NEW JEANNEAU SO 380 VERSUS DEHLER 38SQ AND NEW SALONA 39

Why compare these three and not any of the other 38ft on the market? Well, among this size of boats and in what regards cheaper mass-produced boats the Sun-Odyssey 380 is the less "fat" among all other offers in the category, and the one with the best all-around performance, and the Salona 39 and Dehler 38 are the less expensive performance cruisers, the ones closer as an option for someone that is considering a Sun Odyssey (that is not a performance cruiser). 

SO 380

The other mass production sailboats that compete with the SO are the Oceanis 38.1, with a 3.99m beam (10.73 LWL), the Dufour 390, 3.99 beam (10.50 LWL), the Hanse 398, 3.90 beam (10.40m LWL) and the Bavaria C38, 3.98 beam (10.27 LWL). The Jeanneau SO 380 stands out as a different sailboat with a smaller beam (3.76m) and a bigger LWL (10.71m).

The Jeanneau SO 380 has a similar beam if compared with the two performance cruisers we are considering, 3.75m for the Dehler and 3.72m for the Salona, having a bigger waterline due to its inverted bow. The Dehler has a 10.40 LWL, the Salona 10.01m, the Jeanneau 10.70 (and this on a 10.77 hull length!), while the Dehler has 11.30 HL and the Salona 11.60.

Above Dehler 38SQ
Below, Salona 380 (same hull as the 39)

All of them come with an integrated bowsprit and have a LOA of near 12m. The Jeanneau displaces 6896kg, the Dehler 7500 (or 7000kg optionally) and the Salona 6200kg. But even if the hulls and displacements are not very different there are other major aspects that explain the price difference and why the Dehler and the Salona are overall faster boats and better-built ones. We can start with B/D and draft, which, because the hulls are not very different, will tell you a lot about the power differential.

The SO 380 has a cast L iron keel with a torpedo with 2.00m draft and a 26.2% BD. On the Dehler, the standard keel is an L bulbed cast iron one with a 2.03m draft and a 31.7%B/D. They offer also a performance keel that they call "competition", with a lead torpedo,  2.24m draft, and a 29.3%B/D (7000kg displacement). The Salona 39 is the only one that comes standard with a lead torpedo, with a 2.15m draft and 35.6%B/D. It has as option a better performance keel with 2.25m draft.

SO 380

A clear advantage in power to the Salona, in what regards standard versions, with the Dehler needing to have an expensive nonstandard keel to come close. The SO 380 is clearly less powerful and slower. The situation where the SO 380 would lose less would be in light wind sailing where the difference in B/D is less important.

But having a similar beam is not all in what concerns drag and we can see that the forward sections of the Dehler and the Salona are much narrower than the ones of the SO 380, offering less drag and the same can be said from the stern, that is designed to offer the bigger possible interior space, even if it has also the advantage of limiting heel, making sailing downwind easier. 

Dehler 39SQ

Now, before disliking the SO remember that it is the fastest of the mass production boats with its size and it costs less than the Dehler or the Salona, offering more interior space. This difference in price is due not only because the lesser B/D allows having a less strong structure and because it is an all bonded boat using a monolithic hull, built using a hand-laid method and polyester resins.

This means that for the same weight a boat built this way is less strong and less rigid than one built with better materials and superior and more expensive building techniques; also in what regards sailing hardware for having perfect control of the shape of the sails and for easy handling, the sailing hardware from the Dehler or the Salona is not only of better quality but much more complete.

Salona 380 (same hull as the 39)

Even so, the SO is a step ahead of the Oceanis because the structure is made with an infused fiberglass inner liner, with easy access to frame if a grounding happens, and with relamination in stays attachment areas. Better than the Oceanis but not comparable in quality or resistance with the hull and structure of the Dehler or the Salona.

The Dehler uses a composite hull sandwich using balsa as core, vinylester on the first layer, and then polyester resins (they have an option for full vinylester resins), with hand-laid fabric, and use a carbon-reinforced structure for the hull. Bulkheads are like the ones of the Jeanneau made in marine-grade plywood. The bulkheads on the Salona are not only bonded but glassed to the hull and inner structure. Salona is the only one that uses laminated floorboards.

SO 380, below Dehler 39SQ

The Salona goes one step further and uses vacuum injection, not only on the deck (like Jeanneau and Dehler) but also on the hull, using only vinylester resins on a sandwich hull with foam core. It uses also as structure a very strong galvanized steel grid where the keel and shrouds are attached, having the hull in that area carbon reinforcements. Very few boats offer a watertight aft bulkhead and the Salona is one of them, offering also a watertight bow bulkhead (more common).

The watertight aft bulkhead is rare, even in very expensive yachts, and they are very important to safety, preventing a boat from sinking if a huge shock on the rudder breaks the hull at the insertion point. That is responsible for the sinking of many yachts and I believe that was what happened recently in an X4.9 that was doing the January ARC. Besides all that, if you really have a real stiff and lighter boat you have a not very expensive option for full carbon sandwich bulkheads.

