New boat test: Dufour 382 GL
‘A yacht with a nice turn of speed.’ Graham Snook enjoys a lively family cruiser.
Whenever there’s another boat nearby, it’s a race; a competitive devil, sits on my shoulder giving me encouragement. No matter what boat either party is sailing, their underwater profile, condition of sails or the cleanliness of our respective hulls, it’s a fair race in my devil’s eyes. So it was with great delight we found ourselves squared up against a sporty 40ft yacht.
Although named the 382 GL, the Dufour’s hull length is an inch less than 36ft. The other yacht should have left us far behind, but surprisingly our speeds were matched. Sadly it was the end of a glorious day on the water, but it was nice to see the performance figures bear out the fact that although the Dufour might look like a cruiser she has a nice turn of speed.
Performance
Who could want for more than a SW Force 4 on the Solent in August? I certainly didn’t, it was a lovely day to go sailing. Nicer still when the boat beneath me sailed well. After leaving the River Hamble, we sailed towards the Bramble, avoided the shipping coming towards Calshot, and put her through her paces.
At 60° on a fetch she was quick and well behaved, responding nicely to input from either of the two wheels. Sitting outboard is comfortable and secure, while it’s easy to nip to the other wheel to tend the sheets. On the wind she was most comfortable at 32-34° off the apparent wind, and while luffing in the gusts she’d still march onwards. Whatever our course, she’s carry on without the need to be tended to or tweaked, in fact with the simplified sail handing, there’s isn’t much that needs to be done by the crew except tend the mainsheet traveller if required, otherwise they can sit back and enjoy the view.
Under power at 2000rpm, the 30hp Volvo made 5.4 knots with the twobladed folding propeller.
The helm
The helm is set close to the transom, with the option of fold-down seats to give a bit more security. They are a little narrow, and most comfortable if you sit on the outboard end where the pushpit curves around to provide good back support. Sitting inboard with only the detachable guardrail to lean on feels a little precarious.
Outboard is a raised, teak-covered seat that is nicely curved, giving your bum the grip it needs when the boat heels; there are also footblocks should you need them. If you're tall, you might find that the twin backstays make you sit a little further forward than is naturally comfortable.
The Lewmar steering was smooth and not overly heavy, but I'd prefer it a touch lighter to feel more feedback.
Design & construction
Like the rest of the current Dufours she was drawn by Umberto Felci, who is also knows for his Grand Soleil designs. The 382GL has
pronounced chines in her aft quarters which are said to improve stability, a high-aspect rig, a 1.9m (6ft 3in) fin keel with a bulb on the bottom and a deep, narrow blade of a rudder. Her topsides are a regular height but the coachroof is low and sleek.
The hull is hand-laminated with NPG gelcoat, then with NPG resin in the first mat layer, both for osmosis protection. The deck is moulded in one piece – including the anchor well and transom – using male and female moulds to give the interior and exterior finish.
The saloon seats and the inboard galley unit are mounted on the inner tray moulding, which makes it look like they’re levitating above the floor. While the styling looks great and it also makes the boat easier to clean, I'm not sure it's entirely practical at sea. If you drop anything small (like a mobile phone, for instance) while she's heeling over, it will fall to leeward under the seat and then, if your luck is like mine, it could slip through gaps into the bilge.
Sailplan
She has a high-aspect, 9/10 fractional rig with a deck-stepped Z-Spars mast and continuous standing rigging. A self-tacking jib is supplied as standard. Our test boat was also fitted with short genoa tracks inboard of the chainplates, which are attached to the hull at deck level. The track for the self-tacking jib occasionally caught the sheets as we tacked.
There’s an option for a bowsprit, which sits over the protruding bow roller, supported by a bobstay fixed to the stem (this was yet to be reeved on our test boat). The tackline runs through the front of the sprit and is attached to a stem fitting.
The genoa is set on a low-profile Facnor Flatdeck furler with webbing tape instead of rope on the drum.
Deck layout
Dufour has done away with the need to have separate winches for the German mainsheet system and genoa sheets, by using the redundant (windward) genoa sheet winch for the mainsheet. Of course, if you don't install optional genoa tracks and just use the self-tacking jib, these Lewmar 40ST winches will just serve the mainsheet. Crew and helm need to be aware the winch handle does come rather close to the wheel, though.
Forward of the sprayhood is the mainsheet traveller, the controls for which are led back neatly to either side of the companionway.
Deck stowage is good, with two sole depth lockers and two large, openbacked lazarette lockers underfoot at the twin helms. All locker lids are supported by gas struts.
The starboard lazarette is for the liferaft, as it can be accessed from above. The lazarette to port is perfect for a dinghy, which can be dragged out onto the fold-down transom, inflated, launched and recovered easily. Keeping the dinghy here frees up valuable locker space elsewhere.
At 30cm (1ft) high, the round-topped coamings make comfortable backrests as well as seats. The cockpit table has space for a chartplotter on its aft end and handy stowage inside.
The guardrails are set well inboard. When the fenders need to be hung low, their lines could chafe on the gunwales.
