Beneteau Oceanis 58 Review, Specs and Used Buying Notes

What a Beneteau Oceanis 58 listing is really describing

Search for a Beneteau Oceanis 58, or simply a Beneteau 58 for sale, and you are almost always looking at one boat: the Berret-Racoupeau designed flagship that Beneteau launched at the end of the 2000s, with sailboatdata giving 2009 as the first year built. SAIL described it in 2010 as the new flagship, launched in the same season as the radical Sense 50, and noted how deliberately conservative it looked next to its sibling, with a gentle sheer, a low coachroof and an expansive teak deck.

Do not confuse it with two near relatives. The Oceanis 60 of 2015 was, in SAIL's words, a development of the Oceanis 58, and sailboatdata lists the same 59 ft 10 in length and 16 ft 4 in beam for both. The Sense 55 and Sense 57, sometimes quoted at 58 ft 4 in overall, are a completely different concept with all cabins forward. If the ad mentions a tender garage under an aft deck, it is a 60; if it mentions an open stern with a gate, it is a 58.

The open skirt that replaced the tender garage

When Yachting World's Toby Hodges first saw the drawings, he assumed Beneteau had simply forgotten to give a 58 footer a dinghy garage. After sailing it he changed his mind. Behind the twin wheels the cockpit steps down through a gate onto an open skirt that works as boarding platform, swim deck, fish-cleaning station and, in his phrase, a sun terrace. The aft cabins gain near water-level windows looking astern, which removes the cave feeling of most quarter cabins.

Tender handling is improvised but workable. Two lockers under the skirt deck can take a deflated 2.8 m inflatable, stainless arms fold out from the swim ladder locker to form a slide for hauling the dinghy aboard, and a large optional arch adds davits along with mounts for solar panels and wind generators. SAIL liked that the aft working area could be dressed up this way and pointed out the stowage on the hull sides for fenders and lines, plus room under the sole for a liferaft.

The trade-off is lockers. A garage swallows toys, fenders and lines; the skirt does not, so a cruising 58 tends to fill its forward sail locker. Check how a seller has solved that before you assume the boat can carry a full cruising inventory.

How the 58 is put together

Construction is mainstream Beneteau of its period. SAIL reported a solid hand-laid hull laminate of mat and woven rovings with blister-resistant vinylester resin in the outer layers, plus a structural grid liner bonded in to carry keel and rig loads and to serve as the furniture base. The deck is a balsa sandwich stiffened with fiberglass beams, glued and screwed to the hull, with a solid wood toerail over the joint. Bulkheads are bonded in place and the cast iron keel is bolted with stainless backing plates.

Beneteau's own 2014 inventory list confirms two keels: a deep fin drawing 8 ft 10 in with 6,435 kg of ballast, and a shoal fin of 7 ft 3 in that carries more weight, 7,150 kg, to compensate. US East Coast and Bahamas owners usually prefer the shoal keel; Mediterranean boats were often built deep.

Three cabins or four, and the clever twin aft cabin

Nauta Design drew a bright, open interior lit by flush hatches, hull portlights and a companionway surrounded by tinted Plexiglass. The steps are set at a gentle 45 degrees, which Yachting World singled out as the feature most likely to win friends; walking from the cockpit into the near single-level saloon feels more like a motor yacht than a sailboat.

Two layouts were offered. The three-cabin boat has one large owner's stateroom forward with its own head, plus two aft cabins, each with a head. The four-cabin version splits the bow into two symmetrical cabins with private bathrooms. In both, one aft cabin has twin single berths that can be joined into a double, an arrangement SAIL praised as ideal for children or single adults. A crew cabin can replace the sail locker in the forepeak.

Every head compartment has a separate shower stall, the galley is a large U to port with a separate fridge and freezer, and the chart table is big enough for real passage planning. Joinery is Alpi mahogany. Yachting World wanted more overhead hatches in the saloon and some extra grab bars, both easy to retrofit.

• Three-cabin layout: best for owner-operators and resale in the US
• Four-cabin layout: built for charter or big families, more heads to maintain
• Forepeak crew cabin: useful if you plan to hire a skipper, but it costs the sail locker

Under sail, the ratios and the heavy helm

On paper the 58 is a sporty cruiser. Sailboatdata calculates a sail area to displacement ratio of about 24.7 (with the 120 percent genoa included in the reported area), a displacement to length ratio of 136 and a ballast ratio of 33 percent. The standard sail plan pairs a 944 sq ft classic main with a 1,082 sq ft genoa, and options included an in-mast furling main, a self-tacking jib, a staysail and a 2,745 sq ft asymmetric spinnaker set from the bow.

SAIL's test boat moved at 5 to 6 knots to windward in light air and was easy to keep in the groove. Yachting World saw 10 to 11 knots on a broad reach in a lumpy sea and found the full hull dealt calmly with a sharp swell. Two complaints from that test are worth checking on any boat you view: steering loads were high, even with a hydraulic autopilot ram attached, and the helmsman had little to brace against when heeled. The mainsheet runs to an arch over the cockpit, which keeps the boom about 2.5 m above the sole and the sheet out of the way, but also means a tall rig to manage.

The Volkswagen 140 and the tank arithmetic

Groupe Beneteau fitted a five-cylinder 140 hp Volkswagen marine diesel to its big boats of this era. SAIL found it smooth, with no discernible vibration, and called 8 knots an easy cruising speed; Yachting World also noted the absence of the throbbing that older Beneteau owners were used to. The engine room is spacious and the engine carries both 12 volt and 24 volt alternators, feeding a 12 volt circuit for lighting and electronics and a 24 volt circuit for heavy consumers such as the windlass.

Tankage is where listings get confusing. The standard boat has 480 liters (127 gallons) of diesel in two tanks under the aft berths and 720 liters (190 gallons) of water. Beneteau offered two extra 300 liter diesel tanks in the saloon and an extra 300 liter water tank, which is why sailboatdata quotes 285 gallons of fuel and 269 gallons of water. Ask which configuration the boat actually has, because it changes motoring range dramatically.

Volkswagen marine diesels are far less common in US yards than Yanmar or Volvo Penta, so confirm parts and service support near your home port before you buy.

How the 58 became the Oceanis 60

Beneteau's April 2014 inventory list is the last version we found, and by 2015 SAIL was testing the Oceanis 60 as the new flagship. The 60 kept the hull dimensions and the arch-mounted mainsheet but replaced the open skirt with an aft deck over a tender garage and an electric fold-down transom, and it moved to a 150 hp Volvo Penta engine according to sailboatdata. For a buyer, the 58 is the cheaper way into this hull, with a more practical stern for swimming and boarding but less locker space.

Buying an Oceanis 58 in 2026

A 60 ft boat for the price of a new 45 footer is the obvious appeal, but the running costs scale with length, not purchase price. Expect slip fees for 60 ft, a big sail wardrobe, two electrical systems and a generator if one is fitted (a 9.5 kVA unit was optional). Most surviving boats are in Europe; a clean US-based 58 is rare enough to command a premium.

Prioritize boats with documented rig inspections, recent sails, electric winches, the extra tankage and a shoal keel if you plan to cruise the Bahamas. Walk away from boats with steering stiffness that a survey cannot explain.