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Model profile · for Great Loop buyers
Marine Trader 34 Double Cabin
The published record on this model and what owners report, with the
questions worth asking while a boat is still a listing. This page covers the model.
Every boat still needs its own homework.
The published record
| Length overall | 33.5 ft |
| Beam | 11.75 ft |
| Draft | 3'6" |
| Fuel | 300 gal |
| Water | 150 gal |
Source: Jack Hornor, NA, Marine Trader 34 review (2009 repost).
If a listing disagrees with these numbers, the listing may still be right. Settle the
difference before it costs you.
A 34-foot Taiwan trawler with one Ford Lehman, two private cabins and a 3'6" draft, asking $25,000 to $60,000. The homework is her decks and her fuel tanks.
The Marine Trader 34 Double Cabin was built by CHB in Taiwan and imported by Marine Trading International from 1974. She is about 34 feet long with an 11'9" beam, a 3'6" draft and 300 gallons of fuel, usually with a single Ford Lehman diesel. A V-berth forward and an aft cabin each have their own head and shower. Recent listings asked $25,000 to $60,000, and a surveyor's review names deck repairs and rusted fuel tanks as the expensive problems on older boats.
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Where the listings disagree
Published numbers for this model don't agree. Settle these on the
boat you're looking at before they cost you.
QUESTION
Are the decks after 1985 cored or solid?
The surveyor's review says that from 1985 the deck and house are one molding reinforced with balsa and plywood. A broker's history of the model says the 34 was built of solid fiberglass after 1985. The two also disagree on boats before 1985: the review says a plywood sub-deck, the broker says balsa.
src:
Jack Hornor review (2009 repost); Allied Marine (Apr 2022)
Your move: Don't assume a later boat has a solid deck. Have the surveyor sound it.
QUESTION
Listed heights are 12 feet and 18 feet
A 1991 listing gives a bridge clearance of 12 feet. Scho and Jo, on the Water list their 1989 boat's height as 18 feet, under the Loop's 19'6" limit at the Illinois River bridge. Neither says what was up or down when it was measured.
src:
Dave Townley Yachts listing (1991); Scho and Jo, on the Water, Our Boat page
Your move: Have the owner measure from the waterline to the highest fixed point, with everything that folds both up and down.
How to read the tags on this page.
CLAIMstated by one source, not yet confirmed
QUESTIONopen, and settled by looking at the boat itself
Sources are linked where published.
Buying
CLAIM
Recent listings asked $25,000 to $60,000
A 1977 boat in Burlington, Vermont, is listed at $28,500. A 1987 boat in Rhode Island asked $39,900 and has sold. A 1988 boat in South Carolina sold in July 2026 with a final list price of $25,000. A 1983 boat in Florida with a newer Lehman asked $59,899 and is off the market, and a 1991 boat repowered with a Cummins asked $59,900 before it sold. We found no actual sale prices.
src:
Denison (1977), Brewer (1987), Boatzon (1988), United Yacht (1983) and Dave Townley Yachts (1991) listings, read Oct 2026; BoatTEST (2023)
Your move: Budget for the work as well as the boat. A guide to buying Taiwan trawlers suggests setting aside another 15 percent of the price.
Cost to keep
CLAIM
Deck repairs run from $5,000 to more than $20,000
A surveyor's review of the 34 Double Cabin, written while she was still in production, names deteriorated decks and rusted fuel tanks as the most expensive common problems on older boats. Boats before 1985 have teak planks fastened through the fiberglass into a plywood sub-deck. From 1985 the deck and house are one molding, and the reviewer says those boats have had their share of window and hardware leaks, though fewer than earlier ones.
src:
Jack Hornor, NA, Marine Trader 34 review, reposted on The Trawler Beach House (2009)
Your move: Have the surveyor sound the decks and take moisture readings around every window, stanchion and deck fitting.
CLAIM
One owner's 1989 deck had a rotten plywood core
Scho and Jo, on the Water, who lived aboard a 1989 34 Double Cabin for about two and a half years while doing the Loop, found her decks soft in 2021. Under a quarter-inch fiberglass skin was a half-inch plywood core, rotten in places, with water reaching the aft cabin. They put a yard's price at about $15,000 and recored the decks themselves.
src:
Scho and Jo, on the Water (YouTube, Nov 2021)
Your move: On any year, have the decks sounded and moisture-checked, and ask whether they've ever been recored.
