Tartan Yachts is a name that brings smiles to many American sailors’ faces. Founded in 1971 in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, when the founder Charles Britton bought out the remains of the Douglass & McLeod Plastic Corporation after a devastating factory fire, the brand has endured and thrived over the decades.
They are still producing new designs, most catered toward cruisers with preference to generous accommodations. The new Tartan 345 is built in that spirit.
Design-wise, the layout of the interior jumps out at you, namely the massive double berths aft and forward in the V-berth. A designated navigation table starboard of the companionway will be a favorite among the chart and compass crowd. The galley is directly port of the navigation table near the entrance to the aft berth, while the spacious salon features a foldable table around the keel-stepped mast. The single head is near the navigation table.
Above deck one finds a sensible, conservatively sized cockpit and the helm. A standard headsail option is the roller-furling 100 percent jib that can be trimmed to a self-tacking cabintop track for easy singlehanding or confined tacks. An optional high-clewed furling reacher can be deployed when off the wind for zippy performance. The standard rig is a tapered carbon fiber mast with double spreaders and carbon fiber boom. A 30-horsepower diesel engine with saildrive and two-blade prop are standard as well.
Tartan is an American brand that’s survived thanks to its continued evolution with the times, and the 345 seems like a modern couple or family cruiser through and through. If you’re interested, you can contact local dealer Seattle Yachts for more information. They have a 2019 model coming in at the time of this writing, listed price $278,655.
