Construction and Design
Catana builds the Bali 4.0 in La Rochelle, France, of vacuum-bagged, foam-cored sandwich laminate that contains no wood and therefore cannot rot anchor. The solid foredeck is more than a walking surface: it serves as a structural member, built of light box sections, while the nacelle beneath it is shaped to deflect waves and reduce slamming. Writing in Multihulls World, testers singled out the ski-shaped forward sections as a noteworthy piece of design and construction, and noted fine-entry bows paired with reasonable weight loading. The interior joinery is Alpi, an Italian composite of thin African woods laminated with an attractive face; on the test boat the cabinetry was tabbed into the main structure and fit perfectly, with plumbing, wiring, and alloy through-hulls of the European type installed neatly and double-clamped. The boat meets CE Class A Ocean standards for ten people.
Rig and Handling
The rig is simple and powerful, built around a VMG aluminum mast with a big square-topped mainsail of about 538 square feet and a self-tacking Solent jib on a traveler that makes coming about almost trivial anchor. Multihulls World found the rig set further aft, with a self-tacking solent of useful size that proved easy to trim and powerful, contributing to excellent balance under sail. That same large mainsail generates plenty of weather helm on its own, so a headsail must always be flown and the pair reefed together as conditions build. The main is heavy and its boom sits too high to reach without a step stool. All lines lead to the raised helm station, though the reviewer recommended electric winches for halyards and sheets. Under sail in 8 to 10 knots of breeze the boat made about 6 knots on a close reach and nearly 8 on a beam reach in puffs, tacking without effort through 80 degrees. The helm is light and responsive with excellent tracking, and under power the turning circle was under one boatlength with both engines running.
Accommodations
The eyecatcher is the cabin "Garage Door," a full-width panel on hydraulic lifts that opens to fuse saloon and aft cockpit into one large living level; the builder has since dropped the electric mechanism for the door in favor of simplification. In the sailed version the entire port hull is an owner's suite with a big aft double and a forward head with separate shower, while the starboard hull splits into two couple-capable cabins sharing a head, and Bali also offers a starboard layout with two ensuite heads plus a four-cabin charter model. A sun-deck replaces the trampoline forward, and the center of the windshield drops school-bus style for foredeck access. The galley carries an Eno stove and Liebherr fridge. One real shortfall: the saloon lacks overhead grab rails for rough water, a serious oversight.
Deck and Equipment
Side decks are wide with good nonskid and a molded cabintop handrail, and the raised helm gives excellent visibility apart from the port hull stern. A tubular bimini raises the gooseneck higher. Hardware is by Antal with a Profurl headsail furler, Raymarine navigation electronics, and a dinghy davit system the reviewer called among the best seen, with the afterdeck transom lowering from husky steel supports to form a boarding platform.
The Verdict
The Bali 4.0 packs the range's convertible ethos into a manageable 39-footer with genuine structural ingenuity in its solid foredeck and wave-deflecting nacelle, and sails with notable balance and easy short-handed maneuvering. The mainsail-driven weather helm and unreachable boom are tradeoffs, and the missing saloon grab rails deserve correction for offshore use.
Pros
- Foam-cored, wood-free laminate with structural solid foredeck
- Self-tacking Solent and simple, powerful rig for easy tacking
- Hydraulic garage door merging saloon and cockpit; flexible hull layouts
- Light, tracking helm and tight powered turning circle
Cons
- Large mainsail creates persistent weather helm and sits out of reach
- No overhead grab rails in the saloon for rough water
