Dufour 385
Dufour · Umberto Felci · 2005
Updated
The Dufour 385 is a 11.36 m displacement racing yacht designed by Umberto Felci and built by Dufour, first launched in 2005. It races in Class C.
Length
11.36 m
37′ 3″
Beam
3.94 m
Draft
1.74 m
Displacement
6.8 t
Sail area
72 m²
On the podium
Where a Dufour 385 finishes when she goes racing.
On the podium
6%
of 17 starts by 2 boats
Wins
0%
Read from 17 starts by 2 boats between 2022 and 2023, counting races with six boats or more.
Recent regattas
The latest events where a Dufour 385 was on the start line, named as the organisers publish them.
Regata Brindisi-Corfù2023- Campionato Invernale di Porto Santo Stefano2023
Raced one we are missing?
Report a regattaRound the buoys, or offshore
A short windward-leeward and a night at sea ask different things of a boat. Here is how this one does in each.
Round the buoys
0%
of these races end on the podium
Offshore & coastal
—
Not enough data yet: 6 races over 10 NM carry a published distance.
Who she races against
The designs a Dufour 385 actually lines up with, most often first. The bar shows how those meetings ended.
Also met, too few times for a figure:
Bavaria 40 (1 meeting), Bavaria Holiday 35 (1 meeting), Oceanis 440 (1 meeting), Archambault 40 (1 meeting), Pogo 44 (1 meeting), Bavaria Holiday 38 (1 meeting), Grand Soleil 40 (Paperini) (1 meeting), Bavaria Match 38 (1 meeting), Sun Odyssey 43 (1 meeting), Bavaria C45 (1 meeting), Oceanis 43 (1 meeting), Sun Odyssey 45 (1 meeting)
Some of the boats it races against
How the Dufour 385 has fared against each of them, boat against boat on corrected time. Ordered by how often the two meet, not by who wins.
Speed at every angle
The shape of this design's speed, drawn from the measured fleet. Pick a wind and watch it stretch.
Upwind VMG
5.37
40°
Beam reach
8.61
90°
Broad reach
8.98
135°
Downwind VMG
7.47
170°
Speed in knots at 20 knots of true wind. Green marks the angles that pay: the closest useful beat and the deepest run worth sailing.
Where it wins and where it pays
Every boat is judged against its own measurements — length, weight, sail area. The quicker those say it should be, the more it has to deliver just to break even. Going fast is not enough: it has to go faster than its own numbers promised.
This one is at home going to windward. Windward-leeward courses give it more of what it is good at than a coastal race does.
Where it gains
Its best ground is on the beam once it pipes up, where it outruns what it looks like on paper, and by a margin worth having.
Where it pays
It falls short running deep in a strong breeze, giving away time it never gets back. That is a displacement hull working to its designed speed.
Above the line it delivers more than promised and gains on the fleet. Below, it falls short. Move the wind: plenty of boats sit on one side in the light and the other when it blows.
Full width is 0.6 kn either way.
At 10 knots this design makes back more than its rating asks on the beam reach.
How fast is a Dufour 385
Boat speed in knots, by true wind angle and wind strength.
| Angle | 6 kn | 10 kn | 14 kn | 20 kn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beat VMG | 3.08 | 4.35 | 5.10 | 5.37 |
| 52° | 4.82 | 6.54 | 7.32 | 7.65 |
| 60° | 5.15 | 6.81 | 7.51 | 7.90 |
| 75° | 5.37 | 7.01 | 7.68 | 8.29 |
| 90° | 5.40 | 7.23 | 8.03 | 8.61 |
| 110° | 5.39 | 7.34 | 8.20 | 9.34 |
| 120° | 5.23 | 7.21 | 8.10 | 9.35 |
| 135° | 4.67 | 6.76 | 7.79 | 8.98 |
| 150° | 3.93 | 5.98 | 7.28 | 8.30 |
| Run VMG | 3.41 | 5.18 | 6.34 | 7.47 |
How they are set up
The range each sail spans across the fleet.
Roughly half carry a folding propeller. Crew weight is declared around 600 kg.
Rigging
Dufour 385 rig and sail dimensions
A Dufour 385 carries 12.60 m of mainsail hoist on a 4.15 m boom, a forestay 14.03 m above the deck and a 4.70 m bowsprit. Typical figures across the 6 boats measured under the current VPP, with the range each one spans.
Rig
Sails
The spinnaker spreads widest of all — 74 to 99 m² depending on bowsprit and set-up. Before ordering a sail, read the figure on your own measurement record rather than the typical one for the design.