Salona 380 (same hull as the 39)

Regarding sail hardware, the Jeanneau comes with a deck-stepped mast, without a genoa traveler, a mainsail traveler or a backstay (they are not optional), with one 35.2 winch and two 40.2, with an option for another 35.2 (over the cabin). The Dehler comes with a keel-stepped mast, four 40 winches and two 45, it comes with genoa and mainsail travelers and a manual tensioner backstay with an option for a hydraulic one as well as an option for bigger winches or carbon spars. 

I believe all will understand the importance of travelers, more winches, bigger winches, backstay and backstay tensioner, to sail trim and easier control, but I believe many will not know why a keel-stepped mast is safer and better for cruising. Here you have a good explanation:

https://www.riggingdoctor.com/life-aboard/2020/5/20/deck-stepped-vs-keel-stepped-mast

SO 380

The Salona 39 comes standard with a keel-stepped mast, with genoa and mainsail traveler, four 40.2 winches, two 46.2, a manual cascade tensioner backstay, with an option for bigger winches, a hydraulic backstay, carbon spars and some of these options are not expensive, compared to what they offer.

We have already looked at stiffness (power to carry sails), let's look now at the sail area to explore that sail power. I would not use as measure SA/D, because even if the boats have a similar displacement, the Dehler and Salona have much finer entries, and less full transoms, developing less drag.

,Dehler 39SQ

Because the Jeanneau hull is considerably different it would not be fair to consider a linear relation between drag and displacement not taking into account those hull differences that generate drag, so I choose to post the sail areas and you will know that the Jeanneau develops more drag than the other two, that the Salona is the lighter boat and that only with the optional keel and infused hull options the Dehler will be near the SO 380 displacement.

Salona 39

The SO 380 with a small genoa has a 63,4 m2 sail area, the Dehler can have two different sized masts, depending on the keel, and can have 77.9m2 or 84.5m2 as sail area and the lighter Salona has 80m2. I would say that only with the optional taller mast and the deeper keel the Dehler will have performances close to the Salona ones and that the SO 380 will always be slower, even in light wind, for the same sail area.

SO 380

The bigger difference in sail performance between the SO 380 and the other two boats will be in medium to stronger winds, beam reaching, and upwind where the much bigger B/D of the two other boats will give them much more power.

However the SO 380 has the possibility of having something that the two other boats don't offer, an option for a swing keel with all the weight in the keel, that will not give it a better sail performance but will allow the boat to enter any port or to look for shelter near the shore.

Dehler 38SQ

The swing keel is an expensive option, but for sailing in the Bahamas, or in places where the tides are big can be a must because the draft with the keel up is only 1.32m while it has 2.70m as sailing draft. Some will think that due to the bigger draft this keel will increase performance over the standard keel, but the performance should be very similar, due to the torpedo and smaller drag on the other keel, but mostly because the ballast on this one is smaller than on the standard keel (1607kg to 1810).

Salona 39

In the standard configuration, the Salona 39 is not only the fastest of the three but also the one that is built with the best techniques and best materials, and probably the one that represents the best value for the money, however, I should say that while Jeanneau and Dehler (supported by Hanse) have not experienced deep troubles on the last decade, Salona has experienced problems some years ago and as result times of deliveries were not fulfilled and the quality lowered.

Typical Jeanneau structure with an integral liner (bigger boat)

But already for some years now the company has been recuperating under new management and has remained stable. Hard times seem to be behind, the quality improved, new models were launched, and I have no knowledge of recent complaints or problems. If you want to know more about all this you can read it here:

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-salona-460-best-value.html

Anyway, if I would buy one, just to be sure, I would use the services of a very good independent naval engineer that lives near the factory (works for Bavaria, More and other companies) and can survey all important stages of the building, assuring that all is properly made and that you end up not only with a boat built with top materials and techniques but also with a boat without any problem. 

Dehler 38SQ building

Note that in all brands sometimes problems happen, and because workers are not interested in saying that they have done something wrong, they are not reported and some escape supervision. 

There is supervision but if someone wants to disguise the error, sometimes it passes unnoticed and gives origin to a defective product. I have knowledge of cases in almost all brands, even very expensive ones, they are rare, but sometimes they happen and they can be prevented if a boat has superior independent building supervision.

Salona 39 building

Very expensive big luxury yachts are built normally with external supervision to warrant this is avoided, but on less expensive yachts it is rare, because the price of such supervision is expensive, if compared with the boat price. In this case, because the engineer lives near the factory, it is not the case, even for a 38ft boat, that would cost about the same as a good quality mainsail, and that is not much to be sure everything was done the right way. 

Regarding interiors, Dehler and Salona have a bit better quality ones, but the quality of materials and finish is one thing, another is styling, and in what concerns that, it is a question of taste: the Jeanneau has an airy modern nice looking interior, but it offers little storage in the saloon and the open galley cabinets are open and not practical unless you never go hard against the wind. 

Salona 39

It offers 4 interior layouts, some of them for charter but two interesting ones for cruising, with 2 good cabins, a good storage space, and one or two heads, one of them with a separate shower. The relatively spacious front cabin, incredibly can have a small head without making the "bed" smaller.

