A guy called Brian Caldwell is organising a round the world race for S&S34's starting and finishing in Sydney with start set for 2019. He's calling it the MOD Globe Race.

The idea is for a one design round the world race in an older proven design that the average person can afford to compete in. Some details here:

bjcaldwell.wordpress.com/2014/10/


So you guys with S&S 34's you have plenty of time to get organised! Or alternatively, plenty of time to buy a S&S34 and get it prepared.

Too hard. I will leave that one for the youngsters.

Great idea though.

MorningBird said..
I don't like myself enough to spend 6 or more months talking to myself, although my wife might like not having to talk to me for 6 months.

Somebody might be able to buy mine next year. It is already pretty well setup so won't cost much to finish off. I need it for Lord Howe and some summer cruising for the next 6 months.

Hi Morning Bird,
when you heading to Lord Howe Island. I am heading there late February

The BBQ on the Beach rally is on 18 Nov. Havefun and I plan to 2 hand it leaving Pittwater on 10/11 Nov. Gives a few days in the lagoon before the event.
Boat is slipped tomorrow for a bum wipe and replace a suspect skin fitting. Hopefully they or I won't find anything else wrong while she is on the hard.
February should be even more fun with the strong nor easters. Coming home will be quick.
My wife and I have started undertaking longer overseas trips and it is difficult to look after the boat when away for long periods. It might be better to let someone else use her as she should be used.

Does anyone know when the S&S 34 MkII (taller rig, more modern keel & rudder) started being produced and if there's much of a premium paid for them when they come up for sale?

I have been fortunate to sail on both types, Morning Bird being a Mk1, as are most of the other ones I have sailed, and Huckleberry a Mk2. Huckleberry did the 2007 S2H coming a very respectable 3rd in Division and winning outright on handicap for a few hours mid race. I sailed in her in Sydney before the race and in the west a few years later.

Both configurations were made right to the end of the Swarbricks build run. MB is the last Swarbricks built boat at hull number 119, launched in 1984 by the owner I bought it off. Huckleberry is about 1982 from memory. Western Morning is the very first boat in Australia, actually being a UK built hull that was the Swarbricks plug.

The Mk2 was a bit more expensive and as Cisco notes was intended for serious racers. I think MB's owner wanted to save the money and only raced in Pittwater anyway.

The Mk2 rig was based a bit on the Edward Heath 1969 S2H winning Morning Cloud. The Mk2 also has a slightly different keel (the draft was moved either forward or aft, can't remember which) and most importantly a larger spade rudder. The Mk1 rudder is on a skeg. The spade rudder on the Mk2 gives a deal more control running hard downwind (racing terminology not relevant to we cruising sailors) and when going astern. With the spinnaker up on Huckleberry it was noticeably better downwind. The downside is the rudder is more vulnerable than the solidly supported skeg rudder.

The Mk1 could be ordered with either keel or deck stepped mast. As the geometry of keel stepped gave more strength they have a lighter mast thus saving on top weight. MB is deck stepped and to compensate the mast and rig are way over built. My mast is a similar section as my sister's 12 tonne Valiant 40, one of the most rugged yachts ever built. The S&S34 deck is also extraordinarily tough. It is so strong that the previous owner lost one of the wedges for the compression post and didn't bother replacing it yet there is no deformation of the deck where the unsupported deck took the mast loads. The standing rigging is also a couple of sizes over that required.

Many Mk1 hulls have the taller two spreader mast of the Mk2.

The Mk1 is known as being more rugged and the round the world sailors have used Mk1 boats.

About 10 were built by Macalpine's, the moulds came over to Gosford after Swarbricks went broke. I think the Macalpine built yachts are all Mk2. The one of them I have seen has a superb interior fitout. However, one of the Macalpine boats lost its rig in light winds off the central NSW coast due to a failure of a chainplate which had been made in two parts and welded together below deck. This might be indicative of cost cutting by Macalpine to get the price down!!!

The only premium I am aware of for S&S34s is for ones that are in good nick. You can buy a hull and spend a $100K rebuilding everything around it. Or you can buy one with a provenance of upgrades and maintenance for half that.

I have read that the earlier boats with the round hatch (I think the change was in the late 70s) used a inferior resin to the later square hatch boats. I saw this written some time ago and haven't been able to relocate it but a potential buyer might chase it further.

Whichever one is sailed, it will bring a smile to any sailors face.

Thanks for that great info MorningBird.

Taking everything into account I paid $37000 for MB 9 yrs ago. I have kept records to the cent and MB now owes me $80000, I am on my phone and don't have my spreadsheet with the details. For that I have a comfortable, seaworthy open ocean cruiser with new sails, vane and electric steering, new standing rigging, new Profurl furler, good raft, dinghy, outboard, soda blasted bottom sides, spare main anchors etc.
A slight correction to Cisco's comment above, most Swarbrick builds have inline shrouds rather than fore and aft. They were intended for folding masts to get under the Swan river bridges. MB is one of the few I have seen that doesn't have a folding mast. I'd like to be able to get under the Hawkesbury bridges but when 200nm out the thought of a hinge in the mast isn't a good one.

MB has cost me $86,778. That doesn't include running costs over 9 years.
Andy, save money and get sails from Fareast Sails.

