Unlike anything else | Bente 28 yacht tour | Yachting Monthly

hi I'm Theo stalker from yachting monthly and I'm at the Dusseldorf boat show in Germany now the chances are you haven't heard of Benta which is a German brand of Yachts they came onto the scene a few years ago with a couple of small boats and their larger bent to 39 which was a really Innovative fast cruising yacht they had a few little difficulties and they're now back with a bang with two new boats I've got the Benta 24 which we'll have a look at in a little bit but I wanted to start with the Benta 28 which is a really cool small fast cruising yacht which I think is really exciting thank you as with all of the yachts in the Bender range they're designed by Euler Rolex which have a very good track record of creating fast slippery and quite powerful boats so starting at the bow here you can see you've got a retractable carbon bow spread you've got two hard hold shines one near the gunnel which brings the uh the deck slightly in reduces a bit of weight and then you've got a full length Hull Chine here which maximizes volume reduces water line length in light winds and increases power when you're healed this has got the standard Keel on which is a cast iron Keel it's one meter 65 draft there is a performance option which is a steel Keel with a lead bomb which is one meter 90. there we go I think I've got those numbers right you've got a little Hull window here which is quite nice when you're sitting down below you've got chain plates taken right the way outboard to keep the side decks clear maximum stiffness for the Mast coming aft you've got the Sail Drive for the vitus 16 horsepower inboard diesel I guess you could opt for electric or other brands of motor if you wanted to unlike the bed 24 the bed 28 has got twin Rudders and these are reasonably deep twin Rudders set well outboard to give you maximum grip when the boat heals um and that goes to a single tiller steering and you can see these Chimes taken all the way off so let's climb up and we'll have a look on board right so starting at the transom you can see there's a little bathing ladder there or a rescue ladder and you've got the traveler right across the transom giving you really good control of the Mainsail and good options to tweak it you can see there the control lines just brought up to the AFT end of the cockpit seats just next to engine throttle controls so that's all tucked reasonably nicely out of the way but not too far away port side you've got a manual bilge pump and I guess if you wanted to you could have a deck shower here as well at the moment this boat doesn't have isn't fitted with a shower in the heads compartment but that's certainly an option that if you wanted it it could be fitted so you can see here we've got tiller steering coming onto the boat now so this is a single tiller and it's brought up at quite an acute angle but it means that it comes it clears your knees which is good particularly if you've got long legs um and that gives really nice direct steering with Attila there and then just forward of you while you're sitting here you've also got the main sheet control with a a speed sheet thing so you can trim one for fine control or both at the same time for shooting in and out quickly um storage wise you've got a cockpit Locker to starboard there we go so that's a really good big and really nicely neatly finished Locker in there that's got plenty of space for a life raft a dinghy um or whatever you want to put in their fenders so that's a really good big space in there I've actually moved this cushion out of the way and you can see here there's a little Groove along so the natural place to helm from is here sitting up on the side and you've got this really nice Groove for putting your feet in and you've got the main sheet here and if you're really healing you can sit outboard with your bum over the combing and you've got an amazing view forwards so that's a really comfortable position to helm from and you've got padded rests against the guard wires just for comfort as well so one of the most distinctive characteristics of this boat is the spray Dodger coach Roof dog house whatever you want to call it which is really unusual to see and it's basically a Plexiglas window forwards and then an arch at the cockpit end and you can see here we've got some really nice lighting above the cockpit seating and a really sheltered place to sit at the forward end of the cockpit I'll come back and have a look at that in a minute as we go forwards you can see the um the Plexiglas coach roof so the whole coach roof is actually one big window which means that light just Pours Down Below you've got absolutely loads of light in there it's a lovely space to be you've got all the lines LED after on this slightly raised section just next to the um next of the coach roof and then you've got Genoa tracks here um adjustable jib cars and all lines led up from the Mast including reefing and then you've got a good powerful kicker there um the stanchions really nice little details like you've got reinforced statues here rather than just having a single socket so they're a little bit tougher right at the Mast the gooseneck is nice and low so you can really easily reach the stack pack you're not reaching up the Mast to get to the sails so it's quite an easy boat to sell from that point of view she's only 28 foot you have to remind yourself of that because she really squeezes in lots of accommodation there's a good big hatch here up on the four deck which will close and that gives you lots of ventilation down below and as we'll see it's sort of open plan living so that ventilates the main Saloon as well coming to the forward end you've got quite a sort of a wide bow here you can just see the um carbon bow sprit there people walking past down below and then let's have a look in the anchor Locker we're only 28-footer um so it's a fairly simple Arrangement but you can see here there's enough space to put warp chain um reasonably decent anchor and maybe a couple of fenders as well fairly decent deck gear here um nicely reinforced below and these very smart black anodized push bit railings as we come after you get another view of the um coach roof and you can also see this neat little detail here that the lines come after along and then they come back to these clutches just after the combing and then straight onto the harken primary which is there so here's the spray Hood Dodger doghouse again so this is quite a nice little space you can sit under you can turn these lights on and off there's the chart plotter so this is a really