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Beneteau 343

2006 February 3
By Robert H. Perry

Coastal cruiser

It would be fun and instructive to compare this newest Beneteau 343 to the best the production boat world had to offer in this size range in 1975. My own Islander 32 comes to mind and at the time it was considered a very roomy boat. You could put the I-32 inside the Beneteau 343. Today we expect a lot from our small cruising boats and Beneteau has done its best to deliver with this Berret-Racoupeau design. The brochure says the hull design is by Berret-Racoupeau so I will assume that the interior, deck and structure were designed by the Beneteau in-house design team. I'd like to think that the rig, keel and rudder came from the hull designers.

This is a beamy boat and in the world of interior wars that's exactly what you want. The L/B is 2.98, and anytime this ratio dips below 3 you have a beamy boat. In plan view you can see that beam pushed into the ends of the boat and I don't find this a particularly pleasing shape if you consider pushing it through the water. But that's only part of the equation. Beam buys you valuable volume and I don't have an equation that compares comfort below to boat speed. In profile it's a handsome hull with short ends and a subtle but attractive sheer. The freeboard is high but certainly not out of line to what we commonly see today. By raising the bootstripe and dropping the cove stripe the freeboard is partially disguised. The D/L is 181. You can get an optional lifting keel or go with the standard draft of 4 feet, 7 inches, or the other optional 6-foot keel. The vertical rudderstock is obviously a way of keeping the steering gear out of the huge aft double berth space.

This interior layout puts the old I-32 to shame. Both boats weight about the same but there is far more interior volume in this 34-footer than my old 32-footer. This boat seems to have everything, so I will look for what is missing. There is a big double berth tucked under the cockpit. This will not be the easiest berth to get in and out of, especially if you are the first one in, but it's roomy and there are hull ports to provide light there. There is a head with a separate shower stall. The galley looks fine if you can live with a small single sink. The nav station faces aft and uses the starboard settee for a seat. In typical Beneteau fashion the saloon is nicely arranged with a drop-leaf table and shelves outboard of the settees. Beneteau does an amazing job of finishing its joinery. Its interiors always feel good to me. The V-berth looks small but certainly adequate from what I can tell. There are two small hanging lockers forward. To my eye this boat could use more locker space. But where would it go? Maybe the shower would work best for foul weather gear.

I like the overall look of this boat. The stepped cabintrunk looks good to my eye. The windows show some restraint in size and shape and I like the way the windows are semi-recessed into the side of the cabintrunk. Beneteau has some excellent stylists.

The rig is a fractional with single spreaders and a deck-stepped mast. The drawing shows the cap shroud stopping about five feet short of the headstay attachment point (the "hounds"). Normally you would attach the cap shrouds at the hounds to support the headstay loads. Maybe this is an ad agency art glitch. The same drawing shows the lower shroud attaching to the mast about 36-inches below the spreaders when you would usually take the lower shroud right up to the spreader base. I don't think this is right. Furthermore, the photos I have show a double spreader rig with the shrouds terminating in the traditional positions. You can get the "Classic" rig with a normal mast or you can get the "Furler" option with I-mast furling. Using the "Classic" rig we get an SA/D of 16.64. Given the overall character and aim of this design I would say that's just about right.

This is a lot of boat for 34 feet, but it appears to be a very well-thought-out package.