MG 335/346 used boat test
Launched in 1987, the MG 335/346 has demonstrated true staying power over the following 34 years, says David Harding
We sail the yacht that rose to fame in cult TV series Howards’ Way
Some boats arrive with a fanfare before quietly fading into the background. Others maintain a much stronger presence, either because they’re marketed more successfully or because they offer something that people want and can’t find elsewhere.
Tony Castro’s MG 335 – which later became the MG 346 – is firmly in the latter category because she has always had so much to offer. She also arrived with a bang, being featured on our TV screens in the BBC’s long-running nautical drama, Howards’ Way.
Strangely, despite attracting millions of viewers over five years or so, Howards’ Way proved less successful as a launch-pad for the boats it featured. The Barracuda 45 (introduced as Barracuda of Tarrant, and owned by the late Bob Fisher) never quite lived up to expectations in everyone’s eyes when she entered production. I learned more about the Barracuda on joining Sadler Yachts (builders of the production version) while Howards’ Way was still being broadcast.
Other boats featured in the series were the Laser 28 (Flying Fish) and MG 25 (Spring of Tarrant), neither becoming as successful as perhaps she might have. As for the MG 335 – well, she never sold in vast numbers either but did attract a strong following among both racing and cruising sailors.
On the racing front, by far the best known was Jim Macgregor’s Flair II, in which Jim and his crew collected an impressive array of silverware in the Solent and elsewhere over many seasons.
As well as Flair II, a good number of MG 335s were based in Poole in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At any one time, up to five could be seen racing from the harbour, including Petal, Adastra and Magnum II. Among the later arrivals were Heartbeat, Virago (formerly Young Eagle) and two MG 346s – Eye to Eye and Enigma. Whether or not they were inspired by the success of Flair, Poole-based sailors in particular appreciated the qualities of the MGs – and some still do.
Near and far
Living and sailing in Poole, I had plenty of opportunity to observe the 335s and 346s, both through the lens when in photography mode and from the decks of the competition when racing. They had highly competent owners and performed well, no doubt spurred on by the close proximity of other MGs. Boat-for-boat racing keeps you on your toes in a way that racing against the clock in a widely spaced handicap fleet never can.
I liked what I saw of the MG (unless it was a transom when we should have been in front), so I was very happy when I had the opportunity to sail Heartbeat for a test in PBO in 1998.
Back then the design was only 12 years old (the ‘design year’ is 1996), so still seemed relatively modern – just a few years older than the Starlights, in whose development I had been closely involved at Sadlers. The MG shared some of the same qualities as a long-legged mileswallower, sailing fast and easily with grace, poise, good manners and a feel that made you want to sail her for the simple pleasure of sailing. It’s a combination offered by surprisingly few boats, and one that Heartbeat’s owner – who had previously co-owned a Moody 34 – instantly liked.
“This is an absolute delight to sail,” he told me. “The first few times I came back up the harbour, I didn’t want to take the sails down and turn the engine on – it was such a novelty to be able to sail almost anywhere.” Sailing so fast was a novelty, too: returning to Poole from Cowes after the Round the Island Race on one occasion took just 2.5 hours in a brisk north-easterly. “Broad reaching with the kite up, we had between 10 and 12 knots on the log almost the whole way. It was probably the most exciting sail I’ve ever had – on anything.”
For all this talk of her sporty credentials and racing success, the MG was never conceived as a race machine but as an all-round cruiser/racer, as they were known in those days (or ‘for those who appreciate speed with comfort’, as Tony
‘The MG 355 arrived with a bang, being featured on our TV screens in Howards’ Way’
Castro put it). MG Yachts were based in Scotland and had built a number of successful IOR (International Offshore Rule) designs in the 1970s and 1980s including the Rob Humphreys-designed MG RS34, one of which was based in Poole during the 1990s.
MG’s next move was to buy the moulds of the Contessa 27, again designed by Rob Humphreys and initially built by Jeremy Rogers in Lymington. She became the MG C27 (the ‘C’ representing ‘Contessa’) and then the MG 27.