 That it is only possible due to the fat bow entries, that with medium or strong winds will not diminish significantly downwind or beam reaching performance but that will make the boat slower (in all points of sail) in weaker winds or upwind, making it also less comfortable upwind with waves (increased slamming). That is a trade-off that you can accept as positive, or the opposite, depending on how you value sailing performance over interior comfort and space. You can have a virtual visit here:

SO 380

https://www.jeanneau.pt/panorama/664/

The Dehler 38SQ has a very particular modern interior, that you will love or hate, and it has the advantage of being different from any other sailboat. The new version (SQ) is much nicer than the previous ones due to the lighter wood and color schemes. It seems to me that they took time to get it right, but the result now is very nice.

The galley and saloon have incomparably more storage than what is offered in the Jeanneau (and storage is very important on a small boat). There are two layouts one with a three-cabin other with two-cabin,  offering on both a spacious head with a separate cabin shower, a good aft cabin (and a smaller one on the 3 cabin version) and a forward cabin that without being small for a  boat of this size is considerably smaller than the one of the Jeanneau. The storage with the two cabin layout is suitable for long-range cruising. You can have a virtual visit here: 

SO 380

https://www.hanseyachtsag.com/dehler/us/boats/dehler-38-sq/

The Salona 39 has the same hull as the 380, a modern hull with fine entries with a slightly rounded bow, now with an integrated bowsprit, a redesigned cabin and bigger through the hull ports, that allow now a nicer view to the exterior. 

Dehler 39SQ

The interior is the more traditional of the three, it is pleasant and offers the best storage in what regards cabinets in the galley and saloon. Like the Dehler, it offers a two-cabin layout (with an option for three cabins) being the more interesting the one that offers a separate shower cabinet (optional). The forward cabin is in size similar to the one on the Dehler, but the aft one (on the two cabin version) is slightly bigger due to smaller storage space. 

Salona 39

No virtual visit is available, but because the interior is practically the same used on the 380, you can have a good idea of how it will be, in this video (3 cabin layout).

As to tankage, the Sun Odyssey offers 330L as water tankage and a 130L diesel tank. A very good tankage for cruising but one that is certainly not good for sailing, because the big water tank is below the forward berth and when full it will have certainly a big impact on the sailing performance and on the way the boat will behave in waves. Add that weight to the one of the chain and you will have a lot of weight on the frontal boat sections.

    

SO 380

The same can be said about the Dehler which has a slightly smaller water tank in the same place (295L) and a diesel tank with 160L. The Salona has a smaller tankage but a much better weight distribution, having the two main tanks below the two aft berths, one on each side, water 180L and fuel 100L. It can have an additional water tank with 90L in the middle of the boat, behind the saloon seat. The localization of the Salona tanks are on areas where the hull has much more buoyancy (than near the bow)  and will affect much less the behavior of the boat, either full or almost empty. 

Regarding motorization they all offer as standard a 29hp engine, saildrive on the Dehler and Salona. Jeanneau uses shaft drive offering also a 40hp engine option, which is not referred as possible on any of the other two boats. Regarding the vantages and disadvantages of a shaft drive over a sail drive, here you find a good summary:

https://www.multihullcompany.com/articles/articles-by-phil-berman/saildrives-or-straight-shafts-which-is-best-for-me/

Dehler 38SQ

The Salona is the only one that proposes an electric motor with 15kw (more than usual), an expensive option (about 30 000 €)  that can be an interesting option for the ones that sail from marina to marina. 

If that is not the case, I would say a generator should be added and that would turn that solution into a more expensive solution, but the electric engine includes already a hydrogenerator and with an adequate solar panel pack you will waste a lot less diesel and will have plenty of electric energy for living aboard. My wife would like that: electric energy for everything.

Prices are another thing that separates the SO 380 from the other two sailboats, this time in a positive way: the Jeanneau will cost at the factory standard without taxes 147 185 €, the Dehler 38SQ costs 203 900 € and the Salona 39 costs 204 000 €. The prices are merely indicative and may be slightly outdated.

Take into account that for having the Jeanneau with a closer performance to the other boats you will have to buy the performance pack, which will increase the base price, and even so the sail hardware and the sail performance will remain considerably inferior to the slower of the other two, the standard Dehler. 

Salona 39

For the  Dehler to have the same standard specifications as a Salona 39 you would have to spend a lot more in extras than the difference in price that separates the two boats, and then the Salona will be considerably less expensive. Besides the Salona can have other options that will increase even more its performance over the Dehler, like carbon bulkheads and other items that make it lighter than the Dehler, even in its "race" version, and with a bigger B/D.

I like these three, and I would, very clearly, prefer a Dehler or a Salona over the Jeanneau, if I could afford the extra money (and I would try very hard to get that money), but I f I couldn't and wanted the best sail performance cruiser among the cheaper boats, I would get the Jeanneau, even if quite aware that there is a big difference between it and boats like the Dehler or Salona, not only in performance but also in overall quality, even if it is not clear for some, at first glance.