Beneteau 44 CC

The Beneteau 44 CC (Centre Cockpit), also called the Oceanis 44 CC, is a French sailboat that was designed by Bruce Farr as a cruiser and first built in 1994. The interior was designed by Armel Briand.

The design is a centre cockpit version of Farr's aft cockpit Beneteau 440 design.

Production
The design was built by Beneteau in France, from 1993 to 2002, with about 150 boats built, but it is now out of production.

Design
The Beneteau 44 CC is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of hand-laid glassfibre, with wood trim. It uses vinylester resin for the outer skin and polyester resin for the interior. It has a masthead sloop rig, with a keel-stepped mast, two sets of 18° swept spreaders and aluminium spars with discontinuous stainless steel wire standing rigging. Mainsail in-mast furling was factory standard. The hull has a raked stem, a reverse transom with steps to a swimming platform, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a wheel and a fixed fin keel with a weighted bulb. It displaces 23369 lb and carries 6835 lb of cast iron ballast.

The boat has a draft of 5.75 ft with the standard keel.

The boat is fitted with a Swedish Volvo or Japanese Yanmar diesel engine of 60 to 85 hp for docking and manoeuvring. The fuel tank holds 73 u.s.gal and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 160 u.s.gal.

The design has sleeping accommodation for four to six people, with two and three cabin interior layouts. The two cabin interior is typical and has a double island berth in the bow cabin, a U-shaped settee and two additional seats in the main salon and an aft cabin with a central double island berth. The galley is located on the starboard side just aft of the companionway ladder. The galley is of straight configuration and is equipped with a three-burner stove, a refrigerator, freezer and a double sink. A navigation station is forward of the galley, on the starboard side. There are two heads, one in the bow cabin on the starboard side and one on the port side in the aft cabin. Cabin maximum headroom is 77 in.

For sailing downwind the design may be equipped with a symmetrical spinnaker of 1184 sqft.

The design has a hull speed of 8.12 kn and a PHRF handicap of 126.

Operational history
In a 2009 review, Yachting Monthly reported, "she is a heavy boat, and takes a fair bit of wind to get going."

A 2017 SpinSheet review noted, "personally, I don't find many center cockpit sailboats aesthetically pleasing. To my eye, Beneteau's 440 aft cockpit version of this model is more handsome, but this is purely personal taste and has nothing to do with the merits of this design. To their credit, the design team did an admirable job with a difficult design task".