romany123
New member
Selling my Westerly conway this year and fancy a sadler 34 the reports look good any comments please. (feel realy guilty selling my old boat, part of the family now).
Dave
Dave
sadler 34
- Thread starter romany123
- Start date
Kathryn
New member
I would highly recommend a Sadler 34, look for a Fin keel version. Extreemly safe and sea worthy and very forgiving to the novice too. I used to teach with mine. I have been caught in a F9 in the Sadler I once owned. I would buy one again tomorrow if I could. How many Sadler 34s do you ever see for sale? That speaks for its self.
romany123
New member
Thanks Kathryn
I have heard they are good but its nice to speak to somebody that haqs owned one. As you proberbly know my westerly Conway is of the same breed as reguards to sea worthyness and as my family has now all grown up and flown the coup, We are selling her . We diddent want to take a step backwards.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply
Dave
I have heard they are good but its nice to speak to somebody that haqs owned one. As you proberbly know my westerly Conway is of the same breed as reguards to sea worthyness and as my family has now all grown up and flown the coup, We are selling her . We diddent want to take a step backwards.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply
Dave
Sammy
New member
I have been looking for years to replace my Sadler 34 but we have never found a boat that comes up to the same standard as a good all rounder the shallow fin is the most versatile.
Best of luck it will take some time to find one. Good boats, people rarely sell.
www.BoatsThames.com
Best of luck it will take some time to find one. Good boats, people rarely sell.
www.BoatsThames.com
Kathryn
New member
One thing to look on a Sadler 34 is the 'U' brackets on the shrouds where they secure to the Chain plates. I had one break in a Force 6 sailing single handed. Fortunately I did not lose my mast a collegue of mine had the same problem and lost his mast. Still this would not stop me buying another Sadler 34.
charles_reed
Active member
I seriously considered a Sadler 34 before buying my current boat 11 years ago.
The only faults I was able to elicit from quite extensive investigation were:
1. A design weakness (as already mentioned) of the main chainplates.
2. A habit, as with all Sadlers, of having the end-grain balsa decks delaminate.
3. Problems with the handrail stanchion bases working loose.
The test sails I carried out, proved she was good, if wet, to windward but a bit of a dog off the wind unless you flew the kite.
This last was the final flaw as far as I was concerned as I needed to single-hand and the spi was really too large for control by yourself.
In comparison to the Conway, a far better performer and more comfortable in a seaway.
The only faults I was able to elicit from quite extensive investigation were:
1. A design weakness (as already mentioned) of the main chainplates.
2. A habit, as with all Sadlers, of having the end-grain balsa decks delaminate.
3. Problems with the handrail stanchion bases working loose.
The test sails I carried out, proved she was good, if wet, to windward but a bit of a dog off the wind unless you flew the kite.
This last was the final flaw as far as I was concerned as I needed to single-hand and the spi was really too large for control by yourself.
In comparison to the Conway, a far better performer and more comfortable in a seaway.
romany123
New member
Thanks for all your veiws on this subject, it realy is appreciated
Dave
Dave
robmurray
Member
Cant comment on maintenance issues but I have sailed one a few times and they are great boats - will cope with anything and I was surprised how quick it was. Getting old now so traditional layout.
Contact Mike Lucas - www.mikelucasyachting.co.uk - he is the Sadler guru and will find you the best for the price and tell you what to look for. Nice guy too
Contact Mike Lucas - www.mikelucasyachting.co.uk - he is the Sadler guru and will find you the best for the price and tell you what to look for. Nice guy too
vyv_cox
Well-known member
Just back from a week away, so didn't see this posting earlier.
I have owned a Sadler 34 for about 7-8 years now and it's no secret on this BB that I believe the design to be excellent. We have sailed fairly extended summer cruises for every year that we have owned the boat, and so inevitably have encountered some difficult sailing conditions. The boat has always performed impeccably. Sailing performance is good, not the greatest pointing ability in the world but makes up for this off the wind.
Charles Reed and I have crossed swords a few times before about his comments, my responses would be:
Lower chain plates are sometimes a problem if shroud tightness is very high. The plate can bend under these conditions, pushing the deck upwards. However, this is not a major defect and a stiffer plate is available from Mike Lucas if it does occur. Mine are still OK, despite extensive use.
Deck balsa core problems: One small area of my deck creaks a little when walked on, has done since I first owned the boat, and has never got any worse. So long as the deck fittings, especially the genoa car track, are firmly sealed there should be no problem with it. Other boats I have owned have been far worse for this, so I don't think the Sadler can be singled out in particular.
Downwind. A dog??? Mine is absolutely brilliant downwind, with a 130% genoa I reckon to keep with anything up to 40 ft. Either with the genoa poled out or with the spinnaker it is a fabulous downwind performer. I understand that there is a little instability downwind with the deep keel, pre-Stephen Jones, mine is the shallow fin version and I don't have any complaints about this.
Wet upwind? I don't think so. Until last year when we had F 6-7 on the nose the whole way across the North Sea, we had never had green waves hitting the hood windows. When we did we found a number of leaks in the attachment of the hood that we have now rectified. It is significant that this is after 6 years of ownership.
Stanchion bases: Mine are all original and none ever came loose or broke. I have replaced the stanchions but left all the bases alone. I had a collision with a dock wall this year and bent one of the stanchions about 30 degrees but the base was still fine. They are bolted through the deck to glassed-in plates, so it would be difficult to think of a stronger attachment method.
