Paulo Pernão of Interesting Sailboats takes a look at the new mass production 40-foot sailboat offers: the Bavaria 42 C and the Beneteau Oceanis 40.1:
Judging by the name the Bavaria is not a 40ft but a 42ft and that is misleading. In fact the Oceanis is 1mm longer (hull length) than the Bavaria.
Both boats look good and very successfully manage to disguise the high freeboard and the big interior volume, not to call “fatness”. I would say the Beneteau looks just a bit better, meaning more sportive than the Bavaria, but I admit that some will prefer the more sober and elegant Bavaria look.
Both boats have about the same length being the Bavaria in what regards hull length 1mm shorter (11.98m to 11.99) and about the same LOA, both boats with bowsprit (12.90 to 12.87). The Bavaria bowsprit is optional; it remains to be seen if the one on the Oceanis 40.1 will be standard or also optional.
The Bavaria is beamier (4.29 to 4.18m) with the Oceanis 40.1 slightly less beamier than the previous model, the 41.1, that notwithstanding the name is 1mm shorter in length. The Bavaria has a bigger displacement (9678kg to 8180). This is due partially to the bigger ballast (2698kg to 2007kg with a draft of 2.10m to 2.17).
I confess that this difference in weight is quite intriguing because due to hull building techniques, the Bavaria should be lighter and stronger for the same weight. Bavaria uses vacuum infusion and polyester resins on a sandwich hull having Divinycell foam as core and a structural grid bonded to the hull.
Beneteau uses similar resins but on a monolithic hull with a structural inner moulding bonded to the hull. Only on deck the technologies are similar, using both a sandwich composite using injection technology.
For the same weight the Bavaria should be stronger and considerably stiffer than the Oceanis so it is hard to explain why the Bavaria weights 807kg more (already discounting the difference in ballast weight).