Tartan 34, 3000, and Ten

[AmeriCdn]

Recently came across all of these in great condition in my price range. I have only actually sailed on a 10 and I personally adored it, loved the loojks, but of course it had a terribly sparse cabin (to be expected) i want to get a boat for a live aboard with soem offshore sailing work, eventually wihtin the next year or so to the virgin islands to visit friends and back. My absolute end goal wiill be a trans ocean crossing and depending a possible circumnavigation. What's the chance fo this in a Tartan,? Anyone living aboard.

i really loved the 10, just the overall feel and everythign about it, but i am assumign it's not fit for any long term work or living aboard, even converted or not.

so any opinions on a tartan 34 would be appreciated. my main criteria are

Safety (particularly in bad weather)
comfort
speed

that order.

the other boat i'm currently eyeing up is an incredibly well taken care fo W32.

[T34C]

Will you be living aboard alone?? Family? Pets? Where is home port?

[AmeriCdn]

living aboard will not be happening initially, i have accss to where i am moving in florida to a large indoor garage (old barn actually) where I will be intending to fix them up re-paint etc. I will most likely be modifying the interior a bit, obviously quite a bit on the ten which I am thinking is completely non feasible at the moment.

Eventually, i will be living aboard, home port will be somewhere between new york and florida, more than likely florida.

Taht will only be for about a year or two while i work and save and I then intend to do a very prolonged tour out to the VI's bermuda and who knows where else. I am lucky enough to have family and friends at all thse points, however, i will be living aboard and not staying with them.

[Jeff_H]

Needless to say, the Tartan Ten would be a miserable choice for what you are proposing being a bit deep for Florida and the Bahamas, too lightly built for heavy going and lacking the kind of carrying capacity that that kind of voyaging requires.

I like the Tartan 34. Its fin keel/ centerboard gives vert good performance for a boat of that era and draft. While build quality and layouts varied over its long production run, most were reasonably well built and laid out for a small live-aboard passagemaker. That said this boat has a sailplan that was conceived to use very large genoas (170%) in light to moderate breezes and very large spinnackers. While you can sail them with smaller headsails,(130-140%) the use of smaller headsails means more mortoing time. These smaller headsails are still to big for heavy going and so these boats do best with smaller jibs when things are too windy for a furled 130 but that means a pretty large sail inventory for a cruising boat of this size.

The 3000 deep keel is a very nice coastal cruiser but probably not as suitable for your purposes. Of the bunch frankly I would suggest that the older Tartan 30 would make a better choice for you.

I would also suggest that you keep your eyes out for a Bristol 34 in good shape as another alternative.

Good luck,
Jeff

[T34C]

I have to disagree (slightly) with Jeff in that any T34 with 170% genoa would be way over canvased. A 150 - 155% genny would be more than enough even in light air. I carry a 145% on a roller furling with a high footed 110% in the locker if I need to change down. The sail plan lends its self to carrying a larger genny longer as the wind picks up and reefing the main to reduce heel. Mine is yawl rigged and I find when the wind kicks up I can carry full genny and mizzen w/o main and the boat balances nicely. I think two headsails would carry you through a wide range of conditions, but would probably consider adding an inner forestay to carry a staysail for going off-shore.

Depending on your plans I would probably recommend a few other changes to the 34 before going blue water cruising. All the needed blue water alteration are very do-able and well documented on the Tartan owners websites.
Try http://tca34.org/portal/index.php?op...tpage&Itemid=1

[JimsCAL]

Since you seem to like Tartans, also consider the Tartan 33. Same vintage as the Ten but a completely different boat. Should be in your price range.