What's wrong and good in Irwin34 '78, My point of view

 

 

What I like about the original design

• Price 😉
• Classic design lines 
• Easy access to the engine compartment
• Encapsulated keel 
• Low draft 4.5 feet 
• Roomy main cabin (11.25 ft beam)
• U-shaped galley
• Dedicated navigation desk
• Solid fiberglass hull (no core)
• “Built-in” dorade boxes (at least on my boat)
• Boat sails pretty well
• Original through-hulls are installed inside an enclosed locker — in theory, a failure would only flood about 5–10 ft³
• Interesting mast design: the spreader plate is welded into the mast, effectively dividing it into upper and lower sections

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What I don’t like about the original design

• The stanchion construction is typical for Irwin boats — the idea of making them sturdy is good, but the implementation is questionable
• Very difficult to seal at the deck joint: a vertical pipe passes through the deck and takes radial loads, which cracks the thin sealant layer
• Stanchions are hollow stainless steel pipes, not sealed at the top or around lifeline holes — so they trap water
• Supposedly, a glassed-in wood block supports the pipe, but in my case many stanchions were not actually seated in these blocks, suggesting inconsistent manufacturing
• Bulkheads sit in the molded cabin liner without adhesive or sealant — shower water collects in these cavities and is absorbed by the plywood; as a result, the lower sections of all bulkheads have rotted
• The compression post sits on the suspended cabin sole liner, not on the keel or hull. The manufacturer attempted to bridge the gap with a blob of epoxy/sand filler, but missed alignment by about 4 inches, leading to cracks in the liner, which was never designed to carry mast compression loads
• The chain locker is undersized for a 34’ boat (only about 12–15 inches deep), and the hatch has no latch
• No backing plates on chainplates, especially for the forestay and backstay
• Integrated fuel tank under the starboard settee: the top is meant to be removable, but sealing a 10-foot plywood lid to a fiberglass tank (which flexes with the hull) is unrealistic
• Deck drains (scuppers) are simple ~1” fiberglass tubes inserted into holes and sealed — over time, the sealant fails and water leaks into the structure
• Deck-to-hull joint: conceptually acceptable, but poorly executed — assembled with self-tapping screws into a small wood strip glassed to the hull edge, then covered by an aluminum angle also fastened with screws
• Cockpit drains are poorly designed: combined into a single through-hull with four 90° bends and about 10 feet of hose
• Even worse, sink drain hoses are used as cockpit drains
• Engine mounting is inadequate: softwood blocks with lag bolts holding engine mounts, taking both axial load and vibration
• Swing keel (centerboard) axle is glassed in with no side bearings or wear plates — it grinds against the sides and develops play over time
• No proper flat area on the keel to support the boat on blocks forward of the centerboar