Testing yachts in the middle of winter is a fiddly business. You need a boat in the water, some breeze, ideally neither rain nor snow, and a glimmer of sunshine through the leaden skies.

Amazingly, early December gave us some of the best sailing conditions of the year for testing the Hanse 360, with a lively Force 4 to 5 from the northwest (we’d have to forgive it for being a little gusty), a few broken clouds to make the sky look extra blue, and beautiful sunshine.

The boat I had come to see was the latest offering from German yard Hanse. It’s a sign of the times that the Hanse 360 is now the second smallest boat in the Hanse range (the 315 from 2016 is still going strong), yet she still has a beam of 13ft or 3.99m. That is some width for a boat of only 33ft 9in on the waterline.

Hanse has always been known for boats that are exceptionally easy to sail whilst still offering proper, enjoyable sailing. I was keen to find out whether the bent for ever larger volume has eroded this, and whether something so spacious can still be weatherly and easily driven.

The rough hull shape will be familiar to anyone wandering the pontoons of a boat show these days. Hard hull chines at the bow create a relatively narrow entry to the waterline while flaring out to very full sections higher up, with the chines tapering aft into softer lines, ready to produce a huge amount of form stability once the boat heels much beyond 10°.

There are clues, however, that the Hanse 360 is about more than just space. Composite wheels, an adjustable backstay, a deep single rudder and, on our test boat, an extra set of winches for offwind sails plus a set of laminate tri-radial sails from Elvstrom.

Slipping the lines, manoeuvring out proved easy thanks to prop wash over the deep single rudder, and an optional retractable bowthruster from Quick.

The Yanmar diesel inboard had been upgraded from 29hp to 39hp, a welcome change for punching into a headwind, though I suspected the two-blade folding prop slightly lacked surface area to transfer all of that grunt into the water – three blades might be better.

I’m sure lots of owners will want a furling mainsail to keep things easy (this would be fully vertically battened), but personally I was pleased to see slab-reefing for a decent sail shape.

There is an option for a square top main if you really want more power, but the running backstays this necessitates seems to undermine Hanse’s easy sailing philosophy.

Our Hanse 360 boat had the usual high-aspect self-tacking jib, though tracks were fitted for an overlapping genoa if you want more canvas.

With 16-18 knots true breeze, we weren’t going to be short of power. We stuck with full canvas for most of the test, though the apparent wind nudged over 22 knots (Force 6) at times. The power was easily brought to heel with the usual tinkering with halyard tension, outhaul and backstay.

The performance pack would upgrade the running rigging from polyester to dyneema, which makes a difference on a breezy day, but I was happy we had things roughly right.

Hanse 360 – Exceptional grip

Hard on the wind, the log had us doing 5.5 knots at about 30-32º to the apparent wind – the self-tacking jib and mainsheet bridle contribute to good tacking angles, though speed might have climbed had we reduced canvas with a reef and sailed marginally freer.

I believe the log was under-reading our boat speed, as speed over the ground was 0.5-1.5 knots faster, and I wasn’t sure there was much more than half a knot of tide.

The boat’s polars certainly have the boat at 5.7 knots on the wind and nudging 8 knots on a close reach or reach and this wouldn’t seem unreasonable.

Twenty years or so ago, a high volume boat with a single rudder might have been prone to broaching; not so the Hanse 360.

The wide bow helps keep the stern in the water when heeled, and the deep rudder being almost keel depth meant that we didn’t lose grip even when pushing hard, including bearing away with the sails sheeted in hard.

She was happiest, however, at angles of heel of 10°-20°, and stayed solid on her chines until really pressed in gusts of Force 5. As she did so, the helm loaded up progressively, giving plenty of notice, while leeway build gradually as the keel lifted.

A tug on the 16:1 backstay dealt with forestay sag, opened the leech and lightened the load on the helm. Despite simple sail controls, it felt like we had enough options to flatten the main and keep the boat sailing well.

The twin composite wheels ensured little was lost between rudder and wheels, with a good taut linkage and precise, responsive control – she will spin quickly when tacking, and in harbour, if you want her to.

The cumulative effect is that this is a boat you can keep in the groove upwind by feel, without having to keep a constant eye on course or tell-tales.

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Consider a Code Zero

Off the wind, the boat sits up quickly, and while the self-tacking jib twists open as soon as you start to sheet out, the large fully battened main kept her moving nicely, even if the spreaders, swept markedly aft, limited how far we could sheet out.

There was no offwind sail on our test boat, but anyone likely to cruise any distance would benefit from a Code Zero.

The deck layout worked well for single-handed sailing. All lines are taken aft to the helm, including main and jib sheets. Handling the winches is easy enough standing up from behind the wheel, or for crew in front of the wheel, with rope tails tamed by canvas bags at the aft end of the cockpit seats.

Sails can also be sheeted by the helm from sitting, though I found my backside pushing the instrument buttons in the aft end of the coaming while reaching to do this. For proper halyard tension, I’d upgrade the standard primary Lewmar ST40 winches, which felt a bit small.

What I did like was that the lines, led aft along the coaming tops, sat in a partial recess behind the seat backs, making them less tempting for crew to hold onto or likely to trip over.

If you have the optional secondary winches for offwind sails (also ST40s), these are nicely mounted on stainless plinths that straddle the coaming-top lines.

The helm seat on the aft end of the coaming was raised off the deck to keep it dry, and there are fold-down seats behind the wheels.

Our boat lacked foot chocks as these are added where and if owners want them. On the wheel pedestals, there are no instrument panels. Instead, there was an instrument repeater either side at the aft end of the coaming and a plotter in the aft end of the cockpit table.

