An Excellent Light-Air Performer With Plentiful Room for Its Size

Beneteau has long been one of the industry's most prolific boat builders and at times has offered models close in size and style. Beginning with the 2004 model year, it introduced the Beneteau 323 and discontinued the Beneteau 311 and 331 models. The Beneteau 323 is priced and equipped to appeal to buyers looking for a midsize boat with a big-boat feel.

Similar to many of Beneteau's models, the 323 was designed by the French firm Group Finot. At 32 feet 10 inches LOA, the 323 is closer to 33 feet than the 32-foot length suggested by the model name, a departure from manufacturers' typical practice of a model name suggesting a larger-than-actual size.

Viewed from abeam, the "generous freeboard" – a term coined by boat builders to convince us it's a good thing – is apparent. Not apparent in the drawing, however, is the equally generous beam of this design. The length-to-beam ratio is more than three, and the beam is carried far aft, so that beam at the transom is nearly 85 percent of the maximum beam. For comparison, the transom beam of a contemporary racer/cruiser would be in the range of 70 percent of the maximum beam and a classic design would be closer to 50 percent.

This is clearly a trend of most production builders and creates the interior volume necessary for large aft staterooms with the secondary benefit of roomier cockpits. My eye has not yet adjusted to these proportions and may never, but to the design team's credit, they have made good use of radiuses, accent lines, and windows to disguise the exaggerated features, and under sail this is a better-looking boat than on paper.

TRACK RECORD

One of the difficulties of reviewing boats that are relatively new to the market is that they haven't been around along enough to gain much of a track record or to see how they are going to hold up when put to hard use, and that's the case with the Beneteau 323. That said, as a boat builder, Beneteau has a long track record. Hulls are solid fiberglass with vinylester resin for outer skin and polyester resin for interior laminates. Laminates are engineered with a variety of fiberglass fabrics for strength, cost control and weight reduction.

Beneteau makes maximum use of modular construction techniques with molded hull and deck liners. Hull liners include a grid system of stringers, floors and engine and tank supports. And the inclusion of conduits through the grid system has addressed some of the criticism of this type of construction and improved the ease with which equipment and systems can be added or upgraded. Unlike traditional fiberglass attachments, structural members are often attached with structural adhesive compounds. The materials and techniques improve all the time, and current adhesives can be stronger than the more traditional secondary fiberglass bonds. However, there is still no getting around the unavoidable fact that many areas remain inaccessible for routine or periodic inspection with this method of construction.

The Beneteau 323 has a large cockpit that accommodates four adults comfortably, six in a pinch, and has a couple of unique features to improve access. First, when not in use, the helm can be rotated clockwise 90 degrees so that the wheel aligns fore and aft rather than amidships, allowing easy passage. Second, the helm seat can be tilted out of the way and for unencumbered access to the transom boarding platform. Deck hardware is through bolted with backing plates, all sail controls are led to the cockpit, and inboard and outboard genoa tracks are standard equipment. There is a foredeck anchor locker and an anchor roller on the stemhead, although retrieving the anchor, over the anchor roller, may result in the anchor banging and damaging the hull due to the nearly plumb bow and short roller.

The cabin below is open and roomy, with a V-berth forward and opposing settees and a centerline drop-leaf table in the main saloon. There is a huge head aft to starboard, a port-side galley and large double berth tucked under the cockpit. The manufacturer's brochure shows a double galley sink with no counter space, although the boats I have seen have a single sink surrounded by a small counter area – too small, but better than nothing. The other casualty of wide-open interiors such as this is a lack of storage space, but this is not a problem unique to this model, or Beneteau for that matter.

PERFORMANCE

The sailing performance of the Beneteau 323 is a bit of a mixed blessing. By my calculations, the sail area/displacement ratio is 19.6, and the displacement/length ratio is 168. With these numbers, it is not surprising that, by all accounts, the 323 is an excellent light-air performer.