Dufour 40 Performance Racer-Cruiser Review and Buying Guide

The boat that brought Dufour back to the racecourse

By 2000 Dufour was in trouble. In March 2001 Cantiere del Pardo, the Italian builder of Grand Soleil yachts, took a large stake in the La Rochelle yard, and Umberto Felci was given the job of renewing the range. SAIL later noted that his first new Dufours were performance cruisers of 34, 40 and 44 feet, and the 40 came first, in 2002. Dufour's own history page says the dufour 40 performance was voted Sailing Yacht of the Year 2003 in France. The 34 and 44 Performance followed in 2003.

Cruising World contributor Jeremy McGeary attended Dufour's 2005 dealer meeting in Mallorca, where hull number one of the 1960s Arpège was on display and managers promised to build on that boat's spirit. Sailing the 40 in 2009, he concluded that the yard had kept its word: a modern boat that combined racing and cruising the way the Arpège had 40 years earlier.

Derived from an IMS world champion

The deck specification of the 40 was not invented in an office. According to Cruising World, it was derived from the Mediterranean-based Dufour 40 Quum, which won an IMS World Championship, and the yard kept taking feedback from experienced owners like Quum's crew. That pedigree shows in the details: double-drum Harken Quattro winches beside the companionway for halyards and spinnaker sheets, jib winches forward on the coamings, a separate pair of winches aft for an Admiral's Cup-style double-ended mainsheet, and a mainsheet traveler on the cockpit sole just forward of a single big wheel.

McGeary called the boat agile and responsive to every input from the wheel and the sheets, while noting that Felci gave the hull and appendages conservative proportions, so it signals changes quickly without becoming hard to control.

Three trims on one hull: 40, Performance and Performance+

Dufour sold the same hull and interior in three levels. The plain Dufour 40 was the cruising version, the 40 Performance added sailing hardware, and the Performance+ of 2008 went further for owners heading to grand prix regattas. The plus package, Cruising World reported, included monitored construction of the hull to control weight, reinforcement for higher rig loads, a rod-rigged Sparcraft mast, Dyneema running rigging, a full-batten main with changeable headsails on a Facnor furler, barber haulers, a high-performance vang and flush through-hulls, some of them raised high on the topsides.

Racing owners also got a clean foredeck and an open transom: the usual centerline helm seat was deleted, and the windlass was supplied but not installed, with instruments left to the owner. In Annapolis in 8 knots of breeze, the Performance+ sailed close-hauled at 6.6 knots and won Cruising World's 2009 Best Midsize Cruiser award, although, as McGeary noted, it could just as easily have entered the racer-cruiser class.

Numbers that explain the speed

Cruising World's 2009 specification gives a 12.32 m (40 ft 5 in) hull, a 10.74 m waterline, a 3.91 m beam and 7,782 kg (17,160 lb) of displacement carrying 2,684 kg of ballast on a 2.11 m keel. Sail area is 82.3 m2 (886 sq ft) and the mast stands 60 ft. That works out to a sail area to displacement ratio of 21.3, a displacement to length ratio of 175 and a ballast ratio of 35 percent, a genuinely sporty set of numbers for a boat with a full cruising interior.

Sailboatdata's record for the Dufour 40 adds a cast iron keel of about 2,815 kg at a shallower draft, alongside a 2,690 kg lead keel at 2.10 m. Check which one a boat carries, because it changes both draft and stiffness.

• Fuel 159 L (42 gal), water 329 L (87 gal)
• 40 hp Volvo saildrive
• Single wheel about 5.5 ft in diameter

Below, a real cruising interior

What separates the Dufour 40 from many racer-cruisers is the accommodation. All three trims share it: moabi mahogany joinery, an L-shaped galley to port, a large table forward with U-shaped seating and a settee opposite, a nav desk to starboard well away from the companionway, and an aft head next to the steps. Around that fixed core Dufour offered four cabin permutations. Aft, there are twin cabins, or one cabin plus a large storage locker to starboard. Forward, you choose a Pullman double or a V-berth with a second head.

McGeary judged the galley seaworthy: fiddles on the counters and inside the lockers, a two-burner stove with room to gimbal through a wide arc, and a sturdy bar between stove and cook that doubles as a harness point. Lockers are well ventilated and the deep-fiddled shelves keep things in place on port tack.

The 40E Performance that followed

In 2009 Dufour replaced the 40 with the 40E Performance, launched alongside the 405 Grand Large. Do not confuse the two on the used market. The 40E has a new hull and a different deck: twin wheels with a full-width traveler just ahead of them, a belowdecks furler, lines led aft in covered channels and three interior layouts. Its specs are similar in size, 12.35 m overall with a 3.89 m beam and 7,950 kg displacement, with 88 m2 of sail on the standard mast or 93 m2 on the long one and a choice of 40 or 55 hp Volvo engines.

SAIL's Peter Nielsen sailed an early 40E during a visit to the La Rochelle factory in 20 knots gusting toward 30 and saw 7.5 knots to windward with a reef and speeds nudging double digits on a beam reach. It was priced at $281,000 FOB Annapolis in 2010. If you want twin wheels and a newer interior, look for a 40E; if you want the single-wheel, IMS-derived cockpit, the original 40 is the boat.

Buying one that has raced

Some Dufour 40s have racing histories, on both sides of the Atlantic, while others were sold through Dufour's US importer as cruisers. Expect asking prices around $85,000 to $145,000 in 2026. The best buys are boats that cruised with occasional club racing, kept their structure in good order and have a recent rig survey.

On a raced boat, look hardest at the keel attachment and floors, the chainplates, rod rigging age and terminals, and the PBO backstay, which has a limited life. Racing sails may look impressive in a listing but are often past their best. Factor the cost of a cruising inventory into your offer if that is how you plan to use the boat.