nice little space that you could shelter it doesn't quite shelter you from the rain I guess you could always rig something up if you wanted to but it certainly protects you from the elements and actually when they've been out testing the boat even in sort of 20 25 knots of wind spray going everywhere the cockpit remains really dry so actually for a little cruising boat um you're a lot less exposed than you might be in some other boats and probably makes a really good family Cruiser for that reason so here you've got this um it's a bit of a bender signature this sort of slightly wider Companion Way there's no sliding hatch on this one so you duck down as you come in but it's nice and wide which you need to fit your shoulders through and then you come down into the saloon now where I'm standing I've got over two meters of Headroom which I'll show you in just a second and even at the forward end of the saloon I've got full standing Headroom as you come into the saloon I'm actually standing on the hull on the in on the bottom inside of the hull and above me I've got a good amount of Headroom I'm 185 so I guess that's about two meters of Headroom here and as I come to the forward end of this area the entrance area I've still got over 185 of of standing Headroom which is really nice as you go forwards into the saloon it's sitting space only but for actually where you've got the heads the galley it's a really nice space to be and I can see 270 degrees all the way around me which is a really nice feature to have full Stony Headroom and great visibility in just a 28 foot boat moving forward into the saloon you can see here you've got sitting Headroom once you're forward of the coach roof but you've actually got enough space to sit six people around a really good Saloon table lift up leaves some storage in the middle and there's a nice little cut out here so you can still walk around the edge of the table even when the leaves are up which is quite nice so you don't have to pack away dinner if somebody needs to slide out and then at the forward end you come to the v-birth the moment this is open plan I guess you could put a canvas screen if you wanted some privacy but there's a really good big double fee birth there which I'll show you in just a second and then behind me there's not loads of storage up but you've got some good bins there for for books and all the things that you want out ready and available and there's good storage in the table and under the forward berth you've got some really big storage it's actually areas like that I mean you can put chip bags away some more serious equipment and this makes it a bit more of a serious cruising boat she's rcd category B which means that she's a bit more suitable for some slightly more exposed Waters albeit not fully offshore uh there we go now I'm going to come after the galley so you've got the galley on port side here this boat's fitted with electric induction cooking so in Harbor that'll be fine you can put a non-slip mat on there if you're doing slightly more serious Coastal cruising and you wanted to make a cup of tea underway you probably would be able to have a gas cooker installed in here instead although that doesn't necessarily come as standard you've got really good stowage underneath here there's a compressor for the fridge there's a drawer there that stow it under the cooker if you had a gas cooker that space might be taken up with the with a gimbaled oven or you could mount a spirit a gimbal Spirit stove on top might be the alternative you've got a bin and some of the Water Systems in there and then you've got a neat little single sink there and a small fridge ice box here which I think opens up like that and you can access I think you can access both sides um there's a shelf above the galley sorry that's not very bright so if we can get more light on there um yeah so we've got a shelf above the galley here and then underneath that you've got some sliding Locker space I guess if you're cruising you might want to put slightly better fiddles on here for plate storage or something like that coming off then you've got the boat's second double berth it's a slightly narrow double you can definitely shove a couple of kids in there happily enough but it's a really good long berth um and reasonable sort of sitting up head space against the hull side with an opening hatch here so under the port asked berth you've got some of the electrical equipment batteries and charging things you've got a fuel tank of 60 liters under the center of the cockpit under the cockpit Sole and then in the cockpit Locker you've got a 40 liter holding tank for the heads and then forward under the port berth you've got a 55 liter freshwater tank that's in a flexible tank so we've just lifted the steps off you can see that's a separate casing and then in here you've got your bilge pump because of course we're standing actually in the bottom of the hull and then here's your Vitus diesel snugged in there um pretty good access to the front of the engine filters I'd imagine you will access at the rear or at the side um yeah through the heads so you go in through the heads and then you've got access on the starboard side all right so we've had a look around the Bento at 28 now so just to give you a few numbers she's 8 meter 66 overall 2.99 meters beam which means that she is just about road legal if you wanted to Trail her which is nice to know displacement is just over three tons 3 200 kilos and she's got a 40 ballast ratio with the standard Keel which makes her a really stiff boat with quite a lot of performance potential so cost wise the basic boat including tax this is certainly in German tax which is 19 so including tax is just shy of a hundred and thirty thousand Euros and this boat as it's fitted out as you've seen it today um is 165 000 Euros with all of the optional kit on um there are a couple of bits you could add on if you wanted to but this boat is ready to go cruising I think small cruising boats are really exciting I like them I like their Simplicity I like the idea that for a much smaller budget than you would get for a 38 or 40 footer you can go and have the same Adventures if you've got a boat like this that has the option if you really push it to plane it well up into double figures or you can sell it much more conservatively if you have family on board I think this makes a really exciting proposition thank you

Channel: Yachting Monthly

Views: 19,773

Keywords: sailing, skills, yachts, yachting, cruising, boat, expert advice

Id: 4kHsOMygU4M

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023