2019 Dufour 390 Grand Large review

While the impressively lined 430 Grand Large stole the Sydney limelight with its sheer size, the smaller 390 Grand Large showed you could still get a lot of boat for a lot less money.

The Dufour 390 Grand large features a design with even more interior volume than the model this one replaces. It also brings more living space than before.

A new deck profile introduced with this generation helps maximise headroom below, while below the waterline a redesigned hull features chines that help the yacht to improve its speed.

The Dufour 390 Grand Large starts from $330,000 for a sail-away yacht.

The base boat you get for that money comes with a three-cabin, two-head fit-out; saloon with eight-seat dinette and chart table; galley with Corian bench and twin sinks; top- and front-opening 12V fridge; two-burner, gimballed LPG stove with oven; twin, tinted companionway doors; 30hp engine with sail drive leg; self-tacking Dacron jib with furler; fully battened Dacron mainsail with two-stage slab-reefing; roof-top halyard and mainsheet winches; drop-down swim platform with ladder; a small garage in the transom; life-raft locker; twin wheels with helm-person’s pop-up foot rests; teak-faced cockpit seats; LED bulwark lighting and a bowsprit with integrated anchor stowage.

You could buy and sail it like that, but most buyers opt for more kit.

For example, our test boat was set up to appeal to a typical east-coast-Australia buyer who might want to mix cruising and entertaining with twilight racing, and was priced at $395,000.

The equipment list on this boat included: a holding tank for toilet waste; 40hp engine upgrade; deep keel option; 108-percent genoa with track and adjustable cars instead of a self-tacker; reefing lines led to the cockpit; LED navigation lights; leather-covered wheels; shore power kit and 25-amp battery charger; extra battery; 40-litre hot water boiler; electric windlass; cockpit table and teak cockpit floor; rigid boom vang; mainsail boom bag with lazy jacks; mainsheet traveller and German mainsheet system led to twin aft-mounted winches; autopilot, wind instruments and VHF radio; anchor and mooring kit with fenders; outboard motor bracket on the pushpit and a transom-mounted BBQ/sink module.

Dufour Grand Large models are hand-laminated in polyester glass fibre, with neopentyl glycol (NPG) resin gelcoat and NPG resin in the first lap mat to form a barrier against osmosis. Floors and bulkheads are laminated into the hull structure. The deck and cabin top are resin-infused sandwich, with polyurethane foam coring.

A single elliptical rudder is epoxy foam-filled and fitted with a solid stainless bar stock. An emergency tiller is stowed in the cockpit and can be fitted quickly without the need for tools, after a deck cover plate is removed by using a winch handle.

The L-shaped keel is available with 1.50m and 1.95m depths and is bolted to the hull with stainless steel backing plates.

The twin-spreader aluminium mast is a straight, non-tapered section with wire cap shrouds, intermediates and lowers that lead to single chain plates, externally attached to the gunwales. The 9/10 fractional rig has a fixed forestay and twin backstays (an adjustable backstay is optional).

The mast is deck-stepped and supported in the cabin by a keel-stepped, polished stainless steel compression post.

The boom has three-block mid-sheeting with outhaul and two reefing lines. An optional cabin-top traveller and in-mast furling mainsail are available.

Mast running rigging is led through-deck to recessed jammers on the cabin top, with pre-moused jammers for extra control lines.

Sail control sheets lead to cabin-top winches or aft, in the case of the optional genoa and German mainsheet systems, to sheet winches.

The exterior design of the Dufour 390 is clean and crisp, with nice touches that include flush, rectangular, grey-tinted hull ports that are mounted in a subtle recessed hull moulding.

The bow is plumb, in the modern idiom, and chines feature in the aft sections.

The cockpit is spacious, with vast under-seat bins and ample room for an optional large drop-side table. A lift-up aft seat provides access to the drop-down swim platform. Lifting hand grips make climbing the telescopic swim ladder quite easy.

An optional barbecue/sink module graces the stern of our test boat. Performance Cruising Yachts says all Australian 390 buyers have opted for it, and we can understand why.

Going below deck on the Dufour 390 Grand Large is easy, with twin opening companionway doors and wide, concave steps.

Ample ambient light gives the saloon and cabins a bright appearance and ‘hidden’ LED lighting kicks in when the sun doesn’t.

The cabin roof features opening hatches and flush-mounted ‘sunroof’ grey-tinted panels fitted with shade blinds, and there are opening ports in the saloon and cabins.

The L-shaped galley is well laid out with a dual-access fridge with sliding plastic bins to ensure there’s no wasted space, large twin sinks with cutting board covers, a slide-out kitchen tidy and gimballed stove.

The test boat has a two-head, three-cabin layout, but the Dufour 390 Grand Large is also available are a three-head, three-cabin plan, with a saloon galley and a two-head, two-cabin layout, with a transverse starboard aft bed and a huge storage area in lieu of the port aft cabin.

