Dufour 530 Review, Prices and Version Guide

The boat that ended the Grand Large and Performance split

For roughly two decades Dufour sold cruisers under the Grand Large badge and racer-cruisers under the Performance name. The dufour 530 was the first boat built to replace both. SAIL described it as a brand-new hull meant to satisfy both markets, and it won the monohull flagship category of SAIL's Best Boats contest in 2021. Cruising World put it through Boat of the Year trials in fall 2020 and called it a witch to sail.

The 530 made its first public appearance at the Dusseldorf boat show in January 2020, shortly before the pandemic cancelled most of that year's shows, and replaced the 520 Grand Large. It was designed by Felci Yacht Design with Dufour's in-house team, under the new ownership of catamaran builder Fountaine Pajot. Dufour still listed it in mid 2024, but by autumn 2025 the range ran from the 37 to the new Dufour 54, which now fills its size slot.

Three boats under one name

When you look at a dufour 530 for sale, the first question is which version it is, because the rig, keel and deck hardware all change. Easy is the simple boat: self-tacking jib, every line led to a clutch and winch at each helm, and a coachroof left clear. It suits couples and charter. Ocean adds a winch on each side of the companionway for halyards, vang, reefing and furling lines, the traditional setup for owners who like to work the boat from the middle of the cockpit. Both have a traveler across the coachroof forward of the companionway.

Performance is for racing owners. The mainsheet drops to a point in the cockpit sole just ahead of the wheels, there are six winches for the main, genoa and downwind sails, backstay and vang are hydraulic, the mast and boom grow to add about 20 square meters of sail, and the keel becomes a 2.80 meter T-keel with a lead bulb. Any version can have a conventional or in-mast furling main and a self-tacking or slightly overlapping headsail.

• Easy: self-tacker, lines to the helms, clean coachroof
• Ocean: extra companionway winches, coachroof traveler
• Performance: cockpit-sole mainsheet, six winches, hydraulics, taller rig, deep lead-bulb keel

Numbers from two very different test days

Cruising World sailed a boat with in-mast furling main and genoa in 10 to 12 knots and made just under 8 knots close-hauled and a solid 8 on a beam reach, with a peak of 9.3 knots in a gust near 20. SAIL had a true 15 to 20 knots and recorded 8.2 knots close-reaching in 20 knots of true wind and 6.5 knots at 110 degrees true in 16 knots, without ever reefing or feeling overpowered. SAIL's tester compared the motion to a waterborne Cadillac.

The single rudder surprises people on a boat with 16 feet of beam, but both magazines found it deep enough to hold on. The sail area to displacement ratio sits around 18.7 with the standard rig on builder data, which explains why the boat feels lively without being nervous.

75 hp saildrive or 110 hp shaft

Two engines were offered: a 75 hp diesel on a saildrive as standard and a 110 hp Volvo Penta on a straight shaft as the upgrade. Cruising World's boat cruised at 5.9 knots at 1,900 rpm and reached 7.4 knots at 2,600 rpm. SAIL's boat had the 110 hp shaft engine and found an economical 6.8 knots at 2,400 rpm and 8.2 knots flat out at 3,000 rpm, with crisp response from a standstill because the prop wash flows straight over the rudder.

For a 17.8-tonne boat that will spend time motoring into a headsea on the US East Coast, the shaft-drive 110 is worth paying for. It also removes the saildrive diaphragm from your maintenance list. Tankage is 440 liters of fuel and 740 of water, about 116 and 195 gallons.

Small cockpit ideas that work

The 530 brought two cockpit features that Dufour then used on the 470 as well. A step between each wheel and the cockpit seats gets you up to the side deck without clambering over coamings, and the risers double as line bins under the winches; a split bimini lets you go forward without ducking. Between the wheels, an optional sunbed uses space that is wasted on most twin-wheel boats while still leaving a path from helm to helm.

SAIL liked that the engine controls are on the starboard pedestal at eye level rather than down by the cockpit sole, where Cruising World had found them awkward on the 520. Options include the outdoor galley on the drop-down transom with an Eno plancha and sink, sunpads on the coachroof and a sprit that stows the anchor and tacks off-wind sails.

Galley forward, up to six cabins

Below, the signature Dufour split galley sits forward between the saloon and the owner's cabin: sink and three-burner Eno stove on one side, Isotherm refrigeration and microwave on the other, with Corian counters and large overhead ports. That frees the saloon for a U-shaped dinette to port, an L-shaped lounge to starboard and an aft-facing nav desk. The owner's cabin forward has an island berth with drawers beneath and an en suite head with separate shower.

Dufour offered arrangements from three cabins with three heads up to six cabins, with an optional skipper cabin in the forepeak that can otherwise be a sail locker. Both magazines rated fit and finish as upmarket for a production boat. As cabins are added, the nav desk and lounge disappear, so a private buyer should look for three or four cabins.

What an owner couple did with theirs

One Australian couple who had already sailed a 47-footer from England to Australia ordered a 530 unseen after reading about it, then saw it for the first time at Dusseldorf in 2020. They chose the Easy version for two-handed sailing, added a washing machine, solar panels and a watermaker, and spent seasons working up the Queensland coast to the Whitsundays and the outer Great Barrier Reef, living independently for weeks.

Their verdict was that the boat handles big waves and strong trade winds well and that the cockpit layout let one of them sail solo most of the time. It is a useful counterpoint to the idea that Easy spec is only for charter.