CLAIM
Steel fuel tanks rust, and replacing them means moving the engine
The surveyor's review says patched steel tanks tend to leak somewhere else, so replacement is the better course. The engine has to be moved or removed to get them out, and he priced it at about $1,500 a tank plus $2,500 to $3,000 to install, at the time he wrote. A 2023 BoatTEST piece on Taiwan trawlers says old welded steel tanks usually leak at the corners. A 1983 boat's tanks were replaced in 2012, and a 1977 boat now has four 50-gallon plastic tanks.
src:
Jack Hornor review (2009 repost); BoatTEST, Rick Hudson (Sep 2023); United Yacht (1983) and Denison (1977) listings
Your move: Ask what her tanks are made of and whether they've been replaced, and get the answer in writing.
CLAIM
Expect electrical upgrades after the survey
The surveyor's review says the builder didn't strictly follow American Boat and Yacht Council standards. That can mean every positive DC wire is red with no wiring diagram, or an AC system that isn't properly grounded, and bringing it up to standard can cost from several hundred to thousands of dollars. He adds that an insurer may insist on the surveyor's recommended upgrades before it will cover the boat.
src:
Jack Hornor, NA, Marine Trader 34 review, reposted on The Trawler Beach House (2009)
Your move: Get quotes for any electrical or fuel-system work the surveyor recommends before you settle on a price.
CLAIM
A dripless shaft seal leaked at cruise rpm
Entering the Chesapeake in July 2022, Scho and Jo found water spraying from their PSS dripless shaft seal at 1,800 rpm, with none at 1,600. They measured the seal's bellows at 9 inches against the 8 to 8.5 inches they say it should be, and reset it in the water at Deltaville without a haul-out.
src:
Scho and Jo, on the Water (YouTube, Jul 2022)
Your move: If she has a dripless seal, ask when it was last serviced, and watch it at cruise rpm during the sea trial.
CLAIM
A broken belt overheated one owner's Lehman
Scho and Jo report their V-belt broke near Fernandina Beach, Florida, in March 2022, and explain that it also drove the raw-water pump, so the engine overheated. Their tachometer had quit too, and they traced it to the same belt. They had a spare belt aboard and fitted it at anchor. In November 2022 a fuel problem kept dropping their rpm near a Tennessee River lock. They had changed the primary fuel filter every 200 hours and the secondary not in about 700.
src:
Scho and Jo, on the Water (YouTube, Apr 2022 and Nov 2023)
Your move: With one engine, ask when the belts and both fuel filters were last changed, and whether spare belts and filters are aboard.
Fuel & range
CLAIM
About 2.2 gallons per hour at 8.5 mph
The surveyor's review puts the standard boat at 2.2 gallons per hour at 8.5 mph, for more than 900 miles on 300 gallons. Pushed to her top speed of about 10 mph, he says she burns 7.3 gallons per hour and the range drops by more than half. A 1983 listing claims one gallon per hour at 6.5 knots.
src:
Jack Hornor review (2009 repost); United Yacht listing (1983)
Your move: Ask the owner for fuel receipts and engine hours from a long run, and check them against these numbers.
Livability
CLAIM
Two private cabins, each with a head and shower
The surveyor's review describes a V-berth forward with a head and shower, and an aft cabin with a double berth, a single berth often used for storage, and a second head with a shower. The galley runs along the port side of the main salon, across from a dinette and the lower helm. He gives headroom of well over 6 feet throughout, and says the layout varies with the year.
src:
Jack Hornor, NA, Marine Trader 34 review, reposted on The Trawler Beach House (2009)
Your move: Walk the boat you're buying, and lie down in the berths if you're tall.
CLAIM
Wide side decks, and no easy place for a dinghy
The review says the side decks are wide enough to walk from bow to stern safely, with a bulwark and a handrail. Its main complaint about the deck is that there's no convenient place to carry a dinghy without blocking access. It also suggests keeping the load on the flybridge to 800 pounds or less.
src:
Jack Hornor, NA, Marine Trader 34 review, reposted on The Trawler Beach House (2009)
Your move: Ask how the owner carries the dinghy, and look at the flybridge supports for cracks.
Model identity
CLAIM
Built by CHB in Taiwan and sold under several names
The surveyor's review says the 34 was built by CHB Marine in Taiwan, imported by Marine Trading International of Toms River, New Jersey, and introduced in 1974. A broker's history says she may be sold on the West Coast as the La Paz, the Eagle or the CHB 34 DC. A 2023 BoatTEST piece on Taiwan trawlers says many hulls were finished by family businesses, so construction and detail varied widely.
src:
Jack Hornor review (2009 repost); Allied Marine (Apr 2022); BoatTEST, Rick Hudson (Sep 2023)
Your move: Read the hull identification number, and judge the boat in front of you on her own condition.
Engines
The engines research is part of the full profile inside the
product. It covers factory options, tested performance and the engine-specific
questions in our members' dossiers, and it travels with every dossier and survey brief
built on this model.
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