Review of Sweden Yachts C34

Sweden Yachts C34 anno 1980.

Basic specs.

The Sweden Yachts C34 also known as Comfort 34 or Comfort 34 is a sailboat designed by the maritime architect bureau Jens Östmann & Kenneth Albinnson in the late seventies. Several hundred boats have been produced. The Sweden Yachts C34 is built by the Swedish yard Sweden Yachts.

Looking for a new boat? Find a Sweden Yachts C34 or similar boat for sale

Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Interior

The boat is equipped with 159.0 liter fresh water capacity.

Rig

The Sweden Yachts C34 is equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

Keel

Fin keel

The Sweden Yachts C34 is equipped with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a full keel.

The keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.83 - 1.93 meter (6.00 - 6.30 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

Sweden Yachts C34 may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD11D diesel engine at 25 hp (18 kW). Calculated max speed is about 5.3 knots

The transmission is a saildrive.

The fuel tank has a capacity of 121.0 liters (31 US gallons, 26 imperial gallons).

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Sweden Yachts C34 is 1.89, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 7.2 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Sweden Yachts C34 is about 203 kg/cm, alternatively 1141 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 203 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1141 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

Motion Comfort Ratio

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

The Motion Comfort Ratio for Sweden Yachts C34 is 27.7.

Comparing this ratio with similar sailboats show that it is more comfortable than 62% of all similar sailboat designs. This comfort value is just above average.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Sweden Yachts C34 is 2.98.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 73% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Sweden Yachts C34 is 33%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 15% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly below average.

D/L (Displacement Length Ratio)

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

The DL-ratio for Sweden Yachts C34 is 265 which categorizes this boat among 'light crusers & offshore racers'.

42% of all similar sailboat designs are categorized as heavier. A heavy displacement combined with smaller water plane area has lower acceleration and is more comfortable.

Maintenance

Bottom Paint

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 35m² (376 ft²).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.

Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.

Rig

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Jib sheet	10.4 m	(34.0 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Genoa sheet	10.4 m	(34.0 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Mainsheet	25.9 m	(85.0 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	22.8 m	(74.8 feet)	12 mm	(1/2 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Sweden Yachts C34 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.