Here is the newest in Jeanneau's Sun Odyssey line of fast cruising boats. This design is about three feet shorter than the Arcona but there are some similar features in the two designs. The Sun Odyssey 409 was designed by Philippe Briand and Jeanneau Design.

The hull overhangs are sure minimal. With an LOA of 40 feet, 6 inches there is 36 feet, 1 inch of DWL. I don't even see that in the drawings but then again, they are renderings. The hull is full at the deck forward and of course stays beamy all the way to the wide transom. The L/B is 3.09 and the D/L is 156. There is a chine in the stern. Think about that chine. If you rounded off that chine you would lose interior volume. I don't think it's slow to have a chine, but in this case I wonder if it is a volume-driven feature. Chines are the rage these days so at least it looks cool and current. I like the gentle sheer of this design and the way the almost dead-straight cove stripe accentuates it. There are two keels available: 6 feet, 10 inches of draft or 5 feet, 1 inch. The keel fin shows an elongated fillet at the trailing edge and that just may be a way of having both deep and shoal keels fit the same hull recess to make manufacturing easier. If you compare the plan view of the deck of the Sun Odyssey with the Arcona you will notice the Arcona is much finer forward.

This design comes with three layout options. You can have three staterooms with mirror-image quarter cabins aft. There you can see one of the reasons for the hull chines. Those are big, wide double berths and I'll bet they are right at the chine level. You can have a two-cabin layout where the portside quarter cabin is now a huge lazarette. Both of these layouts have one head. You can have a settee to port in the saloon or you can have two reading chairs with what they call a "nav station" in between. It is a small nav station. The third layout has three staterooms and two heads, with one head dedicated to the forward stateroom. These three layouts cover just about every reasonable layout option you could expect in 40 feet, 6 inches.

The deck plan is very interesting. Halyards come aft from the mast under a cover to exit on the coachroof right at the indented companionway. The mainsheet is the double-ended "German" style leading under covers to the primary winches. The genoa sheets are also led aft under the same covers to exit at the primaries. This is made possible by placing the genoa tracks on the cabintop edge. It's a very clean arrangement and leaves a very uncluttered deck. Twin wheels leave the middle of the huge cockpit wide open aft and make access to the swim step easy. It's a very well-thought-out deck.

You can order the "Performance Plus" rig package and get extra genoa sheeting tracks aft so you can carry bigger LP genoas with cars adjustable from the cockpit. You also get "performance steering wheels," but I'm not sure what those are.

With all the rig, deck and interior options available on this design I can see it appealing to a lot of sailors. I like its overall looks.

LOA 40'6"; LOD 39'3"; LWL 36'1"; Beam 13'1"; Draft 6'10" (deep draft), 5'1" (shoal draft); Displacement 16,424 lbs.; Ballast 4,982 lbs.; Sail area 768 sq. ft.; SA/D 19.01; D/L 156; L/B 3.09; Auxiliary Yanmar 40-hp; Fuel 53; Water 140
Jeanneau America, 105 Eastern Ave., Suite 202, Annapolis, MD 21403, (410) 280-9400, www.jeanneauamerica.com.

OBE: $250,000
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