FAQ About Hanse 388 Options

I’ve received quite a few emails (from all over the world!) from people who are interested in buying a Hanse 388. Some are in the “we’re thinking about it” stage, others are already committed, but have questions about their final selection of options. It’s really cool to get these emails! In this post I’ll share some of the questions I’ve received, as well as my (candid!) answers to them.

Are you happy with the standard engine? What do you think about the 39 hp upgrade?

The base engine has been ok for us, and before ordering, I didn’t give it a second thought whether to buy the bigger engine option. Now, though, with the benefit of hindsight, I think it’s a slightly more difficult question.

• Going by (the smaller) engine isn’t very fast going. I thought we’d easily get over six knots, but we don’t. It’s more like five point something in good weather, and below five with headwind/waves. Our Hanse 388 with the smaller engine (and the folding two-bladed prop) is noticeably slower than my last boat, an IMX-38 with a Volvo Penta D1-30F. The IMX-38 is a much lighter both, with much less windage, so that ought to explain it.
• You’ll get more speed with higher RPMs, of course, but we’re usually at about 2300-2500 (dealer recommendation) to get decent fuel consumption numbers.
• Our dealer mentioned that a three-bladed folding prop (not a Hanse standard option) would increase speed significantly. This might be an alternative to the engine upgrade.

Below is the speed test table we did down in Greifswald, motoring up and down the Ryck river. (We did have a loose saildrive protection rubber at that time, which might have affected the speeds. Don’t know, will try again next summer!)

RPM	Speed
1000	2.0 knots
1500	4.0 knots
2000	5.0 knots
2500	6.2 knots
3500	7.3 knots

Here are some fuel consumption graphs:

I extracted some number from the graphs above (with WebPlotDigitizer) and here’s what I got:

• Optimizing for 3 litres/hour fuel consumption, we’ll drive our standard engine at 2400 RPM and get about 9 kW power at the propeller. (This might give use, say, 5.5 knots of boat speed depending on the weather.)
• With the upgraded engine, 3 litres/hour fuel is at about 2120 RPM (significantly lower). The power output is about 10-12% higher, though, with about 10 kW prop power. How this will translate into boat speed, I don’t know. The upgraded engine is about 60 kg heavier, so that counts for something as well. Adding 10% to 5.5 knots would be about 6.

Lastly, we haven’t actually ever been in a hurry, so going a bit slower by engine doesn’t matter so much, to us.

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We have the standard engine, a Yanmar 3YM30AE, but with the two-bladed folding prop upgrade costing 1,000€ (all prices excluding VAT). The bigger engine is the Yanmar 3JH5E, and this will set you back 3,600€.

What is your sailing speed?

I wrote a separate blog post about this: Hanse 388 Speed and Polars.

Short answer: we did about 90-94% of Hanse’s advertised speed guide, but they are using a spinnaker and we have a smaller downwind sail.

Last summer, with a bit of wind, we were quickly faster sailing than go by engine. Speeds between 6-7 knots were “normal”. With more wind, getting up to and over 8 wasn’t very rare.

UPDATE (08/2020): When we lifted the boat for winter storage last year, we had a lot of barnacles on the bottom. Sailing the boat this spring with a clean bottom (and less stuff loaded), it was clearly faster, and 100% official polar speed was quite attainable. See blog posts: We’re Flying and Hanse 388 Performance 2.0.

UPDATE (02/2021): More speed analysis in the blog post Hanse 388 Real-Life Performance.

On the pictures your plotter looks like the 12“ upgrade. Is it? Happy?

Yes, it’s the 12″ upgrade, and yes, happy!

The resolution is the same, but a bigger screen is bigger. I can see it better from behind the wheel. There is more area to fit your fingers when touching/using it.

And it looks more cool! 😄

The plotter is a B&G Zeus³. The 12″ upgrade is 900€ on the Hanse price list. In a marine store here in Finland, the difference in product price is 1,250€ (excluding installation). So, if you desire the bigger size, smarter to get it factory installed.

Crossover better than Gennaker?

I think this is a resounding yes!

Ok, small disclaimer here: I haven’t used a gennaker on a Hanse 388, so I really can’t compare. We had one two boats ago, though, on a Dehler 34, but I’m sure it’s not the same.

But, the crossover. It’s a brilliant sail! Easy to use and useful in a lot of different wind angles (see Hanse graphics below). The self-tacking jib stops being wonderful quite soon when turning down from close-hauled upwind. If there isn’t too much wind (below 15 knots TWS seems fine), the crossover/code zero will really get the boat going!

