Boat Plans Arch Davis | A pretty unsuitable rig and post 2222

Boat Plans Arch Davis

Man do I have a bridge to sell this rube, a chart you really need to look at, and in the "do you know where you can stick that fucking iPhone" department...

The other day I was looking at a local Hunter selling for cheap and thinking it was a lot of bang/living space for the buck...

Hunter 34

That said, the rig is simply nuts for a cruising boat and looking at it I really had to admire the JPD (just plain dumb) mindset that made it happen but it left me with the nagging question why the heck is the mast so high (over 50 feet from the water line) for 569 square feet of sail area?

Heres the thing, tall masts, their required rigging, and added needful ballast are all expensive... Not something you tend to expect in a Hunter.

CAL 34 Simplicity rig

Back when "So It Goes" was dismasted and I had to build a new rig I went with the Simplicity rig that Mark Smaalders was working on at the time. Part of the reason I chose it was that it allowed for 592 square feet of sail area on a mast no longer than the CAL 34.


Its a powerful rig and the resulting boat is stiffer, sails more upright, and cost a far sight less than replacing the original CAL 34 rig. I call that a win/win/win situation. The Simplicity rig is a great cruising rig.

The Hunter 34 on the other hand has a deserved reputation as being a boat that is tender, sails on its ear, and a bit too exciting for some folks tastes. Practical Sailor in its excellent  review of the Hunter 34 has this to say...

"There is a price to be paid for that speed, however. A number of owners responding to our survey report that the original Hunter 34 is a very tippy boat, in either the deep keel or shoal draft version. In winds of 15 knots true or more, it’s time to reef the main when going upwind. In fact, the boat’s lack of stability is the single most commonly criticized aspect of the Hunter 34’s performance in our survey. One owner was considering cutting several feet off his mast. Others have stepped down from 150% headsails to 135% or smaller overlaps."

Throw in the aft cant spreaders (every sailmakers wet dream) that makes sailing downwind seriously problematic and you have a pretty horrible cruising rig sitting on top of a pretty nice cruising boat...

Of course, one could always replace such a rig with something like the Simplicity, gaff, or (dare I say it?) a balanced lug rig for a fraction of the cost and youd have a real honest to goodness cruising rig that wont cost an arm and a leg in breakage and sail repairs.

Just a thought...

Listening to Bobby Brown

So it goes...

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