I can definitely recommend the Bavaria 30, but it all depends on what you want out of your boat ? and let?s face it everyone is biased to an extent! I am slightly surprised with the occasional bad/mediocre press that I read about Bavaria, maybe we just got lucky. We got our 2007 model about 18 months old but with a genuine 8 engine hours on the clock ? so good as new. We use it as a family coastal cruiser and, to an extent, a floating holiday home as well ? ideal with 2 young children. For our circumstances, we have no regrets at all and still get the same buzz out of as we did 3-4 years ago. We are fairly recent converts to sailing so there will be more experienced views out there, particularly on the finer points of sailing.
We looked at a range of 29-32 footers and, given the budget, ended up narrowing the choice to a nearly new Bavaria 30 or a 10 year old Moody S31. Whilst the Moody won in some respects, ultimately it would have required more upkeep than a nearly new boat. We soon ruled out a raft of French or East European boats on build quality and robustness. Yes, some have slightly better sailing performance, but having been on a few, unless you are racing the difference was not huge. In essence, and with gross simplification, the extra tonne displacement loses a bit on performance but gains on solid construction ? which with a young family when out at sea is quite comforting! Yes the odd QA issue emerges as with all boats (except the Hallberg-Rassys of the world no doubt), but the only snags we had was a one-off (hopefully!) engine cut-out due to the tang on the starter solenoid breaking off and the wheel steering developing a tight spot ? which cleared itself (probably some fouling or inevitable bits of swarf migrating onto the grease in the gears). The 2 common Bavaria issues, but not major ones, are fading blue stripes and listing to starboard. We sort the former with rubbing compound and the latter is just not an issue to us (other than the need to raise the antifouling line a little!) ? with an outboard in the cockpit locker ours is probably worse than others, but don?t see the problem. Talking of outboards, I made up a bracket that fits over the stowed bathing platform ladder which you can fit an outboard to as an emergency backup ? never needed it but a good ?design and make? project for an afternoon! Finally, it looks as the boats hold their value pretty well, so some assurance there.
If your circumstances are anything like ours, go for it. As always, seek a few opinions and look over and sail a few different types.
Trust helpful
Chris
