I own a Hanse 341 that I love, but as the saying goes “we’re going to need a bigger boat”!  The debate is whether we save money and buy a 415 with a few years and wear in her, or spring for a 418 with less of both.  

I would love to hear the opinion from you, the owners of both.  What are the biggest differences in the two models?  Is there significance in performance, layout, storage capacity, etc.  What do you love the most about your boat, and what do you find lacking, if anything?

Thank you in advance for any insight that you can provide.

Ken

Having gone from a 311 to a 370 I can only partly answer your question.

I would go for second-hand if possible because right now the inflation and material supply prices has climped through the roof.

But your needs might be very different from others. Do you need 3 cabin or 2 cabin layout with extended storage?

Because of family requirements we went for 3 cabin, but allready this summer our oldest sibling is only joining us for a few days.

But rule of thump is to avoid coloured hulls and a full teak-deak. This will in time be a disadvantage for resale.

I think our 370 is a perfect match when there is no need for divecompressor, watermaker, generator and such blue water sailing equipment.

I have a 415 (in mast reefing, factory performance laminate sails, two cabin, two heads, electric winches) that we keep in Greece and have lived aboard for 18months but now just a few months a year.  We live in the UK.  

Like all boats there are pros and cons some are objective and some subjective.  I'll try and be honest for you and I'll include comments from a good friend of mine who's had decades of experience with a large number of yachts, but not a Hanse owner.  

From the third party:

Sails really well.  He did say "its changed my mind on self tacking and in mast reefing".  (But note that we have the laminate sails so cant comment on standard sails)

Excellent short handed layout

Quality seems to be a little above other volume production boats

Downwind performance of the self tacker is a problem (as a hanse owner you know this)

My comments

The 415 and the 418 are the same hull and rig, someone correct me if I am wrong, so performance wont be different and the hardware will probably be very similar.. 

She sails easily and short handed, even solo, is simple.  Rudder feedback is somewhat dull but no different to other twin helm cruising boats I've sailed.  No failures of standing or running rigging.

We use a 'top down furler' for light wind down wind or a reach and the performance is excellent.   

In the UK, solent, the short solent 'chop' was uncomfortable but again no different to the current crop of high volume boats. 

The cockpit layout works well for us.  We spend almost all our time outside so a big comfortable area is essential.  When the boat was in the UK there was good protection from the elements with the large sprayhood. 

We chose the two cabin version for the massive galley area and super large 'Utility' room on the starboard side.  We can simply store everything we need including fenders in there. 

On the port side in the cockpit there is a second shallow locker, missing on the 418.  This is really useful.

Storage is more than ample. 

Cabins are light and very well ventilated.  

500L of water with the additional tank.

'Fake' teak deck.  This works really well and looks good. However, see below.

Things I don't like so much.

The fuel tank is only 160L

There is only space for 1 gas bottle.  We keep the spare in the anchor locker. 

the standard anchor was a little on the light side.  We upgraded.

The 'v' berth is a little narrow at the foot, given the available space but we don't seem to notice so try before you buy. The 418 does have an option for a larger bed if you don't have the second heads.    

All valves are DZR of unknown quality but I'm  slowly replacing these with Trudesign.  No different from most boats of this age (2014)

The main heads has a sliding door locker above the sink with sliding mirror doors.  Its so shallow that you cant really use it for anything other than very shallow bottles and the sliding doors catch on the contents and it does irritate me! Its a minor point but.....

The fake teak deck is excellent but gets really really hot in the Greek sun. For temperate climates I couldn't recommend it more if that's the look you want.  But not in the tropics! 

I did have a look at a 418 at the boat show and there are a few things I noted.

The lack of a port locker in the cockpit removes a lot of storage space and I don't, personally, think that this is worth the extra headroom in the port aft cabin. 

The aft part of the cockpit is revised with better access to the storage in the transom.  The lift up seats were a nice touch. 

The saloon is slightly different, I like both designs.  Port lights are better

The main heads seems a lot more cramped.  The 415 has a separate shower area where the 418 has the toilet in the shower.  Not entirely sure its an improvement.  The storage is a better though and the design looks more modern.  

We did come away form the 418 thinking we preferred the 415 in terms of layout but the 418 was more modern in design and we did prefer the 'look'.  (A good chunk of bias will be in there!)

