Sailboats 31-35ft

Three of the ‘best from the west,’ these performance sloops have been out of production for 15 years but are still hot because they’re fast and built well enough for blue-water sailing.

Production of this Dave Pedrick design started in 1993 and continues today. An optional package for traditional headsails is a departure from Freedom’s self-tending legacy.

This well-made French cruiser has a fairly contemporary underbody and is strong enough to venture offshore. Finding one is the problem.

A good looking mid-size cruiser that beginners will find comfortable and forgiving.

This innovative family boat typifies Hunter’s design philosophy with its B&R rig, radar arch, circular cockpit and good value, but owners cite numerous niggling problems.

Alan Johnstone’s first design for J Boats is a roomy performance cruiser that suffers only from a lack of organized stowage.

An easy-to-sail sloop, this Freedom 32 with a fair turn of speed, beamy accommodations and surprising offshore capability.

A look at both the 1969 and 1985 designs by Bruce King finds more to like about the later model boat.

In design, the 35 looks like a typical Rod Johnstone boat, with short overhangs for a long waterline, relatively low and flat sheerline, a low cabin house, and a moderate well-balanced rig. Obviously, Johnstone knows something about the harmony between a boat's underbody and the water, but a large part of the boat's speed is also dependent on the light weight--10,500 pounds on a 30-foot waterline--as well as a good distribution of that weight.

More than 500 Tartan 34s were built between 1968 and 1978. By 1978 the CCA rule was long gone, PHRF racing was beginning to surge, and the MHS (now IMS) was in its infancy. The Tartan 34 had passed from a racer/cruiser to a cruiser, not because the boat had changed, but because sailboat racing had changed. The Tartan 34 was succeeded by the larger, more modern Tartan 37, a boat of exactly the same concept.