Fisher 34 - Rapid, relative to its relatives?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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Northshore built plenty of Fisher motorsailers, and they're a common enough sight along the south coast.

Does anyone with experience of several, know if the 34 footer's reputation for superior sailing characteristics (relative to others in the range), is justified/noticeable/considerable, or are all the Fishers frustratingly sluggish, to those of us accustomed to AWBs?

I'm not imagining any of them are X-Yachts with wheelhouses. :D
 
dancrane said:
Northshore built plenty of Fisher motorsailers, and they're a common enough sight along the south coast.
Does anyone with experience of several, know if the 34 footer's reputation for superior sailing characteristics (relative to others in the range), is justified/noticeable/considerable, or are all the Fishers frustratingly sluggish, to those of us accustomed to AWBs?
I'm not imagining any of them are X-Yachts with wheelhouses. :D
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Hi Dan
I have sailed a Fisher 25' & 30' and they are a fine motor sailer so I would imagine the 34' to be just as good.
In the Fisher 30' on a close reach with a 15mph wind (sea state slight) she was plodding along nicely at 7.5 knots.

However for sea keeping manners and due mainly to the hull design, in heavy weather, sorry, give me a Colvic Watson anyday :)

Mike
 
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Beautifully made boats and very expensive, I considered going that route but decided that they are neither fish or fowl, but it did get me into the Colvic area, I looked at Watsons then came across the Countess which suited my needs to a tee.
 
I vote for the heavy brigade.

Mike, thanks for that report; it sounds like at least as much speed as one could ask of a substantial displacement hull measuring less than thirty feet waterline!

I have to ask though, what the Colvic is good at, which the Fisher doesn't do equally well? Aren't they of similar 'Miller Fifer' hull shape, both hefty, and neither much inclined to be surprised by waves that set longer, lighter yachts rolling and pitching.

I watched a Colvic Watson coming out of Hythe marina last year. An aft-cabin model, exceptionally well finished. And in truth, I entertain ideas of totally redrawing the interior of any Fisher I might get my hands on, as they always seem oddly austere to me (though that may only be the elderly ones I've seen for sale).

Either way, I like these heavyweights, that shrug off dismal weather when the open-cockpit lightweights are running for cover. :cool:
 
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A friend sailed a few times on a Watson 33 and he reckoned it needed the engine to give enough flow over the rudder to control the thing. According to him, it was hopeless under sail without.

Of course that may have been due to the skipper's inability to balance the boat. I sailed with him once on another boat and, in spite of his being vastly more "experienced" than anyone else on board, we got on far better once we decided to ignore him!

OTOH, I had a nose round the Watson once and thought it would make a fantastic liveaboard.
 
My fathjer had an early Freeward,rolled it self silly at anchour ,seemed to sail ok.On reflection it probably needed a tighter turn of the bilge.Its probably not correct to just copy big mfvs.
 
dancrane said:
Northshore built plenty of Fisher motorsailers, and they're a common enough sight along the south coast.

Does anyone with experience of several, know if the 34 footer's reputation for superior sailing characteristics (relative to others in the range), is justified/noticeable/considerable, or are all the Fishers frustratingly sluggish, to those of us accustomed to AWBs?

I'm not imagining any of them are X-Yachts with wheelhouses. :D
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1) Reputed, because round bilge, to roll a lot.

2) be careful when parking.
Some years ago, I gave some own boat tuition to a guy up at Mercury (in the Hamble), because he was bashing all in sight when parking port side too. Main problem seemed to be excessive way carried, because of heavy boat, then excessive astern power to stop it, then excessive paddlewheeling, aggravated by relatively high bows preventing him seeing the pontoon ahead.
Cured this by demonstrating that he could put engine into neutral way before his berth (and I mean way before), coasting all the way down the trot & maintaining effective steerage, turning into berth & using a target above the bows as aiming point, using little or no astern to ease into slot alongside.

3) Its got a long keel, so steering astern can have mixed results.