Cabin space is generous, particularly the aft pair that can sometimes be claustrophobic, and storage space abounds. The heads are manual standard, but electric operation is optional.

We motored quietly and with almost no vibration out of Performance Cruising Yachts’ berth in Sydney’s Darling Harbour into a classic 10-15 knot nor’easter on a warm day without a cloud in the sky.

The Dufour 390 handled well under power and reversed with mild ‘prop-walk’ that could be employed to manoeuvre the beamy boat into and out of tight spaces. I reckon most skippers wouldn’t need a bow thruster.

The mainsail went up with mild effort on the halyard winch once the boat was head-to-wind to ensure the full-length battens didn’t get caught on the lazy jacks. Those who hoist and lower sails regularly might give thought to an electric halyard winch option.

Unfurling the ‘heady’ was simplicity itself, and it also furled with minimal effort thanks to a tape, not rope, furling line and a low-profile drum. With this system, furling line overrides should be a thing of the past.

With both sails out it was time to assess the balance of the rig.

I was most impressed with the genoa and battened main paring. With the sheets trimmed on broad and tight reaches the boat needed very little helm input.

Running squarer was predictably unexciting and would have been more interesting with a poled-out optional gennaker off the bowsprit.

On the wind I discovered the only issue I had with the boat’s setup: genoa sheeting angle. When close-hauled the tightly-sheeted headsail luffed, but the mainsail tufts showed that it was pulling nicely, with no sing of luffing near the mast.

I’m sure a tighter sheeting angle on the genoa would have made the headsail work much better on the wind. However, the genoa car tracks are hard up against the cabin sides, so there’s no way of bringing them inboard, other than by disfiguring the cabin top with tracks.

Dufour’s feedback from its cruising yacht customers obviously indicates that sunbaking space on the rooftop is vastly more important than tracks to allow optimised upwind performance.

For owners who want to do some twilight racing as well as cruising the sheeting issue can be solved quite simply by Barber-hauling the genoa sheets when upwind pinching.

Another upwind performance option is the standard self-tacking jib, but my experience with these headies is that they’re perfect for hands-free cruising, but not powerful enough around the cans.

However, when cruising, a partially furled self-tacker can make a great staysail in combination with a bowsprit-flown gennaker.

The Dufour 390 Grand Large took off in some sharpish gusts, heeling onto its aft chines and ‘digging in’ nicely.

Typical of a wide-stern, twin-wheel boat there was a noticeable lifting sensation at the windward helm position when the boat powered up and the thoughtfully positioned, flip-up floor wedges provided firm footing.

With the wind averaging 12 knots true, the Dufour 390 averaged around six knots on and off the wind and managed 7.2 knots on a broad reach. It felt balanced on all points of sail and even with the genoa-sheeting compromise it tacked happily through 90 degrees.

Gybing can be tricky, but the Dufour 390 turned its stern to the wind with disdain. Mid-boom sheeting kept potentially dangerous bits of rope out of the cockpit and the boom end swung well clear of cockpit standees.

The optional German mainsheet system worked well, in conjunction with rope jammers near the aft winches, allowing the drums to accept genoa and main sheet tails alternately.

In summary, the version of the Dufour 390 Grand Large as tested is a nice boat that I reckon is well specified for the cruising and twilight racing market.

Specifications
Model: Dufour 390 Grand Large
Length overall: 11.94m
Length waterline: 10.50m
Beam: 3.99m
Displacement: 7700kg
Draft: 1.50m (shoal)/1.95m (deep)
Sail drive: Leg with two-blade, fixed prop
Fuel: 200L
Water: 380L
Holding tank: 50L
Mainsail: 40.0m2
Genoa: 25.0m2
Jib: 22.0m2

Priced from: $330,000 including top- and front-opening 12V fridge; two-burner, gimballed LPG stove with oven; twin, tinted companionway doors; 30hp engine with sail drive leg; self-tacking Dacron jib with furler; fully battened Dacron mainsail with two-stage slab-reefing; roof-top halyard and mainsheet winches; drop-down swim platform with ladder; a small garage in the transom; life-raft locker; twin wheels with helm-person’s pop-up foot rests; teak-faced cockpit seats; LED bulwark lighting and a bowsprit with integrated anchor stowage.

Price as tested: $395,000 including holding tank for toilet waste; 40hp engine upgrade; deep keel option; 108-percent genoa with track and adjustable cars instead of a self-tacker; reefing lines led to the cockpit; LED navigation lights; leather-covered wheels; shore power kit and 25-amp battery charger; extra battery; 40-litre hot water boiler; electric windlass; cockpit table and teak cockpit floor; rigid boom vang; mainsail boom bag with lazy jacks; mainsheet traveller and German mainsheet system led to twin aft-mounted winches; autopilot, wind instruments and VHF radio; anchor and mooring kit with fenders; outboard motor bracket on the pushpit and a transom-mounted BBQ/sink module.

Supplied by: Performance Cruising Yachts