Review of GK 34
Basic specs.
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Both the hull and the deck is made of fibreglass. A hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.
The boat is equipped with 6+2 berths, a galley and 114 liters (30 US gallons, 25 imperial gallons) fresh water capacity.
Fin keel
The GK 34 is built with a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.
The keel is made of iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated. As the surface of a fin type keel is just a fraction of the total wet surface, the difference between an iron keel and a lead keel can in reality be ignored for cruising yachts.
The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.89 - 1.99 meter (6.20 - 6.50 ft) dependent on the load.
The fuel tank has a capacity of 57 liters (15 US gallons, 12 imperial gallons).
GK 34 may be equipped with an inboard Bukh DV20ME diesel engine at 20 hp (14 kW). Cruise speed is 6.0 knots.
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.
What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?
The capsize screening value for GK 34 is 2.21, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.
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.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for GK 34 is 3.00.
The ballast ratio for GK 34 is 55%.
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 37m2 (398 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.
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.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jib sheet | 10.3 m | (33.7 feet) | 12 mm | (1/2 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 10.3 m | (33.7 feet) | 12 mm | (1/2 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 25.6 m | (84.2 feet) | 12 mm | (1/2 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 22.6 m | (74.1 feet) | 12 mm | (1/2 inch) |
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