Beneteau Excess 11 Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

The three-cabin arrangement most often found puts a long owner's suite down the starboard hull with a sliding door at the stair for privacy, a huge aft berth, and a forward bath with separate shower, while the port hull carries double cabins fore and aft around a shared heads. The four-cabin version simply doubles guest berths and still keeps two heads. A nav station and L-shaped galley sit to starboard in the saloon, an L-settee faces the forward bulkhead, and six seats span the stern cockpit. The owner's cabin includes a desk and locker at the foot of the steps, and each cabin gets a hull window with opening port plus a deckhead hatch. Some boats will have the bow lockers converted to extra berths for a twelve-person capacity, though that is a less usual configuration.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

Power and energy systems on these boats commonly include solar panels, lithium batteries, an inverter, and an autopilot, usually paired with a chartplotter and often radar and AIS for navigation. Sail-handling upgrades frequently seen are a Code Zero, gennaker, or asymmetric spinnaker plus electric winches, and many owners chose the walkable hard-top cockpit canopy to mount solar and provide shade. A folding canvas targa top is another light-admitting option. For comfort, a bimini and cockpit shower are standard fare on the used fleet. The 57ft Z-Spar rig with self-tacking jib is typical, and the PulseLine mast-and-sail boost remains an occasional upgrade rather than a baseline fit.

What to Inspect

The engines are mounted with saildrives aft, which tucks the alternator, impeller, and water strainer forward and makes them hard to reach head-on, so check those service points closely anchor. The Dyneema steering cables run directly above the engines and carry a maximum operating temperature of 70ºC even though some engines run hotter, a routing worth examining for heat exposure and chafe anchor. In an engine-fire scenario one cable could be lost, though the opposite wheel should still steer through the tie bar. Test sailors also found the hardtop non-skid stops short of the edges, which go slippery when wet, and the two small cabintrunk handrails are a weaker grip than a single long rail would give. The optional soft sunroof can block stepping on the mainsail bag when stowing the main, and the anchor weight rides high toward the bows.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

These cats turn up most readily in France and Italy. For a buyer, the checklist is straightforward: confirm which cabin layout and whether the second 300-litre water tank is fitted; verify the engine access and steering-cable condition; look for extended non-skid on the hardtop and a full-length handrail; and decide if the self-tacking jib plus Code Zero suite matches your sailing plan. A compact, well-mannered cat with real performance roots, the Excess 11 rewards a careful systems survey more than a cosmetic one.