Sailboat Hanse 360 for sale

The ‘Wunderkiste’ from Greifswald: Hanse 360 and 360 ST

Winning the ‘European Yacht of the Year’ award in 2025 was a piece of cake for the Hanse 360, if insiders are to be believed: this boat simply seems to offer everything the testers – who are, after all, the editors-in-chief of Europe’s 12 largest sailing magazines – were looking for in a 36/37-foot cruiser. The shipyard in Greifswald has launched the Hanse 360 just one year earlier, in 2024. This makes the yacht the latest and, for the time being, final addition to the German yacht builder’s sailing yacht range. A year later, the Hanse 360 ST will follow, which is, in principle, a completely separate boat in its own right and not merely the ‘sporty version’ of the yacht. More on this boat later.

The Hanse 360 concept: holidays, the joy of sailing and plenty of comfort

When, around 2020, the shipyard parted ways with the long-standing German design firm Judel/Vrolijk, industry insiders held their breath: after all, the other German shipyard, Bavaria, had had the same idea just a few years earlier, and the outcome of that radical change still divides opinion to this day. The C-Line Bavaria sailing yachts, designed by Maurizio Cossutti, are fantastic boats, but their design is completely ‘out of the ordinary’ and has alienated a great many die-hard Bavaria cruiser fans. Will Hanse take a similarly radical path and completely reinvent itself?

The Hanse 460 will be unveiled at the Cannes Boat Show in 2021 as the first of the new ‘Mediterranean yachts’, developed in collaboration with Berret-Racoupeau. The result has impressed both the press and customers alike: the new model is very modern, but by no means extreme. It is truly stylish, without disregarding the ‘signature lines’ of Hanse boats. Unlike Cossutti, Olivier Racoupeau respects what previously defined a Hanse yacht: he focuses particularly on the distinctive windows in the deckhouse and the traditionally high-sided cockpit, refining these forms with delicate lines. He elevates the somewhat boxy, angular and slightly dated design of the early 2000s by Judel/Vrolijk to the level of the spacious, very wide ‘Mediterranean yachts’, which stand for one thing above all else: the ultimate in holiday enjoyment and comfort!

The design is proving popular; with the new Racoupeau boats, Hanse is able to rekindle enthusiasm for its own brand amongst many customers – particularly in Northern Europe – who had switched to French mass-production manufacturers over the years. The product range is being gradually updated; the Hanse 360 is, for the time being, the last newly designed boat by Berret-Racoupeau. This means that only the two smallest Hanse sailing yachts, the Hanse 315 and the Hanse 348, have not yet been revamped: it is not yet clear when, or indeed if, this will happen.

How much space do you get with the Hanse 360?

The 11-metre boat class is fiercely competitive on the market: due to the design trend that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, of shaping the hulls (when viewed from above) like irons, huge interior volumes are created, which in turn enable a level of on-board comfort that used to be achievable only in slimmer hulls – particularly those tapering towards the stern – from 40 feet upwards. In other words, the modern 36-foot yacht feels as though it were considerably larger. This is an effect that can also be seen and experienced very impressively on board the Hanse 360.

The advantage of owning a smaller yacht is obvious: the purchase price is lower, the running costs for mooring and winter storage are lower, and it’s easier to sail and manoeuvre a smaller boat. So if you can offer your family large cabins, a great saloon, a spacious cockpit and all the amenities for the perfect sailing holiday on an 11-metre yacht rather than a 13-metre one, why not?

This is the Hanse 360’s grand entrance: you’ll see for yourselves – space is no problem here. The cockpit, sun lounges and benches, the saloon, the spacious galley, the superb shower/toilet facility and, above all, the owner’s cabin are sure to set hearts racing: the perfect sailing boat for the Baltic Sea!

The Hanse 360’s rivals: what do Bavaria, Beneteau, Dufour and Jeanneau have to offer?