Living aboard
The interior is stylish, smart and also very bright thanks to the two large overhead windows (60 x 81cm, or 2ft x 2ft 8in). She's roomy for a 36-footer. all berths on board are at least 2m (6ft 7in) long and there's ample headroom despite the low coachroof, which gives this boat her sleek profile and reduces her windage. Dufour has managed this by doing away with the usual headlining panels and structural beams, too – there's enough strength in the injection-moulded deck.
Overhead cabin lights are usually set in headlining and evenly spaced around the saloon and galley. Dufour has used conduits and the lights are brightest where they're most needed, over worktops, seats and bunks. Apart from the under-shelf LED lighting, all the lights are controlled by individual switches on the lamps.
Entry to the forecabin is via double doors. Opening them both creates a large, open living space, which families will appreciate, as it allows kids to be separate but in sight. It may not be necessary, but I'd consider fitting stronger locking mechanisms
on the starboard door.
The forecabin berth is 2.18m (7ft 2in) wide, with through- hull windows on either side. It was good to see neat, built-in sliding blinds. Above the windows, a deep-fiddled shelf runs along each side. Under the berth is the second of two water tanks, and two drawers. Outboard and forward of the drawers there is a decent amount of under-bunk stowage.
Moving back into the saloon, aft of the starboard door is a handy pull-out seat for use in harbour, to increase the seating around the generously-sized saloon table. There's a good amount of stowage in the 50cm-deep central section of the table and a insert to hold eight bottles (The under-floor locker at the foot of the companionway holdsa further 12 bottles). A removable top panel in the table reveals a sliding cutlery drawer, which is a neat idea, but on balance I'd prefer it to be in the galley.
Outboard, to starboard and behind the aft end of the seating is the switch panel, which is curious as the chart table is on the port side. There is an alternative layout option with both on the same side of the boat.
There are handrails either side of the companionway, and one aft of the chart table and at deck level, but none overhead. Under the port-side seats are two decent sized drawers that make accessing the storage space much easier.
The starboard aft cabin feels a lot bigger than its neighbour to port, due to the large stowage space under the cockpit. The bunks are actually the same size, 2m (6ft 7in) long, 1.45m (4ft 9in) wide at the head and a metre wide (3ft 3in) at the foot. In all other respects, these cabins mirror each other with an outboard shelf and a locker with hanging area and shelves.
The battery charger is between the heads of the two inboard aft cabin berths. ItÕs good to see a Cristec fanfree charger here, rather than one that whirrs through the night. This area is vented into both cabins so you may hear pillow talk from the other cabin – and they might hear yours.
Overhead in the aft cabins are lines of bolts through the deck securing the jammers and winches.
The combined heads and shower compartment is a modest size, as on many 36-footers, but other layout options give you a bigger heads and cockpit locker by relinquishing one of the aft cabins.
The quality of finish is generally good, with more solid wood than most comparable boats, including the door frames, the chart table surround and galley fiddles. There is great attention to detail, such as the bolt to set the heads mirror to a usable angle, and the gas struts and rubber pads on the bottomhinged lockers in the saloon, which stop them slamming shut. Little details like these can make a real
difference to life on board.
As on most boat tests, I did have a few personal gripes. The veneer on the cabinetry seemed a bit thinner than I've found on many boats and in some of the corners where two veneers meet, I could see the substrate.
The shutlines and levels of locker doors weren’t even, but they're easy to adjust. Some cables were visible in the forecabin, where they travel from under the outboard unit to beneath the floor, but it's a small point.
Chart table
The aft-facing chart table is small and just 5cm deep. Inside, it’s partitioned to allow organisation of navigational clutter. The finger hole in the chart table (and others around the boat) have a slightly harsh inside corner underneath. Rounding these off would make them more comfortable to use.
Outboard, there’s a nice shallow, top-opening locker for instruments. Here you’ll find the VHF radio – the acrylic lid has a cut-away to stop cables being trapped. Aft of this is a 25cm (10in) deep, top-opening bin locker, suitable for pilot books.
There’s no dedicated chart stowage on board, but they can be stored on the seat bases, under the cushions, with a strip of Velcro to hold them in place.
Galley
At sea, the L-shaped, Corian-topped galley works best on a port tack, although on starboard tack you can lean against the companionway steps to tend the cooker. The large fridge has both top- and front-opening doors, giving access to the bottom of the fridge contents as well as the drain plug. The ‘floating’ inboard unit doesn’t rest on the floor and has space under it, so there are no corners for dust and fluff to hide.
The large and small stainless steel sinks are in this section and there’s no splashback forward of the sink, so the saloon seats could get splashed. There are three good-sized bottom-hinged lockers outboard, none have shelves but they all have pegged stowage.
There is good stowage outboard of the worktop and two-burner cooker, and a useful area of worktop space between the fridge and cooker, with an opening hatch above it for ventilation. The cutlery drawer, as mentioned above, is in the saloon table, a step away from the galley.
Maintenance
There is good access to the engine and its ancillaries. Deck fittings are through-bolted and the securing nuts are easily accessed from below. Other services are behind the starboard seat back and under its seat. Water and fuel tanks are under the aft bunks and there is a second water tank under the forecabin berth.