4) Some have bowthrusters to help with this.
 
alant said:
1) .
Cured this by demonstrating that he could put engine into neutral way before his berth (and I mean way before), coasting all the way down the trot & maintaining effective steerage, turning into berth & using a target above the bows as aiming point, using little or no astern to ease into slot alongside.
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Practical demo of this. Once, hammering down the Hamble to get out to the race course, the lugger ran out of go-juice. The owner knocked it into neutral, and coasted a good 200m to the fuel pontoon at Warsash. Still had to kill a bit of way by surging the lines as we parked. Quick 10 litres with the owner butt-up priming the engine as it went in, and we were off again.
 
dancrane said:
Doesn't a diesel that has run out of fuel, need some lengthy attention before it can run again?
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Some do easily, some don't, and it can depend on the tank/filter/pipe runs too. Anecdotally, I have found that Beta Marine engines selfbleed sometimes, and are easy to bleed generally. A gravity feed from the tank helps, or a priming pump.
 
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I probably know the procedure - if that's what it is - by a different name...South Australian, maybe? Though it's been a while. :D

I was scrupulously, paranoically careful never to run out of diesel aboard my own boat, so 'butting-up' wasn't necessary...at least, I'm assuming it wasn't (I am without a dictionary!). A pal of mine let his diesel Rover run dry in the winter, and it had to be towed. No fun at all.

Given my electric motor plans, maybe I'll never need to know! Just the same, I'd like to know what fellow-skippers are describing, if you'd care to explain? :)
 
Um, the butt-upwards that Ken referred to was simply the position that the boat's owner apparently had to adopt to reach the engine!

The procedure is known as bleeding or priming.

Pete
 
dancrane said:
Northshore built plenty of Fisher motorsailers, and they're a common enough sight along the south coast.

Does anyone with experience of several, know if the 34 footer's reputation for superior sailing characteristics (relative to others in the range), is justified/noticeable/considerable, or are all the Fishers frustratingly sluggish, to those of us accustomed to AWBs?

I'm not imagining any of them are X-Yachts with wheelhouses. :D
Click to expand...

Yes they do sail better especially the sloop rigged ones which provided double doors to the cockpit due to no mizzen. The 34 had a finer entry and less "belly" (than the other Fishers) and was not built in as many numbers as the 37. The Mk III version from about 1996 improved the layout markedly in my opinion - got rid of the original tight heads and put a much larger one in the left hand quarter where the old galley was thus creating a superb fwd cabin and longitunial galley - the saloon become smaller but you have the wheelhouse as well!!
 
Pete, Ken...thank you, I see. As so often, it was salty vernacular, gumming up my comprehension.

Myself, I haven't needed to bleed a diesel, but I understand the reasons/ways of doing it.
 
E39mad...Yep, they're very appealing. I heard a few years back, that Northshore was trying to sell the moulds. I assume this never happened? They're still in production, aren't they?
 
Don't know Dan - I worked there as a saleman from 1990 to 1996 and I redesigned the interior of the 34 as previously mentioned. Being Northshore we dropped the Vancouver 34 heads mould in the rear quarter.

They were expensive boats to build as almost no interior mouldings but they are bulletproof ....... literally!

I have a lot of affection for the 25 and 34 sloops despite spending most of my spare time racing Bene's Sigma's etc
 
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YM A-Z of secondhand boats says the Fisher 37 is the best sailer of the Fishers.

As an almost owner of a lovely Colvic Watson 34 I am biased in their favour but one beauty of the CW is that they were almost all fitted out by yards or owners, it means there are as many internal choices as there are Colvic Watson's for sale. Of the three 34's on the market at present, one has two twin forecabins and aft cabin with ensuite; one has a huge forecabin with a sort of playroom for the kids plus aft cabin; and one a relatively straightforward layout but with a huge heads including a bath! It's a lot amount of boat for the money and if the weather is conducive it's a good sailer. If the weather isn't, what family wants to sail? I get the impression that owners of a motor sailer really want one, a bit like a multihull - you don't end up with one because you were looking at the Ben/Jen/Bav next to it and said "on the other hand, why don't we buy a Colvic Watson"!
 
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