Well, I hope it will be, since the design and the technical characteristics point that way and the last boats built by Dehler have been proved very good, with nice interiors. But, off course, we only would really now after some test sails and after having seen the boat, but all the indications are excellent.
The hull is beamy (3.60m) with all beam pulled aft, it has fine entries, a big draft standard (2.10m) a modern bulbed keel, and a high B/D ratio (35%). All this put together will give a big stability and a very powerful sailboat with an excellent reserve stability. The stability curve, that show how all these parameters integrate, is an excellent one, with a big positive stability, a small inverted one and a big AVS (near 140ยบ).
The new 34 has a big interior volume and that allows not only a nice living area but lots of storage space. The Dehler is not particularly light, weighting about the same as an Oceanis 35 but it is built with better resins has a full cored hull (balsa core) and an interior structure reinforced with carbon. That points to a considerably stronger boat.
And it will be considerably faster since to the 54.2m2 of sail area that the Oceanis offer, the Dehler offers from 65 to 71m2, depending on the options. In medium to strong winds the Dehler will positively smoke the Oceanis, specially on a beam reach or upwind, due to its much bigger stability.
There are two options regarding steering, a two wheel setup or a tiller. A tiller will allow the boat to be more easily solo sailed, giving access to the four winches without letting go the tiller but will be more intrusive regarding "passengers" on the cockpit. The two wheel version will offer a more comfortable cockpit, to the ones that are not sailing the boat, but will only provide access from the wheel to the two back winches, being the other two out of reach of the whelsman.
Just two points that I would have prefered to be different: the balsa core and the deep single ruder. Regarding the balsa core, Dehler had used it for decades but it has recently changed it for synthetic materials (foams) that offer less problems in case of water intrusion on the core. It is hard to understand why on this one they went back to balsa core.
Regarding the rudder, today single rudders on beamy boats, to be efficient, have to be very deep and it is the case on the Dehler where the rudder is almost as deep as the kell (on the standard version). That brings problems regarding rudder protection, especially on med mooring when the boat goes backwards to a quay.
If having one chose the one with the bigger draft (2.25m), it will not only be lighter and offer a better upwind performance, but most of all will offer a much better protection to the rudder. If you will hit the ground you will want to hit it with the kell, not the rudder that is way more fragile. Bottom point, a twin rudder would be a much better choice in what regards cruising.
The price seems to be great (about 110 000 euros without VAT) and the boat will be on the water in August even if I believe that will be a waiting list for this one ;-)
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