After this it was Tony Castro’s turn as designer when he was commissioned to design the 335. Castro – who also designed the Barracuda – described his new creation thus: ‘The MG 335 is primarily a very fast shape for its overall length without wasteful excess overhangs. It has a fairly narrow waterline beam, high prismatic coefficient and no hull distortions. The displacement is moderate to give the necessary interior volume and, most important, to allow for a very high ballast ratio. The sail area is generous, with a very healthy sail area/wetted surface ratio for good performance’.
At the time, the design was undoubtedly bang up to date while avoiding extremes. But how does she look now? Well, her sail area: displacement ratio of just over 24 still suggests a powerful performer. The displacement: length ratio of 187 makes her far from heavy by cruising standards, even if she’s significantly heavier than many performance cruisers from recent decades that are lighter all round and with shorter ends.
As for the keel, it’s made of lead and carries around 40% of the boat’s total weight. That’s a high ballast ratio by today’s standards, but the centre of gravity is higher than on more modern designs because the keel has no bulb or swelling at the tip. Furthermore, although the MG was not designed to rate under the IOR, which had influenced cruisers as well as dominating the development of racing yachts for many years, the keel is what we would now regard as an ‘inverted’ shape: much longer fore-and-aft at the root, where it joins the hull, than at the tip. On the plus side generally, Castro’s reference to ‘no hull distortions’ is important, because so many IOR designs incorporated bumps and hollows to optimise their ratings.
Still delivering
There’s no getting away from the fact that the MG does look like a boat from the 1980s. Production designs can often be dated to within a decade, if not a few years, from a relatively casual glance. What matters, apart from how the boat is built, is how she handles and performs, and in these respects the 335 and 346 have a lot to offer both racing and cruising owners.
Many of the latter appreciated the self-tacking jib. Castro’s rig put most of the sail area in the mainsail, leading to a small foretriangle, and provided plenty of power with the self-tacker in all but the lightest breezes. Some racing owners
‘The design was undoubtedly bang up to date’
have removed the track and the hardware, leaving just the moulded upstand on the coachroof.
For cruisers, the roomy interior has been an appealing factor together with the easy, predictable handling and comfortable cockpit with its generous stowage.
None of this disappeared – in fact much was enhanced – when the 335 became the 346. Once MG Yachts had produced the tooling and Flair II – the pre-production boat – the moulds moved to Northshore’s yard in Itchenor and that’s where the rest of the boats were built, initially under licence from MG and then after Northshore took over entirely.
Early changes included a move to a Saildrive engine along with a few other improvements. Then came a re-launch: out went the two-tone blue styling stripes, and the gel became two-tone grey. Proctor masts replaced the original Isomats, many of which had taken a tumble in the early days. The sweep-back on the spreaders is less than is commonly seen now and Castro acknowledged that keen racing owners might want to fit runners for extra forestay tension.
After Northshore’s re-launch and general upgrade, the price increased substantially and, after about 40 MG 335s, only 10 or so 346s were built.
Whichever version you buy, you’re unlikely to be disappointed by the performance. Upwind it takes little to get the MG slipping along at over 6 knots even in cruising mode. With a full racing crew on the rail she’ll do a good deal more than this, as I learned after starting to race on a 335 in 2002. More recent racing has been on a 346 that has had some notable successes in Cowes Week among other events.
In conditions that suit her, she has been known to finish ahead of boats that give her a good amount of time on handicap. Suitable conditions, of course, depend to a large extent on what suits the competition, and with the MG’s IRC rating (typically around 0.950, depending on sail measurements and all the usual variables) you might find yourself in the same class as a Quarter Tonner, which can be very hard to beat, or an older, heavier 40-footer that’s impossible to stay anywhere near upwind in a stiff breeze.