That's all I have.  it will be interesting to get a 418 view.  Happy to answer any questions you have

Mike

I placed my orders with IMG in late August 2014 (385) and August 2020 (458) to take advantage of the Early Bird offers and get delivery in spring the following year.

However Hanse now have a full order book and an order placed now might not be delivered until 2023.  Buying a used model might be the only way to get a new boat in the next 12 months.

We looked on a used 415 and it didn’t gel with us. Despite being volumous we felt “enclosed” possibly because those coachroof windows are so high. We were set on a Bavaria Vision 42 but looked on a 458 at Düsseldorf and were persuaded by the UK dealer to look at their demo 418. We loved her. The large hull ports (although not very pleasing to look at from outside) were a game changer inside, especially with the lighter wood. From the outset we ideally wanted an island berth (I know it sounds lame and “un-sailory” but the ability to sit up in bed and lean back against the backrest so we can chat on a lazy morning was important to us!).

Having snagged some pretty significant debris in the channel before, I personally prefer the L keel over the T keel for cruising - but again that’s a personal preference. 

It’s possible the 418 may hold its value better in the short term (it feels much more current generation with those big hull ports) but I guess over time that difference will diminish especially when Hanse bring out a fat “420” or something.

Either will sail and handle beautifully - we came 53rd out of 583 in this years round the island race despite carrying all our cruising clobber and having my novice sister and brother in law as crew. 

Bearing in mind your transition, you may find this article helpful  https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/reviews/yacht-reviews/head-to-head-hanse-348-hanse-418" rel="nofollow - https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/reviews/yacht-reviews/head-to-head-hanse-348-hanse-418

Good luck in your search!

Like most

Well mannered under sail

Medium to strong wind performance

Stability and feeling of confidence 

Points high with the self tacker 

Beautifully balanced on the helm (this was a revelation to me!)

Bright and light interior

Owners cabin / island berth

Single handed set up 

Dislike

Access from the cockpit to side decks is ridiculously narrow. Don’t like this at all and it’s the only time I feel unsafe at times on the boat

As Mike said, lack of second gas bottle stowage 

Hanse’s use of screws with aggressive threads coupled with quite soft wood! A couple of the bigger / less well orientated locker doors are heavy on the hinges / struts and I’ve had to replace screws with better / longer

Wurth panel & electrics - good luck offshore if something goes wrong (but this probably applies to the 415 and 418 equally and probably 99% of modern production boats!

I have a 2-berth 1 head 415.

I actually just changed the forward berth and converted it to facing aft.  I installed a new "headboard", and extended the "foot" of the bed about 6" (which used to be the wide part of the V-berth) to accommodate a new mattress.

The resulting bed is 76"x60" with a narrower head.  The headboard is 33" wide, so you have to be friendly with your companion if there are two of you :)

I was looking at both a 418 and 415 and liked the island berth of the 418 but hated that they moved the toilet into the shower.  We figured we could fix the berth a lot easier than changing the head.

Do you have any pictures of that conversation?  I would be really interested in seeing how you did it and the end result. 

I made a birch plywood headboard from ~20mm ply (3/4" in the US)

The foot extension adds 6" (150mm) to the wide end of the v-berth bed.

I carefully cut off the existing edge flush with the surface of the access panels (the ones with the holes in them) that sit over the tank and the bow thruster.

I then built a plywood extension that brings that end out and squares it off with large 4" (100mm) corners.  I used a 4" (100mm) tall piece of plywood to create the new trim edge for the mattress to tuck into, and kerf bent it around the two radius corners.

I used the fabric from the old v-berth cushions to cover the headboard (with some batting to give it a softer feel), and the trim that I made for the foot of the bed.

I considered trying to make the extension flush with the rest of the deck, but decided it wasn't worth it because you wouldn't really feel it through a 8" mattress.  I also added the under-spring setup but left them off of the new raised part, so that took up some of the height difference as well.

I got a new custom mattress made.  It's 8" (200mm) thick memory foam.  The mattress is 60" wide, and 76" long.  It narrows to 33" at the headboard, and has 4" radius corners at the foot.

Thanks so much for sharing this information about how you enlarged the Vberth bed on your 418.  I would like to do the same think on my 418.  If you could share more detailed pictures that would be much appreciated.  If you could show exactly how you extended the foot of the bed it would be helpful. 

Thanks so much

mariot888@gmail.com

Mario.