QUICK SPIN: We race Jeanneau 349

When testing boats, it’s not often that manufacturers or importers of production boats ‘put their money where their mouth is’ so to speak, and back up their claims with action. However in the case of the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 349, which we recently tested and will bring you a full report soon, that’s exactly what happened.

We took the all-new 349 for a day out on Port Phillip with Victorian importer Rohan Veal of 38 South Boat Sales and, as one would expect, we got to talking about the philosophy of the boat.

Veal told us that Jeanneau was taking a slightly different direction with its current batch of Sun Odysseys. He said that Jeanneau was aiming at slightly more performance-oriented approach while still keeping the boat basically a cruising conveyance with all the mod cons.

With its injection-moulded cabin, it’s tallish two-spreader rig, deep 1.98m keel (for a 34 footer), provision for running a code 0, and optional ex-factory performance sails, the 349 is aspiring to be a bit of a twilight ‘sleeper ‘ for Dad while still being a comfortable weekend cruiser for the family.

And while Mr Veal was espousing the virtues of the trick rig with its 30-degree swept-back spreaders leading to a lack of backstay, and its twin rudders and chined hull, we wondered if it would translate to performance on the race track. So we popped the question: "Why don’t we stick it in a race and see?"

To Veal’s credit, he immediately agreed. So with the boat being in the water for a merely a week and a bit, she was entered in the hotly-contested Wednesday Wonders race out of Sandringham Yacht Club.

Sandringham’s Wednesday race is a stern chaser where the boats are handicapped at the start of the race with boats given different start times depending on their performance.

Being a new boat with no track record, we were fortunately handicapped with boats of our size and, in fact, some of the boats that buyers would be looking at when shopping for something like the Jeanneau SO 349. Within a minute of us at the start, we had three Beneteau Oceanis 34s, a Northshore 34 and a Hanse 34 taking off four minutes ahead of us.

Now bear in mind, this boat had never raced and although a couple of 349s were already on the water in Sydney, we had no race results from them to tell us how we were going to fare against any adversaries.

Our crew consisted of Rohan, who I must admit is a pretty handy sailor having won two World Championships on moths, Dave who is the current Victorian Sailor of the Year, my ageing self who, in this company, should have been merely been getting the drinks.

So as we were motoring out the start line armed with our handicap of 23 minutes behind the first boat, Rohan had one tactic in mind: "Beat the Beneteaus".

Conditions were light for the start, very lightin fact  with about four to six knots of breeze from the south-west. It was  tipped to come in later in the race and go a bit more south.

Our course was a ‘triangle and a sausage’ with a work to the first mark, a run to the second then a reach to the third and another work forming the triangle, then a long run and a final work to the finish. A course of about nine nautical miles.

We figured on a tower-end start while most of the other boats opted for a pin-end start, trying to shorten the leg. From the outset it looked as though our strategy was better, putting us almost on a lay-line to the first mark – the other boats would certainly have to tack, giving us an advantage even though we sailed slightly further.

It worked. And by the time we rounded the first mark, we were ahead of a couple of the Beneteaus and looking pretty good. Our race was a no-extras race so we’d borrowed a spinnaker pole (the SO 349 is fitted with a bowsprit from which to fly the code 0 so we had no pole of our own).On the first run most of the boats poled out on port tack and made a straight run for the mark, whereas we gybed onto starboard and headed inshore. Due to the radically swept-back spreaders, it is difficult to go dead downwind with the 349.

But it paid off and we were in free air and by the time we got back into the fleet, we were level-pegging with a couple of Farr 1020s and one my mates on his Bavaria 40 who started a couple of minutes behind us.

We got rolled by the Bavaria on the reach and also by a Beneteau First 38. However, working back up to the top mark, we kept in touch with the Bavaria and the 1020s doing about 5.5 knots in 8-10 of breeze, and by the time we rounded, we’d gobbled up most of the smaller boats and were in about fourth or fifth place, prompting me to mention to Rohan: "I reckon we’re up where we shouldn’t be."

"I reckon you’re right," came the response. Once again, we came inshore on the long run while the Bavaria went out for more breeze which had kicked up nicely to around 10 knots. We were making about 4.5 knots downwind with the breeze at around 165-170.

We got mowed down by a First 35 and had a couple of Sydney 36s a fair way back but closing.

The First 38 was up front with a 1020, followed by another of the 1020s and the last of the smaller boats. The Bavaria 40 was next at the mark having used good breeze out wide. We rounded with another 1020. By this stage we’d left the Oceanis fleet well back, overtaken the Hanse and the Northshore and all the smaller boats.

On the work, the First stretched out in front of the first of the 1020s. Then the Sydney 36s started to push through and got us just before the line.
So at the end it was the First 38 who took the gun, followed by a 1020, the Beneteau 35, two more 1020s, a Sydney 36, the Bavaria 40, another Sydney 36, then us, closely followed by a fast-finishing First 50.

We’d scored a ninth out of about 40 boats on the water.

Rohan was delighted with how the boat performed getting a top-ten finish in pretty good company. We’d done what we’d come out to do which was prove we were quicker than the other cruising-style boats around our size.

It certainly got us to thinking about what this little boat could do with some tweaking and a good set of sails. Certainly, with no backstay, it begs for a square-top main which would significantly increase the main area. A bigger jib, maybe with battens would also help, so certainly there’s more potential to be had from this little performance cruiser.

As for crew, we had no trouble handling the boat with three and, in fact, you could do it with two as the sheets are very handy to helmsman.

The boat offered good pointing ability – better than I expected actually; it was OK on a reach (but really needed a bit more breeze, and downhill we held our own with bigger and potentially faster boats while blowing away our immediate rivals on the day.

So, the bottom line? If you’re looking to get into a small cruiser for not much money (from around $190K, $224K as tested) with a bit of round-the-cans ability, or you’re looking to downsize cause you’re sick of trying to organise half a footy team each week to crew for you, this could be the boat for you.