The 37-foot market features some interesting and certainly formidable competitors against which the new Hanse 360 must measure up. Let’s stay in Germany for now: with the C38, our other shipyard is producing another very spacious boat that will stand out from the crowd thanks to its extremely distinctive Cossutti lines. The quality of Bavaria’s interior fit-out is ‘legendary’, at least as far as mass-production manufacturers are concerned. After all, no one can hold a candle to the Giebelstadt-based firm in this respect. In short, the interior finish is fantastic. As the C38 is heavier, its sailing performance doesn’t quite match that of the Hanse; nevertheless, its attractive price (particularly for more basic specifications) could prove a compelling selling point. The Dufour 37 also offers ample volume and a beautiful interior, whilst appearing a touch more modern both inside and out than the Hanse 360: Dufour has always been a sailing ‘statement’. However, it too will not match the agility of the Hanse 360; in terms of price, the two should be on a par. With the Oceanis 37.1, Beneteau is fielding a serious competitor, particularly in terms of design and sailing performance: this yacht is built for sailors. The hull, still personally designed by Marc Lombard, will be a tough competitor for the Hanse 360 on all wind courses, particularly in the ‘First Line’ version. Inside, it is modern and timeless, though somewhat ‘understated’ and more restrained than the yacht from Greifswald. Last but not least: with the Sun Odyssey 350, Jeanneau is also entering a Lombard-designed hull into the fray, although it is more voluminous and is therefore unlikely to be quite as nimble under sail. However, the Jeanneau offers a spacious interior, which – in keeping with the brand’s style – is designed in a somewhat more conservative manner.

So, if you’re looking to buy a new 37-foot yacht, you’ll be spoilt for choice – and you can rest assured that all the major manufacturers have newly developed, up-to-date and modern models on offer.

Buying a Hanse 360 – Hull, design, construction & sail plan

State-of-the-art manufacturing processes using vacuum infusion

Whilst the two smallest Hanse boats are still laminated using the traditional hand-lay-up method, the new Hanse 360 utilises more modern vacuum-assisted manufacturing processes. In this process, the fibreglass mats are laid ‘dry’ into the moulds and only lightly secured. The whole assembly is then sealed airtight with a plastic film. At one end of the mould, powerful pumps use hoses to extract the air from the space between the mould and the film: this creates a strong vacuum, which compresses the glass fibre mats extremely tightly. Resin is then fed into this gap via other hoses: in the case of the Hanse 360, this is actually high-quality vinyl ester (rather than cheap polyester), which, once cured, provides much better protection against osmosis. Due to the high vacuum, the resin is now drawn through the fibreglass mats and into every nook and cranny, even the tiniest gaps. This process takes several hours. After about a day, the resin-fibre laminate has cured and the film can be removed.

A GRP hull (or deck) produced using this vacuum infusion technique is generally slightly lighter, slightly thinner, yet more resistant to osmosis and stiffer than a hull painstakingly built by hand, layer by layer. Then there is the workforce: as shipyard workers are no longer in contact with the liquid resin (and its toxic fumes) for hours on end, a component manufactured using the vacuum process is ‘better’ for the health of the workforce.

The Hanse 360 also utilises sandwich materials: in the hull, this is the well-known, lightweight and natural balsa core. This has many advantages, particularly the fact that, as a natural material, it is renewable and therefore not a petroleum-based product; however, it also has disadvantages: if balsa becomes damp and the moisture spreads through the sandwich layer, this can cause significant damage. For the sandwich core in the deck of the Hanse 360, the shipyard uses rigid PET foam, which is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles: exemplary! The load-bearing bulkheads on the Hanse 360 are also composite components (rather than heavy wooden bulkheads!), which is an interesting detail.

The result is a very stiff and robust design. Nevertheless, compared with its biggest (sailing) rival, the 8-tonne Oceanis 37.1, the Hanse 360 is still almost 1 tonne heavier – though this may not actually be such a major drawback ‘in real life’.

