Some situational awareness, a needful read, and in the “well, of course they did” department…
The new Yachting Monthly has a review of the Bente 28 which is a very interesting and nice boat…
However, at a price of over €132,000 the Bente28 is not going to be on any VolksCruiser’s shopping list for sailing off to the sunset on. Still I should point out that Yachting Monthly describes the price as “a genuinely sensible price tag” which is now close to the norm for a 28-30 foot boat these days.
Obviously, being a child of a world where candy bars only cost ten cents, the idea of paying over $100,000.00 for a weekend cruiser just doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Especially when I recently saw a beautiful ready to cruise CAL 34 in pristine shape selling for $12K.
A couple of interesting numbers where the Bente 28 and CAL 34 for you…
| Bente 28 | Cal 34 | |
| Displacement (lbs) | 7,054.79 | 9,500 |
| LWL (ft) | 25.69 | 26 |
| Sail area (sq ft) | 594.17 | 503 |
Considering that the bigger roomier CAL costs less than 10% of the Bente, just think of how long/far one could cruise on the money you didn’t spend on the Bente. Sure, the CAL 2-29 might have been a more suitable comparison but the CAL 34 is a much better bang for the buck.
That said, there are some excellent ideas within the Bente 28 that would work as well on the CAL 34. A bit of reverse engineering along with some creative frugality would be no bad thing and still be within that 10% zone.
I rest my case…
Vega 27 with rebuilt Yanmar, recent rigging and mast and a good sail wardrobe, ready to go, 1,100 euros. I dont know where they find the buyers to spunk 100K+. Maybe the walk-in “bathroom” is worth the extra 99K?