Bali 4.1 Catamaran, the Owner-Feedback Bali That Crosses Oceans

The Bali 4.1 is the 4.0 after a season of complaints

Bali unveiled the Bali 4.1 in September 2017, barely two years after the 4.0 appeared, and Sail's Zuzana Prochazka summed it up well: an evolution built on feedback from owners and charterers. The hull, the solid foredeck and the tilting aft door carried over; the stern, the davits, the seating and many details changed. When Sail tested it in 2019, the 4.1 was the smallest of Bali's four models.

The headline change is a fixed platform aft that joins the two hulls, so you can walk from one side of the boat to the other without stepping into the cockpit. It is a handy staging area for groceries from the dinghy or for snorkel gear, and it made room for a transom bench outside the cockpit and two enlarged side lockers, one of which can house an optional grill so the cook stands on the transom steps. If you are comparing a Bali 4.1 catamaran with a 4.0, that platform is the quickest way to tell them apart.

A clever stern with one quirk, and the rest of the deck

The new davits lift the dinghy onto that aft platform, but Sail warned they are unusual: the outboard has to come off so the tender can be stowed at an angle on one tube. It is fine for long passages and annoying for daily anchorage hopping, which is exactly how most charterers and cruisers use a dinghy. Factor that into a test day.

Forward, the solid foredeck carries a lounge for six and a U-shaped settee and table for five. The raised helm sits to starboard with a sunpad alongside, not a full flybridge, which keeps weight lower. The cantilevered garage-style door can be raised by hand, even by smaller crew, with no electric motor to fail, and the galley window drops so drinks can go straight to the forward cockpit.

Four layouts below, and which one to buy

Sail listed four interior choices, including four cabins with four heads for charter and three-cabin versions with three or two heads. In the three-cabin owner's version, the port hull is a suite with a large double aft, a big desk amidships and a head with a separate shower forward. Inside the saloon, an L-shaped dinette sits to port, a stand-up Liebherr fridge to starboard, and the galley with Eno stove and a corner nav desk is forward.

For resale, the three-cabin owner's version is the one brokers describe as most requested, and it is the version family cruisers choose. Four-cabin boats are plentiful because so many went into charter, which is why they usually ask less.

Sailing and motoring numbers

Sail's test day on the Chesapeake had almost no wind, so its tester leaned on her experience delivering the similar-hulled Bali 4.3 500 miles from Guadeloupe to Grenada, through four days of 40-knot beam winds and 10-foot seas, averaging 7.5 knots and surfing at 10 with a reef in both sails and the autopilot steering most of the time. She expected the 4.1 to average about 6 knots in 20 knots of true wind.

The rig is a Z-Spars single-spreader aluminum mast carrying 1,135 square feet of Elvstrøm sail with the self-tacking Solent, plus a bowsprit for a Code 0 or spinnaker. Under power, twin 40 hp Volvo Penta saildrives gave 6.5 knots at 2,000 rpm and just over 8 knots at 3,000 rpm on flat water. Tankage is modest for long passages at about 106 gallons of fuel and 211 gallons of water.

• Sail area 1,135 sq ft with self-tacking headsail, air draft 58 ft 7 in
• Light displacement about 19,600 lb, maximum about 26,000 lb
• 6.5 knots at 2,000 rpm, just over 8 knots at 3,000 rpm
• Fixed keels with integrated graywater tanks

Proof from Zephyr, a family's Atlantic round trip

Bali published the log of Zephyr, a Bali 4.1 delivered in February 2020 to a family of five who moved aboard that October. They left Hyères in winter, punched into 30-knot headwinds to Gibraltar, waited for the trades in Lanzarote, then crossed from Cape Verde to Martinique in 17 days and 21 hours, covering 2,117 nautical miles and using 180 liters of diesel when the wind died. Between the islands they saw 3.5 to 11 knots under sail.

The return went by way of Horta in the Azores, a 23-day leg that cost them a topping lift, and a stretch of 38-knot headwinds off Cadiz before they reached Hyères. Brokers report similar stories: a 2020 owner's version that sailed from Croatia to Brazil and the Caribbean, and a 2019 boat in Texas rigged for offshore work by its professional-captain owner. For a 40-foot cat designed with charter in mind, that is a solid record.

Bali 4.1, Catspace or 4.2

Shoppers in the 40 to 42 foot bracket usually end up comparing three Balis. The 4.1 is the most affordable and the only one with the 4.0-derived hull and manual cantilevered door. The Catspace, first built in 2019, squeezes more interior into a similar footprint with a flybridge helm and a garage-style door. The Bali 4.2, announced at the 2020 Bali Rendez-Vous at a base price of 365,000 euros with deliveries from February 2021, adds a door from the saloon to the forward cockpit, a new saloon with two club chairs and three- or four-cabin layouts.

If the budget is firm in the mid $400,000s, a 4.1 owner's version gets you the most proven boat for the money; if you need a newer hull, warranty-era systems or the forward door, stretch to a 4.2.

What a Bali 4.1 costs to buy and keep

When Sail tested it in 2019 the sailaway price was $579,000. In 2026 the asking prices we found clustered at $440,000 for both a 2018 boat and a 2020 owner's version, so we place most clean boats between about $360,000 and $470,000. The Bali Catspace and then the Bali 4.2, launched for 2021, took over the 4.1's place in the range, so every 4.1 for sale is now a brokerage boat.

Expect annual costs of roughly $30,000 to $58,000 for insurance, dockage or mooring, haul-out, saildrive and engine service, rigging checks and sails. Add the cost of a different dinghy arrangement if the stock davits do not suit how you cruise.