Stee6043
Well-Known Member
In May of this year I parted ways with my '99 340 and got myself into a '97 400 just in time for the July 4th holiday. With three small kids it's a move the wife and I had been kicking around since our second year of having the 340.
So I thought I'd share some thoughts after our first summer with the bigger boat.
The first feature that was immediately life changing was the shower in the forward head. No more rearranging the bathroom to use the shower. No more walking to the marina bath house if you want a quick rinse before crashing at night. It seems so simple...but it is a real game changer. Similarly, having that second bathroom is nice. Kids can get up in the middle of the night and use their own head if needed.
Also life changing is the amount of beam and how that impacts maintenance. My first repair this year was the shower sump bilge pumps. There is gobs of room in the forward bilge areas. I had room to sit on the floor, beer by my side, feet in the bilge, and do my work. Even more roomy is the engine room, especially with gas engines. I had room to safely position a 5 gallon bucket between the engines for my oil changes and stand in front of both engines. By standing on the bilge floor everything is at a the perfect height. It was a pleasure to work on. The only exception to this being the generator.....which has turned into a Spring 2019 project based on horrible access . No worse than the 340 but surely not better.
Having solid doors on both cabins might be the second most impactful feature on the bigger boat. With small kids it's nice to ensure privacy at "certain times". The curtain style doors on the 340 didn't provide much....of anything.
As most would expect handling is quite different between the 340 and 400. My experience is that the 400 planes better, runs better in bigger seas and feels more bow-down. It just feels better balanced, everything being further forward maybe. On the flip side the 400 is more of a handful around the docks. I had 4 blade props on the 340, which the 400 also has, but I miss the authority of the 340 when steering with the trannys. I would put my docking confidence at 75-80% of what it was with the 340. More practice needed...perhaps more patience as well.
Overall we couldn't be more pleased with the move. Hopefully this is just enough boat to keep us happy until the kids stop wanting to hang out with us every weekend...
So I thought I'd share some thoughts after our first summer with the bigger boat.
The first feature that was immediately life changing was the shower in the forward head. No more rearranging the bathroom to use the shower. No more walking to the marina bath house if you want a quick rinse before crashing at night. It seems so simple...but it is a real game changer. Similarly, having that second bathroom is nice. Kids can get up in the middle of the night and use their own head if needed.
Also life changing is the amount of beam and how that impacts maintenance. My first repair this year was the shower sump bilge pumps. There is gobs of room in the forward bilge areas. I had room to sit on the floor, beer by my side, feet in the bilge, and do my work. Even more roomy is the engine room, especially with gas engines. I had room to safely position a 5 gallon bucket between the engines for my oil changes and stand in front of both engines. By standing on the bilge floor everything is at a the perfect height. It was a pleasure to work on. The only exception to this being the generator.....which has turned into a Spring 2019 project based on horrible access . No worse than the 340 but surely not better.
Having solid doors on both cabins might be the second most impactful feature on the bigger boat. With small kids it's nice to ensure privacy at "certain times". The curtain style doors on the 340 didn't provide much....of anything.
As most would expect handling is quite different between the 340 and 400. My experience is that the 400 planes better, runs better in bigger seas and feels more bow-down. It just feels better balanced, everything being further forward maybe. On the flip side the 400 is more of a handful around the docks. I had 4 blade props on the 340, which the 400 also has, but I miss the authority of the 340 when steering with the trannys. I would put my docking confidence at 75-80% of what it was with the 340. More practice needed...perhaps more patience as well.
Overall we couldn't be more pleased with the move. Hopefully this is just enough boat to keep us happy until the kids stop wanting to hang out with us every weekend...