The Hanse 360’s sail plan: from ‘Easy’ to ‘Power’

Hanse has always built sailing boats designed to sail well. So if you’re looking to buy a yacht that’s intended solely as a swimming platform and a ‘floating water loft’, Bavaria or Dufour might offer better options – but if you’re thinking of long voyages across the Baltic Sea to the Swedish archipelago, a three-week coastal cruise along the entire Adriatic, or even a trip to the Canary Islands, then the Hanse 360 should definitely be higher up on your list.

As with all production cruisers, you can tailor the rig precisely to your own sailing ability and ‘comfort level’, so that the complexity of operation and, ultimately, the sailing performance are just right. The Hanse 360 can be fitted very simply with a self-tacking jib and furling mast (in which case it has a rather meagre 59 square metres of sail area). In theory, you could then sail this boat entirely with just one winch. When buying, we recommend going to the other end of the spectrum: an overlapping genoa and a classic, fully battened mainsail. This gives you 67 square metres of sail area that’s much easier to trim; a further upgrade to the ‘Performance’ mainsail adds another 5 square metres. We believe this yacht cannot have enough sail area, because particularly in the light winds so popular on holiday – right up to 15 knots TWS, which are still lovely to sail in – this (not exactly lightweight) yacht can use every bit of it.

For areas characterised by light winds and wind speeds of between 8 and 10 knots, the Hanse 360 features a superb, finally integrated, bowsprit, from which you can then hoist the impressive 103-square-metre gennaker or a 68-square-metre Code 0 for close-hauled courses. The (lack of) bowsprit is/was the biggest drawback of the old Hanse boats, which are currently only available as the 315 or 348 (or on the second-hand market).

As skipper and guest in the cockpit of the Hanse 360: now that’s what I call space!

When designing a sailing boat cockpit, designers are often faced with the question of how much space to allocate to ‘sailing’ and how much to ‘holidays’. The smaller the yacht, the less space is available: nevertheless, both usage concepts have minimum requirements that are often diametrically opposed: the helmsman/trimmer needs winches, space for lines and cleats, and must have easy access to the steering and trimming controls in order to sail the yacht safely and easily. On the other hand, guests want to make themselves comfortable in the cockpit (even whilst sailing!): they want to stretch out on the bench, perhaps lie down fully and sunbathe. They want to enjoy a drink or even a full meal. Comfort and sailing: how much of each for whom?

We think the Hanse 360 solves this problem rather elegantly. Incidentally, the cockpit layouts are generally well designed by the Greifswald-based company. In the Hanse 360, they’ve opted to give the helmsman slightly less space behind the wheels than was the case with the smaller Hanse 315/348 models. We can only speculate as to why this is the case, but we assume that the shipyard reckons that on long trips, you’ll tend to let the autopilot take over anyway, and that if you are steering manually, you’d be standing up anyway. This decision essentially creates more space in the ‘relaxation area’ of the cockpit in front of the steering wheels.

As is typical of Hanse yachts, the arrangement of the winches on the Hanse 360 takes a bit of getting used to: the working winches, with all the lines required for the standard sails, have been positioned directly in front of the steering wheels. This means the helmsman still has to reach over the steering wheel, which is a bit awkward, or take a short step forward around the wheel, but he can reach the handle quickly to trim the sails. The winches for the gennaker and/or Code 0 are situated in front of these, roughly in the middle of the cockpit on the coaming, mounted on a stainless-steel platform, with all the lines running underneath it towards the stern to the working winch. This layout takes some getting used to – some might say it looks a bit cheap – but it’s part of the Hanse 360’s (and other models’) design philosophy. Once you’ve got the hang of it, the boat sails brilliantly. However, the lines are now in the guests’ cockpit area at the stern; when sailing with the gennaker, at least the leeward side of the cockpit is occupied by the sheets, which makes it rather uncomfortable. All this, however, is a consequence of the yacht’s compact size – because, as mentioned at the start, this is the only size available to the designer. On larger yachts, it is easier to separate the working area from the guest/relaxation area.

