Beneteau Swift Trawler Owners?

Owner of 2014 Beneteau Swift 44 purchased December 2014. We have put 300 hours on her and have had added several custom features in the year we have owned her- including a beautiful set of custom bridge stairs allowing our 90 lb German shepherd "Kobe" to join us with ease on the fly bridge. We have corrected several problems that we have encountered even though she was purchased new and have learned a few Swift 44 tricks along the way.

We consider the issues that we have encountered to be "typical" and truly love this boat.

Could you elaborate on what you've corrected and consider typical. I personally don't consider the need to correct items on a new boat "typical" or at least not as something I would like having to do. However, perhaps in knowing what those things were I'll better understand.

Happy to elaborate and I guess everyone might have a different definition of typical. From my standpoint, I have never owned a boat new or used they didn't have some repairs and/or corrections in the first few months. Perhaps that is just my bad luck

Here are the items that we are dressed and note that most of it was done under warranty:

1) biggest issue by far was an overheating port D300 Volvo engine. Initially could not run the boat more than 2900 rpm's for more than five minutes or the temp would shoot up . Took a few weeks, but the Volvo teck finally figured out that bizarrely the wrong coolant had been put in the new engine either at the Volvo or Benneteau factories. It should be the newer "yellow" coolant and there was pink coolant in the engine which gummed up the heat exchanger . Volvo drained, flushed and cleaned the entire cooling system (both closed and seawater), replaced with the proper coolant, and she has run 100% perfectly ever since.

2)at about 60 hours a trim tab actuator failed. While replacing, it was noticed that both tabs were missing 50% of the hinge rods- literally only have a pin through each one. Beneteau arranged on warranty to completely replace both tabs and actuator from Lenco. I learned that Lencoe custom makes these trim tab assemblies for the ST 44 here in Florida and ships them to France for installation. Unfortunately, no one had any explanation how only half opins were in the tabs!

3) battery charger for engine batteries died in first few months- put new one in on warranty

4) in the first six months of ownership, we "burned" through two complete sets of all zincs. I had a galvanic isolator installed for about $1000 and it's completely solved the problem. Not sure if this was a boat issue or location issue. Just know that the isolator did the trick.

5) factory bottom paint was poor and had no barrier coat. I also found it to be too low at the waterline. At one year I pulled her and took the bottom completely down to glass and removed the factory tape stripe (seen on my pic), barrier coated her and took the new water line up about 5 inches using micron ultra. Best thing I ever did- no scum lines, no appreciable growth at 5 months and great mileage.

6) Volvo EVS does not communicate with the Raymarine e series MFD. turns out boat doesn't come standard with a NMEA 2000 adapter- just added one for $400 and now everything "talks"- pretty cool!

7) last on my list is a master stateroom shower drain issue. This was discovered on my initial days onboard. The shower would not drain. Turned out the drain line from the shower ran a circuitous route to the sump pump under the floor in the hallway. The dealer took it all apart and replaced/rerouted the hose and all has been fine ever since.

Well, that's it as far as "problems." I'll admit I was annoyed when they occurred by everyone stood behind things pretty well.

Rick

Excuse my misspellings. Stupid spell check!

Thanks for sharing. Seems like a mixed bag. The one of those I've seen as a widespread ST issue has been the anodes and related issues. From the cases I've seen reported, I would label this a boat issue.

Some of the others definitely are quality assurance issues while others are quality design issues such as the bottom paint. Certainly fewer issues than many new boat buyers have encountered. I hope you got an extended warranty added by them on the port engine which overheated. Things like the battery charger are common across boat lines. #'s 1, 4 and 5 would have bothered me most.

Your story seems fairly typical. Guess I've been far more fortunate than most, but many have been far less lucky than you.

Thanks, appreciate your perspective. We just finished a 600 mile cruise in December with not one new issue, so I'm hoping these things have settled out!

That sounds like a good sign to complete a trouble free trip.

I think your bridge stairs sound great too. I am pro-stairs, anti-ladders.

The stairs are great and removable to get at lazarett below. Made of a cell material with gel it coating. Weighs 30lbs. We pretty much Kearney them in place all the time. I'll try to upload a pic for anyone interested.

Rick,

I just reduced the stair image you uploaded from 3000 pixels to 700. This saves bandwidth for members on satcom or data plans. Please resize future uploads accordingly.

Thanks!

Perfect, thx! I was desperately trying to reduce it on my iPad and it just wouldn't work. Thanks again for the help!

Congratulation on the Beneteau Swift 44
I am very happy with my boat
March 15 I am going to KEY WEST and in April I will be in the TORTUGAS returning to Ft Lauderdale April 28
send me a picture of the modification you did in order that your dog can come to the bridge I have a English Mastiff that look at me sad wend I go there and I can not take him up because the stairs are not compatible for big dogs.

I found your stairs

Glad you found it! If you want more info or pics let me know. Our dog now is used to them and goes up and down on his own.

Hi ST44 owners.
I am interested in some real world info from ST44 owners.

What percentage of time is spent running at say:
Displacement speed (below 10Kts)
Fast cruise ( 14 to 18 Kts)
High speed (above 20Kts)

All info welcome.

After about 325 hours of use, I would have to say that we are 50/50 in time spent between displacement speed and fast cruise . We live in Florida and spend a lot of time on the intracoastal And I have found that sometimes it is simply more relaxing and pleasant to use auto pilot in the 8 to 10 range. We "fast cruise" between 18-20 knots depending upon current, wind, weather, time of day, etc. I would not give up the fast cruise ability for anything. We have a 16-18 mile run from the ocean/intracoastal to our home and the thought of doing that trip repeatedly over and over at 8 knots pains me every so often I go to wide-open throttle just to see if I can get her to 25 kn for a minute or so for fun. Therefore, I have never ever cruised much the above 20 kn for any period of time . Hope this helps! Rick

Hi Rick L.
Many thanks for sharing your experience with me.
50/50 and valuing the fast cruise is the sort of real world info I'm looking for. We are moving from sail and I fear buying a ST44 and then finding out owners only use the higher speeds rarely.

Can you display fuel consumption? This function seems missing on the boats used for test and review.

All info appreciated.

Google Boattest Swift Trawler 44 and it will lead you to a Boattest and complete performance chart for a ST 44.

Brightside- we too are sailors who made the move to the "dark side ." the standard Volvo D300 engine computer gives you highly accurate fuel burn rate/hour and you can do some quick math to see your mpg. I just recently, however, installed a NMEA 2000 adapter that links the Volvo computer to my Raymarine system. After a little programming I have to say it is fantastic. Basically, the engines "talk" to the navigation and other Raymarine systems perfectly. Now, I have instant mpg fuel readout, distance to empty, and any sort of accurate engine data you could desire. Very cool! In my research you need to have volvos from 2009 or newer to tap into these computer operations. If you are looking at older boats, it's worth a call to a Volvo tech to see if it has the electronics..... Rick

P.S. For comparison, My ST 44 is a 2014 model year.