Hah ha Cisco too true

Ramona, no this boat was from Sydney Harbour but there were some good ones WA.

Morning Bird, that's why your boat will be excellent value if you do sell it. I would have much preferred someone else has done all he work and yep Far East sails are good value but a full set including storm sails will cost the $

Cisco, my mast is keel stepped with fore and aft lowers. I didn't realise they were so highly regarded so thanks for that info.

The only thing that worries me about my mast is that t is 35 years old. Provided there is no corrosion does any one have any opinions on how well aluminium masts retain their strength over time?

I keep telling myself there are 35 year old aluminium aeroplanes flying around without any problems but that's really all I know about it.

The Australian hulls were all built by either Swarbricks or Macalpine. I have seen boats advertised as S&S34s built by other builders, there is one on Boatpoint now. They aren't S&S34s.

I disagree on the seaworthiness being in only a handful. The seaworthiness comes from the hull design and build quality. This was a constant throughout their build runs at Swarbrick and in Gosford. The resultant strength and stability is outstanding. Angle of vanishing stability is around 140 degrees.

According to Glen Swarbrick all the Swarbrick hulls and internal structural items were completed by Swarbricks. Many were fitted out internally by Swarbricks but many got an internal fitout and propulsion from the owners. I agree with Jolene on this, the internal fitout lets many of them down, the worst I have seen was Ricochet 2 fitted out in chipboard. That is why many of them are rubbish unless you want the hull to build a boat around. Ricochet also got a flush deck in teak which I believe was a refit post build.

There are a variety of rigs, no two of the ones I have been on have the same boom, mast or standing rig. I think this is mainly because of the racing versus cruising differences and obviously many have been refitted and changed in more recent years. The ruggedness of the rig nowadays is as much the maintenance and care it has received over the years as whether it was a Swarbricks rig or not.

That only one has been lost at sea since 1969 (Morning Tide a couple of years ago off Byron Bay) in view of the life many have lead is testament to their inherent design features.

I looked at Ricochet and accidentally stuck my thumb through the cabin side, it was pretty bad.

There were a couple of Morning Tides. This one was the one owned previously by Jim Lawler who was tragically lost in Winston Churchill in 1998. Allan Fenwick has owned her for about 20 years.
Allan and a crew were cruising north in very strong southerly winds and seas and suffered a savage knockdown, at about midnight.
They were taking on water faster than they could get it out. They couldn't find the leak and sent a mayday. As the helo arrived at dawn Allan thought he found the leak at the rudder post riser tube. By then the decision had been made and they were lifted off and waited until the boat sank 10 or so minutes later.
How the leak could have come from the rudder post is beyond me. The rudder is supported at the bottom and top of the skeg and at the cockpit floor. Another experienced sailor who knows Allan and the boat suggested a skin fitting failure as a maybe.
I have the TV footage of the rescue somewhere. I think I put it on Seabreeze at the time.
Allan has moved os and I have not been able to discuss it with him apart from a 5 minute discussion a month or so after the sinking.
Ricochet could have had the flush deck very early. I was told by a previous owner, the Rose Bay doctor one for those who might know, who told me the owner had it done because he preferred the look. It could have been a story and it was done at build but it would have to be the worst yacht fit out ever.

I understand what you are saying Jolene and a lot of people borrow cred from the S&S 34.

A broker in Townsville had a Townson 34 listed that he swore (as did the owner according to him) was an S&S 34.

There is no doubt that the S&S 34 as drawn by Olin Stephens is the most seaworthy yachts ever. The Swarbrick yachts are great. That is why they sold 119 of them.

Mine was an English Winfield built yacht with the stepped cabin top. It had plenty of head room throughout.

Re which is the better or stronger rig:- it is just a matter of doing the design numbers engineering wise. I do think a mast tabernacle is a potential hazard in blue water sailing. If the rig fails, the whole mast will come down. If the mast is keel stepped and the rig fails, half of the mast might stay up.

That is true no matter which design of yacht.

Jolene said..
Andy,
Your mast is slowly corroding away but without a measurement it is hard to tell how much, I wouldn't worry. Some of the S&S 34's have a s/steel band at the spreaders with sockets for the airfoil spreader bars. Some of these where beautifully crafted from the guys at a Taskers. But 30 years of Ali in stainless and the spreaders might not be too flash. Here is a picture of some pullers I made to pull spreaders out of the sockets but in this case the spreaders where so corroded that the socket had to be split to get the rotten spreader out.





I'm not trying to sound too negative about the S&S 34, They are one of the most beautiful 34 foot boats I have ever seen but I kind of spit on the ground when they are mentioned. You said it MorningBird, 200nm offshore with a hinge in the mast, Dose a hinged mast rob them of their seaworthiness, Is that a problem or not,??,,, So if you want to go cruising off shore buy a S&S with a keel stepped mast and Double lowers?? Would that be the Case? I just get a bit confused when you hear stuff like a sea worthy boat must have a bla,bla,bla and then you see an S&S that doesn't have bla,bla,bla but it doesn't matter because it is an S&S,
Sorry

Thanks for that Jolene, I asked the rigger to check them for corrosion when I replaced the standing rigging but I think I'll need to double check just in case.

Congratulations MorningBird and HaveFun.

You have had some moments on the trip that you both have obviously coped with well. Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.

Well done.