However, we also assume that you’ll mostly be sailing the Hanse 360 as a couple or with a small family group, so it’s unlikely that you’ll often find yourself with guests in the cockpit who are completely inexperienced …

The Hanse 360 ST: Much more than just the sport version!

If you’re looking to ‘take it up a notch’, then buying the Hanse 360 ST might be worth it for you. Originally, the plan was apparently to slightly redesign Olivier Racoupeau’s high-performance hull and launch it as a new Dehler model for the sporty Hanse brand. In the end, however, it was decided to turn it into the Hanse 360 ST after all. Incidentally, ‘ST’ stands for ‘Sports Talent’. That said, this yacht is actually a boat in a class of its own.

At 8.4 tonnes, it still doesn’t weigh any less, but that’s by design. Olivier Racoupeau has developed a completely new, deep T-keel specifically for this boat. This keel, with a draught of 2.13 metres, features four ‘hollow chambers’ in the fin: this allows the centre of gravity to be lowered even further, which significantly increases the lever effect. And that’s exactly what’s needed, as the mast – which is 85 centimetres taller – now carries 73 square metres of sail area, which will give the boat around 10 per cent more power under sail than the standard 360 model.

Added to this are a number of changes to the cockpit, which is now lined with lightweight EVA foam. Inside, bolder colours and materials have been chosen to create a sporty atmosphere. We’d say the Hanse 360 ST is like the GT version of a sports car: not revolutionarily more aggressive, but certainly more feisty (especially in its appearance).

Buy a Hanse 360 – comfort below deck

The magic from within: comfort on board the Hanse 360

However, the real highlight awaits you below deck: Racoupeau has created the Hanse 360’s enormous interior space not only through its impressive beam of 3.99 metres, but also with a clever design feature: the yacht’s convexly arched deck line, which looks lovely from the side, adds a great deal of extra space inside in terms of volume. As the yacht has the mast – and thus the widest point of the boat – positioned quite far forward, and the hull then maintains this maximum width all the way aft, the boat feels considerably larger than 37 feet below deck: the effect we described at the start of this article. Try it out at a boat show or when chartering: the Hanse 360 really does give you the feeling of being on a 40-footer.

Cruising, skipper-led sailing or family sailing: the layouts of the Hanse 360

The Greifswald-based company generally offers two layouts, one of which can also be modified into a variant. The standard version features a two-cabin layout with a large shower/WC, where the shower is separated as an XXL cubicle. In this layout, Hanse leaves the starboard cabin unfinished, providing you with more storage space if you’re travelling alone or as a couple. As a variation on this layout, it would be possible to shorten the starboard sofa in the saloon from the standard three-seater to a two-seater. A small navigation station would then be installed facing away from the direction of travel: the chart table, control panel and radio for the skipper would all be within easy reach. This variant makes sense for solo or couple sailors looking to buy a cruising boat. If you’re more interested in family holidays and day sailing or weekend sailing, the extra comfort of the berths might be a better choice than fitting out the small navigation corner.

As the next upgrade, you can order the Hanse 360 as a 3-cabin version, in which everything remains the same as in the 2-cabin version, except that the starboard cabin has now been extended. Et voilà – now there’s room for six adults, each with their own spacious berth in the cabins. If necessary, there’s also space for two more in the saloon.

In the third step, it would still be possible for you to incorporate your own bathroom into the owner’s area at the bow of the yacht. To enjoy the convenience of a private bathroom, you would then have to ‘sacrifice’ the wardrobe on the port side. The lovely island bed would need to be rotated slightly to the left – meaning you would now sleep ‘diagonally’ – and the entire interior space up here at the bow would feel somewhat more cramped. However, the sleeping area of the now almost rectangular bed actually becomes slightly larger. In our view, this 3-cabin/2-bathroom variant is more suitable for charter use or for very large sailing families or groups.