This boat had the optional large moulded table with an in-built fridge, a top-opening cubby hole, and large fold-up leaves either side, offering good bracing.

While crew members don’t need to get involved with sailing, with main and jib on separate sides, and tweaking halyards and kicker, an extra pair of hands was welcome on a breezy day and it was easy enough for them to get involved.

At the stern, a huge bathing platform folds down, with an intermediate step running the full width of the transom.

There’s stowage for one gas bottle to port (a spare might fit in the anchor locker), and there are options for a deck shower and a wetbar and grill between the two fold-down helm seats.

In the two-cabin layout, the vast cockpit locker is as deep as the hull, thankfully with access from the galley. A shelf has been left around the inside of the locker at deck height – useful for small items, but limiting access for bulkier items.

There are also two lazarettes of decent size, one of which would accommodate a valise liferaft, if the engine ducting and diesel heater are moved out of the way, as is planned for later hulls.

Side decks start narrow at the stern, but widen quickly as you move forwards, with decent moulded bulwarks. I’d have liked a grippier deck moulding than the rounded bobbles on this boat – you could add synthetic teak – though in reality there’s very little to go forwards for once underway.

The anchor locker is neatly finished with a moulded liner making a deep well for the chain forward of a sloped drop under the windlass. There’s space on the moulded bowsprit for two tack points depending on your sail, and the bow roller can be accessed from above and below.

Boarding via the bow is made easier by an open pulpit, which also gives better access for setting offwind sails, though you may need to skirt the jib if yours is cut low to the deck.

Generous galley

Going below the Hanse 360 at sea was helped by handholds either side of the companionway and on the end of the galley unit, though a couple more further forwards would have been nice.

In harbour, the steps are a comfortably shallow angle down into the saloon, where white bulkheads make everything feel light and open, if a little clinical. Of the 22 windows and hatches pouring in light, 16 are opening – all save the hull windows.

First impressions are that the finish is of a decent standard; there’s solid edging on most of the key joinery corners, and these are nicely rounded, though there are a few edges that could have also done with solid wood, including the saloon table.

In the two-cabin version, Hanse has taken the unusual option of retaining the starboard cabin, aft of the heads, so that the extra space goes to the galley, rather than the heads, which already has a separate shower compartment.

This space, taken from where there would be standing room in the port aft cabin, allows for an additional pantry-style fridge and drawers aft of the oven, as well as access to the cockpit locker and an extra opening hatch to help ventilate the galley.

Coupled with the ample locker and drawer space above, behind and around the oven and double sink, the effect is of a galley for a much larger boat, with a whopping total of four possible fridges available on board.

So too the heads, where a separate shower compartment at the forward end, the toilet ranged fore and aft, and plenty of locker space, make the compartment feel generously proportioned.

There might not be a wet locker, but a couple of hooks in the shower cubicle would take care of any dripping waterproofs. The only downside is that the heads compartment encroaches a little on the saloon space, though the boat’s wide beam does mean it’s pushed well outboard, leaving plenty of open space.

Facing aft against the heads bulkhead is a small chart table – a nice optional feature in my view – though it could usefully be wider to fit a leisure chart on top and comfier for sitting and working on a laptop.

An infill under the chart table makes the short settee into a 180cm seaberth, or you can do away with the table altogether, or replace it with a fridge – depending on your priorities (work, sleep or drink!).

Room with a view

The central table has folding leaves big enough to reach both sides of the saloon, with a nifty slide-out bottle stowage drawer, and useful tray on top for smaller items. Our boat included a pull-out portion of the port settee to turn this into a double berth.

The only downside of this arrangement is that the port outboard settee is just over 40cm deep, a little narrow for comfortable lounging compared to the 51cm deep seat on the other side, and there’s no space for the C-shape seating against the forward bulkhead that would otherwise be there.

Coupled with the white bulkhead, this leaves the saloon feeling a little austere, where more comfortable seating and softer colours could turn this into a cosy corner.

The forward cabin is vast for a 35ft hull, with a full-sized centreline double berth, with reading lights and hull windows at the forward end making this a pleasant space in which to wake up.

If you opt for the second heads in this cabin, the bed remains almost the same size but is skewed to starboard, and you lose the port hanging locker, but this may be worth it for the additional privacy.

The hanging lockers are of a good size, and there is a small drawer under the berth, abaft the main water tank, leaving enough space for the retractable bowthruster under the forward end of the berth. Aft cabins are also generous.

You’d lose a little space to the cockpit locker in the third, port aft cabin if you had it, compared to starboard cabin, but there’s still space for hanging lockers, and a small drawer under the berth ahead of the tank and/or battery stowage. Headlinings are moulded, giving a clean and simple finish.

The only omission I feel was any kind of hull or coachroof window outboard, so there’s no outward view, which is a shame.

Access all round the engine, even with the larger 39hp Yanmar, was excellent, with the exception of the water strainer, which was impossible to examine visually and tricky to get at, high up at the aft end of the compartment.

Would the Hanse 360 suit you and your crew?

Hanses fit the mould of production boats, and while they aren’t the cheapest for their size, this one at least outperformed my expectations on the water. Sailors wanting a proper sailing boat that’s fun to sail and will give rewarding cruising, could do well to look at this boat.

Even by the voluminous standards of new boats these days, you’ll be impressed with the size of the internal spaces. £330,000 is a lot of money, but it’s not out of line with the rest of the market, and is reflective of what new boats cost these days. And if that gives you a boat that sails well and is comfortable to live aboard, then customers are unlikely to be disappointed.

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