Performance’ option gives you a few upgrades.

The only significant hindrance to our performance would have been the fixed two-bladed prop. Otherwise there was little to stop us: a clean bottom, Elvstrom’s laminate sails (an upgrade) and not much weight aboard. In fact it was the first time this particular boat had ever been sailed, and it says much for both the builder and for Universal Yachting’s commissioning that everything (apart from one knot coming undone in slippery new rope) worked perfectly.

Lots of knots

As I expected, the Dufour 44 proved to be quick, responsive and well balanced. Upwind we made up to 7.2 knots, which is only about 0.5 of a knot below the figure indicated by the polars at 36° to the true wind. A folding prop might well have made up the difference.

As on her smaller sisters, feedback through the twin wheels was good, there was no slack in the linkage and the deep single rudder provided plenty of grip. It seemed better than on the 41. If I asked the Dufour 44 to bear away in a gust with the sails pinned in, she responded in all but the fresher patches and then gybed round obediently to sit hove to. From there she could be gybed back, again with the sheets left as they were. After crabbing for a few seconds, she got back into gear as the laminar flow re-attached to the keel.

On the odd occasion I succeeded in provoking her into a broach, she rounded up only gently and never threatened to spin through the wind.

Yet another test of tolerance is to see how close a boat can be pinched upwind while maintaining steerageway. I brought her down to less than 2 knots before losing the rudder, and even then it was possible to get her going again without difficulty.

All told, she proved remarkably obedient. A single rudder (as opposed to twins) makes marina manoeuvring easier, too. Sail-handling with the two sets of winches each side is straightforward. As on the new smaller Dufours, the mainsheet is taken to a bridle across the forward end of the companionway, to keep the sheet attachment as far aft as possible on the boom without affecting the companionway or the sprayhood.

A bonus is that it also ensures a better sheeting angle in light airs than if it were taken to strong points on deck. On the other hand, when the breeze picks up you need to crank on a lot of vang tension in order to ease the boom further from the centreline without inducing excessive twist. Somehow I see few owners doing that.

Further forward, it’s good to see towing genoa cars on tracks long enough to maintain a sensible sheeting angle with a few rolls around the headfoil.

Having pushed the boat moderately hard under full canvas, we dropped a slab in the main just – as it turned out – before the breeze picked up a few more knots. It then stayed there before increasing further as we were on the reach home.

We left the reef in for the rest of our sail, still peaking at over 10 knots at times with the apparent wind just abaft the beam. Apparently the French factory crew hit 14 knots flying the asymmetric on a breezy day. I find that easy to believe, because this is a quick boat. She’s by no means slow upwind – in flat water at least – and the hull shape lends itself to going downwind in a breeze.

Interestingly, the specifications show that the Dufour 44 is only marginally heavier than the 41. Combined with her greater sail area, this gives her a significantly higher sail area/displacement ratio (meaning more power) and, with her longer waterline, a lower displacement/length ratio (more easily driven).

Heavy and light

If there’s a sticking point in her performance, I suspect it will be in light airs, when the sail area might struggle to overcome the wetted area. It seems that Dufour and Felci were conscious of this possibility, giving the Dufour 44 appreciably more sail than her predecessor, the 430. Nonetheless, as far as most cruising sailors are concerned, in light airs you use the engine if you want to get somewhere.

Recreational coastal sailors also tend to shy away from heavy upwind conditions, which again I suspect might not be the Dufour’s favourite. If you reef down and keep her flat, however, she should still get you home in conditions you might not choose to be out in. It’s a matter of retaining enough drive to punch through a seaway without becoming over-powered.

On deck the Dufour 44 is similar to her smaller sisters, with open space, raised bulwarks and lots of hatches.

Below decks the spacious similarities continue. You simply walk up and down the companionway steps as though they’re a stairway. The sole is level throughout and there’s no need to duck through doorways. You have a choice of layouts: anything from four cabins and four heads to three cabins, two heads and two dedicated shower rooms. It’s vast, light and extremely modern. You can have the galley along the starboard side, as on our test boat, or athwartships, split either side of the compression post.

The saloon boasts a large hexagonal table and, rather than a central bench seat, a number of soft, pouffe-like stools with rubberised bottoms to stop them sliding around (they will inevitably fall over if you heel beyond 18º but can be Velcroed in place).

Dufour 44 specifications

LOA: 13.10m (43ft 0in)
LWL: 12.23 (40ft 1in)
Beam: 4.45m (14ft 7in)
Draught: (standard fin) 2.20m (7ft 3in (shallow fin) 1.75m (5ft 9in)
Displacement: 10,200kg (22,487 lb)
Ballast: 2,850kg (6,283 lb)
Ballast ratio: 28%
Displacement/length: 156
Sail area: (main & 100% foretriangle) 97.36sq m (1,048sq ft)
SA/D ratio: 21.0
Diesel: 250l (55 gal)
Water: 250l (55 gal) + 180l (40 gal) optional
Engine: Volvo 50hp
Transmission: Saildrive
RCD: Category A
Designer: Umberto Felci
Builder: Dufour Yachts
Website: universal yachting.com

---

Enjoyed reading this?

A subscription to Yachting Monthly magazine costs around 40% less than the cover price, so you can save money compared to buying single issues.

Print and digital editions are available through Magazines Direct – where you can also find the latest deals.

YM is packed with information to help you get the most from your time on the water.

• • • Take your seamanship to the next level with tips, advice and skills from our experts
    • Impartial in-depth reviews of the latest yachts and equipment
    • Cruising guides to help you reach those dream destinations

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

---