Hunter 34

The Hunter 34 is a 34 ft 5 in masthead-sloop coastal cruiser designed by Cortland Steck and built by Hunter Marine at Alachua, Florida from 1983 to 1987, with more than 800 hulls completed. It carries a fin keel of cast iron, a spade rudder, Hunter's patented B&R rig with swept spreaders and diamond shrouds, and a tri-cabin interior with an aft double under the cockpit. It was sold with a deep (5 ft 6 in) or shoal (4 ft 3 in) keel, and should not be confused with the later Hunter 340.

Hunter formed an in-house design team under Cortland Steck in 1980 and consolidated production at Alachua by mid-1982; the 34 was one of the first fruits of that team, introduced in 1983 alongside the Hunter 31 and marketed as using the same 'unidirectional fibreglass frame' technology as the Hunter 54. Practical Sailor reports that over 800 were built in just over three years, and production ended in 1987. The B&R rig fitted to the 34 was also used on the 31 and 54 and remained a Hunter signature on later models.

The hull is solid fibreglass with a moulded hull liner; a unidirectional fibreglass frame carries the rig and keel loads so that the mast can be deck-stepped. The iron fin keel is bolted on, and the internally mounted spade rudder was enlarged during the run after the original proved too small and prone to cracking. The 1983 brochure gives 10,900 lb displacement and 4,540 lb ballast for the deep keel, but the 1985 brochure shows about 450 lb more ballast and the 11,820 lb / 5,000 lb figures used by Practical Sailor and every later database are adopted here. Sail area is 557 sq ft on I/J/P/E of 46 ft / 13 ft 9 in / 41 ft / 11 ft 9 in, and the standard engine was a 22.5 hp three-cylinder Yanmar 3GMF diesel, with a Westerbeke 21 in some early boats.

Practical Sailor describes a fast boat in light air — very quick upwind, only average downwind — that is 'very tippy' in either keel version and needs the main reefed upwind once the true wind reaches 15 knots. It carries substantial weather helm in anything more than light air, and the swept spreaders of the B&R rig stop the main being eased far on a run. The rig's tuning, with its diamonds and swept spreaders, is a recurring source of trouble for owners who have not followed Hunter's procedure.

The tri-cabin layout sleeps five without converting the dinette: a V-berth forward with hanging locker, a full-width head with shower aft of it, a fore-and-aft dinette that makes a double opposite a settee berth and chart table, an L-shaped galley with two sinks and pressurised hot and cold water, and a private aft stateroom on the port quarter with a double berth mostly under the cockpit. Headroom is 6 ft 3 in in the main cabin, falling below 6 ft forward under the sloping coachroof. The original two-burner kerosene stove gave way to alcohol, and most boats have since been converted to propane or CNG; tankage is 65 US gal water and 25 US gal fuel.

All boats share one hull and rig, so the shoal-draft keel is recorded as an option rather than a generation. The larger 'high performance' rudder fitted as standard from 1984, and the extra ballast shown in the 1985 brochure, were running changes, not separately named models. The later Hunter 340 (a Glenn Henderson design) and the Marlow-Hunter boats of the 2010s are different hulls and not part of this family.

Practical Sailor lists: cracked original rudders (replaced by the larger 1984-on rudder), rust and seam cracks where the unprotected iron keel meets the hull, hull-to-deck joint leaks from bolts never torqued down, leaking ports and hatches, gelcoat voids and blistering on deck, outer deck laminate separating from the wood core, light deck fittings that crack, slippery moulded non-skid when wet, a smelly holding-tank installation, poorly fitted teak trim, and stuffing-box leakage trapped between the hull liner and the hull. Owners also report rot in the mast compression post where deck wiring penetrations leak.

Practical Sailor's listings show 1984–1987 boats asking roughly $21,000–$29,000. Survey the keel-to-hull seam and keel bolts, the deck around fittings and the mast step for core separation and compression, the hull-to-deck joint, and whether the boat has the larger rudder; check that the B&R rig has been tuned and the diamonds are sound. Confirm the keel version, since the shoal boat draws 4 ft 3 in, and expect a converted stove and re-plumbed holding tank on most examples. HunterOwners.com carries manuals, wiring and plumbing diagrams and a large owner directory for the model.