Buy a Hanse 360 – Solid craftsmanship, with corners.

Hanse fits the 360 with rather simply constructed furniture. The design is modern, uncluttered and practical. However, there are no particularly well-crafted highlights, such as square-edged timber, handles or solid wood components. Bavaria does this much better. The main point of criticism here is the simple edge banding on the table edges, which traditionally is the first thing to ‘give way’ (though it is also quite easy to repair). Here, we would like to see the shipyard reinforce these with solid or laminated components, which would immediately enhance the overall quality of the finish. However, Hanse is not alone in this respect. The build quality is similar (basic) at Jeanneau and Beneteau; only the aforementioned Lower Franconian shipyard and Dufour offer a higher standard of build quality here, although, as is well known, these boats also have their weaknesses.

Another feature that we think the shipyard has designed very well is the solid, high-quality staircase leading up to the cockpit. The fittings, hinges and veneer of the furniture itself are also very well executed. In particular, the quality of the upholstery in the saloon and on deck is also worth highlighting as being very good. Thanks to the many options available in the price list, when you purchase your Hanse 360, you can customise its colour scheme and texture to suit your taste, ranging from modern and light to classic and dark. Other manufacturers offer less flexibility in this regard.

Plenty of space in the cabins. And light.

Another point worth highlighting is the space available in the aft cabins: this is where the Hanse 360’s generous volume really comes into its own. In the past, aft cabins were cramped, damp and dark ‘caves’ in which it was barely possible to stand upright. On board the Hanse 360, none of that is a problem. Although it does not yet feature aft hull windows (these are only available on the Hanse 410, the next size up), there is still plenty of natural light to create a pleasant atmosphere. The cupboards are large enough, as is the space for getting dressed and undressed. Unfortunately, there is no ‘proper’ owner’s variant where the bathroom is partially integrated into the unused second aft cabin – this would create an enormous amount of additional space for the remaining aft cabin on the Hanse 360 if the longitudinal bulkhead were also moved. Admittedly, that would be too much work, as the galley would then also have to be moved to starboard. As it is, however, there is still plenty of space, although in our view there was potential for much more.

Speaking of the galley: the L-shaped galley features a large fridge with a 135-litre capacity and plenty of worktop space for the ship’s cook. The cook looks out onto the bright saloon: as is typical of Hanse yachts, all the windows in the cabin superstructure can be opened, in addition to the skylight in the roof. This ensures good ventilation throughout the boat, even during the hottest days of summer.

Summary and conclusion

Is it worth buying the Hanse 360?

If you’re looking to buy a very modern, agile and fast-sailing 37-foot yacht, then the Hanse 360 should be on your shortlist. The high-performance hull designed by Berret-Racoupeau is particularly responsive thanks to its single-rudder steering system and even provides the helmsman with a fair amount of feedback from the rudder. As the yacht isn’t exactly a lightweight, you should fit as much sail area to the mast as possible and also invest in a gennaker or Code 0 for light-wind sailing. Below deck, the Hanse 360 spoils you with outstanding space and the feel of a 40-foot yacht. A brilliant Baltic Sea yacht that also cuts a fine figure in the Mediterranean: holidays, sailing, fun – that’s the Hanse 360! If you’re looking for something a bit more ‘edgy’ (especially in terms of looks), the Hanse 360 ST offers a sportier version that sails around 10 per cent faster.

Buying a Hanse 360 – What we particularly like about it:

• State-of-the-art hull design in line with the latest cruising standards.
• Agile handling in all wind conditions.
• An outstanding sense of space below deck, almost like on a 40-footer.

Buying a Hanse 360 – Here’s what you need to look out for:

• The helmsman’s position is a bit cramped.
• A bit on the heavy side.
• The quality of the furniture-making is actually quite simple when you look at the details.

Further reviews and test reports: