bavaria yacht fr

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BAVARIA C46

European yacht of the year 2024, the essence of modern cruising..

With the new BAVARIA C46, BAVARIA YACHTS once again sets high standards in yacht building. The exceptionally good sailing characteristics already known from the entire C-LINE have been further optimized with a new rig-sail concept for the BAVARIA C46 for the pure joy of sailing. Single-handed or with crew, also in terms of deck layout, BAVARIA YACHTS has designed the BAVARIA C46 for easy handling. Below deck, the BAVARIA C46 surprises with numerous clever layout options.

The further more of yachting from BAVARIA YACHTS

In addition to modern design and high quality fittings, the clear goal in the development of the BAVARIA C46 was to guarantee owners and crew maximum privacy in the cabins for a relaxing time on board and to offer the greatest possible individualisation through a wide range of layout options.

The elegant and dynamic hull gives the BAVARIA C46 her very own signature. Pure sailing fun and plenty of room for unique experiences on the water are a matter of course aboard the BAVARIA C46. Welcome aboard!           

The BAVARIA C46 offers a big variety of options to find your very own personal layout. Learn more about our clever options and packages.              

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• Boats for Sale

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

The most boat for your money? Bavaria C38 yacht test

• Theo Stocker
• April 26, 2021

Competition is hot for high-volume cruisers, but have Bavaria built a boat that is fun to sail as well as spacious and affordable? Theo Stocker took her for a spin to find out

Product Overview

Bavaria c38.

• Fun and engaging to sail
• Vast amounts of space
• A lot of boat for your money
• Limited stowage in 3-cabin version
• Mainsheet lacked power
• Some exposed systems in lockers

Manufacturer:

Price as reviewed:.

A job worth doing is worth doing properly, so the saying goes. There’s no doubt that Bavaria have committed wholeheartedly to the concept behind their new C38 and the result is a boat fully confident in its identity. That’s a good job, given the level of competition the C38 will be up against in the 37-38ft production cruiser market.

This boat aims to do three things: create the absolute maximum amount of space on deck and below from the available waterline length; be enjoyable and engaging to sail, if not a race boat; and give a potential buyer the maximum bang for their buck. In practice, the design has added significant volume in both the bow and the stern, introduced a deeper, rounder forefoot to reduce slamming, and has deepened the single rudder, which, coupled with the bow thruster, should give plenty of control in harbour and underway.

A first look at the boat reveals a few significant details. Firstly, her waterline takes up almost her entire length, with virtually no overhangs at the ends. Then there are the chines. This is only the second Bavaria to have hull chines, and they are used to take the significant beam, which is carried all the way aft, down to the water, creating more volume in the aft cabins, as well as providing power to the hull form. Next, there’s the huge bluff bow and vertical stem, again multiplying the volume in the forward cabin. Pretty it might not be, but there’s a certain purposeful muscularity to it.

Bavaria Yachts, the company, gained new owners in 2018, and they’ve been quick to make a fresh start, starting with a plan to update the entire range. Having moved from design house J&J to Cossutti Design, the C38 is the latest, smallest boat in the new lineup. The strongly chined hull shape makes a bold statement about that new direction. I was keen to see how this added up on the water.

TEST VERDICT

If you looked at this yacht and thought the vast volume would make her a poor sailer, you would be mistaken. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had sailing her. The feel on the helm was direct, responsive and engaging; this boat is fun to sail. She wasn’t twitchy even when overpressed and gave plenty of warning before the rudder started to lose grip. This boat reminds you of why a single rudder makes sense, and is deep enough that she has plenty of grip even when heeled, which is the main reason wide-sterned boats have twin rudders. The benefits when handling in harbour are huge, given that manoeuvring and mooring is the most stressful part of any cruise for most owners.

Granted, the mainsheet purchase needs a bit of improvement, but if I were buying this boat, I’d go for the more easily handled furling main and self-tacking jib, with the Code Zero for the extra sail area to keep the boat moving off the wind. This would seem to fit with the ethos of simple and fun sailing that this boat ascribes to.

WOULD SHE SUIT YOU AND YOUR CREW?

I’d imagine this boat will prove popular with sailing schools and charter companies, but if you’re after maximum boat for your buck for family coastal cruising, this is definitely worth a look too.

The idea of having three king-sized beds on what is really a 36-foot hull is staggering. You’d have to weigh up whether you want an ensuite owner’s head enough to sacrifice some of this bed space in the forward cabin, but given the layout options, there seems little reason to go for the two-cabin rather than three-cabin layout. If you’re not using the third you could still use it for the stowage you’d be missing out on.

Given the price point of this boat, the quality of finish was really very good, and the resurrected Bavaria has upped its game several notches. Arguably, the C38 could now be the boat to beat in this size sector and you’ll struggle to get more new boat for your money than this.

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Traffickers use Polish-flagged yachts to move drugs across Atlantic

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Laura Dubois in Brussels and Raphael Minder in Warsaw

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Polish-flagged yachts are being used by criminals to export cocaine and other drugs across the Atlantic from South America to Europe and elsewhere, the UN and maritime authorities have warned.

Drug traffickers are taking advantage of a legal loophole giving Polish vessels “de facto immunity” from arrest in international waters, said Julien Garsany, Brussels representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“When other countries see a vessel flying the Polish flag and [it’s] suspected to be involved in drug trafficking, they basically have no one to authorise them to board it,” said Garsany.

The UN has long been concerned about vessels sailing under flags that are completely unrelated to the ownership of the boat — so-called flags of convenience that can help smugglers avoid scrutiny at sea.

Poland’s has become the latest flag in vogue with criminals, who are exploiting the rush by British and other boat-owners to use the EU country’s cheap registration system for small sailing yachts and other boats up to 24m long, according to maritime law enforcement authorities.

The Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre — Narcotics (MAOC-N), a joint US, UK and European operations centre for narcotics traffic based in Lisbon and focusing mainly on smaller vessels, has registered an increase in Polish-flagged pleasure craft suspected of carrying drugs since 2021.

While MAOC-N was monitoring 12 Polish-flagged vessels potentially linked to trafficking in 2021, that number rose to 31 in 2022 and 47 last year. Boats appear on the organisation’s radar because of intelligence tip-offs, ongoing investigations and suspicious vessel or crew movements.

“If you are a trafficker you will want to . . . sail through with as few obstacles as possible. And a European member state flag is normally not really drawing a lot of attention, especially in the Atlantic,” said Garsany.

Poland set up a new boat registration system in 2020 for vessels up to 24m, financed by the EU. The number of boat registrations has rocketed from about 2,000 initially to almost 77,000 to date, with just over a third of owners giving an address outside the country, according to Polish authorities.

“It’s cheap, it’s superfast and it doesn’t require much information. So obviously the criminals will try to register on that,” said a MAOC-N analyst. “It’s a fantastic business.”

According to MAOC-N and the UNODC, criminals may be exploiting the fact that Poland is not properly implementing international rules that would allow other countries to board Polish-flagged vessels at sea. This means suspected drug smugglers have been able to get away provided they do not enter the enforcing country’s territorial waters.

Two years ago, for example, Portuguese authorities searched a Polish-flagged vessel at sea off the Azores islands, arresting two Dutch nationals and seizing 1.2 tonnes of cocaine.

A Portuguese judge later ruled the operation was unlawful because Poland did not authorise it. Although a court overruled that decision earlier this year, Portuguese media reported the two suspects had in the meantime been freed and left Portugal, thus avoiding prosecution.

The Polish police’s central bureau of investigation, which is supposed to issue permits to board vessels, cannot do so because a recent amendment to drugs legislation is yet to come into force, according to the country’s health ministry, which is in charge of implementing the UN convention against drug trafficking.

Numerous websites offer Polish yacht registrations from prices as low as €395, and some also propose the establishment of a UK or Delaware company as owner of the boat — in effect allowing clients to obscure their identity when registering.

Since the new registration system was implemented, seizures of Polish-flagged boats carrying cocaine and other drugs have increased.

MAOC-N has reported 19 seizures of small Polish vessels, most of them from 2021 onwards. Law enforcers seized more than 18 tonnes of cannabis, 13.5 tonnes of cocaine and 56kg of MDMA (ecstasy) from yachts and motor boats sailing under a Polish flag, including off the coasts of Portugal, Brazil, Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

“What we started seeing some years ago is a huge movement of cocaine from South America to west Africa . . . because the criminals know it’s easier for us to target [them] if they are going directly to Europe,” said the MAOC-N analyst, adding that vessels coming from west Africa to Europe may be checked less frequently for narcotics than those coming directly from South America.

While Poland’s flag is now particularly popular for small vessels, other flags such as those of the UK and the Netherlands were used in the past, according to MAOC-N. The Netherlands in 2021 changed its rules around boat certificates after revelations they had been used by drug traffickers.

Poland’s infrastructure ministry said it was aware of reports about “incidents of drug smuggling on board [yachts] flying the Polish flag”, but had “no information about the involvement of organised criminal groups in these incidents”.

It also said that “considering the number of watercraft in the register — over 70,000 — this is not large-scale”. The ministry pledged to review the drugs trafficking problem raised by the Financial Times but at this stage was “not aware of any concerns from international law enforcement authorities”.

Poland’s health ministry said Warsaw hoped to facilitate inspections of Polish-flagged boats by the end of the year. “Competent authorities in Poland are working on legislative changes . . . which will allow them [the police] to issue such permits,” the ministry said.

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