Tartan 3400 built for strength, safety, and excellent speed
The new Tartan 3400 is both a tribute to the rich history of her predecessors and the embodiment of Tartan Yachts’ dedication to advanced construction and equipment technologies.
Following in the wake of nearly 1,000 34-foot Tartans, spread over a production run from the late 60’s (Tartan 34 Classic) through the late 80’s (Tartan 34II), she shares traditional good looks with both models and embraces innovative design elements to simplify sailhandling and provide superior performance. These refinements to the performance cruiser are made possible by Tartan’s dedication to advancements in materials and methods, previously available only in the custom boat market or through prohibitively expensive options.
High-performance, high-volume hull design
The 3400’s high volume hull form provides enough space for exceptional cruising accommodations, storage and a powerful shape that is easily driven and in balance over a wide range of sailing conditions. Forward sections are slightly veed providing an easy motion in a seaway and her aft sections are full and flat offering high speed potential in heavy conditions. The hull’s volume is evenly distributed through her length, which provides a symmetrical shape at all heel angles and maintains her light helm in more challenging conditions.
A deck designed for sailing
The deck is designed for maximum comfort and safety and embraces classic yacht aesthetics. Her cockpit offers high seatbacks for comfort and a deep and secure cockpit for safety. Wide sidedecks allow her crew to move fore and aft without being encumbered by the excessive house structures seen on so many current production offerings. The wrap-around coaming not only provides a striking tie to her heritage, it also serves as a splash rail and convenient location for mounting a dodger, both of which offer additional cockpit comfort and security. As with all Tartans, the 3400 features tall and distinctive teak toerails that not only enhance her yacht status but also provide an important toe hold in rough weather sailing. Ventilation, always a Tartan priority, is provided by an abundance of stainless steel opening portlights, deck hatches and dorades.
A Tartan’s good looks have always provided her owners with head-turning prideful entrances into harbors as well as helping maintain their value by not chasing the fad of the moment. The 3400 continues this tradition with a sophisticated hull and deck design.
Built for strength, safety, and excellent speed
The 3400 takes full advantage of Tartan’s advanced sailboat manufacturing techniques. Her hull laminate is an infused composite of uni-directional e-glass, BPA epoxy resin, and synthetic coring. The exceptional adhesive properties of BPA epoxy allow Tartan to eliminate the “fat” found in normal production boat hulls. Her structure is comprised of all high-tensile strength uni-directional fibers rather than the weak and heavy chopped-strand fiber that dominate the laminate of other builders. Through strict resin control, utilizing resin infusion, Tartan delivers a 60% structural glass reinforcement-to-resin ratio, while the vacuum-bagged “one shot” process provides a void-free laminate with pound-for-pound strength characteristics far greater than polyester laminates. The weight saved in the laminate can then be used for ballast and accommodations, improving both performance and comfort.
The 3400’s deck also utilizes Tartan’s custom resin infusion process, which employs high-strength BPA epoxy resin, uni-directional e-glass reinforcements and select grade, sealed, end grain balsa coring. Hardware is fastened to the deck with stainless steel machine screws that pass through reinforced, solid glass core windows and are tapped into 6061 T6 aluminum backing plates. Beyond incredible strength and longevity, this installation allows for “on-deck” servicing of deck hardware. Tartan’s deck construction produces a lightweight, yet stiff and strong deck structure, further complimenting the 3400’s excellent overall sailing characteristics.
The 3400’s double-spreader, tapered, carbon-fiber mast is stiffer, stronger, and lighter than the aluminum masts found on virtually all production sailboats in her size range. These characteristics produce a rig that is easier to tune, remains stable in heavy air conditions, increases stability by decreasing weight aloft, and provides an easier motion in a seaway due to less pitching moment. While carbon masts remain an expensive option list item for other builders, Tartan delivers each boat with a carbon mast as standard equipment.
Three keels to suit your needs
Using innovative geometry in the attachment area of the keel, three choices allow you to tailor-fit your Tartan 3400 to your sailing area. These keels are interchangeable without hull modification allowing maximum flexibility for now and the future. If you decide to sell your 3400, her new owner can order a different keel match-made to his or her sailing area.
For those without draft restrictions the 6′ 6″ bulbed fin will offer optimal performance. The Tartan Beavertail keel offers excellent stability, righting moment and good upwind performance with a mid-range draft of 4′ 11″. A Tartan trademark through the ’70s and ’80s, the keel/centerboard configuration is also available on the 3400 for those who sail in very shallow areas. The 4-foot, board-up draft allows gunkholing into shallow creeks and harbors under sail or power, while the bulb shape and board-down draft of 6′ 8″ produce excellent stability and superb upwind performance.
Sailing fast can be easy
The 3400’s sail-handling equipment and overall rig design are aimed at achieving optimum performance with minimum hassle. The mast is built with a unique, integrated, low-friction track system, allowing the full-battened main to be easily raised and lowered within a lazy jack system. Custom-made for Tartan, the carbon-fiber boom is a “trough” design further aiding mainsail drops and mainsail flaking. To cover the main simply pull over the boom-stored sailcover and you’re done.
By optimizing the Tartan 3400’s strength and weight characteristics and designing an easily driven hull, the Tartan 3400’s standard headsail can be a smart, roller-furling 100% jib, trimmed to a self-tacking cabintop track. This working sail with the tack located just aft of the stem, is used for all upwind and heavy-air sailing while providing effortless tacking for sailing shorthanded or in a confined harbor. When sailing off the wind the optional high-clewed furling reacher can be deployed for top performance.
The Tartan 3400 pays tribute to her pedigree by embracing the strengths of her predecessors while capitalizing on the leading-edge construction techniques used by today’s Tartan Yachts. Her plush accommodations, carbon mast and boom, a mainsail that raises and drops from its own cocoon with a rollerfurling, self-tacking, 100% jib that defines simplicity. The 3400 even has a choice of three different keel configurations. Optimal performance with minimal hassle, the way sailing should be. Experience The Tartan Difference.
“Head-turning good looks. Superior construction,. Innovative design. The Tartan 3400 redefines the performance cruiser”