Downwind the 335 and 346 are pretty good. They won’t break away and surf as readily as newer, lighter alternatives and they do need more careful handling in
fresh conditions. The MGs I have raced on often fly the spinnaker in winds gusting to well over 25 knots, but there inevitably comes a time when preserving the rig becomes a priority even if you might be able to keep the keel in the water.
Perhaps their best-known peculiarity, if that’s what it is, is the almost neutral feel to the helm. Partly because of the semi-balanced rudder, it loads up very little when the boat becomes pressed in a breeze, so you have to become attuned to what the rudder is telling you through the 42in wheel (a little on the small side). It helps to have a mainsheet trimmer who’s on the case too. Racing sailors will soon learn this and cruising folk will rarely have occasion to explore the limits in quite the same way.
With a racing crew of seven or eight aboard, the MG’s deck layout is pretty workable. The principal restriction is the length of the cockpit: the traveller is on the bridgedeck, so the mainsheet man plus two headsail trimmers have to work in the space forward of the wheel. It does get tight at times.
Otherwise, for both cruising or racing, things are pretty good on deck. The cockpit works well whether you want to sit on the seats or the coamings, and provides plenty of stowage in the form of a shallow locker under the port seat and an enormous, full-depth locker to starboard with the stainless steel fuel tank at its forward end.
As with most older boats, especially if they haven’t been raced, you’ll find that sailing will become a good deal easier and more efficient if you replace some of the hardware. Just be mindful that removing the mainsheet track is a bit of a fiddle.
Halyards and lines running aft from the mast are covered with removable panels and, unusually, there’s no moulded hatch garage.
Accommodation
This is not a plush boat down below by any standards. In fact she was sometimes criticised, especially in the early days, for having a rather spartan feel. Interior mouldings are used extensively and are bonded to the hull to stiffen it. The hull itself is a solid, hand-laid laminate below the waterline and balsa-cored in the topsides, incorporating isophthalic gel and resins together with powder-bound mat. The emphasis was on the structure rather than the interior finish.
MGs have generally held together well, even when raced hard for many years, though the labyrinthine tunnels formed by
‘Few offered the performance, good manners, racing potential and interior space of the MG’
the grid of the interior mouldings in the bottom of the hull allows any water that gets in there to hide away and fester for a long time. Interior mouldings also mean that, if you do hit something hard with the keel, it can be a challenge to work out whether any damage has been done and where it might be, because cracks often appear in areas that are structurally unaffected.
All this apart – and it’s by no means unique to the MG – she has much to commend her down below. For a start, there’s a good deal of volume inside the hull. Access to the essential systems is good on the whole and the ergonomics allow easy and comfortable moving around, sitting and sleeping. The caveat when it comes to sleeping is the way the saloon berths are cranked rather than straight.
Common criticisms include a shortage of stowage in the otherwise well-designed galley and the saloon, partly because the space beneath both settee berths is occupied by water tanks to keep the weight central.
If simple and spacious suits you and you can cope with the modest stowage, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be more than happy with the accommodation. It’s slight blandness is offset by a great deal of detailed thought, evident in features from a useful pencil trough at the chart table to excellent handholds throughout, that make for a very practical interior.
PBO’s verdict
Owners I know who have bought an MG 335 or 346 bought her because she was the only boat that offered the combination of features they wanted. Most other boats of similar size from the same era were geared more towards cruising or racing. Few offered the performance, good manners, easy handling, racing potential and interior space of the MG. Of course there are newer alternatives now, but they cost more. And regardless of value for money, the MG is still a great boat.
What else might you buy?
British alternatives include the Westerly Storm/Regatta 330, which is arguably less sporty but still a good performer in the right hands, while the Sigma 33 is smaller down below and older too.
From the Continent you might consider a Dehler 34 – older again, and slimmer, but extremely pretty and not dissimilar in spirit. Or perhaps the Dehler 33 from the mid 1990s; lighter and slightly faster than the MG.
In many ways the MG’s natural successor is the Elan 333, which became the next boat for several of the MG owners in Poole.