Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44i: A Mini Review
The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44i gets a test sail with some breeze on the Chesapeake during the 2009 Boat of the Year Contest.
A few minutes aboard the
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44i was long enough to reaffirm an old conviction that everything you need in a cruising sailboat fits quite well within 43 to 45 feet. In this boat, you get perhaps a little more, because the great width aft allows twin double-berth cabins, complementing the already-capacious owner's forward stateroom.
Our test boat had the three-cabin/two-head layout, which includes a generous nav desk engineered to accommodate a built-in laptop computer and thus double as an office.
Jeanneau assembles a variety of layout options in its boats using modules. In all of those offered in the 44i, the in-line galley module occupies the port side of the saloon, opposite the dining module. Forward, the choice is between the queen stateroom with en-suite head and a pair of more compact sleeping cabins.
On deck, the broad beam of the hull carries well aft and supports a roomy cockpit with a large table set atop a molded piece in the cockpit sole that permits opening ports to spill light and air into the aft cabins. Twin steering wheels permit ready access to the transom platform.
In about 10 knots of wind, the 44i showed no hardness on the helm and treated us to speeds a little over 6 knots when sailing closehauled. Under power, it demonstrated good speed, stopped from full ahead in little more than a boat length, and turned in its own length at 1,500 rpm.
Jeremy McGeary
Specs
LOA 45' 1"
LWL 37' 7"
Beam 14' 4"
Draft 5' 5"/6' 9"/7' 6"
Sail Area 850 sq. ft.
Displacement 21,896 lb.
Water 162 gal.
Fuel 63 gal.
Engine 75-hp. Yanmar
Designer Briand Yacht Design
Price $264,000
Jeanneau
(410) 280-9400
www.jeanneau.com