A few other points:
Andrew Bray had some mast splitting problems at the lower shroud attachments but he admits that this may have been due to very high lower shroud tightness. In view of his two races across the northern Atlantic, this cannot be seen as normal cruising use.
My 1985 boat has some stress cracks in the gelcoat in a few places, none is more than over-thick gelcoat at sharp section changes.
I have read of cracking in the topsides at the bows, where there is a fairly large flat area. Mine does not have this problem. It is not very difficult to fix this but would involve cutting away the inner skin, so a replacement like cedar planking has been used.
If you can find a good one, buy it. You won't regret it, but be aware that a general reduction in re-sale prices for second hand boats is making it less of an investment than previously. In my case this is of no interest - the boat is not for sale.
I have owned a Sadler 34 for about 7-8 years now and it's no secret on this BB that I believe the design to be excellent. We have sailed fairly extended summer cruises for every year that we have owned the boat, and so inevitably have encountered some difficult sailing conditions. The boat has always performed impeccably. Sailing performance is good, not the greatest pointing ability in the world but makes up for this off the wind.
Charles Reed and I have crossed swords a few times before about his comments, my responses would be:
Lower chain plates are sometimes a problem if shroud tightness is very high. The plate can bend under these conditions, pushing the deck upwards. However, this is not a major defect and a stiffer plate is available from Mike Lucas if it does occur. Mine are still OK, despite extensive use.
Deck balsa core problems: One small area of my deck creaks a little when walked on, has done since I first owned the boat, and has never got any worse. So long as the deck fittings, especially the genoa car track, are firmly sealed there should be no problem with it. Other boats I have owned have been far worse for this, so I don't think the Sadler can be singled out in particular.
Downwind. A dog??? Mine is absolutely brilliant downwind, with a 130% genoa I reckon to keep with anything up to 40 ft. Either with the genoa poled out or with the spinnaker it is a fabulous downwind performer. I understand that there is a little instability downwind with the deep keel, pre-Stephen Jones, mine is the shallow fin version and I don't have any complaints about this.
Wet upwind? I don't think so. Until last year when we had F 6-7 on the nose the whole way across the North Sea, we had never had green waves hitting the hood windows. When we did we found a number of leaks in the attachment of the hood that we have now rectified. It is significant that this is after 6 years of ownership.
Stanchion bases: Mine are all original and none ever came loose or broke. I have replaced the stanchions but left all the bases alone. I had a collision with a dock wall this year and bent one of the stanchions about 30 degrees but the base was still fine. They are bolted through the deck to glassed-in plates, so it would be difficult to think of a stronger attachment method.
A few other points:
Andrew Bray had some mast splitting problems at the lower shroud attachments but he admits that this may have been due to very high lower shroud tightness. In view of his two races across the northern Atlantic, this cannot be seen as normal cruising use.
My 1985 boat has some stress cracks in the gelcoat in a few places, none is more than over-thick gelcoat at sharp section changes.
I have read of cracking in the topsides at the bows, where there is a fairly large flat area. Mine does not have this problem. It is not very difficult to fix this but would involve cutting away the inner skin, so a replacement like cedar planking has been used.
If you can find a good one, buy it. You won't regret it, but be aware that a general reduction in re-sale prices for second hand boats is making it less of an investment than previously. In my case this is of no interest - the boat is not for sale.
romany123
New member
vyv
Thanks for taking the time to write that post, just the sort of comments I want to hear (warts and all). would it be ok to e-mail you if I have any more questions. We have not as yet sold our boat but wanted to do the ground work in advance of looking.
Thanks again
Dave
Thanks for taking the time to write that post, just the sort of comments I want to hear (warts and all). would it be ok to e-mail you if I have any more questions. We have not as yet sold our boat but wanted to do the ground work in advance of looking.
Thanks again
Dave
airbubble
New member
hi vyv. re-downwind a dog...., yeah but Straitshooter's got a good prop !
indeed thanks for your excellent comments; i have to survey one nxt week at Den Oever. your hints and experience will be on the front of my mind !
happy sailin
indeed thanks for your excellent comments; i have to survey one nxt week at Den Oever. your hints and experience will be on the front of my mind !
happy sailin
vyv_cox
Well-known member
Always delighted to talk about Sadler 34. I'll PM you.
Vyv
Vyv
romany123
New member
Thought I would push this back to the top to thank you for all the advice and encouragement you have given me on the sadler 34.
I have just (last week) sailed my new (to me ) deep keeled sadler 34 back from Guernsey to the east coast. I must say I have been delighted with her speed and pointing ability, she is a joy to sail and a thoroughly comfortable boat in a seaway, We had a maximum of a force 6 on the way back so I cannot comment on wind speeds higher. I have to admit that she is a far more comfortable boat to sail than my old Conway, which incidental was a great sea-boat.
<hr width=100% size=1>Dave
I have just (last week) sailed my new (to me ) deep keeled sadler 34 back from Guernsey to the east coast. I must say I have been delighted with her speed and pointing ability, she is a joy to sail and a thoroughly comfortable boat in a seaway, We had a maximum of a force 6 on the way back so I cannot comment on wind speeds higher. I have to admit that she is a far more comfortable boat to sail than my old Conway, which incidental was a great sea-boat.
<hr width=100% size=1>Dave