The easy handling Beneteau Swift Trawler 41 is designed as a comfortable family cruiser with three staterooms, two heads, a proven hull, and a 23-knot top speed to get you home in a hurry.
The 41 is in the middle of the French builder’s Swift Trawler line, which runs from 37 to 48 feet. It was introduced about three years ago and has become a popular model. The size makes it large enough for extended cruising for a family, while it’s still small enough to fit into slips along the way and for a couple to run it comfortably. It also comes with standard bow and stern thrusters, to make for easy handling around the docks or locks.
The new 41 has twin 300-hp Volvo diesels with straight shafts, producing a cruising speed of 17 knots, with the 23-knot top end. It also comes in a flybridge or sedan version, with the sedan having obvious appeal to anyone contemplating the Great Loop or cruising along the ICW in the Southeast states, where it can slide under all the bridges along the way.
The salon is bright, with windows all around. A glass door next to the helm opens to the starboard side deck, while there’s sliding window on the port side. Glass doors open wide to the cockpit.
The 41 was the first of the Swift Trawlers to have the galley aft. It’s a U-shaped affair on the port side, with the fridge and ice-maker to starboard. A U-shaped settee and fold-out table are forward, to port. The helm seat can slide aft to face the table for dining. The table is on two stainless steel pedestals, and it can be used as a convertible sleeping area for two people; Beneteau even has a curtain on an overhead track that can provide privacy for anyone sleeping there.
Aft, there’s a L-shaped seating in the cockpit. The settee across the transom slides aft on tracks, extending out over the swim platform, to provide a larger social area there. All the way forward, there’s a sun lounge and extra seating on the foredeck.
Below, the master stateroom is forward, with a head and shower. A double stateroom is on the port side, and a single is tucked under the helm; those two staterooms share a head.
I’ve been a fan of Beneteau’s Swift Trawlers ever since George Sass Sr., the photographer, and I took a Swift Trawler 34 from the top of Lake Michigan down to Chicago and then to Hoppie’s, on the Mississippi below St. Louis, several years ago as part of a Great Loop cruise. The boat was easy to live on, and performed well even in lousy conditions, including crossing Lake Michigan. We both were sorry when we had to get off.
Specs.: LOA: 44’1”; Beam: 13’9”; Draft: 3’9”; Disp.: 23,186 lbs.; Fuel: 309 gals.; Water: 106 gals.; Power: 2×300-hp Volvo diesels. Read more:
https://www.beneteau.com/us/swift-trawler/swift-trawler-41-sedan?
