Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49 I Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Briand's hull form shows a fine entry, ample freeboard, solid shoulders, and beam carried well aft, while the midsections are deliberately flat-bottomed to maximize interior volume. The nearly plumb bow carries twin bow rollers, and just aft of the anchor locker the design team placed a deep sail locker. Aft, the sugar-scoop transom is trimmed with teak steps leading up to the cockpit, and the low, sleek white cabin top sits over a forward-sloping coachroof with good nonskid across its rounded corners. The standard keel is a 7-foot-1-inch bolt-on bulb, with a 5-foot-7-inch shoal version and a taller-performance 7-foot-9-inch cast-iron option also offered. The Kingston Gray hull color caught reviewers' eyes, though standard white gelcoat remained available.

Rig and Handling

The cruising boat wears a conventional aluminum two-spreader mast — a Sparcraft stick on the reviewed example — with a 140-percent genoa on a Facnor furler and all sail-control lines led aft to rope clutches and winches on the cabin top. The low-aspect ratio rig is a breeze for shorthanded sailing, and the mainsheet can be run to the cabin top or, as an option, via a German system that clears the forward cockpit of working sheets and leaves the forward winches for halyards alone. Upper shrouds anchor to hull chainplates while lowers meet a fitting beside the cabin house. Testers found the boat self-steered comfortably upwind and on a reach once headsail and main were balanced, and one owner reported the handling as viceless. With the standard 75-horsepower Yanmar and effective sound deadening, there was only a subdued hum at seven knots and no vibration.

Accommodations

Below, the three-cabin layout places a large owner's stateroom forward with a double island bed, separate head and shower enclosures, and a desk to port, while twin aft doubles share a head. A four-cabin, four-head charter version swaps the desk and part of the nav station for extra heads and keeps the dinette and in-line galley intact. The saloon is vast, with a U-shaped dinette seating ten, a centerline bench that braces the cook and seats diners, and a wine locker combined with the nav station to starboard. The galley to port runs full length with double sinks, fridge, and freezer; the test boat showed a deep double sink and a double-box top-opening fridge. Abundant natural light comes from fixed hull and cabin ports plus five to six roof hatches, and the boat affords extraordinary comfort at sea or at anchor. The twin leather-covered wheels and teak-faced helm seats make for a secure, comfy steering station.

Known Issues

One cost-driven compromise surfaced in the flexible four-cabin mold: a proud moulding in the owner's cabin acts as a receiver for the optional fourth-head wall and reads as an unfinished blemish in a three-cabin boat. More functionally, a surveyed example revealed rough-finished lay-up patches on the inner hull under a saloon access panel and fridge water damming in shallow pockets around the bilge sump gauze filter. Jeanneau told the reviewer the bilge sump was redesigned on later boats to remove the need for that filter, and the test hull was subsequently refitted with the new arrangement and a smoothed water path.

Refits and Ownership

The engine compartment is well planned, serviced from the front and through secondary panels in the aft cabins, with room for owner additions like a high-output alternator in place of a generator. Owners have lowered boom height and added sail panels to sharpen twilight-racing performance, and the backstay has been converted from fixed to adjustable via a block-and-tackle at the helm. The 110-horsepower Yanmar option moves the boat with motorsailer authority when fitted. As a liveaboard or charter platform the 49 I is well equipped, and Jeanneau's value-for-money tradition keeps her among the lower-priced 45- to 50-footers of her era.

The Verdict

The Sun Odyssey 49 I is a thoughtfully packaged Briand cruiser that trades a little racing precision for genuine short-handed ease and a remarkably open interior. Flat midsections and a bulb keel family give volume and draft choices, while the injection-molded balsa-cored deck and Kevlar-reinforced bow speak to a modern production approach. The proud moulding and early bilge-sum detail are minor blemishes against an otherwise well-resolved boat.

Pros