The Gennaker Package is 3,690€. The crossover is 4,490€ + 790€ for halyards and fittings = 5,280€ total.

Electrical winches? Second set of winches necessary?

Electric main winches: great choice! (We would get that now.) Getting enough halyard tension and sheeting in the jib is hard work with the manual ones. Also, when we tried, we failed at hoisting me up in the mast because Charlotte simply didn’t have enough strength to do it with the manual winch.

Secondary winches are good when flying the crossover (or other downwind sail). It’s doable without them, but I remember feeling it quite useful to have the main on the port winch (can be either), the jib on the starboard winch (can be just starboard) and then two additional winches to use for the crossover. (The jib is rolled in, in the process, of course, but still.) Also, if you are on the port tack with the crossover (with only one set of winches) and want to adjust the kicker (also on the port side), then you’re out of winches. 

A final positive for secondary winches: I think it will benefit the resale value. Most people want to use downwind sails (the crossover one of those) and I think they usually look for boats with a second set of winches.

The electrical main winches (Lewmar 40EST) add 4,990€ to the price (that’s actually quite a significant amount!). The manual secondary winches add 1,950€. All manual winches are Lewmar 40ST.

Light Sofa material. Is it ok regarding stains etc?

No! 😄 It’s quite terrible regarding stains!

If you are just two (or a few) adults and you focus on keeping it clean, then I think the light fabric is great. It looks great, for sure!

We have a dog (who loved to get up on the sofa), children jumping and walking on it with dirty feet, spilling food etc, and our light fabric got pretty dirty.

There are companies specialized in cleaning sofas like these, and I’m waiting for contact information to one of them. I hope the end result is that they will be perfecrtly bright and clean again, but I’m not sure.

With hindsight, we (with the children and the dog) might have taken some light coloured leather option. I’m not a big fan of leather, but for keeping it clean, it would probably have worked out much better.

Our Valencia (now replaced by Sorrenty) upholstery added 590€ to the price. Going leather would have added 2,490€.

 Synthetic teak vs real teak. Good choice of yours?

We’ve been very happy with this choice! It looks like, feels like real wood. (When we sailed the boat home from Greifswald one of my colleagues was completely fooled by it.)

To me, it seems that synthetic teak has all the good features, and none of the bad ones of teak. Also, I think it is another big plus for resale value.

The upgrade from real teak to synthetic teak is just 490€ (for cockpit floor, benches, helmsperson’s seats, bathing platform). If you want to cover the whole deck in (synthetic) teak, it’s obviously quite a bit more 😃

Standard floor. Still happy?

Yes, it’s great!

I was afraid that the floor would might get scratched and ugly, but that hasn’t happened at all. Quite a few pieces of something has fallen down on it, but it seems to hold up great.

The main thing for us: we wanted to get the “light and airy apartment feeling” inside, so to us the light floor was more appealing than, for example, the traditional sailboat stripes. 

Do you use the optional side entry? (Gateway stanchion)

Yes, absolutely, all the time.

When we’re docked alongside, it’s the only way to get on/off the boat. Because the boat is quite high, it’s difficult enough— especially for the children. Without the “opening” it would be much harder. 

Also, when docking alongside, and with one person jumping off of the boat, the opening is really useful there as well.

The add-on price for the gateway openings (on both sides) is 790€.

The standard radio. Happy with that? What about the USB ports on the back?

I didn’t know it had USB ports on the back! 😃 

We don’t have any CDs, and we don’t plug anything into anywhere. Everything comes from our mobile phones over Bluetooth, and this has worked great.

I don’t know whether the audio package upgrade has marginally better sound (the spec sheet is hard to read), but the base package worked great, both inside and in the cockpit. No complaints.

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The standard boat doesn’t have a media player. The base entertainment package, including speakers inside and in the cockpit, is 1,560€. The CD player version upgrade is an added 490€ to that.

What did you pay for the golden colour?

You can read more about our vinyl wrapping story in the post It’s a Wrap. It was not a Hanse (or dealer) standard option, but something we had done when the boat was already in Finland. The cost for the wrapping was about 3,500€ (plus VAT).

To Be Updated

This is the first version of my Hanse 388 Options FAQ, actually all from one email sent to me. I’ll dig through the archive later and update this post as I receive more questions. Please keep them coming!