Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 | Yoda

The boat has absolutely no interior options (e.g. no curtains/blinders, no chart table...). The fridge door was damaged. The dinghy had a flat chamber. The mooring light was broken.

Cleanliness

Unbearably long check-in at the charter company's office. 5 hour wait.

The autopilot with radio control is a hit but also a must, as steering the yacht with the tiller is unrealistic/unsuitable for longer strokes, as the twin rudders seem to be relatively poorly pre-balanced. To make Yoda truly habitable, many small improvements would have to be made. We were a family of 2 adults and a 7 year old child and the boat was short of space. It is probably more suitable for daysailing or for a couple. There is a lack of hooks everywhere to hang clothes. Unfortunately, the storage possibilities of the boat are very limited and the shipyard missed to really use the space. Don't forget that a lot of the storage space in the cabin is taken up by the boat's equipment itself, so there is actually very little storage space left for guests. Much too thick and rigid mooring ropes for such a small boat. Unfortunately, no fore or aft jump can be set, as the centre cleat cannot be used due to a construction error by the shipyard (railing support mounted too close to cleat). Yoda is extremely difficult to tame in the harbour and when reversing, the boat does practically everything it wants to do, except what it should do. Very stubborn behaviour in tight manoeuvres due to the small rudder stubs, very difficult to handle. However, this is compensated for by the great sailing characteristics. Unfortunately, the boat is too short for the mid-ocean waves. Next time I would choose with my family from 38 to 41 feet and with bow thruster. Nevertheless, Yoda is a likeable, honest and very safe boat. She has always coped well with gusts and relatively little heeling.