Clues on Cyclades 51

[Bruno Fernandes]

Our goal on the last year was to buy a Beneteau 50 2003, but we lost the last 2 offers for minutes and days, ther is no other boat on the med area (were we want the boat), I we arrived in a very good offer on a beneteau 51 cyclades.
I never thought of buying a cyclades, so I would appreciate opinions of anyone that knew or owns one.
My big concerns are the balsa sandwich hull and the "Hunter look"of the standing ringing (look fragile the steel plates on the lateral no)?

any opinios and stories will be apreciated

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bruno.

[svBeBe]

As a former Beneteau Oceanis 46 owner, I do not consider a Cyclades in the same class as a Beneteau Oceanis. For many reasons I believe that we will discover that the terminal life of a Cyclades is in the 10 year range. Keep in mind that the Cyclades line was designed by and for charter companies who are only interested in "yacht life" of less than 10 years, usually only 5-6 years. In their analysis, if they spec anything better, they are making an investment that benefits the owner of the yacht after charter - usually not the same owner while in charter.

Hope this helps you in your decision.

Bill

[Boracay]

What about an Ocean Star?

As big boats go they look good to me.



All the usual caveats apply.

[Bruno Fernandes]

Well I just sold my Bavaria 44 1994, and she was very strong indeed, beeing built before Bavaria have lightened their boats, my big concern with cyclades is the hull if there is infiltration in the balsa that can cause delamination.
of course the bruce farr design is much more strong, as all the oceanis bigger than 40 from the late 90 period.

We are really looking for a newer boat, 2003 is more or less our limit

[donradcliffe]

If you have a charter base nearby, go down and ask the maintenance people what they think of the Cyclades. I was in a Sunsail boatyard which was working on a charter Cyclades which hit a rock. The internal grid structure had been glued in, and the impact broke the glue joints. They had to take out the interior and tab the grid down with fiberglass tape--it might have been cheaper to buy a new hull.

While they were working on the boat they got a Sunsail fax to check the headstay fitting, which had pulled loose in other Cyclades. They found that the layup at the bow was about half the thickness they expected, and the fitting was starting to pull through the fiberglass.

[Bruno Fernandes]

yeah this kind of problem that I was wondering. also if the relations hull/ grid is so fragile, what will happens if you stress it even with a small touch of the keel.
wich is so common, in our 11 years out sailing around we had a record of usually touching ground once a year, when up the rivers, or entering very shallow bar in the rivers, or navigating in coral waters that for some reason were a little murky or just bad navigation like one day at the bay islands of Honduras. Always light and no more than some scraps on the bottom of the keel... but with this kind of boat, this can be a problem...