Overview
The Sadler 34 is a Martin Sadler design from 1983, built by Sadler Yachts in Poole, Dorset, as a larger replacement for the Sadler 32. About 250 were built over fourteen years.
Design and Construction
The hull is a double moulding with rigid polyurethane foam between the inner and outer skins, which makes the boat unsinkable. Keels were offered as a deep fin, a shallow fin or twin bilge keels, and a very few boats had a centreboard inside a shallow fin; later boats had a redesigned deep fin with a lower centre of gravity. Displacement is 12,800 lb with 5,000 lb of ballast. Most boats were fitted with either a deep fin of 1.75 m or a shallow fin of 1.45 m. The later Stephen Jones keels carry a small bulb. Practical Boat Owner’s Rupert Holmes, who sailed both the standard deep keel and the Jones keel extensively as an instructor, found the Jones keel markedly improved a good design, making it a match for the Contessa 32 upwind in a blow and a lot less wet in big seas.
Under Sail
Yachting Monthly’s 1984 test was sailed in force 7 to 8: the boat ran at about 8 knots on a broad reach, and her motion reminded the testers of larger yachts. The reviewing editor later bought one. Owners on the Practical Boat Owner forum describe her as good but wet to windward; one found her slow off the wind without a spinnaker, while another rated her very quick downwind with a 130 percent genoa.
Buyers Notes
Check which keel a boat has, and whether an older deep-fin boat has had the later keel retrofitted. Owners note the foam lining reduces stowage. Practical Boat Owner describes the accommodation as generally well laid out, with decent sea berths, galley and a proper chart table. Its reviewer thinks the full-width heads compartment that separates the forecabin from the saloon, though neatly executed, is old-fashioned and dampened demand in later years. The foam sandwich gives good thermal and acoustic insulation. Sadler replaced the 34 with the more modern Starlight 35, which sold in smaller numbers.
