One of the boats that caught my eye at the Miami boat show was the Beneteau Swift 34. I am not sure where the swift name came in because this boat will not be all that swift as I am told that the top speed will be in the 20 knot range which although a very decent speed for a trawler yacht is not going to be winning any races. The boat comes equipped with a single 425 hp Cummins as standard a very sensible power plant and my guess is that the boat will cruise very comfortably in the 8 to 9 knot range without fuss and bother using something in the 3 gallons per hour area for fuel consumption. I think it would be unlikely that the majority of owners of this boat will ever push this boat hard but if they did then the fuel consumption will climb a fair bit. Actually I was surprised that the engine is as big as it is on this boat and even more surprised that the boat does not employ a Yanmar engine which has long been the motor of choice for the Beneteau range of sail boats. I like Cummins engines but the Yanmar 315 would be more than enough to push this boat at displacement speeds and would like to see this offered as an option at some time in the future.
As can be seen from this drawing of the side of the boat there is plenty of keel area immersed in the water so it should track well and offer a sea kindly ride with little slamming in heavier seas. The full list of standard features is impressive for this boat and includes the generator which sits in the aft lazzarette and not in the engine room. This gives good access to the service points on both engines as they are not crammed together and with the all the other equipment in the same engine space. The list of standard equipment is very impressive and the boat at the show was fully loaded and was on sale for $350,000 which I think represents a pretty good deal. Two versions of the the 34 are offered, the model shown here and a sedan version without the fly bridge. I thought that would be worth a look at so I checked out the sedan version in the brochure and it appears to be a fly bridge version without the fly bridge bolted on and looks rather weird, it even has the ladder to the upper deck still installed and although this will be handy if an owner decides to store a dinghy up there it looks just plain odd. Most sedan versions from other manufacturers have a somewhat different 'lid' to the house but this is not the case in this instance. In fact it would be possible to buy a boat as a sedan and even add the bridge later as it is just bolted into position.
The upper helm looks and feels very comfortable and well thought out. There is plenty of room for captain and crew to sit back and enjoy the ride abaft of which is a aluminum mast and boom to which it would be more than possible to add a riding sail although this is not offered as an option. However the boom and mast are fitted with a couple of Harken winches which would make lifting a small dinghy off and on the hard top pretty easy and effortless.
The interior of the boat is pure Beneteau and will look very familiar to sailboat owners used to this manufacturers products. This picture shows the galley area adjacent to the starboard hand lower helm and in addition to the stove top and microwave even includes a drawer style dishwasher not often seen on a boat of this size. Frankly if the boat were mine I would eschew the dishwasher in favor of some additional storage which is in rather short supply in the living areas of the boat. The other thing I frankly found hard to fathom was the fitting of a gas cook top when an electric one could easily have been installed especially since it is likely that the boat will either be plugged into shore power or running the generator which would be needed in any event for the microwave and other electrics aboard.
So in conclusion then the Swift 34 appears to be a good boat at a good price. I am sure that they will sell plenty of them especially to loyal Beneteau baby boomer boat owners who may be converting from sail to power. I would have like to have gone on a sea trial but sadly the boat was high and dry in the Miami convention center so this will have to wait for another time and place. Sure the boat is not perfect, but I do like it a lot and I feel sure that so will many other people.
Awesome! Very cool yacht. Love its design.
Posted by: Alaska Yacht Charter | June 20, 2011 at 12:27 PM